History VideoGame / HardWest

* AbsurdlyHighStakesGame: At the start of the game, the posse gamble their souls in a game of poker for a chance to win the Ghost Train[[note]]Technically, Mammon only offered the Engine, but it's the most important part.[[/note]] from Mammon. While Gin 'manages' to get four Aces, Mammon ups him by drawing a Joker to get Five-of-a-Kind. Gin notes that the deck they're playing with didn't have Jokers, so the latter was ''definitely'' cheating - Mammon doesn't care.

--> ''Gin's Dark Reflection'': Let's see if you're [[ComicBook/LuckyLuke faster than your own shadow!]]

--> '''Laughing Deer''': I'll spill your guts, and show you [[Film/{{Pocahontas}} all the colors of the wind!]]

--> '''Laughing Deer''': I'll spill your guts, and show you [[Film/Pocahontas all the colors of the wind!]]

--> '''Gin''': This is the Hard West, not the {{TabletopGame/Deadlands}}!

* FluffyTheTerrible: Someone named "Laughing Deer" should be a pretty mellow and personable guy, right? No. Laughing Deer is a terrifying borderline SerialKiller with a taste for killing up close and a hate-on for white people.

* FluffyTheTerrible: Someone named "Laughing Deer" should be a pretty mellow and personable guy, right? No. Laughing Deer is a terrifying borderline SerialKiller with a taste for killing up close and a hate-on for white people.

* CardsOfPower: Your main stat boosts and special abilities come from cards. Making a proper poker hand will give you a powerful stat bonus.
** 9s are survival cards; they give +1 HP and abilities that restore health.
** 10s are trick-shot cards; they give +5 aim and can change the rules of the battlefield, from forcing the battle into sudden deathmatch to ricocheting bullets in an otherwise straight shootout.
** Jacks are Shadow cards; they give +2 defense and work best in dark areas, turning the wielder into a vampire-like that can dominate the battlefield, but only when they aren't in terror of the sun.
** Queens are Crowd Control cards; they give +2 mobility and can either make the wielder invisible before and after a gunfight or hurt multiple foes at once (with major luck costs).
** Kings are Scanning cards; they give +4 sight and help you track and hunt down enemies.
** Aces are Luck Manipulation cards: they give +10 Luck and drain the luck of your enemies while giving you bonuses based on RNG.
** Hearts are Hunter cards; your character becomes a master of tracking and hunting down foes, with abilities centered around tearing apart those who are heavily entrenched in cover.
** Diamonds are Rogue cards; your character becomes a master of stealth, doing their best work in the shadows while setting up the battlefield and gathering strength for a final push.
** Spades are Gunslinger cards; your character works best under pressure, turning the tide with spam attacks and gaining bonuses for being outnumbered.
** Clubs are Tank cards; your character becomes TheDreaded, capable of freaking enemies out as they draw closer and no-selling attacks that would kill anyone else.
** And finally, Jokers don't give special skills but have multiple stat boosts and can flesh out any incomplete hand.
** High Card: +8 Sight, Pair: +4 Movement, Two Pair: +10 Defense, Three of a Kind: +30 Max Luck, Straight: +1 Hp/turn, Flush: +15 Luck/turn, Full House: +4 Movement, +30 Max Luck, Four of a Kind: +15 Aim, Five of a Kind: +2 Damage, Straight Flush: +1 Damage, +1 Max Hp, Royal Flush: +3 Max Hp

''Hard West'' is a TurnBasedTactics game by Creator/CreativeForgeGames for [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PC]], UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, and UsefulNotes/XboxONE, 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 combat sequences are turn-based, and 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, with parts of the scenery providing cover. 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 sequences start with the enemy being unaware of your presence, which allows one to position the party for an ambush.

''Hard West'''s 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]].

[[folder:The scenarios – contains minor spoilers]]
!!Warren and his father – the main arc

!!!Hard Times
* Main player character: Father (prologue), Warren
* Plot summary: While travelling on the Oregon trail, a family (two unnamed parents and their son Warren) are captured and robbed by bandits. The father manages to escape and kills all the bandits, saving his son, but finds his wife's severed head presented in a box. A decade later, he and the now-adult Warren settled on the place of the tragedy, cultivating a (poor) farm. The discovery of gold in the region draws the attention of bandits, while poor decisions from Father bring a curse on the family...
* Special gameplay elements: The protagonist benefits from a prospecting license, allowing them to pan, dig, and mine for gold in several places[[note]] for as long as their gold-digging license lasts, though it can last the entire campaign[[/note]]. There are several methods of prospecting, mining skills to study from professionals, workers to hire, and new-fangled technologies to get the most out of the treasure troves you've discovered. The primary challenge is generating more gold than you spend on excavation. As prospecting progresses, you run into challenges with perverted landlords and state-sponsored bandits that only old-fashioned violence can solve.

!!!''As Good as Dead''
* Main player character: Warren
* Plot summary: Forced to flee his farm at the end of ''Hard Times'' while being wanted for murder, Warren is wandering with his girlfriend Florence, living from money he gains playing poker. He eventually pisses off some arrogant weirdo in a stupid mask, who turns out to be the kingpin of the local area and has Warren and Florence slaughtered over a poker game. In his dying moment, Warren makes a DealWithTheDevil. Raised as an undead killing machine, Warren starts a RoaringRampageOfRevenge...
* Special gameplay elements: In order to find the location of his killer, Warren must cause $65000 worth of damage to the various properties they own. Optionally, Warren can also massacre 100 people for special rewards, but the local shops will raise their prices as the bodycount grows and may even flee the area if it reaches an excessive amount.

!!!''Graveyard Shift''
* Main player character: The Undertaker
* 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. To his despair, people tend to die around him and his curse. He eventually managed to work as an undertaker, but his town is slaughtered by a demonic cult, leaving him and the former bounty hunter Oswald Harrington as the only survivors. The Undertaker is desperate to destroy the cult - and his curse - at all costs.
* Special gameplay elements: Each day is divided in five periods. Moving to a new location on the map advances the clock by one time period. Your main method of gathering money is by buying supplies in bulk from local farms and warehouses, and then selling them at towns or kiosks. When the clock reaches dusk, the party is forced to camp; you can feed each party member once (grants no buff and no debuff), twice (grants a buff), or nothing at all (grants a debuff); an optional objective is to prevent all members from ever starving.

!!!''On Earth, as it is in Hell''
* Main player character: Warren
* Plot summary: Having learned that he has a way to see Florence again, Warren gathers a team of the finest gunmen in order [[spoiler: invade and destroy the Purgatory]].
* Special gameplay elements: You need to have three party members in order to unlock the final battle. The Wizard holds one of these party members hostage, and to free them you must gather six meteor shards to trade - or you could consume them for power[[note]]The Wizard's a liar, just eat the fragments.[[/note]]. [[spoiler: At which point, you can choose to play it as Warren's team or as the Undertaker's team, the unchosen party being the antagonists of the fight]].

