Release Date: 14/11/2019
Played On: XBO
Available On: Mac / NS / PS4 / XBO / Win
Time Played: 3h 47m
Progress: Retired
Developer: Upstream Arcade
Publisher: Raw Fury
Something I want to talk about more on this blog are the kinds of games that I start playing, but never end up finishing for one reason or another. Sure, a lot of the time this means that I haven't enjoyed myself and I try to avoid posting about games that I can't say anything good about, but there are some titles that I thoroughly enjoy, despite never being able to finish.
West Of Dead is the latest game of this type, as I have enjoyed my time with it so far and it's only thanks to a few little circumstantial elements that I decided to give up. This is the kind of game that I could have thrown many hours into without even thinking, but in a world with more games to play than I can ever manage, it was time to put this one down.
Before we get to why I ended it all though, let's go over the game, as it's one that's worth talkiung about and may spark your interest. Essentially West Of Dead is an isometric action rogue-lite with a gorgeous presentation style and theme.
The graphics are done with a thick comic book style of flat mattes and sharp lines, which suit the dark and mysterious tone of the game perfectly. After all, we're playing an unknown character who is fighting their way through purgatory in order to fins out what they're doing there, and how they can escape. This is ultimately ewhere the rogue-lite elements come into play, as you uncover more details about your identity as you delve deeper into the game, all the while unlocking upgrades that persist between attempts and let you gain that momentum that rogue-lites are so good at building.
Broken into procedurally generated maps, West Of Dead follows a typical level structure that tasks you with clearing an unknown area before heading on to the next. Each contains enemies to fight, treasure to locate, and upgrades to uncover; with progression locked behind certain rune powers that can only be obtained by defeating the boss of each accessible area.
Combat is real-time and works almost like a twin-stick shooter, as you have a weapon tied to each trigger on the gamepad, both of which are aimed with the right stick. You automatically snap into cover when you get close enough, which is essential during fire-fights, but a little annoying when you attempt to traverse an empty room with a bunch of boxes in the way. Sometimes it felt as thought my character was going out of his way to snap himself to a piece of cover, when all I wanted to do was run through the room and progress.
There are a good range of weapons to unlock as you level up and find treasure chests, but to get more than just staright stat uprades, you need to unlock new items between levels through a chraacter simply called "The Witch". Here you spend "Sin", which is accumulated by defeating enemies, and are able to unlock all manner of upgrades. From a bigger health flask, to a rifle that has more ammo, or a trinket that restores health when you defeat enemies. Any items unlocked through The Witch, then become available during your run, but just like other rogue-lites, you might not find that awesome gun you unlocked for quite a while.
Additionally, there's a cool "light" mechanic that comes into play during combat, as most enemies prefer the dark and will be stunned if you suddenly expose them to light. In fact most of the combat rooms you end up in, will have at least one light that you can run up to and turn on with a burst of light that acts like someone threw a flashbang at your feet. This burst of illumination can be just what you need to reposition yourself while everyone is stunned, or to fire off a few close quarters attacks while nobody is able to respond.
Timing is everything during combat in West Of Dead, as you will constantly be trying to balance shooting at enemies, reloading weapons, and firing off environmental hazards. You can't just go in guns blazing and hope for the best until everyone is dead, instead you need to prioritise your targets and think about how many bullets you have in the chamber. Reloading is often a slow process, so waiting for your guns to replenish their ammunition while a room full of bad guys attack you can leave you feeling more than vulnerable.
Thus, it's important to balance upgrades and your two main weapon types. I found myself gravitating towards the same setup as I continued playing the game, as I enjoyed hacing a quick-fire pistol with more bullets in one hand, accompanied by a powerful shotgun or rifle in the other. This let me blast away at a bad guy with my pistol, then get in close while it reloads, to finish them off with some close quarters shells from a sawn-off double-barrel. When you're really in the swing of timing damage with reloading, the game is at its best and really makes you feel like you're a powerful and vengeful spirit, blasting their way through purgatory.
