Raphael Colantonio left Arkane Studios in 2017 after 18 years as head of the studio, with notable hits like Dishonored and Prey to show for it. WolfEye Studios was born due to his collaboration with Arkane producer Julien Roby. While it's realistic to anticipate a certain degree of exploits from a team of seasoned and skilled developers, the abrupt shift in the working paradigm may be stressful; fame and hype are frequently too sharp double-edged blades. Weird West seems appealing on paper, but it's not for everyone. Taking inspiration from the Ultima CRPG series, WolfEye set out to create an immersive top-down sim. Weird West is a tactical turn-based RPG with a strong feeling of immersion because of its narrative depth, but it'll take more than hours of play to get into the game entirely.

The appeal of this immersive sim game isn't only found in its intricate and beautiful box-style stages but also in the joy of making your own decisions. Depending on the situation, you may want to use stealth, fighting, detouring, or negotiation to get past barriers in your path. There will be subtle changes to the world due to these decisions, which will alter the course of the storyline. With too much chaos, players can only expect a sad and terrible ending in this highly chaotic game. It's, however, an immense accomplishment that a players' decisions in the game determine the destiny of every character, every bystander, and the Weird West as a whole.

The Red Dead Redemption series springs to mind when thinking of video games set in the Wild West and for legitimate reasons. They're not only fantastic games in their way, but they're also among the few that let you live the life of an outlaw with little to no restrictions. That's what WolfEye Studios' action RPG Weird West does. In addition to cowboys and outlaws, the game includes zombies, werewolves, and even human-eating monster gangs. With some deep simulation components and a live environment that responds and evolves based on the player's actions, you might have some spectacular moments with the game.

Wild West's storyline reflects the classic American western times. While portraying a wild and dangerous landscape, the game reconnects vultures, cactus, and other natural elements to create tension between the law enforcement officers, cowboys, and the criminal gangs. It is vital to highlight the excellence of the storytelling section, which is somewhat derivative but still inspired by the long-term goals of the numerous tales you will traverse via the many central and side characters.

There are multiple-choice conversations, but it's hard to believe that there's narrative freedom that extends beyond a few minutes of the game. The passageways are full of crossroads, but the substantive changes are always tiny. To rescue other gunslingers who can aid you in firefights or add willing people to our team is possible as you move through stages, but when they die in combat, there will be no respawning from their fellow residents is a little shocking.

Strange things start to happen all around you as you begin the game. You play as Jane, a former bounty hunter now living on a farm after robbers raid it. The game's opening cinematic teases something sinister and frightening. After your son is killed and your spouse is kidnapped, you dig out your firearms and travel to the adjacent town of Grackle in an attempt to exact revenge, only to find that the village has been butchered and bodies litter the streets. Things start to unfold when you track down the Stillwater bandits, a gang that captures many people and their leader who seemed to have killed your son. Everything falls apart when you start tugging at the threads. It won't be long before bounty hunters and frontiersmen start promoting themselves as the frontier's foremost authorities.

What makes Weird West so compelling is how the five Journeys are intertwined and come together in the end. This becomes more apparent as the Bounty Hunter's journey begins when she discovers the Brand and meets a few key personalities who explain why her mission is so vital in the big scheme of things. As a result of these glimpses inside the minds of ‘monsters’, players will find themselves transformed into werewolves or even witches with the gift of prophecy.

Each character reflects the Western forces, and their tales represent the blood and tears poured by Westerners in the conflicts and wars. Everything comes together in the Onerist Journey, which reveals all the answers and faces players with choosing a choice that will permanently alter the Weird West. The intrigue underlying the Brand and the reasons for its importance keep the game's approximately 50 hours of playtime engrossing from start to finish.

Each chapter puts you in the shoes of a different character, some of whom you've never met before. With differing levels of background knowledge, you'll typically discover that individuals respond to you in different ways. Then, you'll be given the duty of laying down the path you wish for the individual in question. The first tale, in my view, was the most outlandish. Clearly, I started playing Weird West the wrong way, but there isn't much more to be gleaned from the first character, at least from my perspective. The fighting system, which is otherwise excellent, doesn't accomplish anything either in the first chapter. Werewolf attacks and wild abilities to put themselves on fire and rush like a beast towards the enemy are an excellent replacement for the old-fashioned pistol, rifle, or shotgun.

In Weird West, the conflict takes place in real-time. The controls are simple and satisfying, as you'd expect from an intuitive twin-stick shooter. I switched to a controller instead of a keyboard and mouse because waving with a mouse might be tricky, particularly in close combat; pointing in the wrong direction is a usual annoyance. With a controller, it's far easy to play this game as the right stick creates a line of sight on the screen, while the left stick is for moving the character. The hostility can be deciphered in various ways by solving tiny riddles.

Stealth comes in handy for taking down enemies, but sometimes the enemy density makes it tough to imply. It is easier to make errors when you have a rapid save mechanism. Although initially, your characters are not so resilient, you can customize them by acquiring new skills and valuable resources. You'll uncover enough to learn different class and weapon abilities that come in handy in combat. You can also unlock new skills by playing gold cards, and these abilities can be passed down from one character to the next. Also included in your tasks are your allies, which might include characters from the past chapters of your story. It's, however, impossible to revive them when they die.

Combat is top-down, like the Desperados series. Map-like levels include enemies patrolling particular portions. On a small map, opponents are depicted by red dots with a cone for their field of view. Enemies include gang members, sirens, and wild creatures like wolves and coyotes. You can sneak past enemies and kill them using stealth attacks or blaze them with bullets; both are totally up to you. There are also machetes and bows and arrows. Explosive barrels, poison, lightning, and even climatic variables may be employed to deal with waves of challenging opponents. Some dungeons almost seem like puzzles; strategizing your way through challenging dungeons is one of the game's most fun parts.

However, the isometric landscape of Weird West is a cheerful place. The maps are beautiful and have many minor elements that make them distinct; however, the recycling of assets and structures will eventually show through the polish of beauty. Moreover, the game's setting allows us to roam and scavenge for resources to improve weaponry freely. Every item, character, and structure in Weird West may be interacted with in some way: picked up, smashed, tossed, and even murdered. Like in Breath of the Wild, players are encouraged to use items found in their surroundings while sneaking and fighting.

Although the game has an exciting inventory to fill with various and diverse firearms, they will ultimately turn out to be always and only two or three varieties, all of which are the same, with as little visual difference as there is in features. You will carefully guard the more valuable ones and the more difficult ones to come by, even though you will pretty much recycle almost everything. However, there are a few glitches that I came across, which hurt the gameplay to a certain extent. The game crashed a few times; at one point even forced me a reboot. Generally speaking, the physics engine performs beautifully, but there will be occasions when a thrown item does not react as intended, perhaps leading to unintended open fighting.

Weird West is one of the rare role-playing games where players genuinely change the environment with their actions and choices. The considerable potential and ambitions of the game collide with the scope and funding, which reflected inadequacy, yet WolfEye Studios delivered a game that offers a unique experience. While certain balance and technological flaws detract from the experience, Weird West remains the best option for an immersive RPG. Minor technical flaws are forgiven due to the vastness and generosity of the game. Weird West is a fantastic journey full of exciting fighting and thrill.

Azfar Rayan (@AzfarRayan)
Editor, NoobFeed