YMMV / Desperados III

• Accidental Aesop: McCoy’s departure at the beginning of Chapter 3 gives us this one: even around friends or would-be friends, you need to set boundaries and let everyone know that these boundaries shouldn’t be pushed. Furthermore, if you’re running a party, do not be afraid to call out your leaders if they happen to do something you do not approve of.
• Best Level Ever: There are a few contenders.
  • Flagstone is a Hitman style assassination mission that introduces the game's public areas. With the accident options, it gives the player indirect methods of taking out the four targets. Taking out the four targets this way is incredibly satisfying.
  • Mississippi River introduces Isabelle and gives you full control of the entire gang after rescuing them. The level is huge and can be solved in two-three vastly different ways: helping Cooper to take advantage of his and Isabelle's versatility, springing Doc out from the hut and using his sniping techniques, or freeing Kate and Hector for superior firepower and a numbers advantage.
  • New Orleans is long, intricate, and full of life and details. While the second half of the level is always the same difficult trek down to the storage yard, the first half is randomly generated every time you play: you need to grab a letter from one of three different business owners, in one of three different areas of the map, giving the level a healthy amount of replayability. Plus, just like Flagstone, it features several public areas.
  • DeVitt Goldmine is a brutal push through one of the most reinforced strongholds in the entire game, and the level hands you tons of ammo to give you a fighting chance. If you've been shying away from guns for fear that they are too powerful or make too much noise, this is the first level to not only allow you to use them to their fullest extent thanks to how far apart the patrols are, but also incentivize their use.
  • Casa DeVitt is the penultimate level, and it's a doozy for sure. The entire level is a massive mansion party level, with tons of guests and multiple interesting areas to explore like gardens and a hedge maze. Notably, Cooper and Kate are in disguise, allowing them to explore large parts of the level in complete view of the guards (including, in this very specific context, the longcoats) and to set up ambushes. This offers a massive amount of freedom in how you choose to unravel the level's defenses, especially with how you have four party members to work with.
  • Baron's Challenge 11: "Contact." An extremely short but fun mission where you get to control only Hector versus over a hundred enemies at the DeVitt Goldmine with nothing at all besides his whistle ability. Sounds impossible at first? Well, what makes this mission so fun is that the Baron has generously gave you a mobile gattling gun on a mine cart. With how fun and cathartic it was to use those gattling guns in brief segments of a few levels in the main game and the DLC, an entire mission devoted to Hector blasting his enemies to bits with one of them to your heart's content is just made of awesome.
  • And then there’s Baron Challenge 13, aptly named “Bird Hunting.” The scenario pits McCoy with only his Buntline against the Casa DeVitt’s many defenses. Kate and Hector can help him on the ground, but they’re given no guns or melee attacks. Your task? Take out five distinct targets that are all located in the far-off corners of the map. The catch? McCoy has to decisively remain perched on the mansion’s rooftops — he can relocate from one to another but cannot stride far from them. The other catch? The Baron generously gives him 800 bullets to his Buntline. To take out five targets. Without raising an alarm. Just like Challenge 11, this level quickly devolves into picking off guards, but this time, instead of the sounds of a Gattling coming to greet you, you now listen to the rhythmic clinks! of McCoy’s Buntline when he shoots someone as soon as Kate entices them out into the open. And, no, the Baron will not stop you if you decide to snipe the entire map.
• Broken Base:
  • Unlike its predecessors, Desperados III no longer enforces Would Not Shoot a Civilian (except for the second last mission). For most players it's a moot point anyway since the game is very easy to complete without ever killing a single civilian. But there's debate on whether the removal of such a limit fits the Unscrupulous Hero nature of the team (especially considering that the game is a prequel and takes place prior to years of offscreen Character Development), or completely unnecessary Video Game Cruelty Potential that had no reason to be allowed to begin with.
  • Most importantly, fire guns have been heavily nerfed compared to the predecessors, as characters can carry a very limited amount of bullets and guns have a cooldown of seconds between each single shot, making it impossible to shoot a burst even with weapons which realistically should be capable of it (like Cooper's revolvers). This is because Desperados III as a whole encourages the player to kill enemies through silent methods or knock them down non-lethally, and limit the use of fire guns as a last resort. Most players agree that the rebalancing of the game to that purpose is well done, but some don't like it to begin with and they simply miss the frenetic gunfights of the previous Desperados installments.
• Cargo Ship: Hector speaks of Bianca as if she were his lover.
• Designated Monkey: The DLC missions of the game aren’t kind to our heroes (sans Hector – he gets away scot-free), but the amount of played-for-laughs abuse McCoy endures makes the DLC plotline border on self-parody.
• Diagnosed by the Audience:
  • Seeing as he “is no good at letters”, stumbles over numbers, and oftentimes repeats himself, it’s been theorized that Hector might be dyslexic.
  • McCoy has all the hallmarks of autism, PTSD, and/or OCD: he’s a Sociopathic Soldier Neat Freak who’s not especially empathetic, takes things for granted or too literally at times, has a genuinely surprised response when others manage to solve a problem without resorting to violence, is implied to treat his medical bag as if it’s his Security Blanket, is never seen without his Conspicuous Gloves, and during cutscenes, he almost exclusively can be seen fidgeting with his gun or with the contents of his bag.
• Even Better Sequel: In two ways, no less! The game is a massive improvement over Desperados II and Helldorado thanks to increased production values, bringing the series back to the tone of the first game, and updating the gameplay with a decade-and-a-half's worth of Anti-Frustration Features. It's also a large step up from Mimimi's previous endeavor Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, thanks to improved graphics, new quality of life features, rebalanced player characters, and improved level design (most notably with the reintroduction of "public" zones and the new emphasis on guns).
