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By Al  Players: 1 Platforms: PC Blood West is a first person shooter that has more than a little stealth and RPG elements thrown in for good measure. It also wears its influences proudly and looks like FPS games of the 90s, while playing more than a little like the classic game Thief. If this crazy mix wasn't already enough, it also has a "Weird West" setting, and that means that it also edges into survival horror territory. It released into Steam Early Access back in 2022, but it recently got a full release in December. We're going to take a look at it and see if this is an adventure worth going, or if you're best hitting the trail and leaving it behind. Let's get into it!
You can look at a game like Blood West and probably assume it has a very deep story that explains why the dead roam the land, but it really doesn't. You pretty much only get the bare bones outline of a story at first, and while you eventually learn a more about what brought about the eldritch horrors to the frontier, you'll not get much beyond a more elaborate excuse to throw you in new areas, and against new enemies. As I mentioned earlier, it's a Weird West tale, and that means you're going to be facing all sorts of undead, monsters from beneath, and lots of surprises regarding the mysterious beings behind everything going on. The game opens up with this army of the dead descending upon a town that has probably taken more from the land than they should have. As a wandering gunslinger, you find yourself caught in the upheaval, but you're thankfully killed before things get too out of hand. A lone native takes pity on you and tries to send your spirit to the other side, away from the danger of returning as an undead abomination. His efforts are in vain though, as you're revived anyway. The beings who have revived you are spiritual in nature, but they are in no ways allied with the monsters who now control the area. They task you with a mission to bring an end to the threat the undead bring, and if you succeed you can finally get the rest you deserve. The promise of a clean death down the road, you set off to complete your task. In doing so you run into the helpful native who brings you up to speed regarding the few still living within the region, and you are also given a few rusty weapons to defend yourself. It's not going to be an easy task, but someone has to do it.
Blood West is a first person shooter, but not really. Okay, let me back up and explain. If you go in, guns blazing, Doom-style, you're going to find yourself taken out really fast. At the start of the game it only takes 2-5 hits from most enemies to send you back to death, and things like ammo and healing items are hard to come by early on. You'll spend much of the early game crouching along the ground, axe in hand, hoping that the enemy you're trying to kill doesn't suddenly decide to turn around. Much later on in the game you can play the gun-toting berserker, but even then you'll want to exercise some caution as dying isn't a matter as simple as respawning. Each time you die you come back with a "curse" attached. These curses can be anything from a drop in health or stamina, a reduction in experience gained, reduced strength, an inability to properly move stealthily, and so on. These get incrementally worse the more times you die, and they do stack. The only way to remove them is to go to a totem in a safe area and complete a task for it. These tasks can be as simple bringing him specific gold coins, though these aren't exactly plentiful, or by doing performing challenge tasks like taking out a certain number of enemies, only killing by way of headshot, only using stealth to get by, and so on. Thankfully these tasks will remove all the curses you had when you made the pact with the totem. Punishing players for dying is an extremely weird mechanic, but I got used to it after a while, and it's not like there is anything you can really do about it anyway. I'll talk more about this level of difficulty later on in the review, but I just wanted to mention it here in relation to the stealth aspect of the game. I mentioned gaining experience earlier, and that's where some of the game's RPG-like aspects come in. Each enemy you kill grants you a certain amount of experience points. When you gain enough experience points, you level up. Sounds simple enough right? Well, these aren't the kind of levels that give you an all-around stat gain per level. Rather than simply power up evenly, you get a certain number of points to put into particular skills. This works out sort of like the skill trees in Diablo II, but without any overarching health gains. These skills can raise your stats, better your aim, allow you to fire faster, make certain items more effective, and more. The game's Steam page actually outlines several character "archetypes" that you can grow into, sort of like a character class, but you'll most likely just pump points into skills that suit your play style. For me that meant raising my health and stamina so I could just live longer in general, for others it might mean maxing out things like stealth and melee attack damage. Other aspects of an RPG come in the form of your inventory. You can find items scattered about the world, pick them up from corpses or boxes, or even trade for them with specific NPCs. These NPCs usually deal in money though, but you'll find that you have quite a bit of things to sell after just a short bit of playing. The items you can trade for can be very important to character growth as well, since you can buy better weapons and stat-boosting relics along with the expected healing items and ammo. The relics are probably the single most important thing in the game, as they offer abilities similar to skills, but with far more variety and are far more interchangeable. Since you start with basically nothing, and at level one to boot, you're probably starting to realize why it is that the opening of the game can be a bit of a pain to get through.
