The Old West is about as iconic as setting for stories as there is, andWeird Westtakes maximum advantage of it, telling a classic tale of cold-blooded murder and revenge. It’s a top-down shooter with plenty of style and an addictive gameplay loop, but players who aren’t careful will learn that no amount of guns and powers can save them.
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There are a lot of ways for things to go wrong inWeird West,and some of these mistakes matter more than others. It’s fine to trip up here and there while learning the ropes, but beginners will find that there are a few essential tips that can mean the difference between serving the enemy a cold plate of revenge and tucking into that same meal themselves. Here are some of the most common mistakes to avoid.
8Choosing The Wrong Difficulty
Players have access to four difficulty modes inWeird West:Story, Normal, Hard, and Very Hard. The game includes outlines that detail the differences between them to help players make the right choice. Whereas many games allow players to tailor certain elements of difficulty individually,inWeird Westthey are locked.
Difficulty affects everything from enemy detection speed and damage to friendly fire and health regeneration from food, so tweaking the difficulty by a single level can make a big difference. It’s common for players experienced with games in this genre to pick too hard a difficulty, making things even trickier thanthe game’s finicky camera angles.Fortunately, the player can adjust the difficulty once the game has begun if they find it too difficult.
7Neglecting Stealth
It might seem strange that sneaking around is a major element for a game about gunslingers in the Old West, but that’s exactly the case here.Stealth is vitally important for staying alive.Fortunately,Weird Westallows the player to distract enemies and bait them out of position by grabbing and throwing environmental objects such as bottles.
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The player comes equipped with plenty of firepower, which may leave players asking why they can’t just shoot their way out of trouble. The answer is they can, but doing so risks leaving the player a few bullets short of a bandolier when the next fight rolls around. Ammo might not be as precious a resource in this game as some others in the genre, but that doesn’t mean it should be wasted needlessly.
6Neglecting Partner’s Inventory
RPGs and games inspired by them have a sketchy record when it comes to inventory management. Some of the best RPGs have inventory systems that are generous and intuitive, whereas other games make finding, moving, and equipping items an absolute pain. Unfortunately,Weird Westleans towards the latter, and players may find themselves taking frequent trips back to town just to dump excess items.
A simple beginner’s tipis to recruit a partner as soon as possible. They’re handy in a shootout, butthey can be even more useful as an extra set of hands to carry around the player’s ill-gotten gains.Whether they’re hoarding guns, bullets, or something more exotic, partners should be loaded up with as much gear as they should carry to cut down on wasted trips.
5Letting Quests Expire
RPGs with great questing are all over the place when it comes to timing. Some let players ignore even the most vital of quests for months before they finally decide to get back on track. Others, likeWeird West,feature time-sensitive quest lines that disappear if the player sits on them too long.
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If it’s a mistake to let quests sit too long and disappear,it’s also a mistake not to load up on quests when given the opportunity.Whenever the player is in a certain area they should take and complete every quest that’s available to them before the day counter runs out. This can require some strategic movements across the world map, but it means that bounties and other valuable missions won’t be wasted due to inattention. There’s nothing that hurts quite like seeing a potential reward evaporate.
4Overlooking Gear
Like other adventure games,Weird Westrequires the player to have specific tools in hand in order to accomplish certain key tasks. The player can’t skin an animal without a toolkit, mine without a pick, or dig without a shovel anymore than they can shoot without a gun.
Players get a shovel at Jane’s farmhouse as part of the story, but the pickaxe and toolkit are another story.They can be purchased or found through explorable, and the former option is the preferable one. It’s a mistake not to get the pickaxe and toolkit early, because doing so means the player won’t be able to gather all of the money and resources they otherwise could, making them weaker in the long run, which makes a difference for those who aren’texploiting Nimp Heads for extra profit.
3Not Healing Quickly
It’ll be no surprise to fans of Westerns thatWeird Westincludes no shortage of ways for the player to die if they aren’t careful. There are a few options when it comes to healing, and the player will need to make good use of all of them. Letting injuries go unattended for too long is a mistake that will quickly prove costly.
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Potions and medkits are useful, butsetting up camp on the world map is even better, as sleeping will restore valuable HP.The player can also cook at camp or within levels. If all that fails, the player can resort to drinking from cactuses, which are a surprisingly good source of healing. If the player has taken a beating, there are far worse sights to see than that prickly plant.
2Neglecting Abilities And Perks
Though it isn’t a traditional RPG,Weird Westdoes borrow a number of elements from the genre, including the ability to upgrade their character. Perks are passive upgrades derived from items, and those that allow the player to haggle for better prices in shops and scavenge for more gold areperks that are best picked up early,asthey’ll make a significant difference to the player’s coffers in the end.
Abilities are purchased using relics found throughout the world and can then be used in battle. Charm is a fantastic ability to purchase early on since it allows the player to hypnotize enemies, letting them fight temporarily on the player’s behalf, removing a threat from the fight and adding some additional damage to the player’s on in a single stroke.
1Not Exploring
There’s a level of sameness to the environments inWeird West,and players will soon get used to seeing the maps of farms, mines, and towns repeated. Just because they start to look the same doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be explored, however, and players that fail to do so will be passing up plenty of useful items.
Exploring areas and collecting items early is especially important when it comes to the town,because the player will be locked out of many areas within it following the main story’s first big mission. Though there’s technically a workaround to this specific problem, it requires the player tobecome a thief,which ratchets up the difficulty in ways they may not want.
Weird Westis available on Xbox One, PS4, and PC.
