West of Dead
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Über das Spiel
Pulverdampf und Dunkelheit, Sünde und Verdammnis, Wendigos und Hexen. Eine sich ständig verändernde chaotische Welt, die sich aus den Erinnerungen, kulturellen Hintergründen und dem Glauben der Seelen zusammensetzt, die sie durchqueren. Als ein Toter erwacht, dessen einzige Erinnerung eine in Schwarz gekleidete Gestalt ist, setzt er eine Kette von Ereignissen mit wahrhaft mythischen Folgen in Gang.
In diesem actiongeladenen Cover-Shooter, der die Eleganz von Twin-Stick-Steuerung und taktischer Deckung auf einzigartige Weise miteinander verbindet, schlüpfst du in die Stiefel des verstorbenen William Mason (gesprochen von Ron Perlman) und steigst hinab in die düstere Welt von Purgatory, die dir alles abverlangen wird. Stell dein Können auf die Probe und nutze Deckung zu deinem Vorteil, während du dir in der prozedural generierten Spielwelt packende Schusswechsel mit deinen Gegnern lieferst. Der Wilde Westen war noch nie so düster!
Systemanforderungen
Steam Nutzer-Reviews
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208 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 05.07.20 20:59
Es ist offensichtlich dass das Spiel ein Dead-Cells Klon sein will (Showroom am Start mit Waffen und Items, nach jedem Level musst man Seelen spenden (Cells in Dead-Cells) und kann seine Lebens-Flasche wieder auffüllen).
Das Problem ist, es macht einfach alles viel schlechter als Dead-Cells. Das Skill-System ist nicht gut, das löst Dead-Cells 10x besser mit den 3 Farben und dass es jeweils Waffen und Items aller Farben gibt (das gibt viele Kombo-Möglichkeiten). Hier geht man entweder mit Waffen oder Items.
Die Steuerung ist träge und clunky, teils Passagen unfair (z.b. muss man Leitern hoch-klettern und oben wartet ein Gegner, keine Chace dem auszuweichen) und das Gesamtpacket einfach öde im Vergleich zu Dead-Cells. Auch der automatische Aimlock auf Gegner ist oft katastrophal und nimmt den falschen Gegner ins Visier.
Nach fast 4h hab ich mich gefragt, warum soll ich das hier spielen wenn es doch Dead-Cells gibt was alles besser macht!
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709 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 08.05.22 18:25
-Pretty nice music and post fight sound effects.
-Have a ton of unlockables but some of them don't really feel useful.
-In some rare occasions, some objects hanging on the top can block your camera sometimes.
-2 grindy achievements.
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524 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 23.04.22 19:52
I've been playing this with a controller on PC and find it snappy to understand/use. The cover mechanic, which sometimes gets lambasted as being 'too sticky', takes some getting used to but never caused me any major issues. The overall gameplay loop is satisfying IMO and even if you die shortcuts become available the more you play so you don't have to go through all the levels again after death.
I bought this game with its DLC for less than £5 so I feel like I definitely got all that I wanted from my purchase. The setting, tone and gameplay loop are all top notch to me so I can only recommend this game if you are into the Western setting playing as a shooty form of Ghost Rider with Ron Perlman's voice ;)
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540 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 31.03.22 18:06
Too often I was pushing the character against a cover but he failed to take it, or the auto aim chose a completely different target rather than the one I was trying to aim at, or an attack I successfully evaded from ended up hitting me anyway, The camera making it hard to see my own character at times, the light around my character takes a few seconds to appear each time and a lot of other annoyances.
The one that finally broke the camel's back was a reoccurring bug where a character (whether mine or an enemy, namely an outlaw) had the misfortune of standing on a place where a cover got out of the ground, getting the character stuck.
At first, it was an outlaw (boss) that ended up in a state where he only received damage from melee attacks, until he was lodged free a few minutes later. Afterwards, it was my character that as a result was stuck underground and could literally do nothing other than move, which was solved only by a game reset. And finally, IN THE SAME FIGHT, it caused an outlaw to get stuck completely with me having no way to damage him, which wasn't even solvable by a game reset. Leaving me soft locked and forcing me to restart the run, which the worst thing that can happen in a roguelike.
It's a real shame. The game had great potential. But the technical state of it is unbearable. I do not recommend it.
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78 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 26.03.22 23:06
Lots of bugs, stupid/generic enemies, and pointless downtime - at least 20% of my time played is listening to Ron Perlman read fortune cookies, walking through empty hallways, and backtracking.
Looks nice, but there are several broken animations which are very distracting - aiming while walking would rapidly switch between walking and standing animations, poncho physics look terrible and jump around constantly, several enemies will just stand still while rotating, and some other more subtle stuff.
Also the game is boring and easy.
This is all from a single 70 minute play through. If the first impression is this jank, I can't imagine what the rest of the game is like.
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1240 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 13.03.22 18:16
Unfortunately, there are numerous issues preventing West of Dead to ascend into the gaming heaven. Numerous bugs and glitches, unengaging storyline, lack of boss variety, day one DLC offering cut content.