You'll be forgiven for thinking that Blood West has an open world when you first get to exploring as there seems to be an endless expanse in front of you, and very little direction as to where you're supposed to go. That isn't the case though, and the game is actually separated into three zones/chapters, with the first being the Canyons. This area give way to the Swamps and the Mountains, with each area having their own obstacles, enemies, NPCs, and even bosses. While each of the three areas are very large, they are not connected, nor are they as vast as they first appear. I don't want to make it seem like they are small by any means, but Breath of the Wild this is not. Even though it's not really an open world, you are given a lot of freedom as to what you're going to do in each area, and in what order. There are missions to complete, side quests to go on, and the like, but it's how you go about each of these that makes each run different from the next. You can simply head straight to the main objectives, and tough it out, or you can explore every nook and cranny of the region and build up your stats and gear so you're a much tougher nut to crack. You'll often encounter other ways to complete the main mission by doing this too, as you're likely to find better paths to your goal, or simply gain better strategies regarding fighting the game's many enemy types. I don't want to drag out these gameplay sections longer than I need to, but I have to say that the enemy AI and placement is great. The former mainly is reflected in the way enemies can slowly see or hear you if you're not properly hiding yourself. They can even be distracted by a tossed rock or two, and they can and will respond to any commotion happening nearby. This can lead to situations turning grim rather quickly, but it's nothing that a few well-placed headshots can't fix. Most enemies occupy a specific area, and you can take them out as you see fit. If you take damage you can and rest at the closest safe area, though backtracking might be too much of a chore instead of just fighting it out some more. If you die, you can expect some of the previously defeated enemies to respawn, and I don't think there is any particular rhyme or reason to this. While it can set your progress back in ways you probably didn't plan for, this mechanic does add yet another layer of challenge as you'll not really know what to expect each time you come back into the game, even if that coming back is simply a respawn.
There is one aspect of the game that I have to admit is the most troublesome of all, and that's the game's difficulty. I actually nearly gave up playing after only two hours because I simply could not stop dying. The curses were stacking, I was literally at half of all my stats, and could no longer do stealth kills. This is as good a point to mention that there is no standard save system here. The game acts sort of as a roguelike, where you have a single save file that autosaves after key points, and can only be saved by you when you quit the game. I guess this is done to cut down on save scumming, but it makes things seem unfairly difficult at time. I nearly gave up on my first save file since I assumed that I had messed things up so early on that the game was now unplayable. I then started to think that if the game was this ridiculously hard, that I didn't want/need to play it. I was reviewing the game though, so it was this fact alone that made me give it one last go. I figured that I'd try to buy better items with some of the money I'd built up during my repeated deaths, and it was here that I noticed that one of the traders, the first one actually who you meet at the start of the game, sold a bow that didn't require any ammo. I decided to make getting it a short term goal, and I eventually saved up a little more money to buy it. A handful of headshots later, I found myself curse free. I also realized that I finally had made some sort of actual progress in the game itself. Following this I explored the rest of the Canyons, cleared them, and even managed to pick up more game-winning strategies and gear along the way. It was one of the hardest trials by fire I've been through in a game, but I also felt very accomplished coming out the other end of it. I'm sure not everyone will have it as hard as I did, regular stealth or FPS players might find the first areas a breeze to complete, but I think a casual viewpoint is always worth considering. The thing is that there are probably many more people like me, who are too frustrated to go on, but who don't have a review to write that literally forces them to keep playing. If I had picked this game up on my own I'm positive that I'd be begging Steam for my money back after just an hour. While I grew to enjoy, maybe even love, Blood West, I can easily see how many will probably never get beyond its opening sections.
I found it really hard to capture screens of Blood West that do it justice. That's not just because capturing screens in any sort of action game can be a tough process, but because I would often take a screen of something I thought looked great in game, only to find that it looked like a mess of pixels in screenshot form. Blood West goes for a very low-poly look, something akin to Duke Nukem 3D, Quake, or similar first person shooters of old. Obviously it has a bit of modern touches here and there, most especially in the lighting, but it wears its inspirations proudly on its sleeve. I for one love this style of game, and wish that early 3D aesthetics were more appreciated, but I can also see where some might not appreciate this game's style. The creativity in the enemy design is just perfection though, as it takes great skill to make enemies look cool, frightening, and imposing with such limited tools to work with. It feels weird saying that these are some of the best low-poly models that I've seen in a while, but it's true. Crafting retro-inspired graphics can be more than just working in pixels, and I hate that I can't find the exact words to describe how Blood West looks in motion. It's definitely a "you have to see it to know what I mean" kind of situation, but then again that's what gameplay trailers are for I guess. There's a certain charm to the look of the game that is undeniable. I came in wanting to like it in part because of how it looked, and one of the reasons I stuck through the tough first couple of hours was because I found myself convinced that there had to be something here besides repeated frustration. Surely the developers were hiding an amazing game behind all that if it looks this great right? Well, I'm thankful that turned out to be the case here, but even I'll admit that being blindly spellbound by retro vibes and styles probably isn't a good thing. All that aside, I can't help but feel that graphics are where Blood West truly shines, and I hope to see more games go for this kind of look in the future.