!!The Doctor, the Inquisitor, and the Seer

The first scenario of the arc is unlocked at completion of ''As Good as Dead''.

!!!''Method in Madness''
* Main player character: Solomon De[=Lear=]
* Plot summary: An epidemic of violent dementia plagues the region. Doctor Solomon De[=Lear=] intends to stop it. Having inherited the laboratory of an old rival of his, he also receives support from a mysterious trio of Pinkerton agents.
* Special gameplay elements: De[=Lear=] can research new items in the laboratory, allowing him to buy them via the Pony Express. De[=Lear=]'s tech tree consists of three fields (Chemistry, Technology, and Gunsmithing) which range from level 0 to level 5; spend a blueprint to level up and use technology or gold to acquire new blueprints. As the plot advances or De[=Lear=] takes on expeditions into stressful areas, De[=Lear=] will lose his sanity (and take increasingly worrisome stat debuffs). De[=Lear=] can choose to give in to the madness to receive free blueprints, or retain his sanity but hinder his scientific progress.

!!!''Law and Order''
* Main player character: Gabriel de Cervantès
* Plot summary: Solomon De[=Lear=] managed to succeed to cure the meteor's dementia and formed a secret society to protect the area, grafting his followers with pieces of the technology he used to cure the madness. The corrupt inquisitor Gabriel de Cervantès is tasked by the Devil to destroy all that De[=Lear=] managed to build.
* Special gameplay elements: Cervantès must hunt down most of De[=Lear=]'s secret society. Finding their hideouts is easy but identifying them is either complicated or expensive. Once you reveal a target's identity, you can show up at their doorstep and convince the locals (in morbidly funny ways) to lynch the target themselves, which sometimes grants a reward. Or you can "Let the Devil Sort Them Out" and slaughter everyone in a region, but this has consequences; shops will have less to sell and will charge you more, doctors will hate your guts for your carnage and refuse to heal you, killing indiscriminately means any potential followers are consumed by the purge. If you do commit mass-genocide, your boss will give you a sniper rifle meant to kill elephants at ''any'' distance.

!!!''A Matter of Time''
* Main player character: Cassandra Lee Snowden
* Plot summary: Cassandra, a seer employed by [=DeLear=], managed to escape the destruction of De[=Lear=]'s order by Cervantès. On the run, she's eventually captured, then saved from the gallows by a duo of gunslingers sent by a mysterious benefactor known as "the Protector". Cassandra's powers, while beneficial, are slowly driving her insane with torment, and she will do anything to make the visions stop.
* Special gameplay elements: Some dialogue options can trigger a premonition in Cassandra, which unlock some specific dialogue lines with special rewards. The player has the choice to accept or reject the premonition, since having a vision causes mental fatigue, and prevents another immediate use of the gift (you must rest or visit another place to refill it). The big mission involves a high-stakes poker game; Cassandra must raise enough money for the $25,000 buy-in and gather intelligence to outsmart her opponents when her premonitions eventually fail her. You can recruit two additional characters for your posse and switch them at your home base.

!!The prequel scenario
This scenario is unlocked at completion of ''As Good as Dead''.

!!!''In Gold We Trust''
* Main player character: Alvaro Vasquèz
* Plot summary: Alvaro Vasquèz mounts an expedition with a couple of friends to find a legendary treasure. Vasquèz's ruthlessness and racism worsen over the course of the journey, as his actions degrade from disdainful to genocidal to outright psychopathic.
* Special gameplay elements: The worldmap phase of the scenario is a strategic expedition which relies on careful management of the expedition's manpower and rations. Several events require a minimum amount of food and workers to be available, and each action runs the risk of injuring posse members or peon casualties, many of which are fatal. Food and men can be bought on the map, but you can gain food by hunting and gold by panning.

!!The DLC scenario
!!! "Scars of Freedom"

* Main player character: Libertee
* Plot summary: An escaped slave is killed and revived as not-Frankenstein's Monster, and fights to survive in a strange new body.
* Special Gameplay Elements: Libertee and other "constructs" gain body parts instead of magic playing cards as in the main game but must constantly manage their "essence" in the overworld, lest they rot away. The more enemies you kill, the more 'Ether' you acquire, which is used to purchase new body parts and restore essence.
[[/folder]]

Silver Lynx Games funded ''TabletopGame/HardWestTheBoardGame'' [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/silverlynxgames/hard-west-the-board-game-1 through]] Website/{{Kickstarter}}.

The [[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1282410/Hard_West_2/ sequel]], Hard West II, was released in August 2022 for PC, XBOX, PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch. You command Gin Carter and his posse, a gang of bandits and murderers who bite off more than they can chew when they accidentally rob a supernatural train belonging to the Devil of Greed himself: Mammon. Gin attempts to gamble for the Ghost Train - and loses, whereby Mammon lays claim to the posse's souls and leaves them stranded in a dying Northwest America. The gang resolves to do the impossible: chase down the Ghost Train, take back what's theirs from Mammon, and send him straight back to Hell.

!!Hard West 1 provides examples of the following:

* AlwaysAccurateAttack: The 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. Yes, this includes your nine-barreled shotgun.

** Cervantès, the VillainProtagonist of ''Law and Order'', is a high-ranking catholic prelate (Spanish Inquisition-expy) wearing the relevant uniform. It doesn't prevent him from kicking as much ass as his posse in gunfights. The description of his unique gun states that he (supposedly) received it from the hands of the Pope.
** Sister Rosario, still in ''Law and Order'', is a gunslinging nun who betrayed De[=Lear=] and can be hired by Cervantès. [[spoiler: At the end of the scenario, she realizes Cervantès' true intentions and leads a counterattack against the protagonists]].
** On the good side, there is Reverend Ashmore, a gunfighter hired by the Undertaker during ''Graveyard Shift''. [[spoiler: He shows up along the Undertaker and Harrington during the final boss fight of ''On Earth, as it is in Hell'']].
* BadassBookworm: De[=Lear=] is just a doctor, but his fighting stats keep up with the Pinkerton Agents. Until madness decreases his stats...
* BagOfSpilling: Player characters lose all their items, cards, and permanent buffs at the end of a scenario.
** On the other hand, unlocking certain items called Trinkets and completing their scenario lets them be purchased again from a "Fate Trader" in all scenarios.
* BattleCouple: After rescuing his girlfriend Florence from the Mexican's hands in ''Hard Times'', she becomes a party member and intervenes in a couple of the next battles. ''As Good as Dead'' first battle consists in Warren and Florence trying to shoot as many mooks as possible before an unavoidable end.
* BigGood: [[TheGrimReaper Death]], who has been TheNarrator for the entire game, recruits [[spoiler: The Undertaker/Father]] to stop Warren from destroying [[spoiler:Purgatory]]. There are hints that he's been helping Solomon [=DeLear=] during ''Method In Madness'' in the form of the Persons.

