Hard West

The wild west has always been one of those underplayed genres for me. I've recently gotten a few awesome tastes of that ye-olde adventure with a couple of video games like Secret Ponchos and now Hard West. Since the game I'm trying to make (Hostargo) also has a "western" base to it - especially when it comes to combat scenarios - I wanted to dig into some of the mechanics of Hard West, which is a tactical, turn-based RPG.

First and foremost, the game is heavily cover based, much like other tactics games where firearms (ranged weapons of any kind) are the main weapon of choice.

God created men. The six-shooter made them equal.

But unlike other tactics games, where sometimes you just have to fight cover-to-cover and hope for the best, Hard West always gives you a few tricks to work with. First, the wild west setting always provides a variety of unique building types: from crumbling shacks to the smooth stone walls of a fortified mansion. Second, there are plenty of environmental props, such as wells, wagons, stalls, cargo boxes, and animals. But lastly, it was a real pleasure to find that you could interact with objects in the environment to create, destroy, or re-enforce cover. You can flip tables, pull up cellar doors, and stack boxes - all things that I would normally want to do in a tabletop!

Movement and positioning are key in Hard West. It's unfortunately largely unrealistic, but the action point system lends itself well to tactical movement. First, you have two action points (AP). For one AP, you can move. For one AP, you can shoot. For two AP, you can usually do some sort of special shot. The big kicker though, is that any shot will immediately end your turn, even if you haven't yet used all of your AP. This means that there's no "shoot and hide" strategy. Instead, it forces you to think of not only where you need to be to shoot, but also where you need to end up so you don't get flanked yourself on the next turn. I quite like it, despite it's sometimes frustrating lack of flexability.

The RPG elements aren't huge, but they hit the spot. The use of poker cards to build characters gives it that wild-west feel while still rocking a fully customizable system. Different cards give your characters different powers, and then different poker hands give different bonuses on top of that. Throw in jokers as wild, and you've got yourself a fully fledged RPG team building experience!

Overall, I highly recommend this to both fans of tactics games, and to fans of the weird west genre. It has it's quirks, but even it's overland exploration will have you feeling like a true pioneer. 7.5/10