DEADGOOD

HARD WEST 2’s mix of turn-based tactics and supernatural cowboys is a humdinger

- Ian Evenden

NEED TO KNOW

WHAT IS IT? Supernatural cowboy turn-based tactics

EXPECT TO PAY $30 

DEVELOPER Ice Code Games

PUBLISHER Good Shepherd Entertainment

REVIEWED ON Threadripper 2950X, Geforce RTX 3080 10GB, 64GB RAM 

MULTIPLAYER No

LINK hardwestgame.com

Just about anything can be made better by the addition of the supernatural. Pirates of the Caribbean exploited a winning formula with its ghostly buccaneers, Stranger Things puts the demons in D&D, and Hard West has hit a home run with its tales of the weird Wild West. An XCOM-like tactics game, except when it isn’t, Hard West 2 brings some up-to-date ideas to the poker table.

It starts with a train, as many of the best things do. You’re robbing it, naturally, and having done your research you’re sure there aren’t many guards. ‘You’ in this case are Gin Carter, a horse-riding, hat-wearing, six-shooter aficionado who’s the nominal leader of a band of outlaws. This train heist is gonna make him rich, you’ll see. With him are Laughing Deer, Native American melee specialist, Flynn, who keeps to the shadows, and trick shooter Kestrel Colt.

The train guards don’t stand a chance, except there are more of them than you expected. Happily, you have certain advantages, which stand you in good stead throughout the game. The first is that your characters have three action points rather than the traditional two. This means they can move, heal, and still shoot. Or sprint into cover and hunker down for a better chance of evading incoming fire.