Hard West 2 review

With a variety of smart variations, Hard West 2 offers a delightful digression from turn-based strategy titles, making it more than just XCOM with revolvers and rifles.

Gunslinger Gin Carter just lost his soul in a card game against a deceitful demon named Mammon. Carter planned on an easygoing train heist for his posse, but things went south when the locomotive sprouted mechanical legs and a crew of monstrosities attempted to protect their leader. Like Mammon, Ice Code Games’ Hard West 2 has a few tricks up its sleeve.

Sure, with gridded, turn-based combat that’s regulated by action points, the title is destined to be compared to XCOM, Gears Tactics, and Phoenix Point. Like those games, you’ll probably issue a string of expletives when the random number generator denies you a surefire hit. But Hard West 2’s Bravado mechanic injects momentum into the recognizable formula while offering a reprieve from assigning ‘overwatch’.

Kill Combos is the Weird West

Every time one of your posse members kills an enemy, their action points are instantly replenished. This means that you might take Laughing Deer, your team’s resident melee fighter, on a murderous killing spree. Every time the character cleaves through a foe, he’ll race toward the next unsuspecting opponent, potentially slaughtering an entire team of opponents. Although you might think using tools like axes, knives, and clubs during a gunfight might be reckless, Laughing Deer’s hit-and-move style becomes a recurring delight that will have you scrutinizing maps like a checkerboard.

But he’s hardly the only character with an ability that feels distinctive. Gin can unleash a hellstorm of hot lead, his bullets searing through environmental cover. Flynn can toggle between a long-range rifle and a shotgun that can blast through multiple, adjacent opponents. But more importantly, she can Shadow Swap, instantly trading places with any enemy that she sees. When coupled with Laughing Deer’s talents, she can teleport to safety while trading places with an unsuspecting foe who’ll soon be bullet-riddled. Quite a few synergistic aptitudes can help make encounters remarkably engaging and much of the enjoyment comes from discovering all the different ploys.

A Bit of Help from Rick O’Shea

Another distinctive addition is the inclusion of the trick shot. Most of Hard West 2’s peers require very deliberate positioning of units to secure a shot at opponents. But here, shooting at metallic objects can produce ricochets that can pick off enemies behind cover. Ice Code Games also understands the frustration associated when an attack comes up empty. Miss a shot and you’ll contribute to a pool of luck. Subsequently, you can call upon this resource to ensure that an essential shot hits its target.

Collectively, these innovations mean that Hard West 2’s battles can feel like puzzles that compel a rather specific solution. Your team of four is habitually pitted against much larger groups, driven to work every advantage to triumph at intense fights than can take between 30-45 minutes to complete.

Quick-on-the-Draw Combat

Characters only have three action points per turn and commands such as firing a rifle will use all of them. So, while your party can harness some awesome abilities, a minor miscalculation or two can put fast-track you toward defeat. Certain enemy characters will also attempt to ricochet, while other opponents can heal or generate additional foes. There’s a wealth of ways that a trouncing can occur. Fortunately, fallen allies aren’t permanently removed from your team.

The reason for the lack of permadeath is that Hard West 2’s cast isn’t comprised of dispensable tombstone fodder. Sure, there are some tropes evident across the game’s six playables. From a brawny, Native American, a hooded woman who dabbles with the occult, and a bloodthirsty cowboy who rises from his grave, there’s a predictably eclectic mix of combatants. But Ice Code Games largely eschews the kind of cringy dialog that attempts to rattle off a procession of quips. Instead, the cast is largely stoic and the game’s tone leans toward serious, which is a welcome reprieve from the trend of persistent character patter. I liked Borderlands but after years of variations, I’m fatigued by Borderlands formula.

Four-of-a-Kind Resourcefulness

Creativity isn’t just rooted in character abilities. It’s also found in the system used to augment your team of gunslingers. Instead of a traditional tech tree, the component uses a power deck, with players able to earn new cards by completing secondary objectives in combat. Using this deck, you’ll create poker hands for each character, with better card combos providing improved upgrades. Since all characters share the same deck, you’ll face some tough decisions when deciding how to distribute the wealth.

Although the 25-30 hour trek is mostly polished, there are a few notable blemishes. Occasionally, apparent shots can’t be made, which is evident from the game’s train heist tutorial. As you approach the train on horseback, adversaries inside the train are in your line of sight. If you’re used to units twisting around half- and full-cover, Hard West 2’s stiff sharpshooters habitually resist. I would have liked to have taken some potshots at opponents in vulnerable positions, like clinging to the side of a train car, but the game wouldn’t allow it. And while the horseback-based missions introduce a gratifying departure from form, the game’s limited milieus should have been expanded. While the “Choose Your Own Adventure”-style text that serves as the connective tissue for gunfights offers some decisions, it’s not as enjoyable as the combat.

Conclusion

Like a poker-playing hustler looking for his next mark, Hard West 2 lets you win a few rounds, gradually building your confidence. But expect to have that self-assurance exploited by lop-sided odds that pit your rag-tag team against dozens of vicious opponents. By that time, you’ll be invested in the game, with too much pride to walk away. At that moment, Hard West 2 is at its best. You know the deck is stacked against you, but there’s the infinitesimal chance you can beat the house.

Hard West 2 was played on PC with
review code provided by the publisher.