West of Loathing Review - Nintendo Switch/Steam
44Smash JT takes a look at one of the more anticipated titles from the Nintendo Direct Nindies Showcase Spring 2018, West of Loathing.
From Asymetric, the creators of 'the Kingdom of Loathing', a browser-based RPG, comes their latest entry in the series 'West of Loathing'
West of Loathing is a slapstick comedy stick-figure Wild West adventure role-playing game. How’s that for a genre? The hilarious game, full of puzzles, quests and turn-based combat, launches on Nintendo Switch as a console exclusive this spring.
Description
West of Loathing is a single-player slapstick comedy adventure role-playing game set in the wild west of the Kingdom of Loathing universe. Its gameplay is a hybrid of point-and-click adventure and open-world RPG. The stick-figure characters advance through branching narratives and engage in tactical turn-based combat. Graphically, it transforms KoL's hand-drawn art style into a 3D diorama (think Paper Mario) replete with animation, sound, and music.
Leave your family farm and head West to find your fortune! Traverse snake-infested gulches, punch skeletons wearing cowboy hats, grapple with demon cows, and investigate a wide variety of disgusting spittoons. Charm your way out of trouble as a silver-tongued Snake Oiler, plumb the refried mysteries of the cosmos as a wise and subtle Beanslinger, or let your fists do the talking as a fierce Cow Puncher. Explore a vast open world and encounter a "colorful" cast of characters, some of whom are good, many of whom are bad, and a few of whom are ugly.
History
In 2003, Asymmetric released The Kingdom of Loathing, a browser-based MMORPG that quickly built up a dedicated community and slowly evolved into a cult classic with over a million players worldwide. KoL has been continually updated since release, and has remained popular and profitable for nearly a decade and a half.
While design started in late 2014, work on West of Loathing began in earnest in June of 2015. The first year was devoted primarily to building an extremely flexible, content-driven game engine. Using Unity as a framework, this custom engine provides the possibility of bringing WoL to additional platforms and opens the door for a wide variety of future projects.
West of Loathing was officially announced in May of 2016. It breezed through Steam Greenlight in nine days and was released on August 10th, 2017 for Windows, Mac, and Linux. An iOS and various console versions will follow as soon as the development team is able, and some DLC is also in the works.
Features:
- A sprawling open world
- Quests, puzzles, and mysteries galore
- Dozens of NPCs and hundreds of enemies
- Nearly 100 unique locations to explore
- Thousands of jokes, gags, and goofs
- Liberal use of the Oxford comma
- Lush hand-drawn black and white graphics
- Crunchy turn-based combat (but only if you want it)
- Over 60 hats
- Disreputable saloons
- Several gulches
- A drunken horse
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