This artificial difficulty slows gameplay down and requires players to act in fear of what’s to come. If players push too far, they will be set upon by enemies further down the map they could not see and get blown away. I quickly realized I would have to set aside my pride for this game and accept that the omission of information and intense damage enemies can deal requires loading saves often.Īside from the earlier example with the randomly spawning enemies, most battles require players to traverse a well-designed map from A to B. That said, save scumming is almost necessary, and I really, really dislike save scumming. In one case, I went to the bathroom, got a drink, and came back, and the game had just finished loading my save, to provide some context. I have the game installed on an SSD and played after it was patched to shorten load times. Or is it? For whatever reason, Hard West 2 takes several minutes to load a save.
What a satisfying challenge you laid before me.įortunately, quick saving is a snap. My wife saw this happen and exclaimed, “that is such bullshit.” So, I loaded my most recent save and worked around this because I knew it was coming. When my turn ended, literally ten enemies spawned around my characters and quickly dispatched one of my four party members, instantly making me lose the battle (because everyone surviving was a mission requirement). A quick example: in one battle, I was navigating the field systematically taking out foes in a cautious, responsible fashion. About halfway through the game, it suddenly enters loud sigh territory. Then, it transitions into a satisfying balance of challenge. Out of the gate, Hard West 2 is pretty easy. Hard West 2 desperately needs a “normal” difficulty, because I chose to play on “hard,” and while I would consider myself an above-average tactician, what the developers created here is a frustrating affair with cheap tricks and excessive dependence on one of their fundamental mechanics. For the first time (I think ever) in my gaming career, I didn’t see a “normal” difficulty or something equivalent. I knew something was up with the gameplay the instant I loaded a new game and had to choose between “easy,” “hard,” and “nightmare” difficulty. I’d look like that, too, if I had to sell these boring-looking guns all day. Each location has a relatively amusing aside from the central plot, adding some degree of flavor to the overall experience. Most of the time, they’re either linear or branch in terms of which ally the player wants to build loyalty with. Few of these interactions offer any meaningful choice. Landmarks are typically highlighted with a large, white question mark, and a dialogue box with artwork takes over the screen when entering. The overworld is a pleasant, albeit benign, landscape that seems to try to create a sense of place. Gin’s journey takes place in two gameplay formats: overworld exploration to locate and enter important (and unimportant) sites and a range of grid- and turn-based battlefields, including towns, mines, and trains. After an unfortunate end to the introduction, Gin finds himself soulless and seeking revenge. Something goes amiss, though, as Gin and company somehow boarded a Ghost Train with a devil named Mammon at the engine. Hard West 2 follows Gin Carter and his band of hired mercenaries as they set out to rob a train. Weird West had a fantastic story with extremely weak gameplay, while Hard West 2 has an okay plot and not-so-great gameplay they average about the same in terms of overall quality. While Hard West 2 departs from its counterpart in terms of how dark it is, it shares one fatal flaw: it can’t quite stick the landing on gameplay. Hard West 2 comes hot on the heels of Weird West, another rootin’, tootin’ gunslinger of a game featuring an isometric camera and dark themes. Something about westerns just screams “occult,” I guess.
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