Developed by: 612 Games
Published by: DJ2 entertainment
Platforms: PC
Tested on: PC
Wild West: Online – Preview
Wild West: Online is a game currently in beta access. It’s being developed by DJ2 entertainment. It isn’t available on Steam but through a third party client. This means two things, the first is that the developer holds all the control in the palm of their hand and can patch problems or hotfixes almost on the fly without needing a middle man to approve of it, and it makes taking screenshots a bitch.
Wild West: Online is a game that takes place in America! In the time where the most amount of miles were journeyed on horseback and the only stars walking the earth were the sheriffs of the towns. So you are a cowboy or girl, depending on how you swing, and you can go out and explore the vast untamed wilds of America. Currently there isn’t really a lot of overarching plot, but that will surely be added once the game starts to head toward the final release build. The only story parts are people nagging at you to explore the vast outback for them, so they won’t have to deal with the indigenous wildlife and the occasional mercenary or bandit. Also the random people who seem to have quit a knack for losing random items and having you to go fetch them. So story-wise it’s not quite a wild west epic… yet.
When it comes to world building in video games, the graphics are quite important as they set the general vibe of the game. As it currently stands, there’s a lot of pop in, and not just horizon level pop in, everything about two feet away pops in as it loads and this isn’t something you want for a final product, which it luckily isn’t, making that little tid-bit negligible. The animations are quite fluid, the jumping might get a giggle out of players as the character runs and then loses all momentum. It would just need the sound of a sudden exhalation to make it really funny. Then again it would completely smash the immersion. Apart from that, the game has a very ‘Red Dead Redemption’ vibe to it and that’s a really good thing because that game ages quite well for having been developed so many years ago. So with a little bit elbow grease, love and polish, Wild West: Online won’t have problems with convincing players graphically.
When it comes to the sound, there’s a lot of things Wild West Online does quite well. It’s very atmospheric the way it plays with the sounds of the wildlife around you, the chirping of birds or crickets as you meander your way from village to village or the clippity clop of hooves on the dust roads. It all just feeds this feeling of being in the vast untamed wilds and you are just one hungry coyotes mouth away from being lunch.
When it comes to the gameplay, the beta is quite barebones. There are quests to be done and experience and items to be gathered by doing them, but no skills to sink the points you gain from leveling up in. Which is a shame, because it feels like an integral part of the game is missing.
The game is also an online multiplayer game, and it’s player versus environment versus player all the time everywhere. This shows just how fast the being an ass comes to players. Every encounter tends to boil down to them shooting you or killing you. What’s even worse is the griefing. ‘You’re bleeding out… Crawling around because you are near death. How about I laugh at you some more.’ This shows the biggest flaw in the game so far. The fact that Player Versus Player isn’t optional. It comes with the setting because it’s a wild wild west and all rules are off. Not everyone is all for the whole possibility of being killed on sight. So hopefully the developers create a sort of ‘softcore’ server where you can still kill each other, but only in duels, where the other player has to accept the possibility of death.
Conclusion
If you are looking for a game that’s like Red Dead Redemption, with the twist that it’s online, and you can actually be killed by other players at random, then this game is definitely something to keep an eye out for. The game sports a massive amount of potential, and if the developers keep expanding the ideas already in the game this might be the next big thing in online gaming, as there are few ‘Wild West’ online experiences. They might be sitting on a gold mine, and with the setting of Wild West: Online, that would be rather apt.
Wild West: Online - Preview,
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