Indie Westerado: Double Barreled

[radiofloyd]

Wow, this game is fantastic. The opening is brilliant. Essentially it is like Red Dead Redemption meets Earthbound or Zelda.

I won't spoil the purpose of the story but you find it out soon enough in the game. Essentially you explore a Zelda-like overworld in a wild west setting. I've played it for an hour and picked up a fair few sidequests. And the game is seriously beautiful too, and the music is great. Yes, I see a lot of potential in this one...

[radiofloyd]

Three hours put into this now. There are a lot of nice touches to this game that give it an added depth.

For starters, the game is entirely free form. From the get go you can roam the map and kill everyone, friends and foes alike. There's an option to draw your gun during conversation.

The bandits who are dotted all over the map are led by Wild Bill and once you have killed him they will actually leave you alone (unless you draw a gun on them of course), which allows you to more or less explore freely (some of the animals in the game like wolves and scorpions can hurt you).

Hit points in the game are actually represented by hats (these hats are visibly worn by your character and can be bought/collected in the game). At full health, you have three hats, and each time you get shot you lose a hat, when you lose your three hats your character walks around with no hat and the next shot will kill you. But some bandits when you shoot them will drop a hat and this will restore one health point.

There are a variety of hats in the game but one of the hats - the miner's hat, actually serves a purpose because it lights up dark areas in the mines. which are a large explore able area in the game. I uploaded some photos on Steam of interesting things I've found in the mines...

[radiofloyd]

I accidentally stumbled into finishing the main plotline which required all of my gunslingin' skills... There are a few different weapons you can use in the game, the default pistol, a shotgun, a rifle, dual revolvers and bolas (I would have no idea what a bola was if I hadn't just played Never Alone). I like the rifle because it gives you a sightline. Combat in the game is pretty straightforward. You press RB to draw your weapon, RT once to cock your weapon and RT a second time to shoot (and LT to reload one bullet). If you look in the top left corner of the photo in the first post, you'll see where it shows you know the number of bullets you have, and also the number of hats (health points). You can see that there is the outline of a pistol, because the character has a pistol equipped, if you change weapons this outline changes too. Also, notice how all the NPCS on the screen have their guns drawn - this always happens when you draw your gun, but they will put their guns away when you holster yours too.

Another nice touch, when you kill a bandit from one of the sheriff's wanted posters, the undertaker actually comes along to give you your pay and cart the body off. The undertaker shuffle's around distinctively with a shovel.

Dying is pretty common in the game. When you die you wake up again in your Uncle's house. But you can buy a house with a female NPC in the game (this NPC actually has a role in the game's main story) and from then on you wake up in that house. What I'm saying is - it's an intricate game!

I still have plenty of quests and exploring to do so I'm going to put at least another couple of hours into it.

[radiofloyd]

Done pretty much everything I wanted to do in the game for now. I might replay it as some of the other playable characters sometimes and do things a little differently. This is an easy recommendation. It takes the Zelda exploration formula and transports it to the Wild West. Games that feel different to everything else are rare. Westerado is by far the most original of the indie games I've completed recently, and my favourite.