In recent years, the genre of tactical strategy began to gain momentum, being the flagship of the strategic branch as a whole. There will be no way to go far for examples: Relbus Xcom, incredible The Banner Saga, return to the origins of last year’s Heroes 7. Last year, the Hard West arrived, screaming inspiration from the same Xcom Enemy Unknown Sid Meyer. But everything turned out well? This was to figure out.
The plot is divided into the so -called scenarios, there are 8 of them, the story is carried out for several. The narrative is presented on behalf of “death”. The action takes place in the "Wild West". Unusual Wild West. It seems that all the attributes of the time that live side by side with mysticism are present. Returning on a retired demon or visit the underworld is not difficult for the characters of this world. This is a universe in which demonic forces have the most direct control. There is no better place for transactions with Lucifer!
The first 4 main scenarios tell the story of the tomb and Warren, father and son. A combination of circumstances broke these people. Both sold to the "Devil in the Flesh". After the death of his wife/mother, the heroes decide to live further mining gold. Warren falls in love with a girl who becomes the meaning of his life. Father, in an effort to earn more, sells part of the soul, and, according to the logic of things, suffers Fiasco, some time later becoming a walking failure. Realizing that because of him there are a lot of troubles, he leaves. Warren in one of the shootings loses the girl, in addition he dies himself, subsequently completely passes under the control of the “king of hell”, which revives him. The main goal of Warenn is revenge and salvation of his beloved from purgatory.
The second branch of 3 scenarios is a story about madness. Here, as well as in Farcry 3, there is someone who knows and creates this madness. The main character is the scientist of Solomon, his task is to find the problem of clouding the mind along the same time saving the “terrible” West. Further, part of the plot is told from other persons.
And the last script tells about the seeker named Alvaro Vasquez.
On average, it takes about 2-3 hours https://london-eye-casino.uk/ to pass one scenario, and there will be a lot of time on the whole game, which is generally good and bad (why bad, I will explain below).
The main problem of peace and script is that everything is spelled out average. No passion is felt. Reading texts, an awareness of reading a bad book comes. And personally, with all the love of the setting of the “Wild West”, it was not possible to catch his atmosphere! Cowboys – no cowboys, famous salons – ordinary bars, wasteland – flashing …
If the plot is still a little original (the setting is not particularly common in the game industry – a demonic, and even a wild West), then the trouble is trouble. It got to the point that the interface is cleaned out from the brainchild of Firaxis. It is understandable, you need to go to the leader in the genre. Outwardly, everything is also very similar to XCOM: two components are economic and tactical. In the first (fixing) travel on the map, perform simple tasks, copy money, spend on ammunition. Each script has its own conditions. In the first (scenarios) – in a certain time, resources need to be extracted; secondly, get a sufficient crime rate; And in the third – to follow the heroes not starving, feeding them in time, the game turns into a sort of The Banner Saga (by the way, in my opinion this is the best scenario) and so on. In this component, this is pure EU, very bad. At first, everything goes cheerfully, interestingly, you delve into the rules of the game … I even like it, but then a number of questions arise.
So where to start? So, for example, with very similar systems, Hard West has significant processing. Instead of familiar – armor/life, here – luck/life. In case of loss of the first point, the character begins to lose points of the second, luck is exhausted – we get damage, a certain amount of its number is restored. In 50% of tactical missions there is a so -called “preparatory stage”, when heroes can calmly move around the battlefield, calculate the moves, and fulfill optional conditions. After completing the preparation, we combine the weapon and begin. Problems appear immediately, shelters almost do not play any role – heroes and enemies know how to shoot/get through the walls. The enemy’s tactics are always the same. At the end of one of the scenarios, it so happened that I suffered a fiasco. Restoring the battle, my gaze caught the following – AI makes the same moves. Having decided to restart the level manually, I realized – in a certain situation, you know the moves of enemies in advance. In XCOM, every battle was unique, you did not know what actions to expect from the enemy. Hard West, in turn, is a servant trying!
I have already mentioned AI, but it is worthwhile to expand this topic. He is stupid! But not a notorious degenerate! In some situations, the enemies have brains, they know that it is necessary to shoot either at the weaker character, or on the main character, who has 1 cell of lives (at the death of the protagonist, the game ends!). In most cases, it is not difficult to pass any mission. Typically, the operation against the thugs of the Wild West is as follows: you sit in one place, you roll everyone alone, occasionally changing the position. At an average level, the complexity of the game is felt like any other tactical strategy on a lightweight. Creation is very much not enough Chelenge. Also, returning not mediocre for battles, it is not entirely clear how the local shooting system works. Then with a percentage of 80 hits – bullets fly by, then at 35% – exactly on the target. It would be logical to come to the idea: perhaps negative effects are imposed on the characters!? But unfortunately, no! With them or without a result one. By the middle of the narrative, the awareness and understanding of this system comes … it is random … The game decides to get in or not! And for some reason, the local aiming system all the time strives to choose distant enemies, and those who sneezed closely. There are very few types of enemies, in fact of 2: a person and a demon … everything!
A small detail, in every tactical mission there is a key goal. After its implementation, they give the task of finishing off the remaining enemies … Hello from the 90s, look for the guns where you want.
After each battle or the execution of a quest, we get cards from which combinations with improved effects and alkalis are collected. By the way, for the whole game I took advantage of additional capabilities, from strength a couple of times … without using it without problems. Which can not be said about the same XCOM, any ability helped out. Card system is the best in the gameplay Hard West. Collection takes place according to the principles of poker – the higher the combination, the better the effect. By the time, when all the cards are in your hands, you can create an unreasoned detachment, the gameplay will become damn light (I personally have difficulties only 2 times for all the passage). This system gives the playing component of role gloss, picking up decks really interesting.
The soundtrack deserves praise, for he is beautiful here. This is the only thing that at least a little atmosphere, that very wild West. One character “Death” is involved in the voice acting, there are no complaints about him, his dialogs are prescribed better than the text part of the project.
Graphics are standard for the genre and is not particularly demanding to the gland. At the “old man” of 2011, with high settings, Hard West issues stable 30 FPS, with rare subsidence up to 19 FPS. So the graphic part in this project did not play a big role. I will only say that it is made in one “sand style”, although the night levels are truly beautiful.
Unfortunately, Hard West failed to get closer to the standard specified Xcom Enemy Unknown. The project suffers from a number of disputed solutions. I do not want to scold for copying, since there are few such projects. No, there are a lot of tactical strategies, but similar XCOM is units. If the authors someday release the sequel, taking into account all the punctures of the original, he will not be the price. In the meantime, this game is entertainment for those who are hungry for similar works. Better play in XCOM 2 or in its pre -brimmer.
The best comments
I read the article fluently and I want to insert my curves "5th cents". The narrator, that is, death, monologues, not dialogs. And a typo in verdict, in the word punctures . And the enemies in the game are really stupid, but still under the action of the player adjust. Oh yes, the player is sometimes given a choice, including the ending.