* BodySurf: In his debut appearance of ''Graveyard Shift'', Bathym Raum respawns by assuming direct control of his mooks, turning them into new copies of himself. You have to kill everyone on the map to banish him. During the last fight of the chapter, you can disable his body surfing ability by destroying his main talisman. During your final encounter in ''On Earth, as it is in Hell'', you can disable his body surfing ability by destroying the five blood vials centered around his spawn point.
* BoozeBasedBuff: In ''As Good as Dead'', ordering a drink in the saloon grants Warren a buff for the next fight.
* CannibalClan: In ''As Good as Dead'', there is a battle against a clan of cannibals living in a ranch and keeping a CannibalLarder in their barn. You have to fight them to recruit a party member (who also knows information about the Masked Man).
* CardsOfPower: Your main stat boosts and special abilities come from these. Making a proper poker hand will give you a powerful stat bonus.
** 9's are survival cards; they give +1 HP and abilities that restore health.
** 10's are trick-shot cards; they give +5 aim and can change the rules of the battlefield, from forcing the battle into sudden deathmatch to ricocheting bullets in an otherwise straight shootout.

* CashGate: In ''A Matter of Time'', advancing the plot requires Cassandra to take part in a poker tournament. You must gather $25,000 to be able to pay the entrance fee.

* TheChessmaster: The Devil. [[spoiler: Warren, his father, and most of their friends and enemies have been manipulated for decades into becoming villains and pawns that will eventually perform the destruction of the Purgatory, dooming humanity as the souls of the recently dead are haphazardly released and drive them insane. For instance, Vasquèz (AKA the Masked Man, Warren's killer) was sent on the journey that changed him into a psychopath by Cervantès, who is himself explicitly described as a Devil's servant, turning the whole ''In Gold We Trust'' scenario into another step of this convoluted plan]].

** In ''Hard Times'', a mysterious man offers Warren to become better (two playing cards) in exchange for "a part of yourself" (permanently decreases Warren's luck stat). He is the same man met right before Warren's demise...
** In the beginning of ''As Good as Dead'', Warren turned to a cursed undead gunslinger after accepting the deal with his dying breath to avenge his (and his girlfriend's) death. It turns out that the same deal was offered to him before the (unwinnable) gunfight, but he didn't think much on it until it was too late.
** In ''Hard Times'', making a bargain with the local gang leader (you benefit from his protection in exchange for a commission of your gold mining) is a metaphorical example, especially when said gang leader keeps claiming a higher and higher commission, eventually turning against Warren's family when they realize they've given the gang leader too much money to spend on firepower.
* DecoyProtagonist: The player can choose to invoke this at the end of ''On Earth, As It Is In Hell'' if they choose to [[spoiler:switch to playing as The Undertaker instead of Warren for the final battle. In doing so, they invert this with Warren's Father, who was the first character the player controls in the prologue.]]

* DrowningMySorrows: In ''As Good as Dead'', each time the party goes to the saloon with Old Man Murray in the team, the dialogue mentions him sitting at a table while drinking booze and blabbering about some Roberta. He then suffers from a non-injury debuff named "ebriety".
* DumbMuscle: Paco, one of the party members of ''A Matter of Time'', is described as very strong and very dumb.

** Each player character is pretty badass by himself[=/=]herself. Then you can equip your team with occult trinkets and playing cards granting supernatural abilities...
** Warren. He turns to an undead gunslinger during ''As Good as Dead'', but he already was pretty competent with guns since ''Hard Times''. You can also de-power his HealingFactor by removing his Ten of Hearts Card, if you wanted to.

* GameBreakingBug: ''Method In Madness'' had a pretty bad one where players found themselves unable to move on the map screen. Patch 1.5 finally fixed it.

** 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 equipping her with occult trinkets or enchanted playing cards.

** In ''Method in Madness'', it's eventually revealed that the insanity has been caused by a meteorite which landed in the area.
** In ''On Earth, as it is in Hell'', Warren can get permanent buffs by absorbing meteorite fragments in his body.
** During ''A Matter of Time'', Cassandra will find mysterious rocks (implied to be radioactive) in a shipwreck. Their Native American companion will ''thoroughly'' recommend against being anywhere near those weird rocks that have cursed dozens throughout her tribe's history[[note]]You only get 100 gold if you scavenge this place, and Cassandra gets a debuffing sickness implied to be radiation poisoning.[[/note]].

** In ''In Gold We Trust'', [[spoiler:Diego and Zacharias (after Diego's demise) eventually understand Vasquèz true intentions and betray him. The penultimate and last fights of the scenario consist of fighting your former men]].
** In ''Law and Order'', [[spoiler: Sister Rosario eventually realizes she has been used by Cervantès for his occult goal. She abruptly leaves the party after the penultimate fight. She reappears at the second part of the final mission, leading a counterattack which must be killed to the last woman to win the scenario]].

** Solomon De[=Lear=] in ''Law and Order''.
** ''On Earth, as it is in Hell'' ends with a fight between Warren's party and [[spoiler:a group of the true heroes of the story, led by the Undertaker, determined to stop Warren from completing his insane plan]].
** ''In Gold We Trust'' ends with [[spoiler:Diego and Zacharias, two of Vasquèz friends, understanding the protagonist's true intentions and trying to put him down]].

* HumanoidAbomination: [[spoiler:Undead Warren is eventually revealed to have been turned into one. It seems that the mere existence of the undead Warren is a bad enough violation of nature that it is what caused the souls of the recently departed to be trapped in Purgatory]].

* IJustWantToBeNormal: In ''A Matter of Time'', Cassandra has premonitions which are followed by crippling migraines. After being saved from the gallows by two men sent by the mysterious Protector, she decides to follow them to see the Protector when she learns that the Protector could get rid of this gift.
* InfinityPlusOneSword: The Judge, a firearm earned in ''On Earth, as it is in Hell'' for recruiting H. Persons. It's a sniper rifle with a whopping ''12'' damage, which is so ludicrously high (higher than a shotgun with nine barrels) that it can reliably OneHitKill standard enemies in half-cover.

** The final battle of ''Graveyard Shift'' ends when the demon is defeated, regardless of whether there are still mooks alive or not (but only if the blood vials are destroyed).
** The final battle of ''A Matter of Time'' ends when Cassandra activates the machine.
** ''Scars of Freedom'''s battle #1-2 requires Libertee to hit the gate switch and escape. She doesn't need to save the other two slaves or kill all the slavers[[note]]But each slaver death means she gets more Ether to upgrade and maintain herself, so a full slaughter of these assholes is still profitable.[[/note]].
* TheJinx: The Undertaker was cursed to bring death and destruction to those who crossed his path. He made a living out of it. In-game, any nearby enemies suffer -30 Luck each turn.

* KarmaHoudini: Cervantès, depending on the choices. After ruining De[=Lear=]'s work, he chases Cassandra during her scenario, without suffering from any consequence. Can be averted in ''On Earth, as it is in Hell'' if you recruited him and [[spoiler:he dies in the final battle]].
* LuckStat: In combat, the luck stat affects the chance to dodge a bullet (each missed shot decreases the target's luck, each hit gives him[=/=]her some luck back); the special abilities granted by poker cards also consume luck when used. On the worldmap, the success chance of some actions is calculated from the protagonist's luck.

