3/10/2023 0 Comments Hard west pc review![]() This added layer of strategy encourages a stealthier approach, but character movement is slow and separated by turns, leaving me impatient. Several combat instances begin with a set-up, where enemies remain neutral unless fired upon or by entering a restricted area. One ability allows a severely damaged player to transmute blood into an enemy, swapping their health points entirely, while another forces a character to shriek, inflicting panic onto enemies within the area of impact. However, an interesting mechanic allows the player to move towards an interactable table or wooden cellar that transforms into cover.īattles are violent and often unpredictable when ability cards come into play. Unfortunately, I was consistently struggling with the controller to pick the intended block of cover – an issue that doesn’t translate over to the PC version, and one that permeates amongst similar console ports in the genre. Cover is displayed in the form of a shield, but bullets can penetrate cover, dealing minimal damage. The combat works almost identically to the grid system of XCOM, where the player moves a character to a point on the spaces provided based off of the amount of action points granted in that turn. The ability cards equipped cannot be used freely at any time, as they require a higher amount of luck to trigger and a brief cooldown before reuse. Hard West incorporates this luck system that depletes when a shot misses you and increases when hit. Though mechanically similar to XCOM, Hard West offered a refreshing change of setting. On the harder difficulties, enemy aim and precision is understandably increased, but I felt myself craving more of a challenge. There would be moments where the enemy took advantage of verticality and fired at me from the top floor of a building, only to then run downstairs and into the middle of the field on their next turn. The AI is competent most of the time, but I found myself questioning their decisions on normal difficulty. These ability cards sometimes turn the tides of battle completely, often affecting more than one enemy when it becomes overwhelming. Each weapon and consumable come with their own luck, sight and damage statistic, while ability cards can be split between characters. Before launching combat, the player is taken to a menu to prepare their characters for battle by equipping consumables, weapons and ability cards all allocated in a few inventory spots. That’s not to say that the game is devoid of any kind of challenge or strategy. Hard West simplifies the brutal gameplay of XCOM, and proves to be more favorable with critical shots. Hard West’s UI is a bit muddled and overwhelming in the beginning when trying to learn and understand its core mechanics, but after that initial hurdle it proves to be a rather lenient experience. Ironman, similar to Halo’s iron skull that reverts players back to their last checkpoint after death, forces you to restart the scenario if a critical character is killed. The former debuffs damaged characters, but strengthens them over the course of the scenario. Within each difficulty setting, the player has the opportunity to choose different optional modes – combat injuries and ironman. ![]() I found the tabletop, exploration portions of the game to be the most enjoyable.īefore starting any scenario, there are three difficulty options in the form of easy, normal and hard. Yet there are some issues that persist throughout. The motivations to engage in combat are justified, and serve as a nice diversion from the exploration portion of the game. Hard West’s risk reward system shines in these situations, as it encourages the player to make difficult decisions. After narrowly escaping death, I had made it to the church where the minister healed me of my ailments and performed an exorcism on my father for a meager price. ![]() My choices in this particular scenario left me severely injured as I slipped and fell to the bottom, and would ultimately affect my performance and vulnerability in combat. ![]() Once at the well, I was given the option to throw one of my own down into it in an attempt to strip my father of his curse, or climb down to snag the other coins at the bottom. The townsfolk pointed me in the direction of a wishing well that appeared after the fact. Before exploring the church’s scenario, I traveled to a Mexican town where I asked for information about a cure in exchange for some coin. The father, struck with a malignant curse, seeks aid from a minister held up in a church somewhere on the map. As you search for your wife’s killers, you build a homestead and venture out into the wasteland excavating gold, earning coins, and discovering new locations solely dependent on your choices within dialogue. At one point during the first scenario of the campaign, a family travels through the Oregon trail, only for the mother to be captured and decapitated.
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