*This article is compiled from IGN US and is not reproduced without authorization.
In this parallel universe, the Western Lands were won by a series of crazy ideas... If that fails, just press the Quick Read key. Go back to the previous archive and try the crazier method until it succeeds. Thanks to this freedom to explore the world, Wild West is a fun game that combines stealth and combat. It tells five wonderful stories with a serious tone, with a variety of interesting choices and a thought-provoking ending. With so much content and replayability, it's worth putting up with some of the game's flaws and tedious loot.
Stringing together the plot of Wild West is a group of mysterious people who use a magical imprint to forcibly implant the consciousness of the protagonist into the bodies of many unsuspecting people. Many games allow us to manipulate characters who already exist in the world, but still need to let us know their identities, which is a clever design: in this game, the protagonist is experiencing the same confusion as we do. Not to mention that the protagonist himself has lost his memory and does not understand how or why these people play this body replacement trick, this inexplicable mystery also brings some appropriate and fascinating strange flavor to "Strange West".
While the game is steeped in dark themes, full of murder, amputations, and gore, not to mention the spooky flavor of the soundtrack, Wolfeye's writers occasionally add humorous dialogues to keep the game from becoming too dull. In addition to the equidistant perspective and the world map that can be interrupted by bandit attacks, traveling merchants, and troublemakers, the black humor in the dialogue reminds me of my love of the classic Fallout 2. Compared with zooming in to the ground details, this kind of material detail is still more suitable for long-distance viewing. But when depicting the exaggerated features of werewolves, ghosts, and creatures like the insect-infected zombies of the Last Survivor, the style is rather abstract.
Each of the five characters you possess has their own little stories, each of which can be as short as a few hours, or for a player like me who is slowly advancing, each story takes an average of eight hours. First is Jane, the bounty hunter, who is in search of her kidnapped husband; then the forced mutated Pigman, who seeks his true colors; the Guardian of the Lost Flame Tribe, who fights greedy demons; a werewolf who is prophesied to lead his people in the battle for survival; and finally a cult member. They all live on this large, compact map known as the "West." While there isn't much overlap between their main quests, they're free to explore and revisit the places and people they want to go. Don't worry about how many days you spend, there is no time limit for each story.
The main difference between the maneuverable characters is their four class abilities, from bounty hunter mines, pigman's poison gas to werewolf stealth. There is also a common set of useful weapon skills, such as current pistol bullets, silenced rifle bullets, and stun arrows, but each character must upgrade these skills individually. However, the special features you unlock are permanent, and with some shared item equipment, with more health, double explosion damage, and faster stealth movement speed, you in Chapter 5 are definitely much stronger than those in Chapter 1. In this way, even if you have to change to the next character, there is a feeling of growth.
Unfortunately, even if you miss the skills of your previous characters, you won't be able to cut back and control them directly, and considering that the story is made up of a series of consecutive events, this restriction is understandable. However, you can go back to their home and recruit them as one of the two teammates controlled by the AI (normal people do this, after all, these characters are very powerful, and you can get their items back), but the AI can't make the most of the character's skills, otherwise it will be quite advantageous to combine with their own skills. An added consideration is that these irreplaceable teammates can die permanently (unless you read the file), so they are more expensive than the one-time mercenaries hired when the situation is critical.
Another forgivable flaw is that there is no voiceover without the protagonists — we can only hear the voice of the narrator Sam Elliot, and the other characters who sound horrible whispers, or the Sims version of Batman: The Dark Knight Rises Bane. But whenever we interact with them, the personalities of these characters jump out of the paper, and there are many opportunities to define these characters through the choice of helping or hurting others.
As soon as a battle is fought, a gun battle with several enemies quickly becomes scorching, because everyone is not only fast, but also faster with bullets. Wild West is more like a two-stick shooting game, while quickly aiming and shooting, but also coordinating the lengthy change of revolvers, rifles, shotguns and bows and arrows, the test of technical level is quite high. However, the game has a slow-motion key that allows you to get rid of this quick reaction (in addition to the reaction required to press the key); when slow motion is activated, the challenge becomes controlling the time it takes to move the muzzle to the next enemy. Of course, calculating the release time of special skills can also maximize the benefits.
(Note: To activate Tactical Mode on the console, simply press and hold the right shoulder button.) ）
Not only that, but when you perform a cinematic flying action, slow motion is automatically activated. This will deplete your valuable Action Points and affect the use of skills. But considering that you can output a lot of damage with this, it is worth it. In slow motion, you'll have extra bullets in your gun for quick fire, so any non-boss enemy will most likely be wiped out in a pleasant hail of bullets before landing.
Skilled players may use this trick before the battle starts, but I mainly use the time given in slow motion to take advantage of the environment. Wild West is both an immersive simulation game and an excellent action game (after all, Wolfeye was founded by Raphael Colantonio, the founder of Arkane Studios, known for its Shame and Predator series), so physics-related scenes are certainly indispensable. Throw lit oil lamps into the field and you can see a fleeting storm of flames; water (including rain) can extinguish the flames, while wind can fuel the fire. Arrows that touch flames will turn into rockets, and soaking them in venom will naturally spawn poison arrows. Electricity plus water is another combination to remember. The game gives you a lot of room to experiment, and I like to make a plan that can be executed smoothly after it is completed, and of course, the unexpected victory is also a surprise.