* MadArtist: One of the points of interest in ''Method in Madness'' is the cabin of a mad painter. Looking at his paintings worsens De[=Lear=]'s madness.
* MoreDakka: In ''As Good As Dead'', one of the shopkeepers is a GunNut who specializes in shotguns. Humorously, she'll upgrade your x-barreled shotguns to (x+1)-barreled shotguns for x*10 dollars each, with Warren snarking about 'what's better than x barrels? x+1'.
* MyRulesAreNotYourRules: Overwatch is unavailable to the player characters, in order to force the player to flank the enemy instead of turning each tactical battle into a purely defensive firefight.

** BittersweetEnding: There are two way to unlock it, but it leads to the same final cutscene. [[spoiler: If the player eventually chooses to fight the final battle as the Undertaker, or if the player keeps playing as Warren, then kills the Undertaker and his posse, and finally chooses the suicide, the cutscene tells that the Devil's plan have been defeated, that Warren is sent to Hell while Florence goes to Heaven]].

** LastSecondEndingChoice: This choice appears after the end of the final battle. Hit the switch, or use Warren's newest 'ability'.

* NoNameGiven: Father[=/=]The Undertaker (though a fake name he uses is revealed in game), the Mexican, the Protector. Warren's surname is never revealed, and Old Man Murray doesn't really sounds like a proper name.

** Cervantès is not only the protagonist of ''Law and Order'', he's also one of the hirable party members in ''On Earth, as it is in Hell'', as well as being the man who sent Vasquèz on his treasure hunt.
** ''In Gold We Trust'' is about how Vasquèz [[spoiler:became the Masked Man]].
** The former prostitute 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]].
** H. Persons, one of the available party members in ''On Earth, as it is in Hell'', is stated to be an ex-Pinkerton obsessed by some meteorite fragments. He is probably one of the "Persons" from ''Method in Madness''.
** The demon Bathym Raum, the big bad of ''Graveyard Shift'', appears as an NPC during ''Law and Order''. He eventually joins the party for the final fight of the chapter.
** Lafortuna, the unseen gang leader serving as a villain for the beginning of ''In Gold We Trust'', is also involved in the events of ''A Matter of Time'', as being involved in the search of the Protector, as well as being the organizer of a poker tournament which you must enter to advance the plot.

* OptionalStealth: In some fight sequences, the enemy isn't alerted at the start, and remains blissfully unaware until you open fire, enter their detection area, hold them up, or perform a specific action scripted to start the combat. Since most of those missions require you to shoot everyone, stealth is used to gain an initiative in combat by stealing optional objects before their guards pull out guns, and then get into strategic positions. Some missions can be played perfectly in stealth (such as Reverend Ashmore's rescue in ''Graveyard Shift'' or the bank robbery in ''As Good As Dead'').

* PayEvilUntoEvil[=/=]RoaringRampageOfRevenge: In ''As Good as Dead'', an undead Warren tries to avenge his death and Florence's by causing enough damage to the Masked Man's properties to piss him off and lure him into a gunfight. In this scenario, available options include poisoning the water supplies of a farm inhabited by cannibals, killing all the hunters who are poaching on Indian lands, robbing a bank guarded by ''an actual demon and his harem'', or burn down the Mask Man's mansion with every servant inside - or for extra cruelty, enslave them all.
* PinballProjectile: The Ten of Diamonds allows you to shoot specific objects to ricochet your bullet, thus allowing you to hit at full damage an enemy who is behind cover or impossible to aim directly; there's a Steam achievement for hitting an enemy after at least three ricochets. Strangely, this does ''not'' decrease the standard accuracy of the bullet[[note]]This gets rectified in the sequel[[/note]].

** Three expendable Pinkerton agents (A. Persons, B. Persons, and C. Persons) serve as support for De[=Lear=] during ''Method in Madness''. Each of them is replaced by an identical man when killed, and they refuse to tell De[=Lear=] who sent them.
** Someone named H. Persons is one of the hirable gunslingers available during ''On Earth, as it is in Hell''. He is stated to be an ex-Pinkerton and is violently insane.
* {{Prospector}}: Warren does this in the first scenario. The amount of gold found depends on the level of skills which can be trained in a prospector camp, and any technology or workforce he invests in.
* ProtagonistJourneyToVillain: What 'As Good as Dead'' is to Warren.

** In ''Hard Times'', Warren goes once to the Mexican's village to kill him and free Florence. Later, there is a notification telling you that the Mexican has been replaced by an even worse thug, and you receive a sidequest offering to go back to the same village to finish the job.
** In ''On Earth, as it is in Hell'', the fort you must defend the in the beginning [[spoiler:as the Undertaker]] is the same place the Wizard is holding H. Persons prisoner.
* SanitySlippage: De[=Lear=] is driven to madness over the course of ''Method in Madness''. In-game, it results in incurable stat debuffs which grow progressively higher.
* {{Satan}}: This shady 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 explicitly 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]].

* ShootTheShaggyDog: While ''Method in Madness'' ends with De[=Lear=] finding a cure to the dementia, ''Law and Order'' consists in destroying his work and eventually killing him.
* ShortRangeShotgun: Averted. Shotguns have normal attacks (in which they fire at a single target and can hit at a relative long range while still inflicting the same amount of damage, though their accuracy drops faster than other weapons'), and a cone of damage' one (in which the weapon hits the targets standing inside a cone-shaped area, in a much shorter range).

* StartOfDarkness: The ''In Gold We Trust'' prequel scenario is about how [[spoiler:Alvaro Vasquèz became the Masked Man]].
* SuddenlyVoiced: In the base game, only the narrator (Death) is voiced, describing the events of every scenario. Come ''Scars of Freedom'', you finally get to hear other characters speak, namely Dr. Gorman and protagonist Libertee.

* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: In ''A Matter of Time'', at one point during the poker tournament, Cassandra has the possibility to remove an opponent from the competition by putting some laxative in an unattended glass ([[ChekhovsGun if you bought the laxative in the hospital]]).
* TheNoseKnows: One of the cards gives an ability allowing to locate wounded enemies by smelling their blood.
* {{Undertaker}}: Why is Warren's father referred to 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'', with a touch of 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]].
** Gabriel de Cervantès in ''Law and Order'' has been tasked by the Devil to destroy the work of Solomon De[=Lear=].
** Alvaro Vasquèz in ''In Gold We Trust''. In the course of the scenario, the expedition uses more and more extreme methods. After ordering the massacre of Indian villages to avoid them to meddle in your excavations in their lands, then [[spoiler:wearing an ArtifactOfDoom that transforms him into a complete psychopath, turning on his friends and companions for their betrayal when they try to stop him, and even ordering his peons to participate in suicide rituals. It turns that Vasquèz is the Masked Man.]].
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: In ''Law and Order'', everyone trusts Cervantès, and several [=NPCs=] state that his visit is an honor to them. Not very surprising, since the man is described as very charismatic and is a high ranked catholic prelate wearing the relevant garb.
* WantedPoster: In ''As Good as Dead'', there is a wanted poster of Warren on the lower-left corner of the HUD of the worldmap. As Warren slaughters people and destroys property, the bounty on Warren's head increases to ludicrous levels.