This is a good product for 5 – 10 hours playtime. After that the repetitiveness hits and player starts to realise that what seemed to be a sprawling, deep system allowing for various builds is actually very limited. Each run starts to feel similar. In my opinion, that's the biggest flaw of the game.
My time spent with the game was actually quite fine but I can't recommend this title. In a crowded market of indie roguelikes and rogue-lites West of Dead, while made in a competent way lacks the longevity and staying power.
If you are interested in a more in-depth review here is my youtube video: https://youtu.be/rM6iNHmxbeQ
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851 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 13.03.22 09:28
Overall Rating
7.0 / 10
I haven't played many, but this game feels like a pretty standard rogue-like while being well made with everything you'd expect from one.
Not too difficult but not exactly easy either. Really fun and satisfying once you get used to the mechanics.
Music was kinda annoying at first but grew on me as I played more. Somewhat lackluster story but I could listen to this voice actor all day xd.
If I asked for anything I'd probably ask for achievements for every weapon/ability that you unlock since there are alot.
I got it on sale for like $6 which is a crazy good deal for a game this good, but I still think the original price of $20 is fair.
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192 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 11.03.22 20:16
Perlman's voice over work is underplayed, the replayability of every level is not interesting, and the artistic style is not simple enough to be minimalistic, but not fancy enough to be outstanding.
But overall, the controls are wonky, and slow. The ability to skip dialogue barely works.
If you really want it, i recommend getting it on sale, but it's definitely not a must buy. Good effort on the devs though.
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797 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 20.10.21 16:22
PROS:
+ satisfying core gameplay loop, gunplay has weight to it
+ fantastic art and overall aesthetic
+ compelling worldbuilding / lore
CONS:
- Not every dialog is necessary, and by the time the skip dialog feature starts working, you've had to sit through the whole thing anyway
- some features don't seem
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527 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 17.10.21 22:20
So way while back there was one of those beta events Steam did, and I stumbled across this game. I played the beta that contained the game up to the first boss fight. I thought it was pretty challenging, and I was excited to eventually play the full game. Last month I saw this game in Humble Choice, and picked it up.
Here are all my runs from the full game in order:
Run 1: I BEAT THE LAST BOSS OF THE GAME. Game tells me I have to collect three souls and beat the boss again for the ending.
Run 2 I died to an status effect I’ve never got before, because of a bug. There was a river of plague, It closed and there was no sfx even remaining, walked past that spot, got DoT and died.
Run 3: I encountered a golem. Golems are killed by walking in front of them, rolling behind them as they do a melee attack, giving you the opportunity to attack their back as they stare at empty space. I was in the middle of combat, and walked up to one of them, it attacked and I rolled out of the way.
Second attack while I am still in mid roll.
In panick I spammed roll to get out of the way of the attack, which just led me getting hit anyways, and rolling in to detonated icebombs after AoE and dying as I wondered what the fuck just happened. This is the only time I’ve seen this thing do that (and these aren’t that uncommon enemy, I have seen a few), so I am assuming it was either a bug, or bad programming. Either way it was bullshit.
Run 4: I got to the final boss again. Spoilers ahead.
[spoiler] So you need to make the boss fall so you can shoot it’s head. They do this drop stalagmite attack. I make them fall. The stalagmites don’t stop falling. The area to move is small, because there are these three towers you need to make fall into the play area to “truly beat them” and those and the stalagmites don’t disappear. So I get hit as the boss finally hits the ground.
THE SLAMITES PUSH ME INTO THE BOSS, AND I GET STUCK BETWEEN THESE FUCKING STONE DILDOS AND THE INSIDES OF THIS PRICK, [/spoiler] and die because I am now stuck inside the boss that does damage I guess. They had a sliver of health left too when this happened.
Run 5: I died normally to an exploding runner while carrying an “take more dmg” debuff.
Run 6: I beat the game. The ending is [spoiler] a picture and the main character basically just saying “I am the law.” [/spoiler] Was really worth it, huh.
The game was pretty fun to play when It worked, although it was pretty easy for me. Honestly, if the game had ended at the first run, then I would have left happy ,a bit melancholic and wishing for more. But now I just can’t with good conscience recommend this. The additional runs just made me die in ways that didn’t feel fair and there wasn’t even new dialogue to find when I had to go again from the start.
And that makes me sad, because this has so few reviews that me rating it negative just makes me feel bad too. I can't even take joy from hating this. fuck.
Again, if you can get it cheap, buy it.
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457 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 16.10.21 15:09
Once you beat all 4 chapters (might take you a bit) there's not much else to do. I don't have the DLC but might pick it up some time. Base game is good but would recommend on sale maybe $10 or so.
Overall I had fun with it. 8/10
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110 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 05.10.21 13:45
Well no, actually no. The game is a top down roguelite shooter, which took inspiration from Dead Cells(3 main stats), but didn't really nail the execution of the system, as health, weapons and abilities are their separate stats. Those are not affecting a variety of weapons, only red does, which isn't really that wide here in the first place. No different movesets that actually play differently, just a gun that shoots two bullets at once or some other alterations.
