History VideoGame / HardWest

* CattlePunk: While the setting is primarily the WeirdWest, several guns fall into the Cattle Punk trope, with many of them having extended capacities, extra barrels, AbnormalAmmo and the like.

* AlwaysAccurateAttack: The [[MagicBullet Golden Bullet]] ability allows a character to have a guaranteed hit on any enemy within line of sight of the party, completely ignoring cover and range.

* FragileSpeedster: In battle, Cassandra is both the weakest party member and the one who can move the most during a turn.

* SanitySlippage: De[=Lear=] goes more and more insane through the course of ''Method in Madness''. Ingame, it results in incurable stat debuffs which grow progressively higger and higher.

The game includes elements of exploration and RPG. Using a worldmap, you advance the plotline by moving the party between points of interest. Reaching them triggers ChooseYourOwnAdventure-like dialogs, which can give new party members, gold or items (or loss of them), allow to visit a merchant, receive buffs or de-buffs (usually from receiving a wound), and enter into fight sequences. Each scenario has its own gameplay quirks, which usually alters this sequence in some way.

The combat sequences are turn-based, similar to those of ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown''. Each character has two actions per turn (moving, reloading, shooting, using an item or an ability), using most weapons at the beginning of a turn consumes both action points, some parts of the scenery provide cover (there are two levels of cover) unless you're flanked, each character can carry two weapons, two consumables, and one trinket giving a permanent bonus, enemies have an overwatch mode. The combats also have more original elements. Each party member can equip up to five poker cards, which grant stat boosts, as well as either active or passive abilities. Some fight sequence starts with the enemy being unaware of your presence, which allows to move the party to position before starting the hostilities. Each scenario begins and ends with a battle.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hard_west_map_poster.jpg]]
'''Hard West''' is a TurnBasedTactics game for [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PC]], UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, and UsefulNotes/XboxONE, by [=CreativeForge=] Games and released in November 2015. The game is set in a WeirdWest universe, following the story of Warren and his father, as well as other protagonists who intervene in secondary story arcs.

''Hard West'' gameplay consists in two phases:
* The first is set on a worldmap, on which you advance in the plotline by moving the party between points of interest. Reaching them triggers ChooseYourOwnAdventure-like dialogs, which can give new party members, gold or items (or loss of them), allow to visit a merchant, receive buffs or de-buffs (usually from receiving a wound), and enter into fight sequences. Each scenario has its own gameplay quirks, which usually alters this sequence in some way.
* The second is a turn-based combat sequence. Its mechanics are similar to those of ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'': each character has two actions per turn (moving, reloading, shooting, using an item or an ability), using most weapons at the beginning of a turn consumes both action points, some parts of the scenery provide cover (there are two levels of cover) unless you're flanked, each character can carry two weapons, two consumables, and one trinket giving a permanent bonus, enemies have an overwatch mode. The combats also have more original elements. Each party member can equip up to five poker cards, which grant stat boosts, as well as either active or passive abilities. Some fight sequence starts with the enemy being unaware of your presence, which allows to move the party to position before starting the hostilities. Each scenario begins and ends with a battle.

''Hard West'' campaign is divided in eight scenarios, which themselves could be loosely divided in three story arcs[[note]]the scenarios themselves receive their official names; the arcs aren't named ingame and can only be inferred from the storylines' branching and the order each scenario is unlocked at completion of the previous ones[[/note]].

* Main player character: Warren, [[spoiler: The Undertaker]]

'''Hard West''' is a TurnBasedTactics game for [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PC]], UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, and UsefulNotes/XboxONE, by [=CreativeForge=] Games and released in november 2015. The game is set in a WeirdWest universe, following the story of Warren and his father, as well as other protagonists who intervene in secondary story arcs.

* The second is a turn-based combat sequence. Its mechanics are similar to those of ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'': each character has two actions per turn (moving, reloading, shooting, using an item or an ability), using most weapons at the beginning of a turn consumes both action points, some parts of the scenery provide cover (there are two levels of cover) unless you're flanked, each character can carry two weapons, two consumables, and one trinket giving a permanent bonus, enemies have an overwatch mode. The combats also have more original elements. Each party member can equip up to five poker cards, which grant stat boosts, as well as either active or passive abilities. Some fight sequence starts with the enemy being unaware of your presence, which allows to move the party to position before starting the hostilies. Each scenario begins and ends with a battle.

''Hard West'' campaign is divided in eight scenarios, which themselves could be loosely divided in three story arcs[[note]]the scenarios themselves receive their official names; the arcs aren't named ingame and can only be infered from the storylines' branching and the order each scenario is unlocked at completion of the previous ones[[/note]].

* Special gameplay elements: The protagonist benefits from a prospection licence, allowing to look for gold in several places (for a limited number of uses). There are several ways of prospecting (surface, deep, under the rock), each of them related to a special skill that can be trained (then granting more gold to the method used). The primary challenge is generating more gold than you spend on excavation. Also, it's the gold prospection which makes the plot progress.

* Plot summary: Warren's father fled the farm in the middle of ''Hard Times'', in an attempt to lure his curse far from his family. He eventually managed to work as an undertaker, then his new town is slaughtered by a demonic cult. With the help of one of the former bounty hunter Oswald Harrington (one of the only survivors), the undertaker tries to stop them.

