Weird West Review – A Fantastical Frontier

Weird West depicts the Wild West in a captivating, isometric way. From the minds behind Dishonored and Prey, this compelling immersive sim is unlike any western tale you’ve experienced. Its macabre frontier isn’t just a land of cowboys and cattle but one brimming with old magic and hideous monstrosities like werewolves, flesh-eating sirens, gold-hungry zombies, and bewitched trees capable of trapping the souls of men. 

The game’s main narrative is a five-chapter anthology following the lives of five “heroes” – a bounty hunter, a man-turned-pig, a tribal protector, a werewolf, and a zealot – whose journeys are unknowingly connected. The Passenger is a mysterious entity that has a different protagonist for each chapter. The story begins by following a rancher who’s given up her old life as a bounty hunter but must dig up her irons to rescue her kidnapped family member. The story begins as an ordinary cowboy revenge tale. But it soon turns into something more. You’ll help a poet lift a curse in one moment, causing him to only speak in rhymes. In another, you’ll contemplate turning in a sheriff after discovering they’ve converted the jail into a meat market and are feeding on imprisoned criminals’ corpses. After a slow start, Weird West quickly ups the ante in thrilling and absurd ways, and just when you’ve figured things out, something unexpectedly changes. It’s so fun seeing how each chapter spirals into another with every new revelation. 

Although the Weird West mythology may be captivating, the sandbox gaming brings the world alive. You can solve most problems via stealth as long as you stay out of sight and adequately hide bodies, though there’s a bevy of guns, bows, and melee weapons enticing you to engage in the game’s raucous twin-stick-style shoot-outs. Blast foes into bits with the shotgun’s screen-shaking burst, fan the revolver’s hammer to unleash a rain of bullets, or quietly eliminate opponents with Sentry Silencer. The rifle’s unlockable ability allows you to silence your next shot, and does double damage to uninformed enemies. 

Every one of the five main characters has unique spells, and they all share perks with each other like faster movement speeds or increased health. With his rubbery skin the Pigman is able to deflect bullets, poison ground, and charge opponents headfirst, inflicting severe damage. In addition, the Protector has the ability to summon spirit bears or tornadoes with elemental abilities. Combat requires a level of precision best suited for mouse and keyboard, but if your only option is to play Weird West with a controller, I’d recommend using the game’s Tactical Mode, which slows time down to let you better plan out your movements. 

For a loud blast, you could target the red-hued barrel of TNT to cause a loud explosion. Or you could fire at an ammunition box and send a torrent of bullets your way. However, I don’t recommend the latter method if you’re low on ammo. Many enemies have weaknesses like fire or poison, but sometimes you’ll find yourself low on supplies. You don’t need to use a molotov cocktail, dynamite stick, or molotov cocktail for lighting a fire. Instead, place your bow and arrow beside a nearby flame so that you can create a fire with the arrow. Make sure you don’t accidentally blow yourself up, as I did several times. If you set yourself on fire, quickly find a water source – a pond, bathtub, or even a water pump – before burning to death. These physics-based interactions make me enjoy solving the game’s challenges, though it’s frustrating when awkward camera angles hinder my best-laid plans.

The overworld of Weird West is large and populated with dozens – nearly hundreds – of diamond-shaped nodes representing the many homesteads, towns, and stretches of wilderness you can travel between. The map’s abundance of locations is sometimes overwhelming, with new areas cropping up on almost every trek, though I am often rewarded with new loot when I stop. Towns are often used as places to rest and trade, but you also have the option to hire mercenaries for your party. While some hired hands will help your cause free of charge – revenge often serves as a better currency than coins – many will require a hefty upfront fee before lending their trigger finger. 

What are the best ways to make money though? If you’re armed with enough lockpicks or dynamite, it is possible to break into the bank. Though choices often come with consequences (even outside of story moments), it’s better to return at night when the bank’s closed if you want to avoid a shoot-out or a criminal reputation. With a rope in your inventory, scale the bank’s rooftop and quietly enter through the chimney chute. Weird West has a wide range of approaches, and often encourages me, regardless of my approach, to take a fresh look at things. 

Weird West will remember everything that you did, no matter how brief or not. Sometimes, side characters that you betray might show up later in pivotal moments to exact swift revenge. On the flip side, new friends – like the lady whose land deed I retrieved – might show up in your time of desperation if you assisted them earlier in your journey. Even the most insignificant decisions can have significant consequences. You never know what the reaction of the rest of the world will be to your decision. If you eradicate all of the people in a town – yeah, I’m looking at all of you sickos who did this while playing Skyrim in high school – the space will become abandoned. Once enough time has passed, the town will be a true ghost town. Ghoulish monsters drawn by the smells of decaying corpses can take residence in the area and make it a hellish place.  

Weird West’s best assets are its well-developed characters and deep gameplay systems, but its overall production value is underwhelming. The game’s cell-shading looks good enough on higher settings and large screens, but the composition quickly becomes muddy on less-powerful machines like my Steam Deck. I also had to repeatedly die due to a bug that prevented me from saving the game sometimes. 

Wolfeye Studios, a developer of Wolfeye Studios, has created a great debut title. Weird West challenges expectations. It transforms well-known cowboy clichés into dark fantasy vignettes, which are then brought to life with immersive sandbox components.