18.0 hours played
Written 28 days ago
Howdy, partner. How is your day goin? Lots of rootin' tootin' shootin and lootin in your fancy modern games, I presume? Well better hold your horses for a sec, cuz I have this little story about this here Gunslinger game I want to tell you.
Once in a while you will play one of these kinds of games — a hidden gem, overlocked by many others, mostly because its title doesn't end with “duty” or “nite”, or its only single player so “why bother?”. Well, my friend, I strongly advise you to NOT skip this one. Because this is one damn good western game, and with how few of them we have, we should cherish every one of them, especially when it's well made.
And this game is so damn fire! It is a very well designed, fun western FPS shooter from Techland, Polish developers who later made Dying Light games. If you are looking for a game that ticks every checkbox of western genre, is a fan of movies like “Magnificent Seven” or “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” or want some old west experience like in Read Dead Redemption, then look no longer. This game is sweet, fast, linear and short, but in a good sense. You will have a lot of fun, and, without any deeper thought, quickly move forward to another game.
But what exactly is good about this game? First of all, its story. While not being revolutionary in its substance — its standard tale about revenge, redemption and reflection, with sometimes little too chaotic for my taste plot — it is very neat with presentation. All the in-game events are retold by an old bounty hunter named Silas Graves, who tells about his adventures to patrons of the local saloon. The thing is — he is an unreliable narrator. He is old, sometimes forgot about crucial things, sometimes lies, and others try to correct him or point out mistakes. And the gameplay reflects that. You can go through the level and at some point Silas can say “wait, I forgot about this peculiar thing” and the entire level will rewind itself, adding new features, like alternate paths. In another example I was stuck in a loop in train level because Silas decided that he needed to use a bathroom. The entire game was put on hold, with gameplay reduced to two rooms. All of this keeps the story interesting and fresh, even when playing it for a second time, because non-chronological narration will always keep viewers on edge and hooked.
Plus you can learn more about the old-west, this short, brief part of USA history, closest thing this country has to European mythos. Because, despite Silas being a fictional character, during his journey he will meet a bunch of real life persons — Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid, Billy the Kid, Jesse James and others. Even me, an ignorant European, learned a little about them, thanks to an in-game encyclopedia. Yeah, the dates, events and places sometimes don’t match, but hey, Silas is an unreliable liar, so he utilises what we like to call “Licentia poetica”. It can be true, but if not, well atleast, it's fun.
Next — the gameplay, our tasty bread and butter. With is… good? This is not your standard boomer shooter, you are not fast. It's more like Call of duty in the wild west — your walking speed is slow, when you run you cannot shoot, you can carry only two weapons + dynamite sticks. Shooting is satisfying, despite how very limited weapon roster is — you have 3 types of revolver (average six-shooter, strong but slow ranger and quick-shooter, weakest and with limited range, but very fast with reload), double barrel and saw-off, and my favorite, longe range hunting rifle. You can fire from the hip using crosshair or use ADS. Weapons sounds are punchy and loud, gunplay is enjoyable, with decent levels of brutality — you cannot decapite or turn enemies into bloody pulp but every fatal shot will end with fountains of blood gushing from bodies. It is a great power fantasy, when you kick down a door and kill 5 bandits in a span of 3 seconds, spewing tons of lead from your quick shooters.
You also have a bullet time mechanic that — thankfully, because sometimes bad dudes tend to blend with the environment — can highlight enemies and explosive barrels. On top of that we have this very lite, very linear RPG progression — you gain some XP when killing enemies, more when you keep your kill multiplayer high enough, and after ending level you can buy some passive skills that can help you with the game later. But forget different kinds of builds, if you are determined enough you can unlock them all. They are neat, but not game-changing, they cannot replace your hand-to-eye coordination — well maybe accept one, which is slowing down time while using ADS. With this skill unlocked, difficulty will plummet significantly.
Thankfully you don’t ride horses, like in the first game of the series. Good — because back then it was awful. What unfortunately devs bring back is duel minigame. Many people don’t like this one — and I fully agree. I do not like mechanics purposefully designed to be janky and unresponsive. When you duel with enemies, you do not fight with them, you fight with your controls, because how unresponsive and clunky, by design mind you, they were created. My advice for everyone who has a problem with this — crank up your mouse sensitivity (there is a separate option for duels only) max and use micro circling movement for keeping crosshair on target. It’s all this great illusion — you think it's based on your real life reaction time, but in reality is based on in-game stats; if you do not build up your speed/focus meter, you will always fail. I don’t like it, I don’t like when games try to trick me into believing that is something that isn't.
All of this you use to traverse through linear levels. They can look neat, with big, open areas, but it all lies — you go from point a to point in a straight line, and every time when you try to move anywhere you do not suppose, the game will warn you. Forget about additional secrets and poking around levels. That makes the game very short — no more than 6 hours, albeit with non stop action, but not very hard. I picked the first playthrough on Hard and it was like a breeze. True west difficulty is more like a gimmick than real challenge — it only removes the majority of the in-game interface without additional stipulation from tougher enemies and battles. Then, after completing the main campaign, we have additional modes — one of which is duel mode, which can go straight to the trash can. Another is action mode — you basically run forward and shoot everything that shoots you back. It is fun for a while, but thankfully it is only 10 stages, because it quickly becomes boring and repetitive, although I think constant in-your-face action can be quite entertaining.
This is a great game to pick up on sales. But it is too short to pay full price. Too bad Techland decided to drop this series in favour of Dying Light. Well, maybe in the future we will see a great comeback.
Now. It's over. Go home or something.
