Blood West

I should point out before I say anything that this is by far the newest game I've reviewed (as of this writing of course.) As such, there's a possibility that what I'm about to say about it will change completely as the devs look to improve on the flaws of this criminally underrated game (or they can screw it up and double down on said flaws, either outcome is possible.)

First off, the game looks like it came out twenty years prior to when it was made, obviously this is by design as the devs wanted to recreate the look of an early Xbox original game (right down to the needlessly spacious level design) which they did a great job at without coming off as a cheap homage to the games of yesteryear. It's an acquired taste for modern gaming, but one I appreciate regardless. As simple as this games premise is, it's executed wondrously as we play an undead cowboy looking to lift the curse placed upon himself by ridding the land of cursed objects for the spirits that revived him. The gameplay revolves around stealth, although it is possible (but highly not recommended) to go gun blazing across each map to kill the other undead enemies that are actively on the hunt for our hero. The game encourages you to sneak up behind enemies to surprise attack them, although you also achieve xp by head shotting the enemies. Speaking of, there's an RPG element to this game which is fairly typical of a 21st century title, it works how you think it does which means it's vital to know which skills to invest in with your skill tree. This does lead to a lot of trial and error as you look for ways to attain the cursed artefacts, although thankfully you have unlimited lives (even if there’s other consequences for dying consistently) and its fairly easy to find resources to help with your quest as well as currency in order to purchase items should you use up the resources the levels provide for you. I have to say that the inventory system and shopping is handled remarkably well as the game doesn't pause unless you have an item where that can pause the gameplay, it's available early on, but naturally takes up a space in your inventory which adds strategy to the gameplay. If I did have a major complaint about the game, it would be the bosses as simply put, they suck and require a walkthrough just to figure out how to beat them (made worse by how obscure this game is.) It's not a deal breaker by any means as once you figure out the strategy, they go down like flies (at least the first two do, the third one is just bullshit.) There are only three maps in the game, however they have plenty to do in them and like I said, they're fairly spacious meaning there's tons to explore in each of them.

It's obvious this is the first game from the developer and as such, is an impressive game for a first attempt. It definitely has its flaws but is miles ahead of the competition when it comes to modern gaming.

Not a bad game but it does the minimum required and becomes a bit dull after the first few hours (and it's a quite long game if you want to explore everything, took me 27h to explore all what the 3 maps had to offer)

The steam page says that they take Thief: Dark Project (they even have Garett voice actor for the protagonist) and STALKER as inspirations but mechanically the game does the bare minimum and stealth is too barebones to be really interesting on the long run. You just crouch, check vision and sound and throw a rock sometimes. Also, stealth is quite OP, especially if you invest in the skills supposed to boost it and use special weapons and items to further increase this stat the game becomes really easy. You only have to take care of the sound you make and vision of the enemy, but you can just run to them, stop to lower the sound progression and just one shot them from behind with the right weapons, or just burst in front of them since the reaction time when they see you and react is quite long and just headshot them. It gets old quite quickly and by the end of the game you're basically running everywhere, playing some kind of stealth Quake with an axe.

Also the enemies are quite dumb, not really being alerted if you kill their friend and you can just outrun them if they see you. And the maps are big so you have just enough stamina to do just that without any real problem. I didn't really talked about weapons but honestly playing with guns is quite the same, except a bit worse since aiming is a bit shitty unless you spend lots of points in these skills.
The other big problem for me is the level design of the maps which is not really interesting: big open areas with some point of interest and enemies and then some towns/fort/mines/tunnels where you can find unique weapons with interesting effects or other stuff for your build, which was the only thing really keeping me going. At least the 3 maps are visually a bit varied with desert/swamp (which reminds a LOT Hunt: Showdown btw)/mountains and the atmopshere is still pretty good. You can clearly see the foundations for something better here because tbh, 3 of the same maps where you make the same things was a bit tiring but I can see how a bigger one open world with a bit more well crafted "dungeons"-like locations would work even better. I didn't talk about the story but it's basically absent here.

So yeah, overall really not a bad game but not enough substance to please me completely.