"The West. A land of opportunity. Adventure. A place where you can be a hero, a scoundrel and anything in between. Play your cards right and coming out here could be the best thing that could ever happen to you. If you can survive that is."
— Opening Narration to the game
Weird West is an Action-Adventure Immersive Sim developed by WolfEye Studios and published by Devolver Digital.
You play as five different individuals in a strange interpretation of the wild west, where lawmen and gunslingers share the frontier with ancient and mystical horrors.
The game was released for Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on March 31, 2022.
Weird West provides examples of:
- Avenging the Villain: One of the causes of NPCs starting a Vendetta against the player characters is witnessing their gang's leader being murdered during a bounty hunting quest, which turns a random mook into a named antagonist who then leaves the map (this typically only happens if you eliminate the leader without using stealth tactics). Sometimes, mooks present during an actual Vendetta encounter start a Vendetta themselves if the named Vendetta leader gets killed during a Vendetta encounter.
- Arc Villain: The first four heroes all have an antagonist of sorts for their storyline.
- Jane Bell: Shelby Cross, a Siren who has taken control of the Stillwater Gang and is responsible for killing her son and kidnapping her husband.
- Cl'erns Qu'ig: Ruth Bough, a witch who was cast out of the Oneirists responsible for creating Pigmen.
- Across Waters: The Wiindigo, a malevolent entity of greed whose presence is cursing the very land.
- Desiderio Rios: The Authority, the leader of the Oneirists, is set up as the initial antagonist. Doing some digging will reveal that the true antagonist is Sybil Branch, an Oneirist who is manipulating the Absolutionists as part of her own bid to control the West.
- Action Bomb: The game's resident bomb-tossing bastards,
Mine Crawlers, are absurdly fast zombie-like freaks with an upsettingly high armour rating whose only attacks are either throwing lots and lots of extremely deadly dynamite at you, or pulling out dynamite and running at you, which mercifully still has their dynamite burning down, meaning you can at least put distance to let them fail and blow only themselves up. If any enemy kills you for the first time even on easy difficulties, it'll either be them, or the regular ol' western bears. - Arbitrary Headcount Limit: You can't have more than two followers at the same time.
- Artificial Brilliance: At night, enemies will try to turn on unlit lanterns.
- The Atoner: At the end of Cl'erns Qu'ig's storyline, he learns that back in his life as Clarence Quigley he was a violently abusive brothel owner who was particularly cruel to the prostitute he supposedly loved. As such when he finally tracks down Cecilia one of the options is to beg for her forgiveness, which sets him on a path to become a better person than he used to be.
- Badass Normal: Jane is just a normal woman with gunfighting skills unless you turn her into a werewolf, yet she's able to gundown tons of bandits, hostile animals, zombies, wraiths... She's as capable as the other player characters, who are a mutated pigman, a native with some magical powers, a werewolf, and a witch.
- Bag of Spilling: Averted. Previous protagonists still retain all the loot and gear in their inventory as well as any skills they learned by the end of their playthrough. Content of bank storage is kept when the story switches player character. Aside from the fact that this means you can recover your old loot by finding previous protagonists and the bank storage, this also means that you can start each storyline with potent Posse members.
- Bounty Hunter: Jane Bell was a renowned bounty hunter who is brought back into action by the events of the game. Bounty hunting is a good way to make money for all characters.
- Breaking the Glass Ceiling: Flora Albright is mentioned as being Grackle's first female sheriff, which some give her trouble for on top of also having to deal with comments about her race. She's also a Siren, though she only eats unrepentant outlaws.
- Close-Range Combatant:
- Cl'erns' abilities emphasize closing in on the enemy and doing close-range damage such as a running charge and a Shockwave Stomp. He also starts off with a Shotgun and a Cleaver though he's still able to use any other weapon.
- When turning into a Wolfman, Rios is limited to using his claws which pairs well with the fact that his abilities create an AoE around him (particularly one that burns any enemy around him).
- Commonality Connection: Former playable characters will join your posse with little questioning when they recognize that your character has a brand on their neck like theirs, wanting to get some answers as well.
- Creepy Child: Throughout your adventures you'll encounter a young girl who talks directly to the Passenger inhabiting the body and comments on your journeys. The girl is actually Anais, the true leader of the Oneirists and the daughter of Aleph who was made immortal as a child.
- Cult: The Oneirists are a cult of witches that compose of bald women who serve as antagonists for most of the heroes until the end, where you play as one of them.
