The best Cowboy game you've never heard of

hello there my name is milk fingers and in this video I'd like to give a taste of a game I've been playing recently called blood West I'll be giving a brief overview of the game summing up what to expect and hopefully some of you watching might be tempted to give it a go before getting into the bulk of the video though I'd quickly like to plug my twitch Channel where I'm currently streaming The Evil Within 2 so if that's your kind of thing please do consider checking me out I'll leave a link in the description I'm very close to hitting affiliate so even just a follow is greatly appreciated thank you blood West is a first-person shooter with plenty of horror thrown in as well as some RPG mechanics the game also fits in a newer genre of media weird West not to be confused with the game of the same name the sub genre here is effectively a combination of typical Weston with supernatural horror or sci-fi elements think D Jango meets cthulu the game was released in December of 20203 by dev's hyper strange I hadn't heard of previously but have some history making Boomer Shooters and and other retro style games to sum it up it's a boomer shooter RPG stealth horror game the game is clearly an amalgamation of their experience in this genre as the gritty lowr visuals and clever blend of mechanics mail together to provide a polished and fresh experience I'd like to kick things off quickly by talking about the graphics which are as striking as they are haunting I'll try and keep this short as I'd like to explore art Direction in a little bit more detail in a moment at surface level the pixel or low reses design is pretty common place in the Boomer shooter Revival genre however the star works really well at conveying a Gothic or Supernatural Vibe which this game heavily leans into the devs did a great job here by pairing the gritty and chunky textures with lighting to convey a truly spooky look and feel furthermore individual items objects and models in the world boasted massive amount of detail from small details such as dirt and rust accumulating on your weapons to intricate and haunting enemy designs the devs have lovingly created a visual experience that screams all things Supernatural and horror the lighting in this game is also fantastic uh whether you're roaming outside in Gloomy open Plains or slowly delving into dim caves and Mining networks everywhere you look you get a sense of this corruption and Gloom there's not much else to say here but the direction of the dev took with this art style is very clever both giving the comfy '90s aesthetic as well as the shivering and cold Vibe of a horror or Supernatural game the Mison sen see I can use fancy words is further emboldened through the game's audio design the music burs heavily from Western tropes that twangy guitar melodies the sounds of dust and Tumble weeds blowing through the air and it throws in some of that horror eeriness into the mix to again further solidify the character of this game as a real blend of the genres I mean just listen to this music [Music] [Music] [Music] I mean honestly how [ __ ] awesome was that like I wish I could distill that music and inject it directly into my veins but I don't have to do that I can just play this game this extends into much of the dietic sounds as well you'll hear floorboards creaking underf fooot whistling wind blowing through arid Plains and the far off groans of the Living Dead to give you a sense of uneasiness and vulnerability the sounds of combat are especially meaty as you'd expect from both a western and a boomer shooter firstly the melee combat feels fantastic take the starting ax for example each hit sounds crunchy and devastating you can hear flesh split and squelch with each blow it's especially satisfying to hit a critical or a head shot exploding or crushing the heads of your Undead enemies all of the guns sound fantastic as well from revolvers through to shotguns the gunshots are weighty and sound as though they pack a punch it ties very nicely with the Gunplay and gameplay to make every shot seem important and meaningful I won't spend too much most time on the sounds though or I won't have enough time to talk about the game play the real meat and potatoes of this game the game playay to summarize is fantastic you have elements of classic Boomer Shooters horror survival horror immersive Sim pgs hell even a little Souls esque campire system these systems blend really well together and also work great in the setting that the devs created think if classic thief and Hunt Showdown had a baby and then that child grew up and had a baby with stalker blood West is that weird [ __ ] up grandchild I'd like to talk about the core gameplay Loop but it's quite difficult because the game is so open-ended and doesn't handhold you over where you need to go or how to go about things instead I'll try break down what I think are some of the core mechanics and give a few scenarios where they Shine the most at its base level blood West is a boomer shooter characterized by smooth almost floaty movement precise Gunplay and lots of Gore blood and shooting freaky [ __ ] in the face the gun playay itself is pretty standard but the game gets it right the melee combat is also very simple but again it gets it right so no complaints for me the only grip I have is with those [ __ ] floaty skull [ __ ] [ __ ] those guys they are impossible to shoot what makes it different from some Boomer Shooters is the emphasis on tactics the player's Health pool is not enormous there are no Shield pickups and it's very easy to run into a pack of monsters unprepared get swarmed and die furthermore most enemies won't drop easily with many requiring multiple shots to kill the emphasis on combat and blood wor is less about running and gunning like you'd expect in something like Doom more of a methodical game of stealthily approaching and scoping out an area picking targets based on your load out and available resources ammo and the type of area in the Tactical gun play really brings out the freedom of player choice in the game both your choice of load out and approach to an encounter will vary based on your preference and play style you can strap up with a double barrel and an Axe and go balls to the wall close combat or opt for a bow and arrow to take advantage of its range and pull off stealthy critical head shots from afar or go classic Desperado Style with nothing but the revolver strapped to your hip as I mentioned the game doesn't hold your hand here so you can really fully experiment with your play Styles and approach situations in the open world