Although, one of the first let-downs for me was the lack of variety in the level design and layouts, which is often the case with procedural generation in any game. Initially the levels are fun to explore as they quickly become sprawling mazes full of dark corridors and enemy-infested rooms. That is until you get to the next area and realise that it's more of the same, just with a different paint job to change the theme and a new set of enemies to fight.
The only real excitement I found while exploring the repetitive level design, was being able to access new locations after defeating a boss and acquiring their rune that unlocked new areas. Unfortunately though, those new areas often amounted to nothing more than a room with a new item, but I never found one that was an upgrade to what I already had.
Despite all of that though, I found myself really enjoying the narrative that unfolded over many different runs, as I unlocked new NPCs to talk to and new enemies to find and fight. There are lost souls who ask you to take on their burdens so they can move on, so you might end up taking twice as much damage until you defeat a certain number of enemies, or something equally challenging to spice things up. Sadly, as much as I was enjoying myself as I met new characters and unlocked more story details that filled in gaps of lore and context, it also brought me to a screaming halt.
You see, eventually you get to a point where you have certain targets to find in specific areas, and as you travel from one place to the next, your character will remark on the location he finds himself in. For example, I showed up in the crypt to begin a run, when my character exclaimed that he heard something familiar in the distance, hinting that there was a target here to find and (potentially) fight. I explored every corner of that level without finding anything, so I decided to move on and take the portal to the next area; except when the game figured that I was about to leave the area, my character piped up again and mentioned how he didn't want to leave anything behind. Thus, I had another look around the level, but found nothing at all, only more comments about how I had stuff to do and someone to fight left in that particular level.
It's funny how something so simple can cause you to run out of steam, but as I wandered around the map looking for that key interaction I'd missed, I slowly became less invested, and more annoyed. What had started as a fairly kinetic romp through an enjoyable action focused rogue-lite, suddenly reminded me of all that time I spent running around in Torchlight 2, as I ensured that I had found everything on the level before moving along.
This probably isn't even the game's problem, but as soon as I felt myself getting bored, I knew that I wasn't going to finish West Of Dead. Simply because I knew that there was so much left to uncover and see, as the rogue-lite progression felt constant and deep, and I wasn't about to waste that much time running around looking for hinted at NPCs. I thought about how much I'd retraced my steps on that one level and saw my future flash before my eyes with nothing more than me endlessly running around looking for something I never find.
Is this a fault of the game? Not really, but it does speak to how hooked I was on West Of Dead when I finally hit a wall and was unable to progress in a satisfactory way. Maybe most other gamers would have just ignored the comments and moved on, eventually stumbling into the right person at the right time and thinking nothing of it. However, I couldn't get past that niggling little sensation that I suddenly didn't know where to go, or where I was supposed to be going. Ultimately this is what sealed this game's fate, and I shut it down with no intention of ever returning.
I've played other rogue-lites and have spent hundreds of hours progressing through all the unlocks and lore that seems to build exponentially and continually satisfy. It's like being led by a carrot on a stick, while someone feels you carrots. Suffice to say that even though I really enjoy that rogue-lite gameplay loop, West Of Dead ran out of juice rapidly, and the notion of facing potentially hundreds more runs felt immediately restrictive and grindy. So I ended up retiring West Of Dead, but mostly because I wasn't hooked enough to face the many hours that I kenw it was going to take to progress any further.
Recently, I've quite embraced the notion that I don't have to finish every game I start, so I've been getting more picky about what games receive my time. I'm sure I'll have more to talk about in the future as well, as a lot of the games I retire aren't actually bad games, but they still managed to lose my interest, which I think is an interesting thing to consider.
At the end of the day there are so many games out there to play that I'm spoiled for choice, so retiring games that don't really hook me in is quite a liberating feeling as it opens up space for those experiences that really make an impact. West Of Dead sure started out strong and I can see how a different gamer could invest a lot of time into it and have a lot of fun, but it just wasn't the one for me.