![]() If it overlaps with Canadian Western, expect to see a Grim Up North where Evil Is Deathly Cold.Ĭompare and contrast with Cattle Punk and Space Western, which take more of a sci-fi approach to the Old West although there is some occasional overlap. ![]() If the story is set in the backdrop of historical military conflicts (such as the American Indian Wars, Mexican-American War, American Civil War, or the Mexican Revolution), then it becomes a Weird Historical War. The Weird West genre and settings tend to heavily overlap with Alternate History, Fantasy Americana, and Historical Fantasy (or Urban Fantasy if it's a Weird version of the New Old West). If the setting is more like a modernized New Old West, then expect to see more relatively recent cryptids such as chupacabras, or Urban Legends such as the Roswell UFO and aliens hidden at Area 51. Indian Burial Grounds, Magical Native Americans, and various entities from Native American Mythology (such as skinwalkers and wendigos note even though wendigos actually originated from the Great Lakes region) also tend to show up as sources of supernatural strangeness. Ghosts, zombies, vampires, and werewolves are common elements. Weird West works often invoke horror tropes. Daylight Horror and Light Is Not Good are common elements in these tales in a region where the dry season resembles the Thirsty Desert trope, it is shade that is sacred. Many smaller frontier settlements were gradually abandoned over time, becoming (literally haunted) Ghost Towns. The lawless setting also meant plenty of violent deaths and unfinished business, fuel for ghostly tales. The frontier as a whole was traditionally viewed (and still is viewed, to some extent) as the meeting place of civilization and the unknown. However, these are issues that will no doubt be addressed before the final version of the game is available.The Wild West is, if you think about it, a logical choice for the Speculative Fiction treatment. Ally AI is frustrating at the moment, too, as the player's supporting cast may charge head-first into a wave of enemies or not start shooting at all. Control with a mouse and keyboard feels a little squirrelly at times, with moments of awkward and unresponsive player character movement mixed with over-sensitive aiming. Obviously there are a few teething issues with the preview build. ![]() Enemy characters can also get grudges against the player, for instance if a character's gang boss has been killed, and they may turn up at a later point to try and kill the player character, feeling like a slight nod to the Nemesis system. Helping NPCs can see them noted as a friend for life, who can then turn up to support the player in firefights, while the game's reputation system will no doubt also impact on how friendly or aggressive certain groups are. Something else about Weird West that feels particularly intriguing is how player choices can have knock-on impacts later down the line. It will be interesting to find out exactly how the different protagonists play, as there will hopefully be some variety to help make each chapter feel different. A traditional level up system is replaced by a perk and skill tree more akin to an immersive sim, while encounter versatility definitely gives the player more ownership of their choices than what was seen in the C-RPGs of old. That said, Weird West is still more free-flowing than games of the era. It's also far less concerned with player character wellbeing than the hand-holding of some modern games - bounty hunters and companions can be found along the way, but given how easily they die, players shouldn't get too attached. Rather than a fully open world, there are small, individual maps for each town, mine, or farmstead, while random events can also pop up when traversing the world map, such as enemy attacks or travelling merchants. Weird West also plays homage to other C-RPGs from the 1990s, in particular the likes of the early Fallout games and Baldur's Gate.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |