There’s no denying the value of Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription on both console and PC. Their aggressive push could end up redefining how we consume and value games - for better and worse. This feature aims to highlight some of the great games currently part of the subscription - but don’t assume that means they’re not worth your attention on another platform or after they’ve left the service.
Weird West
Playing
Weird West reminded me of the problem I have with the subscription model. It’s a hybrid of twin-stick shooter and immersive sim, from developers that worked on some of my favourite IPs -
Dishonored and 2017’s
Prey - yet it took me months to get through my Game Pass backlog before playing it. Hell, some games I’ve wanted to play have come and gone from the Game Pass library before I got to them. That said, it was worth the wait, offering up big ambitions, a vast world to explore, but variable execution. It’s also one of the rare games that get better the longer you play it - a somewhat dangerous approach when gamers seem to have such short attention spans. Regardless, I’d still recommend it if you’re a fan of immersive-sim-style games that give you different tools, approaches, and quest outcomes.
Set in a literal Weird West, where colonial frontier towns are threatened not only by droughts, banditry, and conflict with Native American Indian tribes, but also by fantastical elements like witches, Sirens, wraiths, werewolves, and ancient curses. Thankfully, the plot - which is conveyed by a single, fantastic narrator and lots of text - is not as simple as good humans vs. bad monsters. Each of the five chapters puts you in the boots of a new protagonist - a human bounty hunter, a cursed pigman, an American Indian scout, a werewolf, and an oneirist - each connected by an unfolding prophecy that threatens to doom the entire world. Everything comes together in the final act, which tasks you with reuniting all the protagonists - or their corpses - before a somewhat underwhelming ending that’s less about your actions during the game, and more about how you justify them in the closing moments. Thankfully, the individual story arcs are satisfying and delve into different societies, ideologies, and paranormal elements of the Weird West.
The gameplay is where
Weird West both shines and falters. Although the trailers emphasised stylish twin-stick shooting, direct combat is rarely your only option. You can talk or bribe your way out of trouble; sneak around and non-lethally subdue most enemies; stick with bows for silent kills; use rifles and a basic cover system to pick off targets from afar; or get in close with a shotgun and make full use of the slow-mo dive feature. Each character has unique combat skills and a preferred weapon, and they all share a perk tree with passives like more health, faster movement, higher jumping, and lockpicking. Both are upgraded by exploring and finding items in the world, rather than a kill-based XP system. As a result, the longer you play the more options you have to tackle each quest, complete alternative objectives, decide between quest-givers with competing agendas, and trigger several unmarked outcomes you’ll only see in the end-of-act summary.
There is a degree of continuity between each act, like recruiting previous characters into your posse - who retain their skills and gear you collected or upgraded while playing as them - and you’ll sometimes get the option to hunt down a villain that escaped in a prior act because of a choice you made. However, much of the map relies on random encounters between destinations, pit stops in similar-looking towns built using too few assets, and you’ll stumble upon mission-critical locations that are mysteriously empty until later. Prior characters you recruit also have little to say, beyond generic quips, even when you visit characters or locations that should be important to them. Thankfully, these issues are only noticeable if you try to scour the map in each act or take on repeatable bounty hunting contracts for cash (the lockpicking skill and robbing stores at night is the way to go). However, if you stick with just the main quests and the handful of named sidequests in each act,
Weird West offers an entertaining and well-paced 20ish-hour adventure in a novel setting.