* YouCantGoHomeAgain: At one point in ''Hard Times'', Warren's father decides to leave his loved ones in order to keep his curse away from them. Then, the scenario ends with Warren and Florence defending Warren's farm from an attack of bandits... who are then identified as men from a railroad company who acquired their land, forcing the couple to go on the run.

!!Hard West II provides examples of the following:
* AbsurdlyHighStakesGame: At the start of the game, the posse gamble their souls in a game of poker for a chance to win the Ghost Train[[note]]Technically, Mammon only offered the Engine, but it's the most important part.[[/note]] from Mammon. While Gin 'manages' to get four Aces, Mammon ups him by drawing a Joker to get Five-Of-A-Kind. Gin notes that the deck they're playing with didn't have Jokers, so the latter was ''definitely'' cheating - Mammon doesn't care.

* DarkAndTroubledPast / DefectorFromDecadence: Your posse members have beef.

''Hard West'' is a TurnBasedTactics game by [=CreativeForge=] Games for [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PC]], UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, and UsefulNotes/XboxONE, 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 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, with parts of the scenery providing cover. 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 sequences start with the enemy being unaware of your presence, which allows one to position the party for an ambush.

* 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 gallows by a duo of gunslingers sent by a mysterious benefactor known as "the Protector". Cassandra's powers, while beneficial, are slowly driving her insane with torment, and she will do anything to make the visions stop.

The [[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1282410/Hard_West_2/ sequel]], Hard West II, was released in August 2022. You command Gin Carter and his posse, a gang of bandits and murders who bite more than they chew when they accidentally rob a supernatural train belonging to the Devil of Greed himself, Mammon. Gin attempts to gamble the posse's souls for the ghost train - and loses, whereby Mammon lays claim to the posse's souls and leaves them stranded in the slowly dying Northwest America. The gang has one obsession: chase down the Ghost Train and fleece the Devil of Greed of all his (literally) earthly possessions, especially his mortal host.

The sequel reworked the gameplay basics of the original to play more like a Western movie. Every direct kill refunds the character's action points, allowing them to chain a killstreak or even give the whole gang multiple extra turns. Luck has been reworked as a currency which can increase the chances of hitting an enemy instead of acting as a shield/magic pool, while cover and hunkering down play more of a role in defense than the prequel. Half the game's guns have the ability to ricochet bullets on certain environmental objects instead of one guy with a card. Most importantly, the card system has been revamped. Cards still give stat boosts but no longer give abilities; each character has their own unique active skill and a passive skill tree, both of which are upgraded based on the strength of their current poker hand.

* CastingAShadow: Gin's action skill lets lose a barrage of shadow bullets in a straight line, which always hit every enemy in their path and go through walls.

** Laughing Deer assassinated a beloved peacekeeping chief on the orders of his boss - who then tried to dispose of him.
** Bill's old gang found a TomeOfEldritchHorror that slowly corrupted them. When they started summoning demons, he fled, and eventually hunted them down. [[spoiler:It gets worse, as getting murdered turned his son into a ruthless bandit.]]

* EmpathicHealer: Lazarus' action skill lets him swap his HP and status effects (positive and negative) with those of a nearby allied target. His passive abilities allow him to self-heal said wounds. The second tier lets him swap with enemy targets (devastating if Lazarus is critically wounded) and the third tier increases the range.

* SummonMagic: Cla'lish's action skill summons an undead warrior who acts as a decoy for one turn, then dies. At second tier, the warrior will last for two turns and can melee attack on the second turn, and at third tier the warrior cripples anyone he attacks.

A [[https://store.steampowered.com/app/1282410/Hard_West_2/ sequel]] has been announced. The prologue is free-to-play.

* AbsurdlyHighStakesGame: At the start of the game, the posse gamble their souls in a game of poker for a chance to win the Ghost Engine from Mammon. While Gin 'manages' to get four Aces, Mammon ups him by drawing a Joker to get Five-Of-A-Kind. Gin notes that the deck they're playing with doesn't have Jokers - Mammon just doesn't care.
* BadassNormal: Laughing Deer. A doctor notes that he's the only member of the posse without supernatural powers of his own.
* CastingAShadow: Gin's action skill lets lose a barrage of shadow bullets in a cylinder, which always hit every enemy and go through walls.
* CriticalStatusBuff: Bill's action skill causes him to shoot bullets at every enemy within line-of-sight for scratch damage. The more damage he has taken, the stronger the bullets become.
* DarkAndTroubledPast/DefectorFromDecadence: Your posse members have beef.

** Laughing Deer assassinated a peacekeeping chief on the orders of his boss - who then tried to dispose of him.

** Lazarus abandoned the church due to its ongoing corruption. Eventually, he found himself fighting for his life in Hell [[spoiler:where he managed to save [=DeLear=].]]

* EmpathicHealer: Lazarus' action skill lets him swap the HP and status effects (positive and negative) of a nearby allied target. His passive abilities allow him to self-heal said wounds. The second tier lets him swap with enemy targets and the third tier increases the range.
* EvilInc: Brass and Co., a seemingly average robber baron manufacturing company, builds and sells supernatural weapons for profit. They've generally lost their minds to greed.
* ExtraTurn: The Bravado system. Any character who scores a kill gets their action points refunded. Gin in particular gets +1 to (weapon) damage if he's on an extra turn.

* LuckManipulation Mechanic: Your posse has a Luck bar they can tap into to increase the chance-to-hit of any of their attacks. Luck refills when your character is shot, or with the right items.
* MechanicalAbomination: The Ghost Train itself, a [[Video/AHouseOfManyDoors kinetopede]] (centipede-legged train) that's half-wrecked and powered by the souls of the dead.
* SummonMagic: Cla'lish's action skill summons an undead melee warrior who can distract the enemy. At second tier, the warrior will last for two turns and can attack on the second turn, and at third tier the warrior cripples anyone he attacks.

!!This game provides examples of the following:

* AluminumChristmasTrees: [[http://meckamecha.tumblr.com/post/171506663559/tyrannosaurus-rex-bethany-anne-fisch A good portion of the absurd gun designs in the game are based on real (but no less weird) guns.]]

* CattlePunk: The more bizarre guns available, such as a 9-barreled shotgun and a revolving revolver, appear to be this. However, all those guns existed in RealLife. See AluminumChristmasTrees, above.

* ArbitraryMinimumRange: Rifles and sniper rifles lose accuracy at close range, making it advantageous for a rifleman to carry a pistol or shotgun as a backup weapon.