however you like it's reminiscent of a classic IM Sim but a bit more toned down I'm not saying it's DSX levels but it's nice that the game allows you to diverge from a standard shooter experience if you want to do that speaking of play styles did I mention that there is a fully fledged skill tree allowing you to spec further into your play style of choice allowing to build a tanky close-range fighter stealthy crit hit hitting assassin and much more skills will provide you with a flat and percentage based Buffs to damage outputs crit damage Health speed and more you gain levels by killing monstrosities and completing various Main and side quests throughout the open world the missions in the game are fairly simple for example go here clear this area kill this boss collect this item Etc however they aren't the main focus in this game and serve more as an incentive to explore the world you'll meet a cast of characters across the map who will give you these missions in exchange for rewards such as valuable items or money these characters also serve as Merchants where you can stock up a more gear ammo and single use items such as healing items or objects that can teleport you back to the camp you last rested at some special items called artifacts remind me a lot of items of the same name in The Stalker games offering Buffs and or males to your character which can boost you in certain areas another thing to knowe is the inventory system and this screams classic RPG reminds me a lot of games like System Shock DSX and stalker with the free form grid based approach so no flicking through pointless menus and annoying tabs here however this means you can only bring in a limited amount of supplies with you probably two guns with some ammo and supplies and enough space to pick up a few bits of shiny loot to sell all of these sort of things really do reinforce the player choice and freedom in this game you can really sort of tailor yourself to a certain build that you can envision um you might want to take more guns for more Firepower but you'd have less space for more valuable artifacts for example the vendig goar which gives you HP regen but decreases your max Health uh some of the items you can bring in the game do include bags to increase inventory space as well as maps to help navigate the world and valuables that can be sold for cash but the choice is really yours as to what you want to bring out into the world and onto missions with you and these can all be tailored on the fly so there's a lot of player freedom and choice to be had I'll speak a bit about these camps quickly the camps in blood West serve as safe havens for the player and are reminiscent of bonfires in the souls games like I said these are where you'll find friendly NPCs for quests and trading but also checkpoints that you respawn at when you die death in blood West isn't too unforgiving you won't drop any currencies or lose any gear however with without certain artifacts you will ACR curses basically debuffs that require you to complete rituals to lift they can be a range of things from less Health to worse stealth with the main bulk of gameplay covered I'll talk about the difficulty a bit blood wests can be quite punishing at times especially at the start of the game the game throws you into completely alien environment and expect you to learn through trial and error now some of you will love this I know I did you'd encounter new enemies at quite a fast pace and you'll have to learn fast how to deal with them working your way up from basic shambling Undead to sultry women wearing skulls and wielding shotguns to the massive and terrifying vendigo yes it's spelled with a V not sure why furthermore in my experience ammo management is King in this game you have different ammo types to switch between from regular bullets to Silver and Gold bullets silver being used for Spirit enemies and gold doing all around more damage and ammo in this game is very difficult to come by in the field initially so you'll be dedicating a large chunk of your cash to keep stocked up the entire game play Loop I'm trying to describe here is very reminiscent of stalker to me which is why I wanted to make this video my first video was on stalker so this is hopefully a game some returning viewers will really dig the loop of completing Quests for money in order to maintain and upgrade gear in order to progress into harder areas reminds me a lot of those games as to the general gameplay feel Gunplay and difficulty I wasn't sure where to put this piece on the narrative in the game I didn't want to make it too long as I wanted to save the bulk of this short video just to be dedicated to the gameplay to really sell it I'll be honest the narrative itself is nothing to sing about uh it's serviceable but the main appeal here is the saying the game focuses around a cursed world west where the dead have risen and things are generally [ __ ] uh it borrows from native folklore a little bit see again the vendigo enemy and uses these sort of things to tell the story of an undead Gunslinger who must rid the land of evil it's not exactly inspired or anything new but there you go uh it's not going to grip you massively to be perfectly honest and it is the weakest part of the game in my opinion uh but who cares this game wasn't made to cater to that sort of thing in conclusion I think blood West is definitely worth a try if you're a fan of immersive Sims RPGs Boomer shoers or a mix of those kind of things think the classics like thief and Dex uh it's not as in-depth as those as those games are but I think it will definitely offer something to someone who's looking for something a little bit different and maybe a little bit out there uh if you're a fan of the stalker games like I am then definitely do give this game a checkout um it's definitely worth your time if you enjoy the stalker games uh a lot of the systems do overlap and especially the horror and survival elements uh it's just in a very unique and refreshing setting uh the game itself is about 20 quid uh on Steam so convert that that's about I don't know $25 I guess give or take um but yeah please do check it out and if you like this video please do leave me some feedback in the comment section and last but not least uh if you are so inclined uh please do consider checking me out on Twitch uh I'm trying to make that my full-time thing so any support is greatly appreciated thank you for watching

Channel: Milkfingers458

Views: 2,583

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Id: KQ0JIrWTerY

Length: 13min 27sec (807 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 13 2024