Sure enough, killing in Wild West doesn't earn experience points, so it's just a viable way to get loot when you're traveling between two points, or to protect yourself after breaking into the Forbidden Land. It's an ingenious design choice, as it means that if you're more willing to sneak around, avoid battles, steal trinkets, or unlock gold aces for new specialties, your progress won't be affected. In addition, this game also cleverly borrows the sneak design of teammates of "The Last Survivor", to put it bluntly, they will not be discovered by the enemy, and you don't have to worry about what stupid things the AI will do to expose your position.
Stealth is a test of patience after all, so I spend most of my week solving problems with the barrel of a gun, but every once in a while I can find an opportunity to weaken the enemy group; take advantage of the timing (maybe add a little quick reading), you can sneak behind the bandits, knock them unconscious, throw unconscious enemies into the grass or behind the minecart, and then deal with the rest of the accomplices. If you have a hard hand and you just have a shovel in hand, you can also choose to bury them, so the bloodless stealth route is more like a challenge imposed on yourself. (Wolfeye says it's possible to complete the entire campaign without killing a single human, but I obviously don't have that ability.) ）
There are many people in Westworld who are waiting for you to lend a hand — after all, the villains of chapter one are the cannibals, who keep their captives in captivity like cattle — and in addition to the simple meaning of doing good itself, there is an advantage to helping the helpless, that is, the rescued people may appear randomly to help you in the later bitter battles. This is the reward of kindness and kindness, and it is equivalent to a review of the player's recent adventures. The game shows their names and why they helped you, such as "You released her husband from prison." But there are both sides to everything, and some characters will also take revenge on you, for example, when you kill their leader or capture them alive and give them a bounty, the character escapes. After reappearing, he will cause you a lot of trouble. I've even met situations where important characters become bounty targets after their roles in the story have been successful, which is a great way to end their story.
These layers of complex systems mean it's hard not to have bugs in Wild West. I've seen enemies jumping and freezing to move, guns in their hands suddenly disappearing, enemies finding me in the impossible way, teammates refusing to vacate, reputations degrading without witnesses, people combusting themselves by campfires, and so on. I remember another time when my character squatted in jail for one night and flew out of the cell and floated into the sky. But for a game with a lot of removable components, these are expected, coupled with frequent auto-saves (the last three auto-saves can be re-read at any time), I have never seriously affected the progress of the game because of these bugs.
During the week, I spent a lot of time collecting booty, whether it was searching for corpses, scavenging wooden shelves and cash registers that were not safe, mining ore, or digging up mounds where I could find treasures. The game is full of items, and exploration pays off. You can also profit from unscrupulous means at will, such as breaking into shops at night, robbing tombs, or killing people for fun (you have to steal a horse to run away), but at the cost of your reputation. Of course, if your reputation is as low as a tipping point, someone will catch you with a bounty.
That being said, most of the loot that can be equipped is somewhat unsatisfactory: for example, weapons have a distinction of rarity, but each rareness only differs in damage values and has no special effects, and no matter what armor or equipment you equip, the character model does not change. Not only that, but apart from crafting armor from animal leather or upgrading weapons with ore, there is no real manufacturing system in this game. It's nothing, but the garbage collected feels like real garbage, and the process of panning for gold in the sand is slightly boring. Also brings plenty of backpack management as you have to make room for new items. Considering that teammates also act as mobile backpacks, I hope the game will add an easier way to view and move items, rather than having to talk to one of them, open their backpack and take the desired item to yourself, and so on. (This is also one of my least favorite flaws in Fallout 2.) ）
The overall story ends in a fun way, allowing you to make many choices at a time of life and death. Whether your intentions are good or bad, these choices can have a significant impact on the bigger event, not just a gorgeous boss battle. It's a great design and fits perfectly with Wild West. If you're preoccupied with the main line, it may take you 25 hours to complete the level, and I often deviate from the main quest to explore, collect a lot of bounties, and see the customs of the west, which took nearly 40 hours. And the experience of these dozens of hours did not disappoint me.
I can't wait to start the second week (this time choosing Hardmode) because at the end of each chapter, you'll get a list of all the options and accomplishments of the character, all of which may seem inconsequential, but which make a difference. After all, in a game where any character can be killed, who lives and who dies can lead to very different situations.
After only a few hours of playing, I have already discovered a lot of content that I missed in a week. When a crime chief threatened me with a message to ask a local farmer for a title deed, this time instead of extorting the farmer in person, I moved a barrel to the wall, borrowed it to reach the roof of the building next door, jumped on the balcony, climbed into the window, broke into his office and pried open the safe. I also met a talking doll and begged me to help break the curse; and after winning a duel, I found a talisman that gave the bullet a chance to ignite the target, etc. (I needed this kind of talisman too much for a week; the talisman I got before was extremely harsh, and the difference was basically undetectable after equipment. In the second week, I made full use of Jane's abilities, enhanced her kicks, often kicked enemies off the cliff, and I also planned to try more skills that I ignored in the week.
summary
The content of "Wild West" can be said to be a perfect confirmation of the name. After five stories, a common ending emerges, giving birth to a series of adventures, twists and turns, and truths. Its stealth and chaotic battles are challenging, but unlimited slow motion and an old-school fast-reading system leave you grounded. The game also has certain limitations, such as sorting out a lot of boring loot and common bugs. However, exploring this vast western soil really has the feeling of gold panning.
merit
The plot is serious and twisted, and it is very exciting
The exploration is rich in content, and there is still something to do in the second week
The combat feels good
shortcoming
There are a lot of bugs, but basically none are too deadly
The weapon system is relatively monotonous