* RareGuns: In addition to the usual western guns, such as revolvers, Derringers, doubled-barreled shotguns, {{Sawed Off Shotgun}}s, and Winchester rifles, the game adds triple-barreled shotguns, Quad-barreled shotguns, Howdah pistols, Lever action pistols, and single shot {{Hand Cannon}}s. And that's not even getting into the crazier guns, such as chain pistols, twelve barreled Pepperbox pistols, or single shot gilded mega-rifles that can obliterate nearly anyone in a single hit.

* StartOfDarkness: The ''In Gold We Trust'' prequel scenario is about how [[spoiler: \Alvaro Vasquèz became the Masked Man]].

* YouCantGoHomeAgain: At one point in ''Hard Times'', Warren's father decides to leave his loved ones in order to keep his curse away from them. Then, the scenario ends with Warren and Florence defending Warren's farm from an attack of bandits... who are then identified as men from a railroad company who acquired their land, forcing the couple to go on the run.

** Hearts are Hunter cards; your character becomes a master of hunting down foes, with abilities centered around tearing apart those who are heavily entrenched.
** Diamonds are Tracker cards; your character becomes a master of stealth, doing their best work in the shadows while gathering strength for a final push.
** Spades are Gunslinger cards; your character works best when outnumbered, turning the tide with spam attacks and bonuses for being outgunned.
** Clubs are Terror cards; your character becomes TheDreaded, capable of freaking enemies out as they no-sell what should have been fatal hits and then devour the bodies of the dead ''raw''.

** Averted for the party members if you activated the "injury" feature. During the fight sequences, it turns debilitating into a debuff called an 'Injury', which negatively affects various stats, the most common of which is a debuff to max HP. After being carried during two fights, a wound is healed and replaced by a "scar", like lost organs or cracked limbs or even ''brain damage'', which permanently lowers one stat but permanently increases two stats to compensate[[note]]Gushing Wound is a debilitating injury that debuffs max HP by 3, and its corresponding wound is an outright upgrade that has no negative debuff and regenerates 1 HP / turn[]/note]], making scars a viable means of leveling up characters - by mutilating and crippling them.

* Plot summary: While travelling on the Oregon trail, a family (two unnamed parents and their son Warren) are captured and robbed by bandits. The father manages to escapes and kills all the bandits, saving his son, but he only finds his wife's severed head. A decade later, he and the now-adult Warren settled on the place of the tragedy, cultivating a (poor) farm. The discovery of gold in the region draws the attention of bandits, while poor decisions from Father brings a curse on the family...
* Special gameplay elements: The protagonist benefits from a prospecting 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 prospecting which makes the plot progress.

* Plot summary: Forced to flee his farm at the end of ''Hard Times'' while being wanted for murder, Warren is wandering with his girlfriend Florence, living from money he gains playing poker. He eventually pisses of the wrong guy, who have Warren and Florence killed. In his dying moment, Warren makes a DealWithTheDevil. Raised as an undead, Warren starts a RoaringRampageOfRevenge...
* Special gameplay elements: In order to find the location of his killer, Warren must cause $65000 worth of damage to the various properties they own. Optionally, Warren can also kill 100 people for special rewards, but the local shops will raise their prices as the bodycount grows and may even flee the area if it reaches an excessive amount.

* 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 the former bounty hunter Oswald Harrington (one of the only survivors), the undertaker tries to stop them.
* Special gameplay elements: Each day is divided in five periods. Moving on the map advances the clock to the new period. Moving when the clock is on the last one forces the party to camp; you can feed each party member once (grants no buff and no debuff), twice (grants a buff), or nothing at all (grants a debuff), which requires to manage food. Also, the interactions offered by some places depends on the hour of the day.

* Special gameplay elements: You need to have three party members in order to unlock the final battle. [[spoiler: At which point, you can choose to play it as Warren's team or as the Undertaker's, the unchosen party being the antagonists of the fight]].

!!The doctor, the inquisitor, and the seer

* Plot summary: An epidemics of violent dementia plagues the region. Doctor Solomon De[=Lear=] intends to stop it. Having inherited the laboratory of an old rival of him, he also receives support from a mysterious trio of Pinkerton agents.
* Special gameplay elements: De[=Lear=] can research new items in the laboratory, allowing then to buy them. The items are sorted in three lists (technical, chemical, weapons), each research requires a blueprint to be achieved. Also, the further the plot advances, the more De[=Lear=]' sanity is affected (and the higher his combat stats are affected); at some occasions, De[=Lear=] can choose to give in to more insanity to receive a free blueprint.

* Plot summary: Solomon De[=Lear=] managed to succeed to cure the dementia and formed a secret society to protect the area from it. The corrupt inquisitor Gabriel de Cervantès is tasked by the Devil to destroy all what De[=Lear=] managed to create.
* Special gameplay elements: Finding the final area requires to find and kill several members of De[=Lear=]'s order. You quickly find their approximative location, but must investigate more to have their exact identity. With their identity, you can show up on the place and convince the locals to kill the target themselves, which sometimes grants a reward. Or you can just choose to slaughter everyone, but it has consequences (for instances, several of those places work as shops...).

* 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 gallows by a duo of gunslingers sent by a mysterious benefactor known as "the Protector".
* Special gameplay elements: Some dialogue options can trigger a premonition to Cassandra, which unlock some specific dialogue lines. The player has the choice to accept or reject the premonition, since having one prevents another immediate use of the gift (you must rest or visit another place to refill it).

* Plot summary: Alvaro Vasquèz mounts an expedition with a couple of friends to find a legendary treasure.
* Special gameplay elements: The worldmap phase of the scenario lies on the careful management of the expedition manpower and a food's stockpile. Several events require a minimum amount of food and workers to be available, and each action usually decreases the food amount, sometimes also draining the manpower. Food and men can be bought on the map; you can also gain food by hunting.

* Plot summary: An escaped slave is killed and revived as a Frankenstein's Monster and fights to survive in a strange new body.
* Special Gameplay Elements: Libertee and other "constructs" gain body parts instead of magic playing cards as in the main game, but must constantly manage their "essence" in the overworld, lest they rot away.

* AlwaysAccurateAttack: The 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.
* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: In each scenario, the party consists in at least the current protagonist. You can have up to three followers, usually encountered in the progression of the plot.

** Cervantès, the VillainProtagonist of ''Law and Order'', is a high-ranking catholic prelate wearing the relevant uniform. It doesn't prevent him to be as capable as others party members in gunfights. The description of his unique gun states that he received it from the hands of the Pope.
** Sister Rosario, still in ''Law and Order'', is a nun who betrayed De[=Lear=] and can be hired by Cervantès. [[spoiler: At the end of the scenario, she understands Cervantès' true intents and leads a counterattack against the protagonists]].

* BadassBookworm: De[=Lear=] is just a doctor, but his fighting skills aren't initially less good than the other protagonists. Until madness decreases his stats...

** On the other hand, unlocking certain items and completing a scenario lets them be purchased again from a "Fate Trader" in other scenarios.

