West of Dead

West of Dead is a compelling and enjoyable challenge, helped along by Ron Perlman's undeniable charisma and a handful of interesting new ideas.

If you are a fan of Roguelike games, then West of Dead is a must play for you. Solid gameplay mixed with great atmosphere mainly thanks to Ron Perlman's voice acting really lift up the game, and it would have reached even higher if not for its weak story.

If you push through, though, you'll be rewarded with powerful weapons and plenty of chances to use them on increasingly brutal foes. It takes some getting used to but West of Dead's gunplay feels great.

West of Dead is Raw Fury's new shooter roguelike. Far West has never been so hellish and tests all kind of players. It is perfect if you are looking for an exciting experience and it can replayed in multiple ways.

West of Dead shakes up the roguelite formula with its fantastic cover system, but it's more than that. With the addition of Ron Pearlman voicing William Mason, a stylistic cel-shaded art style and a captivating story to uncover, West of Dead is a winning combination that will have you as happy as a pup with two tails.

West of Dead isn’t going to win any originality contests, but it knows how to draw with the best of them and it’s quick enough to hit you with six rounds of stylistic fun. Beneath the obvious comparisons, there’s a game that plays out like a passionate high noon homage to the best of film, games and comic books.

West of Dead delivers a charming roguelite experience, with a very nice visual style, interesting (but sometimes lacking) cover shooter mechanics and a great performance by Ron Perlman.

West of Dead it's quite a classic twin stick shooter roguelike with a twist: it chooses tactic and thoughtfully action instead of frenzy. The gameplay is quite derivative and basic, though everything works and it's overall a fun game.

West of Dead does most things right as far as roguelites go. The random nature of almost every element of every run can cause some large difficulty spikes, but the overall difficulty evens out in the end. The premise works fine even if it means having to hear it countless times over multiple runs, and while the measured combat feels fresh for a Western, the zoomed-out camera angle doesn't help you appreciate it. Overall, West of Dead is a solid roguelike for those who aren't burned out on the genre yet.

West of dead is a nice twin stick shooter with a roguelite touch and a very nice atmosphere, enriched by the strong voice of Ron Perlman. On the other hand, the game still has numerous bugs, and a wacky camera.

West of the Dead has some really good ideas that make they gameplay somewhat known and original at the same time. It can get a little bit repetitive even with the roguelike component, but it is very interesting overall.

West of Dead stands out for its putrid Western Fantastic universe, its licked comic art direction and its Roguelite approach to the Twin Stick Shooter for an explosive result.

This Wild West can be a bit unfair, but at the same time it’s a fun, addictive shooter experience with a brilliant atmosphere and the unmistakable voice of the great Ron Perlman.

While West of Dead is subdued in many ways, I find it to be an easy recommendation for any fan of roguelike titles.

A cool atmosphere and a great combat system meet an interesting lore story and challenging boss fights. Unfortunately, there are some negative points. Not only was the gameplay a bit monotonous, but the controls were to notchy. In addition we not only had to fight witches and undead, but also many bugs.

West of Dead is full of style and brooding atmosphere, but the clunky controls and a lack of polish overshadow a few of its original ideas.

A game this difficult, with everything to lose from permadeath, should at the very least feel fair; without any balancing of enemies against your character's progress (something that Upstream Arcade has seemingly done none of) West of Dead does not. [Issue#348, p.100]

It’s a shame. Put into a different, more traditional action game structure, West of Dead would be a satisfying RPG flavoured shooter with a truly inspired combination of gameplay mechanics. What’s here offers plenty of great, timing driven moments, but when saddled with conventions of the genre it has chosen to adopt, it quickly becomes an exercise in frustration and simply doesn’t hold up to the scrutiny.

Through it all though, I'm still going back and playing it. The live, die, repeat roguelite mechanic has its hooks in me and although it's frustrating at times, I'm working through gritted teeth to unlock more items to help me in future runs. The aesthetic beauty of the game helps keep me going as well as the music but I only wish some more tweaking had been done to some of the shootout mechanics. If you pumped hours upon hours into Enter the Gungeon then chances are you'll find a similar grab in West of Dead, but be fair warned that there isn't as much polish here.

A run-of-the-mill procedural twin-stick roguelike that has a unique aesthetic and premise, but little else. Without more content, more variety, and more exciting unlockables, West of Dead is dead in the water. Or will remain in gaming purgatory. Either way, I have very little faith in West of Dead’s future.

After playing the game for more than twice that amount of time, I never achieved a winning run, but there's not much left to see or conquer. The game's NPCs say the same exact lines at the start of every run. It becomes a drag to re-run facsimiles of the same levels again and again: They're similar enough that it feels like you have them memorized, even if the details change. When you spend too long in Purgatory, it starts to look a lot like hell.