Weird West: Definitive Edition - top-down immersive sim action-RPG from Arkane founder Raf Colantonio

[kangaxx]

On the clutter/loot I'm talking more about the immersive sim angle than the RPG stuff to be fair.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Damn. I hoped this would turn out to be a hidden gem - reading that it's mostly a game about trash digging and inventory management is a big disappointment.

Infinitron: citation

I think you would like it. I’m not very far in, but it really feels like “Arkane makes an isometric game (with a slightly lower budget than their usual titles)”. As you know there is a large segment of the Codex that loves to shit on Arkane for slightly dumbing down the LGS design philosophy, but that’s just Codexers being Codexian. If you have GamePass it’s a no-brainer. If not, $40 is probably a little steep; they probably should have launched at $30.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

BTW regarding clutter/useless loot: I don’t think it’s any worse than Dishonored or Prey are in this regard, I think people are much more likely to notice it because they can toggle all highlightables and feel compelled to click each one, whereas that’s not an option in FP games. WW is also definitely not as bad as something like TOW or Borderlands when it comes to this though, even though I agree it should have been toned down.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

and have a fishing minigame

yes

 

[Terenty]

Kinda strange that the first village you enter as a pigman they tell you to fuck off or die, but everywhere else nobody cares, missed opportunity there to make playing him more unique

 

[Tyranicon]

Very consistent peak player activity over the launch weekend, but low launch day turnout. Might signal a lack of hype(?). Also, Steam reviews have dipped below 80%, converting to Mostly Positive.

Overall, not bad for an AA game. Performed better than fellow Devolver title Shadow Warrior 3. I would be busting a nut if my games had these player numbers, but I have no idea if this is a win/loss for them overall.

 

[onemananadhisdroid]

Overall, not bad for an AA game. Performed better than fellow Devolver title Shadow Warrior 3. I would be busting a nut if my games had these player numbers, but I have no idea if this is a win/loss for them overall.

How many people worked on this, actually? I think I read an article in where Colantonio stated they were like ~20 people (not sure). One thing I like is that their focus isn't on visuals / graphics technology as such. The art is really pretty nice, but IIRC it was done by 4 people. E.g. they want their games to look nice, but not at the expense of anything else. It's not that I don't like pretty looking games. But it's remarkable how even so many higher profile Kickstarter games blew so much money purely on audiovisuals (even full VO, for which there is already a suggestion in WolfEye's own featureupvote (ranking relatively high)).

 

[Angelo85]

Very consistent peak player activity over the launch weekend, but low launch day turnout. Might signal a lack of hype(?). Also, Steam reviews have dipped below 80%, converting to Mostly Positive.

Overall, not bad for an AA game. Performed better than fellow Devolver title Shadow Warrior 3. I would be busting a nut if my games had these player numbers, but I have no idea if this is a win/loss for them overall.

While looking at the Steam numbers, you have to keep in mind it dropped at the same time via Gamepass with it's 25 million users.

 

[Roguey]

How many people worked on this, actually? I think I read an article in where Colantonio stated they were like ~20 people (not sure). One thing I like is that their focus isn't on visuals / graphics technology as such. The art is really pretty nice, but IIRC it was done by 4 people. E.g. they want their games to look nice, but not at the expense of anything else. It's not that I don't like pretty looking games. But it's remarkable how even so many higher profile Kickstarter games blew so much money purely on audiovisuals (even full VO, for which there is already a suggestion in WolfEye's own featureupvote (ranking relatively high)).

Yes, this is the team:

 

[agentorange]

Kinda strange that the first village you enter as a pigman they tell you to fuck off or die, but everywhere else nobody cares, missed opportunity there to make playing him more unique

supposedly if you skip doing some quest for a church early on then all the towns will remain hostile and you have to play it like a nosferatu in VTMB

 

[Brickfrog]

and have a fishing minigame

yes

No fishing minigame has ever made a game worse

 

[Viata]

Still waiting for a fishing game that has any other genre as a minigame.

 

[Tyranicon]

Yes, this is the team:

I think we all might have a few questions. Specifically what's going on in the lower right there.

 

[ArchAngel]

How many people worked on this, actually? I think I read an article in where Colantonio stated they were like ~20 people (not sure). One thing I like is that their focus isn't on visuals / graphics technology as such. The art is really pretty nice, but IIRC it was done by 4 people. E.g. they want their games to look nice, but not at the expense of anything else. It's not that I don't like pretty looking games. But it's remarkable how even so many higher profile Kickstarter games blew so much money purely on audiovisuals (even full VO, for which there is already a suggestion in WolfEye's own featureupvote (ranking relatively high)).