Game isn't lacking variety only when it comes to playstyles, but also the maps are all exactly the same, the only difference being a tileset. The encounters play out all the same, as the shootouts are about sitting behind a cover and taking shots at enemies that cause too little damage and pausing only to reload, just sitting there with nothing to do. This leads to very unengaging and repetitive gameplay.
The game is very obviously low budget, though developers clearly did put a lot of care in. It just makes me wonder if putting money for Perlman into prolonged development wouldn't be a better idea. Then again, I am sure a lot of people got the game only for him.
Anyway, I can't in good conscience recommend this game, when you can get much better roguelites, namely Hades or Dead Cells for around the same price.
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498 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 05.10.21 03:43
overall no. don't play it at full price, but if you can get it for $5 or less the style and atmosphere are worth experiencing for fans of the genres at least once.
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294 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 03.10.21 20:31
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113 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 25.06.21 19:03
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972 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 26.05.21 03:14
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191 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 08.05.21 10:31
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607 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 07.05.21 15:48
West of Dead takes the equipment structure, permanent progression, and biome pathing of Dead Cells, adds in a good dash of Curse of the Dead gods gameplay feel, and puts a dash of, believe it or not, Rainbow Six Vegas 2-style cover to create its own unique atmosphere and gameplay loop. Despite its clear influences, WoD has its own signature look and feel, especially present during boss battles, where both you and your enemies are scrambling to find safety from each other amidst the destructible cover. The gameplay is a bit slower and methodical, but moments like these really add to the intensity and fun, especially when the game enters bullet-time when you have a perfect, just-missed-it dodge.
It's worth mentioning the guns all feel amazing, too. Even the default guns feel punchy and satisfying, and a litany of abilities like thrown axes and assasin's knives add good variation. I also didn't expect to care about the story aspect too much, but Ron Perlman's voice over does incredible work in world-building and atmosphere, and the story actually has quite a bit of intrigue. Any story at all in a roguelite is kind of rare, so I'm glad WoD does a good job, and the themes of redemption and vengeance are interesting and appropriate for the setting.
There are a few sore spots. Teleports, while convenient and plentiful, have an awkawardly long animation; so, too, does climbing ladders and talking to NPCs. These can make the game feel slightly sluggish at times, but are ultimately minor blemishes in the grand scheme.
All in all, so far a great, very unique game that I'm looking forward to many more hours in. If you're a fan of westerns, shooters, or roguelites, definitely try this out!
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167 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 25.04.21 06:42
I am not a huge enjoyer of roguelikes... But this one caught my eye with its atmosphere.
AND DAMN I WAS RIGHT.
Listen up, mate. This game right here has one of the most brutal atmospheres you've ever seen.
Doomguy is killing demons one by one? That's awesome, but did you hear about burning-head-cowboy? Marshall rules.
Some people talk about bugs in this game, but I didn't find any yet. I will update the review if something changes, but now I'm in love with this game.
Go play it.
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4765 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 16.04.21 19:03
In one run i could be playing long range sniper to guns and blazing with 2 shotguns (my current build is usually just 2 shotties and 2 knifes with all stats relatively equal)
I would recommend friends to play this game despite some of the recent (as of the day of posting the review) mixed reviews.
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1375 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 16.03.21 19:31
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282 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 08.01.21 07:02
Want to know more? My full review is available over on TechRaptor.
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676 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 05.01.21 07:40
They say there ain’t no such thing as a good death
Introduction
I have played many interesting Rouge-likes in my time with games like Dead Cells and Hades. West of Dead looked very interesting, with a dark cartoony vibe and they even got Ron Perlmen to do the voice of the main character. From what was being shown with some interesting gameplay looked very promising and I wanted to try it out. Then it hit me, looks can be deceiving. What I got was a game that had a ton of issues that makes the game not polished in any way.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- The lightning mechanic was an interesting feature to use to stun enemies.
- The art style and soundtrack are really nice and set the dark atmosphere that the game had.
Cons
- The story is very confusing, nothing makes sense.
- Some melee enemies made the cover feature pointless.
- Gameplay is buggy, there are bugs that can screw you over.
- Every time I picked up a rifle it would show me how to use the weapon on every new run and they were not useful either.
- Not a lot of variety of weapons and most were not even worth using.
- Getting new weapons and abilities is a huge grind.
- Bosses and Outlaws are either broken or just not that fun.
Story
The year is 1888. William Mason is brought back to life and awakes in a strange bar, there he meets a barkeeper, who tells him that he is in Purgatory and finds out that he has no memories of who he is. So, he sets out to go and find his memories while fighting enemies and getting answers to his past.
That is all that I can remember from West of Dead. The story makes no sense and is entirely forgettable. The characters have nothing special to them in any shape or form and they don’t even speak, all they do is repeat the same textboxes every single time with nothing new to say. They are not even worth interacting with, literally, the only character that actually develops is William himself and he is also completely forgettable as well. Whenever I got a new memory from him, I forgot about it five minutes later and it never made sense in the first place. I actually forgot about one of the characters, there is this one character called The Preacher, and when I found him, I was like who is this guy? Only to find out it was a character I meet before.