I have something to admit here, I had heard about Blood West on and off for the better part of 2023, but never cared much about it. Then I heard that Ghoultown would be providing a song for the game's soundtrack, and all that changed. Seeing as they are one of my favorite bands, and they also dabble in the Weird West genre, I suddenly became very interested in a game that I wouldn't give the time of day to before. I guess admitting a band's inclusion was what drew me in isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I mainly mention it because I want to emphasize that the music was the first thing that stood out to me. I'm pleased to say that the rest of the soundtrack doesn't disappoint either. Admittedly there isn't a whole lot of music here, especially considering that this is a stealth game after all, but what's here works for where it’s placed. It works as slightly spooky atmospheric background music, or even pulse-pounding action driven pieces whenever the game needs it. It just works plain and simple, and I'm here for that kind of thing. I probably won't find myself listening to the soundtrack outside of the game, except for that Ghoultown track of course, but it's a pretty strong soundtrack all around. Oh, and speaking of that Ghoultown song, you can check out its music video HERE! Similar to the graphics, voice acting is another part of the game that I wasn't expecting to enjoy as much as I did when I first started up the game. These aren't Oscar-caliber performances, but I don't think that they're meant to be. Everyone seems to be aware what kind of game they're working on, and it comes off similar to when people have it in their minds that they're making a B-movie, or in this case a 90s-inspired FPS action game. There's a lot of Duke Nukem vibes here, and I mean that in the best way possible. I hesitate to use the word "cheesy", but everyone is really hamming it up, and chewing on the dusty scenery. The traders are no nonsense and straightforward, your spirit friends are all snarky and have an attitude, and you yourself are full of one-liners that would make Ash Williams proud. It makes for an enjoyable experience, and the performances made me want to stick with the game so I could experience more of its story and characters. Even the enemies manage to have a lot of personality through their sounds and battle cries, even though most of them don't say an actual word throughout the entire game. It's rare that I feel an indie game captures a vibe totally spot on when it comes to voice acting. Too often trying for this sort of thing can lead to it falling flat on its face because it feels like everyone is far too in on the joke. That's not the case in Blood West though, and in my opinion the voice acting was just as charming as the graphics.
I usually don't have a lot of mixed feelings when it comes to things like controls, they're usually either good or bad, but there's an odd middle ground in Blood West that I want to talk about. First off you can control this game with either mouse or keyboard, or with a controller. I'm not sure if it was because of a Steam setting that I never found, but even when my controller wasn't plugged in I'd get in-game button prompts that referred to it. This made me assume that this would be a game best played with a controller, so that's how I played most of the game. I then realized that several seemingly easy things, like buying or selling items and even backing out of some menus, were hard to do via a controller. Actually, those two specific actions were ones that I was never able to figure out how to do them on a controller. I ended up playing the game in a sort of hybrid way, meaning that I used mouse and keyboard and controller. This isn't exactly a negative by any means, but it was odd. The game controls well all things considered, but this setup never felt totally ideal. I'm just glad that the game itself had no issues at all taking inputs in from both sources at the same time as that would've been game-breaking. Blood West is a decently lengthy experience. I have yet to totally finish it, but I have put in over a dozen hours into it and still am only about halfway through it. There's a lot of replayability too as each of the game's three chapters hide a lot of secrets, and there's those pesky Steam achievements to worry about too. It currently costs $24.99, and I was actually surprised for how reasonably priced the game is considering its amount of content. I'll admit that it's not the best-looking game, nor is it one that everyone will love, but I could've easily seen this going closer to the forty dollar range. I guess value in this case is very subjective, as I can definitely see many people simply give up on this game after only a few hours. Seeing as I was almost that person, I can't help but feel that its price tag is a little high for an experience that might end in frustration and disappointment. Then again Steam has a generous refund policy, so just be mindful of that if you want to dip out sooner than others. If you DO stick around though, you'll have a lot to do in this Weird Wild West World.
Recommending Blood West is simple, I give this a full rec for those who love horror games, first-person shooters, survival and stealth games, and so on. It's the fact that I cast so wide a net that is the problem though. While I do feel that fans of all those genres will love it, I also know that some fans of each might not like the mixing of all those elements together. I learned that the stealth genre is quite a minefield when researching this game, and that alone will most likely put off many. If you're able to look beyond the mix of gameplay styles, and are able to stomach one of the hardest opening sections in gaming, you'll definitely find something to enjoy here. I mean, who doesn't enjoy shooting gun-toting birdmen in the head? I know I do! Check Out Blood West on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1587130/Blood_West/ Story: B Gameplay: B- Graphics: A- Music/Sound: A- Value: B+ Overall: B+ Pros: + A fun take on multiple genres of gameplay and story. + Smoothly integrates stealth gameplay into an action FPS. + The music and voice acting are all well-done and give off the right level of 90s FPS vibes. + Blood West's retro-inspired graphic style mixes well with more modern graphical enhancements, such as lighting. + While the story isn't particularly deep, the world draws you in. + A very challenging game for those looking for that kind of thing. +/- Relies more on stealth gameplay rather than run and gun gameplay. Screenshots and trailers may come off a bit misleading. Cons: - Has a very steep learning curve that might put off some players. - Drastic difficulty spikes occur throughout the entire game. - The curse system, which punishes players for dying, feels pretty mean-spirited. - Game consists of three mostly stand-alone levels, where a more open world might've added to the game. - The RPG elements feel so light that they might as well be non-existent. A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.  I have very conflicted feelings about her. |
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