Yes, this is the team:

Just one dangerhair and balanced by a dog, so I guess overall positive.

 

[Silentstorm]

Failed to kill the main villain of the first quest as i decided to rescue a NPC instead, and it goes straight to the Pigman quest, thankfully i could just recruit Jane Bell once more, and look at that, the guy that escaped and the game even warned could bring a lot of trouble because i failed to kill him is there on the bounty board!

So i go kill him and...nothing happens, no fanfare, just a rare achievement, even the previous character has no reaction to killing the foe she spent her previous entire quest searching, it's there as a news article and that's it, it's just i managed to speak to Jane before in order to recruit her, i was expecting at least some Goddamn dialogue or stuff to happen in Grackle since i pratically avenged a lot of their fallen despite being just a Pigman...but nope, it's treated like just a regular bounty and Jane and her family don't seem to care that much.

Spoiler alert, just kill the villains of each quest when you can, they may come back as bounties, but killing them then is just downright dissapointing.

 

[Roguey]

Just one dangerhair and balanced by a dog, so I guess overall positive.

One dangerhair and one troon was all it took to make the game pozzed though.

Spoiler alert, just kill the villains of each quest when you can, they may come back as bounties, but killing them then is just downright dissapointing.

With the imsim design philosophy, systems-based reactivity is more important than scripted. This isn't a Black Isle-style RPG.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Very consistent peak player activity over the launch weekend, but low launch day turnout. Might signal a lack of hype(?). Also, Steam reviews have dipped below 80%, converting to Mostly Positive.

Overall, not bad for an AA game. Performed better than fellow Devolver title Shadow Warrior 3. I would be busting a nut if my games had these player numbers, but I have no idea if this is a win/loss for them overall.

It launched on GamePass Day 1; Steam figures are pretty useless here.

 

[Zombra]

I want to say "I search the desk, do I find anything germane to the case?" and I want the same elegance of presentation in video games. Maybe one or two flavor items are fine but if trash digging is a primary expectation of RPGs, then RPGs fucking suck.

It isn't irrelevant though... you can sell it and make money to upgrade weapons, but it's up to you whether you do that. It's easy, but the price is that you can't carry around loads of junk.
You can not bother with the clutter, buy a rope, wait until dark and rob the bank followed by the gun shop. Up to you.

I'm not picking on you kangaxx, and there's no good reason to reopen this sidebar, but I was rereading this outside of the context of our debate and the image struck me as hilarious. There was straight-faced advocacy for a game world in which it makes sense to gather used ball point pens, sell them by the hundreds to ready buyers on the street, take that money to your local gun store, and buy "upgrades" ... I guess because having this option is "realistic" in imsim terms. Just think about each step of that process for a second and I hope you will laugh along with me.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

shops in rpgs buying trash items is stupid to begin with

 

[mediocrepoet]

I want to say "I search the desk, do I find anything germane to the case?" and I want the same elegance of presentation in video games. Maybe one or two flavor items are fine but if trash digging is a primary expectation of RPGs, then RPGs fucking suck.

It isn't irrelevant though... you can sell it and make money to upgrade weapons, but it's up to you whether you do that. It's easy, but the price is that you can't carry around loads of junk.
You can not bother with the clutter, buy a rope, wait until dark and rob the bank followed by the gun shop. Up to you.

I'm not picking on you kangaxx, and there's no good reason to reopen this sidebar, but I was rereading this outside of the context of our debate and the image struck me as hilarious. There was straight-faced advocacy for a game world in which it makes sense to gather used ball point pens, sell them by the hundreds to ready buyers on the street, take that money to your local gun store, and buy "upgrades" ... I guess because having this option is "realistic" in imsim terms. Just think about each step of that process for a second and I hope you will laugh along with me.

It's putting the "hobo" in "murder hobo."

 

[vortex]

Next game should have first person camera, IMO.

 

[Berengar]

Yes, this is the team:

I think we all might have a few questions. Specifically what's going on in the lower right there.

That's some good ol 3DPaint horror. Happens when you make a 2D image 3D and tilt the angle lol

 

[Viata]

shops in rpgs buying trash items is stupid to begin with

Shops is rpgs is usually just a vending machine.

 

[<3sRichardSimmons]

Next game should have first person camera, IMO.

I don’t mind the camera positioning, but the camera controls (and the game controls in general) are definitely on the clunky side.

 

[Acrux]

I actually felt the opposite! I thought camera controls we're okay, but really wanted to unlock the camera. I don't usually prefer first person to overhead view, but as I was playing I kept thinking that interactions would feel better from, say, a Dishonored POV.