Westerado: Double Barreled

 PC
Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 18
  3. Negative: 0 out of 18
  1. CD-Action
    Jul 27, 2015
    70
    Westerado is no Red Dead Redemption but it is a very neat tribute to Western films. [08/2015, p.63]
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  2. Pelit (Finland)
    Jun 14, 2015
    66
    An open world western adventure that has a lot of charm and creativity. It's a bit on the short side, but luckily is very replayable. [June 2015]
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  3. Kill Screen
    Apr 22, 2015
    66
    None of this is anything like progress—Westerado isn’t exploring new frontiers when it comes to genre work—but the romance inherent to the game’s emphasis on freedom sometimes comes close to overpowering a bitter remembrance of the very real history it cribs from.

Awards & Rankings

58
#58 Best PC Game of 2015

User Reviews

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User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 44 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 30 out of 44
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 44
  3. Negative: 5 out of 44
  1. Boggybean
    Apr 28, 2015
    9
    This is one of those rare games that almost never comes around, unfortunately being stomped on by the huge amount of faux-retro indie games.This is one of those rare games that almost never comes around, unfortunately being stomped on by the huge amount of faux-retro indie games. This is not one of those games. It's got gunfights, it's got humour, it's got quests, it's got an open world. Sure it's small, but that doesn't take away from everything that it does so well.

    Its best part is that you can do anything, confront anyone, pull a gun during a conversation, anything, and the game will adapt. For example, if you killed a major figure in the game, it wouldn't show a "GAME OVER" screen and make you load a save. It just ends any quests to that person, and can even make people act negatively towards you and even kill you.

    The size of the game is surprisingly large. There's a main story that's a bit short, but is sweet all the way, helped by the hundreds of side quests, free-roaming and mini-games that you can find. When you complete the game's main story you can continue from right before the ending starts, so you can continue any other side quests and explore things you missed. You can also play as different characters that you unlock through playing the game, that can change the playstyle completely.

    Its gunfights are incredibly unique too, due to mechanics like reloading and cocking guns. First you have to draw your weapon, then cock it so that it's ready to fire, then pull the trigger. This can make for sometimes annoying fights (especially when first getting used to them) but ultimately makes them fast-paced, satisfying and fun. Another thing to mention that may be annoying to new players is that you can only shoot side-on rather than up and down, but when you get used to it, feels very good when you actually hit someone.

    The sounds and music are just amazing. The music has got it all going for a Western-themed game, with banjos, harmonicas and trumpets humming in the background that truly immerse you in the game. Sounds are just as brilliant, with birds chirping, buffalos trotting, horses galloping, shotguns blasting.

    Westerado is truly a one-of-a-kind experience that can't be passed up.    … Full Review »
  2. TitaniumDragon
    Feb 23, 2017
    5
    Westerado: Double Barrelled looks, at first glance, like a cheapie indie game. The graphics are extremely primitive and blocky, and the gameWesterado: Double Barrelled looks, at first glance, like a cheapie indie game. The graphics are extremely primitive and blocky, and the game itself is extremely simple.

    And yet, when you play it, you realize that some real love went into making it. Unfortunately, while this game has some real charm in its Western theming, and it certainly is clever in some ways, by the end of it I was left feeling as if it never really delivered.

    But I’m getting ahead of myself.

    Westerado is a pretty simple game – you move around in a top-down 2D fashion, you can talk to people and interact with (a very small number of objects) with A, you pull out your gun with the right shoulder button, you cock your gun and shoot it with right trigger (and you must cock your gun before firing it), and you reload with the left shoulder button. That’s it.

    Where the game is interesting is that it is a mystery game – the central driving theme of the game is that your family was murdered and you, the Gunslinger, are going out into the desert to the nearby towns to collect clues. You’re given one random clue by your dying brother at the start of the game, and you must collect additional clues by talking to people – and, mostly, by completing various tasks on their behalf. The Native Americans want you to drive off the farmers and help them kill the soldiers and take over the nearby town. The Sheriff is depressed and needs to get back in the saddle, and his cowardice leaves you responsible for looking after the local people. The local railroad has had its tracks blocked off by some bandits, who are being paid off by the Banker, who in turn is in debt to the Oil Baron…

    There’s a bunch of pretty standard Western tropes at play here, and the game plays with them, simultaneously poking fun at the tropes while simultaneously mostly playing them straight. For instance, your health is represented by hats, and when you get shot, your hat gets shot off – at which point you put on another hat. If you are shot when you are hatless, you die. You can buy new hats at the hatteries, which are definitely not at all suggestive of brothels, and you can also get hats by shooting them off the heads of enemies.

    And yet, the game is often pretty serious – people can and do die, and you can even kill off main characters (or get them killed off when they follow you around on quests). Moreover, it is a revenge plot, as you try to track down your family’s murderer, and it plays that revenge plot quite straight – the murderer really is a terrible person, and when you gun them down at the end, your own homicidal tendencies are put under close examination.

    The game has a lot of quests, and these quests, though short, are how you get most of your clues. Helping out various people with various deeds – some moral, some evil, some gray – helps you accumulate clues, and completing entire questlines with people will often reshape the world in some way.

    The intent of the game’s multiple endings is to make these plots matter – if you follow a plot through to the end, the ending of the game will reveal that your family’s murder is related in some way to what you did during the game.

    It also makes the game replayable – if you only complete enough quests to get enough clues to find the (randomized in appearance) murderer, who poses as one of the townsfolk in the towns, you can then play the game through again, do a different questline, and then track down the murderer again and get a different ending.

    However, you can do a great deal of the content in a single playthrough, and this at times makes the game exhibit some odd bugs, such as the oil baron getting to take over a lot of land despite the fact that I never helped him, or a character making reference to some event they couldn’t have seen because they weren’t around at that location to observe it. This was kind of disappointing, and drew me out of the world in my first playthrough.

    My other problem with this game is that, in the end, while the game’s simplicity is a virtue, it also didn’t really give the game much in the way of variety – ultimately, you just use your gun to shoot bad guys, and talk to people. The bad guys are all pretty samey in the end, with limited variety, and you have seen all that the game has to offer within the first hour or so of gameplay. And while the game itself is pretty short – and indeed, there’s an achievement for beating it within an hour, something which is eminently doable – after I beat it for the first time I wasn’t left feeling like I really needed or wanted to do so again.

    This isn’t a terrible game, but it isn’t a very meaty one. If you play it like an RPG, you're apt to be disappointed. If you play it and try to find the murderer ASAP via a single quest line, you're probably more likely to enjoy the experience.    … Full Review »
  3. dimitreze
    Jan 20, 2017
    10
    One of the best games that I ever played on my life. I was so invested in the story. It reminds me of the Lucasarts adventure games andOne of the best games that I ever played on my life. I was so invested in the story. It reminds me of the Lucasarts adventure games and Westworld. Anyone who likes a good western, pixel art and the previous things I mentioned, this is a game for you.… Full Review »
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