Weird West

 PC
User Score
7.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 82 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 42 out of 82
  2. Mixed: 26 out of 82
  3. Negative: 14 out of 82

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  1. thoughtfulgamer
    Oct 8, 2022
    3
    This game reminds me of all the vaporware that made me swear off Early-Access games altogether. There's a cool premise, lots of seemingly cool lore, and a good chunk of content. However, if you've played the demo, you've exhausted all of the things that the game has to offer: the plot is pretty barebones, the combat is repetitive and unfun, and anything that made you chuckle or think 'gee,This game reminds me of all the vaporware that made me swear off Early-Access games altogether. There's a cool premise, lots of seemingly cool lore, and a good chunk of content. However, if you've played the demo, you've exhausted all of the things that the game has to offer: the plot is pretty barebones, the combat is repetitive and unfun, and anything that made you chuckle or think 'gee, that was cool', is repeated so frequently that you start to wonder why you're playing it. Lest you think the game is simply uninspired, I must warn you that even the core systems are designed to be unpleasant: looting and exploring are tied to consumables (shovels, lockpicks etc) and the loot you find is all generic trash. I'm not being mean, the game itself labels 90% of what you're looting as 'trash' so you know it can safely be sold in town. This means you're often managing your very limited inventory so you can haul literal garbage back to town to sell for a dollar a piece. The other 10% of loot are weapons and charms that are almost certainly weaker than whatever you're using and so you can scrap them to get... lumps of slag you can sell for a dollar a piece.

    I honestly don't like leaving bad reviews, but I'm sick of developers taking advantage of the good will that people are willing to give to 'indie' games. I understand development is a difficult and timely process, but charging 40 bucks for a game that has a demo's worth of content is simply unacceptable. I wanted to support studios trying new and interesting things, but this is not it.    … Expand
  2. CucumberJoe
    Apr 6, 2022
    4
    It's a VERY weak entry in the canon of immersive sims. The characters are boring and uninspired, the story suffers from a serious lack of pacing and jumps around between the uninteresting characters too frequently to form any kind of attachment to them, the factions and story beats are somewhat unbelievable and it really wears its 2022 politics on its sleeve. As a result, it becomes aIt's a VERY weak entry in the canon of immersive sims. The characters are boring and uninspired, the story suffers from a serious lack of pacing and jumps around between the uninteresting characters too frequently to form any kind of attachment to them, the factions and story beats are somewhat unbelievable and it really wears its 2022 politics on its sleeve. As a result, it becomes a chore to play through the game. You'll constantly meet powerful female characters who task you with going to rescue a man who has been kidnapped due to his own sheer incompetence. If the men aren't playing the role of damsel in distress, they're made to be unethical perverts with sex slaves and cartoonishly evil motivations. The gunplay is exceptionally poor, with certain enemies becoming bulletsponges and most powers being fairly useless. If you compare it with a game like Dishonored or Dishonored 2, the shortcomings really become pronounced. The level design is passable, but there are very few alternative pathways that don't consist of climbing some rocks to get the high ground on your enemies. Also, one of the more glaring issues, the levels repeat frequently. There are several mines in the game but they all share the exact same map. There are a bunch of little settlements around the map, but they all share the exact same tileset and do nothing to distinguish them from one another. The only powers that are worth using are designed explicitly for combat. Otherwise, there are really no creative traversal powers or opportunities to use them creatively to bypass obstacles. It plays far more like a twinstick shooter than it does an immersive sim, and judging it by the same metric I would Deus Ex, Dishonored or Prey, I can't help but be left disappointed. I'd give it a 4 for being slightly below average in terms of enjoyment, and that's because I've chosen to be charitable and rate it like I would a twinstick shooter rather than I would an immersive sim. If I were going to rate how it stacks up with its peers, I'd give it a 2 or a 3. It verges on being fun in the early game before you become aware at how many environments repeat ad nauseum, shooting itself in the foot before it can succeed at being a fun experience. Compounded with the issues regarding characterization and story, it gets quite a poor rating from me.

    I know this was a labour of love for the devs, and I do very much love Raph Colantonio and I think he's an excellent designer, but this is a really bad example of what he's capable of. All of his previous games felt more enjoyable to play than this one does. My biggest recommendations would be to focus on better, more relatable characters that are less grounded in fiction and trope, and to not focus on procedural generation to pad the amount of content in your game. A few handcrafted levels with variation and real substance are always going to be better than one repetitive map that has procedural elements within.    … Expand
  3. BulgarianCritic
    Apr 14, 2022
    4
    This was a pretty disappointing experience. The game barely feels fleshed out and the only fun part of it is its game play. The game play is fluid with some bugs here and there but sadly the game is not worth to get only just for the game play. There are no new mechanics or anything that can keep you playing , its just mindless shooting that gets boring after a few hours. The story andThis was a pretty disappointing experience. The game barely feels fleshed out and the only fun part of it is its game play. The game play is fluid with some bugs here and there but sadly the game is not worth to get only just for the game play. There are no new mechanics or anything that can keep you playing , its just mindless shooting that gets boring after a few hours. The story and world really need more work (since the world and characters are especially forgettable) and the Skills system is bare bone. It's a meh game.… Expand
  4. behob19324
    Apr 7, 2022
    1
    Weird West is basically Desperados or Hard West with worse story and much worse gameplay. The writing is really thin and strung out; it's a lot of time spent with little going on. There are two problems with Weird West: it takes too long to get to the comparatively good parts and the comparatively good parts are actually pretty bad.

Awards & Rankings

84
#84 Most Discussed PC Game of 2022

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 52 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 34 out of 52
  2. Mixed: 17 out of 52
  3. Negative: 1 out of 52
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Jan 29, 2024
    80
    Why is it a great game? If you grit your teeth, Weird West offers fantastic gameplay and a very original take on the story. Don't be afraid of it. Don't be afraid to go west and grow with the strange land. [Issue#319]
  2. Worth Playing
    Jul 6, 2022
    75
    Weird West is a game that players can grow to love, provided you can forgive some of its issues and design decisions. The idea of going through five different protagonists with somewhat connected stories is fascinating, but the resetting of items and skills when changing characters doesn't contribute to the desire to explore. The lands don't vary much given the setting, but the changes based on your actions are fun to see. The combat is fine, but the enemy behavior can sometimes be laughable, while the presentation teeters between amazing and average. It's worth checking out if you're prepared to invest some time waiting for its magic to hit.
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  3. Oyungezer
    Jun 26, 2022
    70
    Keep your expectations low and you'll deeply enjoy Weird West. Intriguing story, diverse gameplay and good side quests make this game an enjoyable experience.
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