- Even Evil Has Standards: The Stillwaters are vicious, usually unrepentant bandits who kill, kidnap, and rob, but it is made clear many of them don't like serving the Sirens and capturing prisoners to feed them, mainly going along with it out of fear.
- Exploding Barrels: There's several types of them, which can be thrown or shot at with specific effects:
- TNT/Explosive barrels: Explode.
- Chemical barrels: Explode and poison the surrounding area for some time. They also explode if set on fire.
- Oil barrels: Spread oil around on the floor and on the surrounding characters, which turns the floor flammable and oil-covered characters more vulnerable to fire damage.
- Water barrels: Spread water around on the floor and on the surrounding characters, which washes out oil or poison, but wet floor and wet characters are more vulnerable to electricity damage. You also can drink from them to regain a few hit points.
- Fantastic Racism: Due to the fact that he's an undead monster who's the only one that can talk, NPCs tend to treat Cl'erns with hostility. In fact, he can't even enter the first town he goes to unless he does a sidequest for a nun. This culminates in him getting lynched by outlaws in Cedar Flats and Constance having to save him.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: The Stillwaters were initially just another one of the Weird West's many outlaw gangs. Then a Siren (a flesh-eating shapeshifter) forcibly took control of the gang and turned them into his private army to more easily acquire "meals".
- Golden Ending: Through your actions it's possible to change the West for good: The Twenty One do not destroy the world and finally get to pass on, the protagonists get to move on with their lives, Pigmen manage to peacefully integrate into society, the Lost Fire Tribe return home after the defeat of the Wiindigo and the war between the Absolutionists and the Oneirists comes to an end.
- Gold Fever: Across Waters' storyline deals with the Ravenous, who are those afflicted with insane greed that makes them obsessed with the Olvidado gold mines. It's possible for him to potentially succumb to this, causing him to turn into a Wiindigo at the end of his storyline.
- Heel–Race Turn: One ending of Cl'erns' campaign has him restoring the souls of all the Weird West's Pigmen, allowing them to become more than mindless monsters. Afterwards Pigmen can be found throughout the world as either regular citizens or outlaws.
- Hyperactive Metabolism: The whole party regains a small amount of hit points from water or food; bandages are much more efficient but only heal their user. Source of water/food include water barrels, water buckets, cacti, cacti fruits, food looted from containers or dead NPCs, and meals crafted from raw ingredients at a campfire.
- Informed Equipment: Each player characters and recruits have a single model, and none look like they are wearing a "vest" equipment. Notably, Cl'erns' model only wears pants.
- Immortality Seeker: Essex Mast is a traveling scholar in search of the secrets to immortality that you encounter through your various journeys.
- Interspecies Romance: Flora Albright is eventually revealed to be a Siren, and reveals that they are born Sirens, while her husband Morgan is a regular human.
- I Owe You My Life: Characters you save or develop a strong bond with will become "Friends for Life", at which point they will occasionally come to your rescue in a fight.
- Leap and Fire: An ability that all protagonists have is to leap into the air to slow down time and shoot at anyone/thing quickly.
- Killed Off for Real: Not counting the previous player characters can die once recruited as followers by the current protagonist, taking enough greedy decisions during Across Waters' quest results in him becoming the Wiindigo at the end of his chapter, which obviously makes him unrecruitable during the later chapters.
- Magical Native American: Across Waters is the third protagonist of the game and a member of the Lost Fires Tribe whose abilities are more explicitly supernatural compared to Jane and Cl'erns such as summoning tornadoes as well as calling on a ghost bear.
- Meat Puppet: Each of the playable characters are being possessed by a mysterious entity via a brand on their neck. When talking about their experiences, they discuss how they have very hazy memories of the experience.
- Multiple Endings: At the end of the game, The Passenger/Aleph is interrogated on their in-game actions and asked how they feel about them. How they answer determines the fate of the world.
- By demonstrating some level of emotion, Aleph is able to feel and has become mortal. The Twenty One then proceeds to consume his flesh and finally get to pass on with the West changed by their actions.
- By demonstrating indifference or lack of emotion, Aleph remains immortal. The Twenty One then use the Wishing Tome to end the world.
- One Size Fits All: All player characters can wear the same vests, including Cl'erns (who's noticeably taller and larger than the other protagonists).
- Optional Boss: Despite being presented as the Arc Villain of Jane's chapter, Shelby Cross is ultimately this. He's in a secret room of the quest's final dungeon, but completing the quest just requires to rescue Jane's husband. Not confronting Cross results in him starting a Vendetta against Jane.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Wolfmen roam the West and can occasionally reveal themselves among the enemies you've been fighting. They're typically associated with the Absolutionist Church, serving as the religion's warriors in their war with the Oneirists. The fourth protagonist Desiderio Rios is the Chosen One of a prophecy of the faith. By digging around, it's possible for other player characters to learn about the ritual to turn themselves into wolfmen.
