The Mediocre Zone | #24 | HardWest (2015)
1a Polish game , from a newcomer made studio made a X-Com clone ... borrowing *ehm* heavily from Deadlands RPG as theirs theme... meet WESTERN ZOMBIES oh dear me ...
From movement to combat ... all cloned from X-Com remake... but wait did they forget something , YES they did : Counteracts that every BASIC RPG HAS ... so no Guard and no Counters ... you stand there still, taking it TO THE FACE like a good boy , you don't ever raise a hand to stop it
So combat is broken... is there more nonsense in this game , yes there is :
you have BIG GUI ICONS for every thing ... but not for the ammo count ... hahaha
when you subdue a AI ... when all hell breaks lose they attack you ... look son when did a person that has a gun on there heads try to shoot you back when shit goes berserk ... AI is broken or more to be precise its scripting
Skill points (or in some games Mana) is now named Luck that works as a Force shield and as a pool of skill points that you use to fuel your combat abilities ... just ask me how they regenerate this awful nonsense ... if someone shot you in the face *Facepalm*
Also it misses a save feature in fights and retry button ... simple put the most BASIC STUFF is missing
Overall its a text based game build around a map ( similar to Fallout 1 / WasteLand style / any other RPG ) faking a Gui... that tries to be original but fails ...when the most simple basic stuff is missing...
More precise its a bunch on Chapters that unlock after you complete each map GUI ... on each map you play a different role, placed in the shoes of a person that follows a script to the letter ... ehhhh yeah that kinda game , but those stories are kinda good enough to make you play them ... the narrator voice actor saves this from total awfulness and dull presentation (good casting guys)
and thats about it , move on the map , use the text gui questionnaire , pick the random choices , do a scripted combat sequence ... repeat , good stories but mediocre presentation
The question that jumped into my mind playing this was :
Why we did not get a proper Deadlands RPG on PC/Consoles... that's beyond me... know there is a PS2 game (ehm beta game) but still ... when D&D was milked to death why people did not touched Deadlands ?... western games with voodoo magic/zombies/steampunk/daemons themes sell ...right? because that in a nutshell is Deadlands... strange ey ?
Some would say : you got it already in the form of SixGuns... a mobile smartphone game that is basically a smartphone port of RedDead, but based on Deadlands RPG ... its so good they even ported it to PC ... then why AAA studio devs didnt bite and make...oh right, guess Jonah Hex awful movie made this happen , making the western genre dead by AAA companies ...
yeah , lest only hope Ea take on western placed in SPACE will be playable ... talking about MASS EFFECT 4 here