In all honesty, William could have just been the only character and nothing would change from the story. It’s just that empty with nothing interesting going on and it’s sad to see that as there are some nice ideas that it had going for it.
Gameplay
West of Dead is a top-down shooter with many gameplay issues. There is a cover mechanic where that protects you from getting shot. The problem here is that some enemies are melee-based, so it’s completely thrown out the window with some enemies, as they will actually go through the wall you are behind, which will result in you getting hit. The gameplay is also very buggy, one time I was hit by an enemy in which Whilliam completely disappeared and it resulted in my death, or when you start a new run you will always get a tutorial on how to use the rifles. The rifles are not really useful as the hitboxes on them were small and sometimes did not hit the target. That is also another issue, the weapons are not really worth using, as I always ended up using the same weapons, Freezer and Fifth Time Lucky were the two weapons I went after, no other weapon I came across was worth using. However, getting weapons is a huge grind on its own. To get weapons and abilities, you will need Sin, however, to get that, you will need to kill the enemies that are in the areas, there are two problems with this. The first problem is that the stuff you want to get will cost at least 100, 200, 300, or more Sin and the second problem is that you will only get a certain amount depending on the area you are in, as there is a limit on how much you can get per level. Games like Dead Cells will give you many opportunities to get Cells and the game rewards you for beating the levels in a certain amount of time or killing a certain number of enemies.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2297740981
Every time I died, I felt a pit in my stomach open, as I did not feel encouraged to do another run. I really just wanted to quit, however, I kept playing hoping that something might have shined and made the game fun but to no avail, there was nothing. Sometimes you will fight these mini-bosses called Outlaws and they are fun to fight when they work. They will either stand still or jump over the cover spots and not fight back. There are also some bosses you will fight and they were ok but not at all memorable and fun.
The one thing I have to give the game some credit where credit is due is the lighting mechanic. The rooms you will enter will be all dark and you have to light them up to see them. This will stun the enemies and you will have a chance to kill them more easily.
Graphics and Performance
My favourite thing about West of Dead is the art style. I love the dark cartoony atmosphere that the game has going it felt. It shows us how dark and messed up Purgatory actually is, something that I enjoyed. I tested the game on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, 16 GB of RAM, and an AMD Ryzen 5 1500X Quad-Core Processor 3.50. The game does run really well at 60 FPS.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2297740663
Soundtrack
Now I have to admit that the soundtrack for this game is awesome. I loved the guitar jiggle that would play after every battle you do; it just feels so fresh. The Outlaws theme is my favourite song to listen to, it’s just a shame that they are sometimes buggy to fight against as the theme is just that good. Makes you feel like you really are in a fight with a gunslinger.
Final Verdict
I really wanted to like West of Dead. It had promise and potential to be a unique game out of the Rouge-Like genre. However, what I was presented with was a game that had a forgettable story, broken combat, weapons that are not worth using, pointless grinding, and a feeling of just wanting to quit playing. While I was writing this review, I was kind of frustrated because the game just has all these problems and it really sucks. I will admit that some care and passion was put into this game and getting Ron Perlmen to voice William Mason does show that they tried. The issue here is that there can only be so much charm and promise that a game can have, that it falls short of what the actual product is. I want to like this game, I really do but with what I was shown, I just can’t find myself to play it again, rather, I want to forget about it.
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2589 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 12.12.20 05:05
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817 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 12.11.20 23:37
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55 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 01.11.20 21:57
Other than that I can't say there's much to recommend this.
The major problem is bugs. The second level I played in had no exit and I had to just stop and restart. The only ways to proceed were blocked by walls or teleport pads I didn't have the tools to get through yet. You should never had a complete stop in a rogue-like.
The darkness is an interesting idea but it also just makes it frustrating to try and see what's going on. I found the aim finicky too. There’s some auto targeting and some manual targeting.
There are tons of green circles on the floor you activate which appears to do nothing. Apparently, they were quick travel in the beta? Why were they disabled.
I don’t' think this game should have come out of early access yet.
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239 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 24.09.20 01:17
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130 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 02.09.20 09:04
The combination of tactics and the fast pacing of the game seems contradicting, but works incredibly well. I also loved the graphics of the game, it's like you jumped right into a very grim western comic, and the music is fantastic.
Unfortunately the game does contain some bugs and I encoutered one game breaking bug. It doesn't happen often and can be patched out, but to spawn in complete darkness and losing all your progress because of that, is incredibly frustrating.
West of Dead has its challenging moments and can be unforgiving, but once you get the hang of it, it's incredibly fun to play and to anticipate on your enemies.
The Wild West has never been this dark.
8.5/10
Full review (in Dutch) can be found here.
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6068 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 04.08.20 02:27
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795 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 30.07.20 23:01
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh61zav9_Ik
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30 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 30.07.20 00:22
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6x7B7x2E2Q
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974 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 17.07.20 16:43
????Introduction
West of Dead is an action rogue-like that’s set in a dark wild west purgatory that you’ll have to fight through to uncover how your character died. Visually this game is extremely appealing, however, what lurks beneath the darkness is messy gameplay that doesn’t feel satisfying or addicting to play compared to other rogue-likes.