- Pig Man: Roaming through the world are undead monstrosities that are the reanimated corpses of men with their heads replaced by a pig, with most of them being soulless monsters. The second protagonist, Cl'erns Qu'igs, is a unique Pigman who has retained his sapience.
- Punctuation Shaker: Pigmen names tend to be normal names but with apostrophes in place of vowels such as "L'pz" or "T'ny.
- Putting the Band Back Together: In the final storyline, Constance has to find the previous heroes (or if they're too dead/monstrous, get the brand from their body) and gather them to a temple in order to break the seal on the Wishing Tome. The achievement for doing this with all the heroes alive is even called "Getting the Gang Back Together".
- Random Encounters:
- Navigating the map sometimes randomly triggers a fight against bandits, sirens, coyotes, bears... There's also non-hostile random encounters, notably with merchants.
- If someone started a Vendetta against the current player character (or a former player character who's currently a follower), they may randomly ambush the party on the worldmap during travel (functionally like one of the encounters mentioned above), or sometimes on the current map.
- Rejected Apology: If you have Cl'erns apologize to Cecilia for his actions as Clarence she'll bluntly tell you that she could never forgive him for all that he's done to her but at least hopes that the fact that he's showing remorse for his actions means he can be a better person.
- Retired Gunfighter: Jane Bell starts off as a retired Bounty Hunter who's living the life of a farmer's wife until the day a gang of bandits killed her son and kidnapped her husband.
- Rhymes on a Dime: Pigman Joe is the only other Pigman aside from Cl'erns Qu'ig capable of talking and always says things in a rhyme. He eventually reveals that this is due to a curse put onto him, which leads to him giving Cl'erns a sidequest to kill the Wraith that cursed him in the first place.
- Rotating Protagonist: The player switches out between multiple protagonists throughout the game, each of them having their own goals and belonging to different groups within the world.
- Schrödinger's Player Character: Averted; Protagonists whose stories are complete will return to wherever they consider home and can be recruited as part of your Posse.
- Secret Test of Character: The entire game was effectively a social experiment where Aleph, leader of a group of 21 immortals, was made to live through the lives of five mortals going through intense struggles as a way to see if doing so will make them feel anything again and thus become mortal once more. The caveat being that if they don't the Twenty One will end all of existence in order to end theirs.
- Shop Fodder: The "junk" item category consists in cheap items which have no use beside being sold for cash at the General Store. Junks include decks of playing cards, spurs, sticks of chalk, pieces of cloth, sheriff stars...
- Short-Range Shotgun: Shotguns are fairly powerful but have a range that seems to extend to about 2-3 meters.
- Tragic Keepsake: Jane starts off with her wedding ring and can loot her son's corpse for his stuffed toy. Similar to Fallout 4, there's nothing stopping the player from simply selling them off and keeping them in her inventory is solely for sentimental value.
- Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Steal and kill non hostile characters as you want, but you'll crash your reputation meter unless nobody knew you were there. Negative reputation results in higher prices in shops, less available mercenaries, and a bounty on your head once reputation reaches -50. Also, similarly to the outlaws, non hostile NPCs may start a Vendetta as reprisal to the murder of their friends or relatives.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Cl'erns' character model is always barechested, even if a vest is equipped.
- Weird West: The game is set in an Old West-inspired setting with magic, wendigos, zombies, witches, werewolves...
- Wendigo:
- Sirens are more akin to the typical variety of flesh-eating beasts, though their true forms resemble fish-people rather than a windigo. Shelby Cross, the Arc Villain of Jane's storyline is one of these who has kidnapped her husband for food. It's also revealed that Flora Albright, the Sheriff of Grackle, is one of these but she restrains herself to only eating criminals. Flora also reveals that they are simply a different species, rather than transformed or possessed humans.
- Across Waters' Arc Villain is a creature known as the "Wiindigo", who is responsible for the Gold Fever plaguing the West. If he makes decisions that demonstrate Greed, Across Waters turns into a Wiindigo himself at the end of his storyline.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: The Twenty One are a group of immortal beings who have lived for four thousand years but have lost the ability to feel anything and thus are seeking a way to end things. The journeys of the game are all their ways of attempting to induce mortality upon their leader Aleph, with the backup plan being to end all of existence.
