A month ago I had the opportunity to try out the first hour of gameplay of Hard West 2, the turn-based strategy sequel from Ice Code Games. That’s when I first got a taste of what this new development team was doing with the supernatural western experience and realized the game had nothing to do with a walk. Its more frantic combat and interesting setting really caught my attention. Today we stand on the cusp of Hard West 2, which will be released on PC in the next few days. I was really engrossed in this game and checked out everything it has to offer.
But before I get into my thoughts, here’s a little synopsis of the plot. In this game you are the leader of a group of outlaws traveling across the Wild West on a mission of revenge to defeat the evil commander of the mysterious Ghost Train who is traveling and terrorizing the denizens of their land. This person known as Mammon tricked you into taking away your right to claim the train and then attempted to claim your soul. Now you are determined to find the Ghost Train again and get revenge on Mammon for his fraudulent crimes.
The gameplay is mostly top-down, where you lead your band of outlaws through the West, explore landmarks, interact with settlements for side quests, heal and shop, and even find locations to start attack sequences in combat. Once you get into combat, the gameplay becomes turn-based strategy, which means you have to control each character and use the specific amount of skill points each character has to move around the battlefield, use items, enemies attack and use skills effectively. Of course, there are systems you can use to capitalize on kills, such as: B. the Bravado mechanic that resets skill points after a series of kills. This gives you the ability to chain kills into a single turn, which can speed up combat significantly.
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Each playable character, in turn, has their own set of skills. Gin Carter (a typical Outlaw prototype) can fire a penetrating volley of bullets at enemies every other turn, dealing moderate damage but capable of penetrating multiple enemies at once. The magical Flynn can use a spell to swap places with an enemy, either to gain a vantage point or to put the enemy in the danger zone where they will take damage from their teammates.
I want to make it clear here that, as I said in my preview, Hard West 2 is not an easy game. Even on the easiest difficulty, you’ll have to replay parts of the game after losing fights, and while that’s not necessarily a problem, those who expect the turn-based strategy gameplay to be more subdued in combat on lower difficulties can keep their focus moving on in the story , they will find out as the story progresses that they were wrong. This is because there are certain systems and design decisions in place that make decisions much more important and impactful, whether they relate to mission objectives stating that a certain number of squads must survive or you’re trying to get outside heal which is simply impossible (you need to go to a doctor to restore your health, which will cost you some money). All this means that every move counts, because sometimes you have to face different fights one after the other without the possibility to heal yourself between them, which increases the level of challenge when you have to face a combat sequence complete with your troop life on the half or less.
I will say that the combat doesn’t address some of the more typical issues of the X-COM style strategy genre, just as I haven’t been able to deal with the silly percentages that basically suggest everything is below 100% accuracy Plus, the ability to use the Ricochet makes combat even more fun, allowing you to get creative with how you take out your enemies. In that sense, Hard West 2’s combat and turn-based strategy is brilliant.
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The world itself is one of the things I like most about Hard West 2. It’s neither too small nor too big, but it has a good balance between the points of interest and the little empty space in between. Each point of interest usually gives you useful rewards, these are weapons and equipment or cards used to increase each character’s individual stats (like health or speed) and can also be paired as poker cards for additional benefits. All of this goes well with the customization pack, which gives the player the freedom to choose how they want their respective characters to be specialized, and it’s easy to do so.
One of the points that I liked the least is the pace of the game, since in my opinion Hard West 2 is too slow compared to the dynamics of the game, which is too slow in everything below four speeds, which is also the maximum adjustable Speed. This happens both when you’re walking around the world, which is slow and boring at a normal pace, and in combat, especially when you’re facing a lot of enemies that take forever to get out of the way.
In general, I really liked Hard West 2. I firmly believe that its overwhelming difficulty will turn many players off, which will come as a disappointment to many of its fans. However, this will please any X-COM and turn-based strategy veteran used to (and liking) being beaten up while playing. To the rest of you: you have been warned.