* BigGood: [[TheGrimReaper Death]], who has been TheNarrator for the entire game, recruits [[spoiler: The Undertaker/Father]] to stop Warren from destroying [[spoiler: Purgatory]]. There's hints that he's been helping Solomon [=DeLear=] during ''Method In Madness'' in the form of the Persons.
* BodySurf: In ''Graveyard Shift'', Bathym Raum reappears by possessing mooks, as long long their are still mooks alive on the map. During the last fight of the chapter, you also can disable his body surfing ability by destroying the blood vials.

* CashGate: In ''A Matter of Time'', advancing the plot requires to take part in a poker tournament. You must gather $25,000 to be able to pay the entrance fee.

* 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 explicitly described as a Devil's servant, turning the whole ''In Gold We Trust'' scenario in another step of this convoluted plan]].

* CrapsackWorld: As befitting the title of the game, life in the west is shown as harsh and merciless with murder, crime and corruption being commonplace alongside supernatural evils.

** Averted for the party members if you activated the "injury" feature. During the fight sequences, it turns very damaging hits into a debuff called "wound", which affects various stats, usually including a malus to the maximum hitpoints amount. After being carried during two fights, a wound is healed and replaced by a "scar", which grants a permanent buff as well as a low debuff to a specific stat.
** Played straight for the party if you didn't activate the option. Also, the enemy aren't affected by it.

** In ''Hard Times'', a mysterious man offers you to become better in exchange of "a part of yourself" (it permanently decreases the luck stat if accepted). He is the same man than the one met right before Warren's demise...
** In the beginning of ''As Good as Dead'', Warren turned to a cursed undead gunslinger after doing one while he was dying, to avenge his (and his girlfriend's) death. It turns that the same deal was offered to him before the (unwinnable) gunfight who saw his demise, but he didn't accept yet.
** In ''Hard Times'', doing a bargain with the local gang leader (benefiting 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.
* DecoyProtagonist: The player can choose to invoke this at the end of ''On Earth, As It Is In Hell'' if they choose to [[spoiler: switch to playing as The Undertaker instead of Warren for the final battle. In doing so, they invert this with Warren's Father, who was the first character the player controls in the prologue.]]
* DevelopersForesight: The only available weapons in the game are firearms, there are no fistfight mechanics. What happens if you enter a tactical encounter with a character who doesn't have any weapon equipped? He receives a special gun named the "Rusty Peashooter", which is a sixshooter revolver inflicting 1 point of damage per shot.
* DrowningMySorrows: In ''As Good as Dead'', each time the party goes to the saloon with Old Man Murray in the team, the dialogue mention him sitting at a table while drinking booze and repeating the name of a Roberta. He then suffers from a debuff named "ebriety".

** Warren. He turns to an undead gunslinger during ''As Good as Dead'', but he already was pretty competent with guns since ''Hard Times''.
* ExtraTurn: One of the card active abilities gives its bearer an extra action point each time the character kills an enemy.
* FragileSpeedster: In battle, Cassandra is both the weakest party member and the one who can move the most during a turn. Though, give her the right gun and she becomes a GlassCannon as well.

** Cassandra's premonitions are described to give her horrible headaches, justifying why she must rest to use her gift again. In her character's sheets, it doesn't give a negative modifier to her stats, which means that entering a fight without having rested (and thus, with a crippling migraine) won't have the slightest effect on her fighting abilities.
* GreaterScopeVillain: [[spoiler: While each scenario has its own specific big bad, it turns that the descent of Warren into darkness has been orchestrated by the Devil]].

** In ''In Gold We Trust'', [[spoiler: Diego then Zacharias (after Diego's demise) eventually understand Vasquèz true intents and betray him. The penultimate and last fights of the scenario consist in fighting your former men]].
** In ''Law and Order'', [[spoiler: Sister Rosario eventually understands she has been used by Cervantès for his occult goal. She abruptly leaves the party after the penultimate fight. She reappears at the second part of the final mission, leading a counterattack which must be dispatch to win the scenario]].

** ''On Earth, as it is in Hell'' ends with a fight between Warren's party and [[spoiler: a group of the actually heroic characters, lead by the Undertaker, determined to stop Warren to complete his insane plan]].
** ''In Gold We Trust'' ends with [[spoiler: Diego and Zacharias, two of Vasquèz friends, understanding the protagonist's true intents and trying to stop him]].
* HeroMustSurvive: Each scenario has a main protagonist who must survive the fights, as well as important party members who are involved in the plot (some other characters aren't plot critical, and only serve to provide more firepower during the battles). Losing one of those heroes requires to start the battle again, unless you play in "Iron Man" mode, in which case you'll have to restart the scenario from the beginning.

* HumanResources: Some of trinkets (ear necklace, tooth necklace, human hide shirt) are made with human body parts.
* HumanoidAbomination: [[spoiler: Undead Warren is eventually revealed to have been turned into one. It seems that the mere existence of the undead Warren is a bad enough violation of nature that it is what caused the souls of the recently departed to be trapped in Purgatory]].

** [[PinballProjectile The ricochet ability]].
** The golden bullet card active ability allows to shoot a target with 100% accuracy and the maximum amount of damage for the gun, regardless of cover or any obstacle (the only condition is that someone in the party has spotted the target).
* IJustWantToBeNormal: In ''A Matter of Time'', Cassandra have premonitions which are followed by crippling migraines. After being saved from the gallows by two men sent by the mysterious Protector, she decides to follow them to see the Protector when she learns that the Protector could get her rid of this gift.
* InfinityPlusOneSword: The Judge, a firearm earned in ''On Earth, as it is in Hell'' for recruiting H. Persons. Its damages are so high that it OneHitKill absolutely every character in the game who is not in cover position. Including the final bosses.
* InstantWinCondition: Averted in most battles (you either have to kill every enemy, survive for X turns, or lead the whole team on the exit point), but played straight at two occasions:

* KarmaHoudini: Cervantès, depending on the choices. After ruining De[=Lear=]'s work, he chases Cassandra during her scenario, without suffering from any consequence. Can be averted in ''On Earth, as it is in Hell'' if you recruited him, and [[spoiler: fought the final battle as the Undertaker instead of Warren]].

* ManaMeter: One of the uses of the luck stat. It only affects the abilities gained from the playing cards.

** LastSecondEndingChoice: This choice appears after the end of the final battle.

** Shotguns are, [[ShortRangeShotgun good close up]] and come with the Cone Shot ability, allowing the player the ability to hit multiple targets at once, but are useless at any kind of distance, have low ammo capacity and do less damage to an enemy in cover than other weapons.

** Scoped Rifles are excellent long range weapons and can penetrate cover better than other weapons, but, like rifles, suffer accuracy penalties up close and have to be reloaded with every shot.
* NightmareFace: After becoming an undead, the right side of Warren's face now has a glowing eye , scars, and holes in his cheek.
* NoNameGiven: Father[=/=]The Undertaked (though a fake name he uses is revealed in game), the Mexican, the Protector. Warren's surname is never revealed, and Old Man Murray doesn't really sounds like a proper name.

