The Old West has always been weird, hasn’t it?
Videogames have certainly taken it in some peculiar directions.
This very much isn’t your classic rootin' tootin' cowboy yarn.
Magic is an everyday concern: town deputies sling lightning and fireballs alongside bullets.
Stores are happy to trade in ectoplasm and cursed goblets alongside deerskin and copper.
The best of these is body-switching.
It all seems comprehensible enough - an Old Western Fallout-style CRPG with a touch of the Arkane.
But then you’re plunged into the body of Cl’erns Qui’g, a recently transformed pigman.
Qui’g has no idea who he is or rather, used to be.
On the upside, he can devour corpses to replenish his health.
The idea of seeing the same world through different eyes describes many class-based RPGs, of course.
Previous protagonists can also join your posse as NPCs, letting you access your previous inventory.
Depending on your choices and reputation, others may become your foes.
It’s a fantastic ensemble premise I’d love other games to learn from.
These range from relatively vibrant trading hubs through isolated farms and churches to festering swamp and boneyard.
Beneath the surface lie mineshafts, ice-locked treasure troves and forests of glowing cave fungus.
While hardly as intricate as, say, a Hitman level, these maps reward a bit of contemplation.
Rainwater conducts electricity and extinguishes dynamite fuses.
The dead are terrain variables, too.
Each area has an entourage of vultures, descending swiftly on the fallen and sometimes blocking your shots.
The others resemble everybody’s awkward first stab at a Skyrim build.
I could live with some underwhelming special moves.
There’s the usual imsim spread of high or low-profile tactics - sneak through the long grass!
Climb through a window or drainage vent!
Set up an elaborate multikill by kicking over oil barrels!
At one point I was ambushed by bandits and killed the leader.
This conga line of grudge matches ended when I ran into somebody robbing somebody else.
I blind-sided the bandits, managing to murder the lot this time and stave off further reprisals.
The victim engaged dialogue and thanked me profusely - all the while firing arrows into my head.
Life is complicated on the frontier.
I didn’t have the heart to interfere.
Weird West is a game of loose ends.
As regards its unscripted narrative and world elements, that’s to its advantage.
