Game:

World to the West (2017)

Duration: 2:43

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World to the West is essentially an action-adventure (Zelda-lite) game set in the same universe as the aforementioned Teslagrad that sees you travel across the land solving puzzles and fighting bosses. The main hook of the game is that you must switch between using the abilities of different characters in your party to solve puzzles. Its been done before but it’s a fairly satisfying mechanic that at its best works well.

As with most games of this type you travel from area to area with a vague sense of where you are going based on a pin on the map but how you get there is largely up to you. There is a sense of being left to your own devices and working it out yourself something not too common in today’s era of in game map gps.

There are a few odd choices in the game however related to exploration. The game has save points as you travel around and these also act as fast travel points but the super weird part is that you can only use them by characters that have already been to that location so if you reach an area and realise you need a different character you have to travel all the way back through the area you just did in order to reach the save point again. Its an annoying mechanic that reared its head a couple of times during my playthrough and overall brought me out of the experience.

And that really hits the nail on the head as to what is wrong with World to the West and that’s odd design decisions. Combat is fine if a little spongey, visuals are functional but a little un detailed even for the art style they are going for and the character switching mechanic feels un-cohesive.
Combat is unweighty and always felt like I needed to get closer than I thought I should with most characters.
Overall it’s a fun game that should please fans of the genre but overall I was left full but not 100% satisfied.

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