Developer: Nawia Games
Publisher: Nawia Games
RRP: £3.99 (Steam and Humblebundle)
Released: 10th Feburary 2017
Available on: Steam and Humblebundle
Played Using: Mouse and Keyboard
Approximate game length: 4 Hours
It’s 1849 and the sleepy town of Sunset Bluff has just had a rude awakening. Gold has been found in the surrounding hills and with gold comes bandits. These bandits are terrorising the town, robbing banks and busting up the saloon. Somebody has to stop them… you have to stop them!
This game is a 3rd person, western themed, shooting gallery. In this particular shooting gallery your targets are, unsurprisingly, bandits and they shoot back. You play as an unnamed bounty hunter, equipped with his trusty pistol and a secondary weapon of either a shotgun or a hunting rifle.The first time you load the game you’re given a quick tutorial by… eerr, a barwoman… I’m going to stick with that description.
As you likely spotted from the above video, the enemies come in waves. For the most part if you remain hidden behind cover you’re safe from the shots of the bandits. However, on higher difficulties enemies appear that throw explosives or can hit you when your back is turned.
The levels aren’t static, in order to get all your targets you’ll have to move from cover to cover using the [A] and [D] keys.
Killing bandits fills up your rage meter, once full you enter into a rage which allows you to shoot without needing to reload for a short period. The meter depletes over time and getting hit speeds up the process.
Speaking of the reloading process, the game has an active reload system which is nice and all but it feels a bit tacked on as there is no consequence to failing it other than the longer reload time.
With every wave that is completed you get to pick from one of three perk cards. These perks add in bonus effects such an increase to the number of bullets your gun can shoot or unlimited dynamite sticks for a wave. They also come in five tiers; common, uncommon, unique, rare and legendary which are unlocked by completing in game achievements (which if you cash in also give you some coins).
Coins are awarded to you based upon your performance in the game… mostly (some perk cards and equipment can affect this). You’ll get given coins regardless of whether you survived all the waves or not, but surviving gives you a greater pay-out. If you do die though, you can use your coins to revive yourself, assuming you have enough to do so. Beyond resurrection the coins are generally used to upgrade your weapons and armour as well as unlock new equipment.
Each difficulty adds an extra area. So on rookie you have two areas to clear, on sheriff there’s three, legend has four and so on. The thing is its always the same areas, playing through rookie means clearing the town square and the train station, sheriff has those two plus a gold mine… see where I’m going with this? It just feels a little dull and uninspired.
I have to admit it took me a while to notice that there isn’t any music when you play the actual game, or if there is its very very quiet. It feels odd to be shooting without so much as a twang of a guitar in the background.
Well this game is certainly better than I expected it to be, but would I recommend it? Honestly, probably not. The only reason I have the game at all is because it came as part of a bundle otherwise I would likely have not given it the time of day. It’s not that its bad, but there just isn’t anything that special about it and when you consider how many great games there are out there would you want to play something that’s merely ‘OK’?
If this appeals to you perhaps try;
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
Blue Estate: The Game
The Typing of the Dead: Overkill
