Despite this, the different combat scenarios are varied and fun, ranging from standard shootouts to jailbreaks and defense/escort fare. Being able to heal wounds by staying out of direct sunlight, or obliterating multiple enemies at once with a single, powerful shotgun blast is certainly novel, but it made nice nuances like the range and penetration profiles of different guns feel far less significant. While these abilities are fun to use, they also tend to undermine the tactical elements a fair bit. “Taking a bite of a fallen foe’s corpse might restore some health, while a puff of a shaman’s pipe might boost my maximum Luck, a unique resource that powers the use of Hard West’s delightful, dark arts, like Golden Bullet, a special shot that never misses, and pierces all cover and obstructions for maximum lethality. Hard West leverage’s its mystical elements here too, giving players access to powers and consumable items that add quite a few enjoyable wrinkles to the well-tread formula. Hard West’s tactical combat borrows heavily from the best, and with some success - to the point where X-Com vets can easily slip right in and apply many of the same tactics. Fan the HammerUsually, it involved being shot at, but I didn’t really mind. The art, music, and even the flavor text accompanying your various world map choices do a great job of establishing an ominous tone that kept me wondering what kind of deviousness was in store for my party next.

A grim-sounding narrator effectively cements the Weird West aesthetic early, lending more gravity than you’d think to what actually amounts to a simple revenge tale. Hard West doesn’t take long to kick the tired trappings of the spaghetti western to the curb in exchange for cursed artifacts, and supernaturally driven insanity. Check out the first 23 minutes of Hard West in the video above.

Hard west pc