Westerado: Double Barreled [Game Review]
Game: Westerado: Double Barreled
Genre: Western Action Adventure
Developer: Ostrich Banditos
Publisher: Adult Swim Games
Copy supplied by publisher
Westerado: Double Barreled is an action adventure mystery game set in the Far West developed by Ostrich Banditos and published by Adult Swim Games.
STORY
After his brother and mother have been murdered and his ranch has been burnt to the ground, the Hero of the story embarks on a journey to discover who ruined his life by helping various characters throughout the land. You will meet Indians, ranchers, bandits, ghosts and many other characters who all have great lines to say in true western fashion. Constantly finding clues to discover the identity of the murderer makes the hunt more and more engaging, and when you finally confront him there is a really well executed plot twist after an action-packed climax.
GRAPHICS
The 16-bit world is full of little details, from the shadows, to the houses and the civilians. Sometimes I just found myself staring at the screen for a minute or two looking at how perfectly the developers captured the cinematic look of the Far West.
GAMEPLAY
There are so many things to say here.
First of all, the combat. You can carry three weapons max, and the arsenal includes: a revolver, dual revolvers, a shotgun, a rifle, a tomahawk and bolas. In order to shoot, you must draw the gun, cock it and then pull the trigger. This can also be done during dialogues in order to scare or get informations from someone. You have a total of three hats, which serve as your life: you die when you are shot without a hat. In order to get hats, you can buy them in stores or shoot one off a person.
The game map is relatively big and you can fast travel by using a horse that you find in certain areas. There are a lot of missions to do, which include escorting buffaloes, killing bandits in a certain area, finding an object and so on. You must complete them to acquire more and more information on the Murderer.
There are also some side activities, like visiting a saloon to drink, buying different outfits, bounty hunting, visiting banks to deposit money or playing cards.
You can also play the campaign with a friend at your side. Unfortunately, they can do little to nothing other than helping you in gun battles.
CHALLENGE
The game is not particularly challenging when playing as the Hero, since you will always have an hat or two. In case you die, you will spawn back to your Uncle's house and you will lose half of the money you had, which can be acquired really easily.
SOUND
The soundtrack to this game is beautiful, and perfectly fits the atmosphere of the game and of the different areas that you explore. The sound effects are also well executed, especially the ones related to the weapons.
REPLAYABILITY
After completing the story, you can use the save file to finish all the other quests, or start a new game by playing as three different characters, each with different skills. Each playthrough there is a different Murderer, so every time you play is different from the other. And for the completionists out there, there are 79 achievements to unlock.
Overall, this is a fantastic western game, with great graphics and soundtrack, responsive controls, engaging combat and a lot of content. You can't miss this, especially at the honest price of 15$.
Story: 8
Graphics: 9
Gameplay: 9
Challenge: 7
Sound: 9
Replayability: 9
ENJOYMENT: 9.5
FRUSTRATION: 5