✔️Pros
• The lighting is a very unique mechanic that plays a key part in combat
• Games atmosphere is fantastic
• Dark and gloomy graphics set the atmosphere extremely well
• Simplistic and dark soundtrack that adds another layer to the gloomy and dark environments
❌Cons
• For a rogue-like it lacks variety in every area
• Weapons are standard, nothing unique or exciting about them
• Unlocking new weapons, items and trinkets is a massive grind
• Fixed camera angles lead to not being able to see inside some of the rooms without just running into them
• The melee enemies throw the cover and shoot combat out the window
• Lacks polish and refinement making it feel like an early access game
• Some enemies can hit you even if you’re behind cover
• AI can be dumb sometimes
• Unbalanced difficulty
• NPCs dialogue is practically pointless half the time
• Game is clearly designed for a controller rather than a keyboard and mouse
• Day 1 DLC (Cut content)
❓Bugs
• Sometimes when vaulting over cover you might go through it instead of over it
• Whenever you pick up your first rifle on a new run you will always get a tutorial about how to use
????Gameplay
Combat
West of Dead sets itself up to be a cover-based shooter and for the most part, it succeeds at it, the early levels definitely get you into the mindset of having to take cover and wait for the right moment to shoot at enemies. However, this falls apart when the introduction of melee enemies comes into play, these enemies will come running at you and if you're taking cover you are practically forced to retreat out of the room whilst shooting at them. This then becomes a problem when the other enemies start walking towards you and you find yourself in a narrow corridor with no cover.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2168985888
You’ll see a number of different enemies as you explore the different areas of purgatory, however most of them felt like reskins of earlier enemies and some of them are just annoying. For example, you’ll eventually come across healers who constantly run away from you, considering there will be at least another two enemies constantly shooting at you at different times, it's hard to kill the healer without taking damage. The pathing for the AI can be pretty bad as well sometimes if you go into another room with an enemy following you they just try to beeline to you and consequently just walk into the corner of the room they’re in.
The most interesting mechanic of West of Dead is the way that the lighting affects the combat. Rooms that you enter will be partly pitch black with enemies scattered around, sometimes hiding in the darkness and sometimes just standing in the open. You can light up these areas by interacting with lanterns which will also stun nearby enemies giving you a chance to take cover. Unfortunately, this becomes a problem with the fixed camera angles, if you're running towards the camera going into a room you will have no idea of where the enemies might be or where the lanterns are. You’ll have to blindly run into the room, find the first lantern you see, interact with it and then quickly find cover before you get shot.
Rogue-like
As with any rogue-like you can expect procedurally generated levels with every new run which is meant to give the player more variety and encouragement to try again after losing. However, with the lack of variety in terms of enemies and the different rooms in areas, every run feels almost the exact same. Even when it comes to weapons, there was always a specific set I was on the lookout for because it was just better than the others. Even the weapons lack variety and you’ll more than likely just pick up the ones that do more damage rather than weapons that do significantly less damage but cause different effects (bleeding, plague etc.). Overall, for a rogue-like, there is just a lack of variety to differentiate one run from another and to encourage the player to try again after losing.
Speaking of weapons, unlocking them is a relentless grind that doesn’t feel rewarding. You’ll get roughly 10 - 20 Sin every floor from random enemies you kill (assuming you clear out every room on that floor), considering there are a lot of weapons, trinkets and items to unlock (some of them require over 300 sin to unlock) it's quite a daunting task. Compare this to other rogue-like games like Enter The Gungeon and you’ll find that you can unlock a bunch of new weapons within the first few hours of that game and it feels satisfying and exciting to unlock them. After a couple hours of playing West of Dead I think I only unlocked a handful of cheap weapons that I didn’t even like the sound of but unlocked them just for the sake of having a more variety of weapons.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2168985971
Difficulty is another aspect of a rogue-like that’s important to get right and unfortunately West of Dead doesn’t get this right either. The first floor is fine, you're given a lot of space with few enemies to learn the way that the game works. But after this you're greeted with a difficulty spike that doesn’t get any easier, in the second area you’ll find some enemies can kill you in a hit or two, some can hit you even when you're behind cover and with the previously mentioned melee enemies it just completely throws the cover and gun combat out the window. You’ll eventually find other enemy types as you progress like healers, which are a complete pain since they run away from you and cause you to get hit by the other enemies who are shooting at you. I just ran through these rooms without bothering to kill them because it caused more frustration and I wasn’t even guaranteed anything rewarding for my efforts to kill them besides the chance of getting 1 - 3 sin.
????Music & Sound
The soundtrack is simplistic and adds a sense of mystery of awareness to every area you explore. Even though there doesn’t seem to be much variety it still provides a rather gloomy and dark atmosphere with the visuals.