** ''In Gold We Trust'' is about how Vasquèz [[spoiler: became the Masked Man]].
** The former prostitute 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]].

** The demon Bathym Raum, the big bad of ''Graveyard Shift'', appears as a NPC during ''Law and Order''. He eventually joins the party for the final fight.

* OneHitPointWonder: While it's normally averted, there is the card ability "Equalization", which drops the hit points of every characters on the map (enemies and party members) to 1. This is especially dangerous for the ability's user, because, being a card ability, using it consumes luck, which also decreases the dodge chance.
* 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 some missions (such as Reverend Ashmore's rescue in ''Graveyard Shift'' or the bank robbery in ''As Good As Dead'') can be entirely completed without firing a single shot.
* PayEvilUntoEvil[=/=]RoaringRampageOfRevenge: In ''As Good as Dead'', an undead Warren tries to avenge his death and Florence's by causing enough damages in the Masked Man's properties to lure his attention and eventually have his revenge. In this scenarios, available options include poisoning the water supplies of a farm inhabited by cannibals, killing all the hunters who are poaching on the Indian lands, robbing a bank guarded by demons, or burn down the Mask Man's mansion with every servant inside, after locking every issue.
* PinballProjectile: One of the cards active abilities allows to shoot some specific objects in order to have a ricochet, thus allowing to hit at full damage an enemy who is behind cover or impossible to aim; there's a Steam achievement for hitting an enemy after at least three ricochets. It decreases the accuracy of the bullet.

** Three expendable Pinkerton agents (A. Persons, B. Persons, and C. Persons) serve as support for De[=Lear=] during ''Method in Madness''. Each of them is replaced by an identical man when killed, and they refuse to answer to the question about who sent them.
** Someone named H. Persons is one of the hirable gunslingers available during ''On Earth, as it is in Hell''. He is stated to be an ex-Pinkerton.
* {{Prospector}}: Warren does this in the first scenario. The amount of gold found depends on the level of skills which can be trained in a prospector camp.

* RareGuns: In addition to the usual western guns, such as revolvers, Derringers, doubled-barrelled shotguns, {{Sawed Off Shotgun}}s, and Winchester rifles, the game adds triple-barrelled shotguns, Quad-barrelled shotguns, Howdah pistols, Lever action pistols, and single shot {{Hand Cannon}}s. And that's not even getting into the crazier guns, such as chain pistols, twelve barrelled Pepperbox pistols, or single shot rifles that can obliterate anyone in a single hit.

** In ''Hard Times'', Warren goes once to the Mexican's village to kill him and free Florence. Latter, there is a notification telling that the Mexican has been replaced by an even worse thug, and you receive a sidequest offering to go back to the same village to finish the job.
** In ''On Earth, as it is in Hell'', the fort you must defend in the beginning [[spoiler: as the Undertaker]] is the same place that the one in which H. Persons is latter held prisoner.
* 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 higher.
* {{Satan}}: This shady 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 explicitly 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]].

** "The Shootist": Complete any tactical encounter firing sure shots (100% Chance to Hit) exclusively.[[note]]Easier to say than to do, since it either requires lots of short-range combat and flanking, or heavy use of one of the sniper rifles (only one bullet in the magazine and an ability to use two action points score a perfect shot; using this weapon this way basically means you waste a turn before being able to shoot again)[[/note]]

* SinisterMinister: Gabriel de Cervantès, the "corrupt inquisitor". He actually is a servant of the Devil.

* StartOfDarkness: The ''In Gold We Trust'' prequel scenario is about how [[spoiler: Alvaro Vasquèz became the Masked Man]].

* TakeCover: The areas in which the battles occur have plenty of objects and obstacles (columns, tables, walls, stone benches, etc.) which can be used at cover. Being behind a cover greatly decreases the damage inflicted and drops the attacker's accuracy. Obstacles have two levels of cover, of varying efficiency.

* {{Undertaker}}: Why is Warren's father referred 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'').
* UnstableEquilibrium: Losing non-essential party members can make later fights more difficult, as you may have to fight the next fight with an incomplete team (in some instances, their are opportunities to recruit some other peoples); making poor decisions during the StoryBranching (or playing with the injuries activated and suffering from some of them) can also lead a character to suffer from the debuffs granted by wounds.
* UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler: Warren is eventually revealed to be this for the Devil. Telling him that he could see Florence again if he destroys the Purgatory was technically true, but it forgot two details: 1) the dead spirits are unable to interact with the living 2) releasing them would eventually cause the extinction of humanity. Oh, and the worst thing? The mere existence of the undead Warren is a bad enough violation of nature that it is what caused the souls of the recently departed to be trapped in Purgatory (Florence eventually goes to Heaven after Warren's death)]].

** Warren becomes one in ''As Good as Dead'', with a touch of 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]].

** Alvaro Vasquèz in ''In Gold We Trust''. In the course of the scenario, the expedition uses more and more extreme methods. After ordering the massacre of Indian villages to avoid them to meddle in your excavations in their lands, then [[spoiler: turning on his friends and companions for their betrayal when they tried to stop him. It turns that Vasquèz is the Masked Man, having found it near the end of the scenario]].
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: In ''Law and Order'', everyone trusts Cervantès, and several [=NPCs=] state that his visit is a honour to them. Not very surprising, since the man is described as very charismatic and is a high ranked catholic prelate wearing the relevant garb.
* WantedPoster: In ''As Good as Dead'', the progress of the objectives (destroying worth of $65,000 of the Masked Man properties, as well as the side objective of killing one hundred people) is reflected by the evolution of the numbers shown on Warren's own wanted poster, in the bottom left corner of the worldmap.
* WeirdWest: The setting is explicitly described as such by the developers, being 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...[[DealWithTheDevil for a price]].
* YouCantGoHomeAgain: At one point in ''Hard Times'', Warren's father decide to leave his loved ones in order to keep his curse away from them. Then, the scenario ends with Warren and Florence defending Warren's farm from an attack of bandits... who are then identified as men from a railroad company who acquired their land, forcing the couple to go on the run.

* AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent: All scenarios have different overworld mechanics for how you progress the story and generate resources.

* DecoyProtagonist: The player can choose to invoke this at the end of ''On Earth, As It Is In Hell'' if they choose to [[spoiler: switch to playing as The Undertaker instead of Warren for the final battle.]]

The game includes elements of exploration and RPG. Using a worldmap, players advance the plotline by moving the party between points of interest. Reaching them triggers ChooseYourOwnAdventure-like dialogs, which can either benefit or harm players, such as new party members or items. Each scenario has its own gameplay quirks, which usually alters this sequence in some way.

* UnstableEquilibrium: Losing non-essential party members can make later fights more difficult, as you may have to fight the next fight with an incomplete team (in some instances, their are opportunities to recruit some other peoples); making poor decisions during the ChooseYourOwnAdventure (or playing with the injuries activated and suffering from some of them) can also lead a character to suffer from the debuffs granted by wounds.