* Plot summary: Cassandra, a seer employed by De[=Lear=], managed to escape the destruction of De[=Lear=]'s order by Cervantès. On the run, she's eventually captured, then saved from the gallow by a duo of gunslinger sent by a mysterious benefactor known as "the Protector".
* Special gameplay elements: Some dialog options can trigger a premonition to Cassandra, which unlock some specific dialog lines. The player has the choice to accept or reject the premonition, since having one prevent another immediate use of the gift (you must rest or visit another place to refill it).

* TheChessmaster: The Devil. [[spoiler: Warren's miserable life have been manipulated to eventually makes him become the villain he is to destroy the Purgatory, thus doom humanity. Vasquèz (AKA the Masked Man, Warren's killer) was sent into the journey who changed him into a villain by Cervantès, who is himself explicitely described as a Devil's servant, turning the whole ''In Gold We Trust'' scenario in another step of this convoluted plan]].

** In ''Hard Times'', doing a bargain with the local gang leader (benefitting from his protection in exchange of a commission of your gold finding) is a metaphorical example, especially when said gang leader keeps claiming an higher and higher commission, eventually turning against Warren.

* DrowningMySorrows: In ''As Good as Dead'', each time the party goes to the saloon with Old Man Murray in the team, the dialog mention him sitting at a table while drinking booze and repeating the name of a Roberta. He then suffers from a debuff named "ebriety".

** In ''Law and Order'', Sister Rosario betrayed De[=Lear=] because he has a seer as an adviser. When she is in the party, there are no consequences for equiping her with occult trinkets or enchanted playing cards.

** The ricochet ability. Cf. PinballProjectile.

** DownerEnding: [[spoiler: If Warren kills the Undertaker's party then destroys the Purgatory, the cutscene tells that the Devil lied about finding Florence again: incapable of interacting with the living, the dead souls eventually flooded the world and caused the diseappearance of humanity, leaving the immortal Warren alone in a dead world]].

* OneDegreeOfSeparation: While the scenarios can be separated into three independant arcs, several of the characters are involved in more than one.

** The former prostitue saved and then recruited by Hardin and Cassandra during ''A Matter of Time'' reappears at the end of ''On Earth, as it is in Hell'' as a member of [[spoiler: the Undertaker's party]].

* SanitySlippage: De[=Lear=] goes more and more insane through the course of ''Method in Madness''. Ingame, it results in incurable stat debuffs which grow progressively higer and higher.
* {{Satan}}: This shaddy guy who give power against a piece of yourself? Who gave Cervantès the task of destroying De[=Lear=]'s society? Yeah, he's the Devil. [[spoiler: And the ending of the last scenario explicitely states that his corrupting of Warren is part of a plan to make him destroy the Purgatory, thus releasing hordes of spirits on the living world and dooming everyone]].

* {{Undertaker}}: Why is Warren's father refered as "the Undertaker" in ''Graveyard Shift''? Because he's the undertaker of his new town (and he indeed wears more formal clothes than in ''Hard Times'').

** Warren becomes one in ''As Good as Dead'' (cf PayEvilUntoEvil). In ''On Earth, as it is in Hell'', his goal is to invade and destroy [[spoiler: the Purgatory]], which would actually have terrible consequences. [[spoiler: It turns that Warren was an unwitting pawn of the Devil]].

* FollowTheLeader: The tactical phase of the game is basically ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown: WeirdWest Edition''.

* Special gameplay elements: The protagonist benefits from a prospection licence, allowing to look for gold in several places (for a limited number of uses). There are several ways of prospecting (surface, deep, under the rock), each of them related to a special skill that can be trained (then granting more gold to the method used). Also, it's the gold prospection which makes the plot progress.

* OptionalStealth: In some fight sequences, the enemy isn't alerted at the start, and remain this until you open fire, enter in one of their detection area, or perform a specific action scripted to start the combat. Since most of those missions require to shoot everyone, this stealth is usually just here to provide the option to place the team in strategic positions before starting the combat, though there's one mission (Reverend Ashmore's rescue in ''Graveyard Shift'') which can be entirely completed without firing a single shot.

* WeirdWest: The game is set in a grim western frontier beset by gun-toting demons, an inexplicable force driving people to madness, ancient curses, and a dark-suited stranger offering wealth and power to those down on their luck.

* Special gameplay elements: N/A.

* NoodleIncident: Looking at Cervantès character's sheet in ''On Earth, as it is in Hell'' shows that lost a finger in the events between ''Law and Order'' and the current scenario. No reason is given.

'''Hard West''' is a TurnBasedTactics game for PC, UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, and UsefulNotes/XboxONE, by [=CreativeForge=] Games and released in november 2015. The game is set in a WeirdWest universe, following the story of Warren and his father, as well as other protagonists who intervene in secondary story arcs.

* The second is a turn-based combat sequence. Its mechanics are similar to those of ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'': each character has two actions per turn (moving, reloading, shooting, using an item or an ability), using most weapons at the beginning of a turn consumes both action points, some parts of the scenery provide cover (there are two levels of cover) unless you're flanked, each character can carry two weapons, two consumables, and one trinket giving a permanent bonus, enemies have an overwatch mode[[note]]in ''Hard West'', this feature is unavailable to the player characters, in order to force the player to flank the enemy instead of turning each fight into a purely defensive firefight[[/note]]. The combats also have more original elements. Each party member can equip up to five poker cards, which grant stat boosts, as well as either active or passive abilities. Some fight sequence starts with the enemy being unaware of your presence, which allows to move the party to position before starting the hostilies. Each scenario begins and ends with a battle.