????Graphics
The one thing this game has going for it is the art style, it definitely fits a dark wild west purgatory from the way that your character is designed to the enemies that you encounter. Every new area you explore is dark and grim which creates this fantastic atmosphere along with the soundtrack.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2168986122
????Closing Thoughts
Despite all the negatives I really wanted to enjoy West of Dead, the art style peaked my curiosity but what followed was a disappointment. The gameplay suffers tremendously and doesn’t feel encouraging or addicting to start a new run after failing the previous one. It feels like an Early Access game with its lack of polish and general balancing issues. There are definitely much better rogue-likes out there than this one, I wouldn’t recommend getting this one unless you're desperate for a new rogue-like.
This product was reviewed using a free key provided by the Developers
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301 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 25.06.20 21:34
☐ I literally forgot I was still sitting in front of my monitor
☒ Great graphics, will age very well
☐ I wouldn’t buy this for graphics
☐ Fallout 76
Music:
☒ I headbanged until my neck was sore
☐ Great and atmospheric
☐ Out of ear touch
☐ It was so bad that my ears bled
Sounds:
☒ Immersion building sounds
☐ Sounds were so good, you didn’t notice them
☐ Probably a game I will listen to music while playing
☐ Turn off the sounds
Story:
☐ Emotion moving masterpiece
☐ Great story that moved the game forward
☒ Wait… there is a story?
☐ An absolutely mind-numbing pile of rat dung
Gameplay:
☐ Delicate perfection between multiple intricate systems
☒ Solid, fun and addicting loop
☐ Just there to push the game forward
☐ Anthem
Bugs:
☐ Spotless
☒ Bugs which don’t take away from the experience
☐ It’s bugs life
☐ Playing around bugs is its own game
I will write my extended opinions soon but for now it is a recommendation from me
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1132 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 24.06.20 05:55
Much of what I touched upon in terms of plot has not changed since the Beta, so hop over HERE for a refresher on what Purgatory has to offer for William Mason. West of Dead's saving graces fall solely upon its gameplay, weapon selection, and sound design. Purgatory, Wyoming spans ten different areas, 6 main stages and 4 side stages, procedurally generated so no map will play out exactly the same. Each stage is filled to the brim with an assortment of enemies: gun-wielding rangers, to demonic dogs, cleaver throwing giants, and murders of crows to name a few. The fighting areas are tight and compact, with breakable cover to keep Mason on his toes, timing perfect dodges to avoid bullets and explosions and always staying close enough to see the lights of his enemy's eyes. The cel-shaded, overly saturated style beams life into the desolate, dreary environments Mason will be see over and over again. From crypts to farms, churches and mines, it is a nice blend of different areas to battle in, especially with some of the environmental hazards some of the stages sneak in.
While relying heavily on tested titles like Dead Cells, the twin stick shooter's weapons are delightfully chunky and powerful. The weapon selection is numerous among its four categories: Revolver, Pistol, Shotgun, and Rifle. Collected Sin from fallen enemies can be traded with a mysterious Witch to unlock your arsenal, each displaying different variations to suit almost every style. Mason can also hold two secondary items, which range from hard-hitting offensive items like axes and dynamite, to defensive items like shields and lanterns. Rounding out a completed build are charms that can add passive abilities such as extra HP from healing items, or regaining lost health by hiding behind cover or inflicting damage on enemies.
When all these pieces come together, the sound of a fast-paced battlefield is electric. Rapid reloading, which is done automatically after not shooting for a short period of time, projects little noises of bullets filling their slots, the sound of an old time-y cash register pinning open after each enemy falls, the 5 note tune from an acoustic guitar signifying an emptied battlefield and a job well done: Upstream Arcade absolutely hit the nail on the head with making Purgatory, Wyoming feel as Wild West as it possibly could.
While Purgatory is considered an avenue in the afterlife where one stays before judgment, West of Dead could've used a lot more time before finding its way out. There are a ton of bugs and polish issues scattered throughout. One of the biggest offenders is the game's auto-aim assist. Aiming is not a precise objective, but more of a suggested idea, as long as enemies are within sight, guns will snap onto a target. This can range from working as intended, to exploitative, to run-killing. Longer ranged rifles can hit enemies off-camera so long as they are illuminated in light, but will also take precedence over enemies who are anywhere in the darkness. Many times Mason will have an enemy barreling towards him, be just enough in the darkness, and Mason will snap to another enemy across the screen and maintain firing presence with that enemy. Normally this wouldn't be an issue, since a quick flick of your aiming reticle would keep the closer target in line; but the auto-aim will always take the enemy in light over an enemy that is technically hidden in darkness, and won't peel off said enemy until they've been dispersed of. It's an unnecessary inclusion of difficulty, as many runs have been tarnished by this mechanic, and the fact that auto-aim assist is an option that cannot be turned off is maddening.
West of Dead's AI also finds itself riddled with issues. You will constantly find enemies that won't engage in combat, even as Mason plugs holes into them, which makes some rooms disappointingly easy. Outlaws, randomized mini-bosses that play a role in Mason's past life, can get stuck on collision after a slide over cover, and never fire another bullet, allowing Mason to casually drain their life bar and complete what would've been a tough fire fight. This same problem happened with the first two main bosses in the game: they took one slide into cover, got stuck, and immediately went passive. If you were interested in the difficulty of those main bosses, I literally could not tell you.
But the biggest offender is the structure in which West of Dead handles its story telling. Mason's life is shrouded in mystery, and can be slowly pieced together by eliminating outlaws, and accepting the burden of weary souls trapped within Purgatory. Accepting burdens will reward Mason with a piece of his memory back, alongside able chunks of Sin, Iron, and weaponry to help in his journey, but each burden comes with a price. Burdens will curse Mason, requiring him to kill a number of enemies before getting hit, with one hit while curse being an instant kill. These do provide a tense atmosphere while demanding cautious traveling, but these moments play opposite of what West of Dead does well, which is delivering a fast-paced shootout. Add on top the issues with auto-aim, and more deaths from accepting burdens will feel unfair than justified.
Memories can be given to the Witch, which give a small chunk into how Mason got to where he is. While these are interesting tidbits of plot, and more reasons to use Ron Perlman's voice acting, there's no way to look back and replay past memories, and with two different recollections happening between which memories you pull, it can be unnecessarily convoluted.
Collecting all these memories and burdens will procure the chance for Mason to face the final boss. Now, I understand the novelty of the “show, don't tell” style of story telling, letting the environment and actions tell the overarching story instead of slapping you in the face with it. But the way West of Dead handles its unlocking of the True Ending is so needlessly concealed, that it absolutely kills any momentum in finishing its story. After accepting three specific burdens needed to acquire the True Ending, the secondary objective while killing the final boss is never alluded to or represented in a way where the player would find out unless by sheer dumb luck. While finishing my 2nd run, I had three friends watch the entire run, and none of us had any idea of what I missed to truly finish the game. If you miss the secret objective and defeat the boss before completing it, your run is finished, and you go back to the very beginning, to do it all over again. There's absolutely no excuse for not giving a hint, or just not having it in general, since there is already a prerequisite that needs to be accomplished before getting to the final boss for the True Ending. It's just bad design, and a disappointing end to my 18 hours of game time.
So with that, my time with William Mason is over, and the town of Purgatory, Wyoming is now behind me. I started on this trail with a 30 minute demo that intrigued me enough to continue down its soon to be completed path, but when I got to the end of this road, I realized that the dirt road I was traveling on felt a lot like the state of West of Dead: usable at times, deemed effective by some, but ultimately incomplete by today's standards.
What a shame.
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In-run progression is all to often brought to a halt by a lack of weapon upgrades. The game has you relying on RNG for weapons to appear in levels, but they are competing for space with other types of equipment, too many of which are simply underpowered of outright unusable in their current state.
Most notable are shotguns which have a range barely greater than your melee ability, which for a game with such emphasis on using cover is a major issue. This ends up with later level enemies feeling like bullet sponges who are perfectly capable of deleting your own health in a couple of hits.
On top of this the game just seems to be at an almost early access level of polish, with unkillable bosses a common bug and the controls fighting the player every step of the way. The main character will stick to cover when you don't want him to, or refuse to take cover when needed.
The aiming system is also in need of work, with weapons snapping to enemies who might not even be on the screen instead of who you actually wanted to hit. The UI also seems to be designed for gamepads and trying to navigate the upgrade menus with mouse & keyboard feels like more of a struggle than it has any right to be.
Hopefully with time and patches the game can iron out the issues with controls and progression, but for now it's a bit of a mess.
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663 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 20.06.20 03:57
Gameplay
The gameplay consists of navigating through various mazes, going room by room and finding enemies, gun boxes, or upgrade shrines. There's an emphasis placed on the dark and light in the game. Enemies that are shrouded in the dark obviously can't be seen, but in addition, it's very difficult to target them. You can counteract this by running up to lanterns and lighting them up, which stuns enemies in its light radius and allows you to lock onto them. A heavy emphasis is put on staying in cover, as enemies chunk your health with each shot. You're able to carry two firearms, each with their own respective ammunition count. Reloading is performed automatically, chamber by chamber, whenever you're not firing.
Weapons are about what you'd expect from the Old West. The majority fall into one of the three categories: pistols, shotguns, and rifles. As you play the game, you unlock weapons with on-hit effects, such as the Razorshot rifle, causing bullets to also put a bleed DoT on your target. Equipment is similar. You also have two slots, but all equipment has a cooldown, which can be shortened through equipment level and by upgrading your equipment CD reduction. You can find equipment like hand-held lanterns, which you can toss to stun enemies in an area or there's also equipment which can damage enemies, like axes, dynamite, and throwing daggers.
Progression is fairly straightforward. As you kill enemies, you gather Sin. You can spend Sin at the end of each level by talking to the Witch, where you can unlock new weapons, passives, and equipment. As you go through each level, you'll discover weapon chests and upgrade shrines. Weapon chests contain upgraded weapons to pick up. At upgrade shrines you can upgrade one of three stats: Health (Higher HP, Higher melee damage), Perception (Firearm damage), and Equipment (Higher equipment damage and CD reduction). These stats do not carry over to new runs if you die.
Presentation
You play an undead gunslinger, going through a cel-shaded Old West underworld in search of who you were in life. The main character is voiced by Ron Perlman, who nails every single line given to him. Guns feel good to shoot, and the levels are varied. Expect to explore areas like an abandoned mine; a rotting cornfield; and even a dark, murky swamp. When you die, you're sent to a dreary saloon, bartender included.
You can speak to various characters in the game, but five and a half hours in, I didn't find any other characters that were voice-acted. It feels like the main character single-handedly carries the game forward. The NPC's aren't particularly interesting nor have any depth, going only by their profession: Bartender, Trader, Witch-Woman, etc. When you speak to them, they don't have a lot to say. Maybe one or two sentences at most.
Controls
Here's the elephant in the room. I'll preface this by saying I played WoD on mouse and keyboard. The mouse works most of the time, key word 'most.' Most of the time you'll see your bullets shooting your intended target, but sometimes, especially for enemies in the dark, it's like the game purposefully tilts your aim off as if you're not supposed to hit that target. You'll either hit another enemy off to the side or miss entirely.
This is also often the case with using equipment. For example, I had the throwing axe at one point. It stuns whoever it hits and deals a chunk of damage. Approaching a room, I can see a ranged enemy and a melee one at both sides of the door. My plan was to axe the ranged enemy to stun it, kill it before it had the chance to shoot me, and kite the melee before finishing it off. Simple, right?
Instead of throwing the axe at the ranged enemy, the axe instead flung itself off to the side, hitting a distant enemy that wasn't even on the screen despite me aiming at my intended target the entire time. The lanterns are another example of this. When you want to chuck a lantern to stun an enemy five feet away from you, you instead throw the lantern out over the enemy's head.
This isn't just limited to attacking enemies or using equipment; this is also the case with dodging attacks or entering cover. The way you enter cover is you simply approach it and you'll hide behind it. You can slide into cover with the Dodge button or you can vault over cover with the same button. Dodge and Vault being on the same button means that sometimes when you want to slide into cover, you instead vault over it and put yourself in plain view of enemies, promptly turning to swiss cheese and dying.
The problem with entering or exiting cover not being a dedicated, separate keybind and instead being proximity-based means that you'll also die because you're fighting with the cover system. For example, you often have to dodge AoE attacks, like the dynamite explosions. An enemy chucks dynamite at you, and you're running to avoid it. However, you run by cover, and you get magnetically locked to it, slowing your speed to a snail's pace and causing you eat the explosion you intended to avoid. This is also the case when shooting enemies when you're also trying to enter cover. You get locked into the shooting animation and you'll just stand there, walking against the cover instead of entering it and eating a bullet because of it.
Dying is expected in a roguelite, but dying because the controls aren't doing what you want is extremely frustrating. I can confidently say the majority of my deaths five and a half hours in were because of the controls. It genuinely feels like you're fighting with them, and it's actively trying to screw you over at times.
Design
Some design choices really make me scratch my head, especially for a game that's on PC. You often can't use the mouse to interact with the Esc menus. You instead have to slowly scroll through the menu tabs with the keys. This is most apparent when you're spending Sin to unlock stuff. You can't mouseover unlocks, and because of that, you can't see the descriptions of what you're buying unless you use the keyboard to slowly scroll through every single item on the list and get to the one you want.
In addition, you can't rebind keys. I found this especially frustrating because the UI reverses the buttons on the screen. Your right click button is on the left and your left click is on the right. This is also a problem with the two equipment slots; The left equipment slot is R, and the right equipment slot is E. Because the buttons are reversed and you're unable to rebind them, you'll often use the wrong tool for the job, shooting your shotgun when you intended to use your rifle or using a knife and hitting air instead of chucking dynamite at that enemy in the distance you intended to hit.
There are also technical issues. When you speak to NPC's, the UI disappears, and a letter box shrinks the screen. Normally, this would add to immersion and remove distractions. But there's a bug with the game, wherein sometimes when you're skipping through the cutscene dialogue after you visit the trader or skipping through any NPC's dialogue, the UI won't appear again and the letterbox stays on the screen. To my knowledge, there isn't a fix other than just hitting Esc, going to the main menu, and going back to where you were.
Verdict
I really wanted to like this game. The cel-shaded Old Western underworld setting is extremely unique and compelling. And Ron Perlman's voice work is top-notch. He nails the main character, and Ron really gives him personality. But I can't recommend this game due to the above issues, where you're fighting the controls and there's a lack of basic options such as rebindable keys.
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934 Std. insgesamt
Verfasst: 18.06.20 12:06
It's a stylish, rogue-like, twin-stick shooter set in a hellish re-imagining of Wyoming, 1888. Superbly brought to life by Ron Perlman's excellent voicing of the character.
If you are a fan of this genre of games I recommend this title above most others, it's lengthy, replayable & entertaining. Well worth the wait since Beta.
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Release:18.06.2020
Genre:
Arcade-Shooter
Entwickler:
Upstream Arcade
Vertrieb:
Raw Fury
Engine:keine Infos
Kopierschutz:keine Infos
Franchise:keine Infos
Einzelspieler
Mehrspieler
Koop