• Game-Breaker: While with enough diligence and patience almost every level can be cleared with just one member of your group, it is obvious that Isabelle, McCoy, and Hector are far more technically proficient at it than Cooper — who has range but is far too noisy — and Kate — who doesn’t have any range or lethal takedowns.
  • Isabelle’s Connect and Mind Control make her incredibly versatile as she's able to set up otherwise impossible combos and can trick guards into taking each other out. By combining all of her abilities together, Isabelle can easily kill up to three guards at once ^note connect two guards together, control one of the connected guards, shoot another guard, and then have the mind-controlled guard be shot by his buddies which will kill the person he's connected to. She also has the fastest movement rate, can climb ropes and vines like Cooper, can use Stella to distract guards, and can infinitely heal. Her only weakness is a lack of a ranged takedown meaning she has to get close and personal with each of her targets.
  • McCoy is the only one beside Kate who can surreptitiously move bodies while being in the striped portion of a vision cone, has the longest firearm range, makes the not much noise, can (inexplicably) quick-draw his Buntline ^note animation-canceling it right into his melee which lets him kill two conversing enemies at once, has an Area of Effect stun that never fails, and has a distraction skill that moves/provokes enemies, allowing him to divide entire groups and take them down one by one. His only weakness would be the lack of range that comes with using his distraction and stun abilities.
  • Hector is the only one who can safely lure even the most disciplined guards away from their posts by throwing their tied-up buddies into their vision cones. While others can perform this trick too, their lack of range while doing so makes them vulnerable to enemy detection.
• Good Bad Bug:
  • In public areas, people wouldn't care if you drag an unconscious teammate. What makes it a bug is that they wouldn't bat an eye when Hector, holding unconscious Cooper on one arm, picks up an unconscious guard right before their eyes. Four steps to openly kidnap a target: 1) knock out one teammate other than Hector,^note the easiest way is to have Cooper stand right behind a horse then throw a coin on the horse's back. It will kick him unconscious. 2) have Hector pick him up, 3) toss him on top the target to knock them out 4) pick up your teammate first, then the target.^note it can be hard to click with the cursor, so turn to the showdown mode if needed. This trick is most useful when you want to capture the Duke in Flagstone right in front of his bodyguards, or complete two of the Baron's challenges in which you need to deliver a body through patrolled streets.
  • Usually, Kate's distraction doesn't work on women. In the Eagle Falls mission, however, she can use it on the woman arguing with the foreman in the shed. It's quite amusing, and it can help pass this building more easily. Plus, it shows that women also have idle lines for when Kate is distracting them.
• Obvious Beta: On one hand, the core game is immaculate when it comes to bugs, but, on the other, practically everything that was added to the game post-release as free updates (the Baron’s missions, the Bounty Mode) qualifies. This post-release content works but is littered with many unfortunate oversights, ranging from typos to characters imported via the Bounty Mode cloning themselves, see Special Effect Failure below. With the latter, the campaign maps have clearly not been optimized to accommodate the imported characters, meaning they’ll be stuck with their initial load-outs with no option to restock their ammo – something canonically present characters can do. This makes playing with canonically unavailable characters a chore rather than a fun distraction.
• Self-Imposed Challenge:
  • No civilian casualties run. Arguably, this one isn't that hard of a challenge since there aren't a lot of maps where civilians can be a hindrance for players (and the one level in which they are the most present is the only one where killing a civilian leads to a Non-Standard Game Over). However, while the game doesn't truly penalize the player for killing innocents, a good chunk of players and let's players still avoid murdering them.
  • No casualties run. Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Since the game allows for non-lethal attacks and for tying up unconscious people, one of the most obvious self-imposed challenges is to try to play it as Anti Heroes who, while ready to punch around the bad guys, have a Thou Shalt Not Kill rule. It doesn't give any reward outside of a few Cosmetic Awards in some levels, but do not underestimate the Videogame Caring Potential, especially in (arguably the few) levels where the enemies aren't criminals or slavers, such as Baton Rouge (which, while a No-Gear Level, features ways to kill people through the environment).
  • Clearing the map with only one character is also one of the more popular challenges as it highlights the truly awe-inspiring ways a single character’s kit can be utilized.
  • And then there are ‘ghost’ runs, challenges that ask the players to complete levels without using any skill that leaves a trace on the statistics screen. While also not raising any alarms. Truly, one of the most difficult and creative ways to play this game.
• Sequel Difficulty Spike: Well, it is a Prequel Difficulty Spike, but the gist is the same: this game can be nail-bitingly hard compared to the original Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive. It all comes to III severely limiting your ammunition (unlimited bullets vs. 4-8 per character), rigorously nerfing McCoy’s utility^* WDoA let him carry 10+ gas flasks while III reduced that number to 1-2 and axed his ability to float a flask up in the air i.e. his long-distance stun, and getting rid of many true Area of Effect abilities. The fact you can no longer replenish your characters’ “special” supplies (Doc’s gas flasks, Sam’s dynamite, etc.) while playing a map means you won’t be able to wiggle your way out of a jam as easily as before, and will have to rely a great deal on your enemies’ RNG. In other words, if a scenario does not give you access to Doc or Hector with his sawed-off (or if you’ve already spent the gas flask/shotgun shells), you might as well reload every alert phase as you won’t have the means of dealing with literal waves of enemies coming out of the guard houses unless it’s a nighttime map or you manage to run away.
• Scrappy Mechanic: For those who opt to go for 100% completion the fact the DLC missions’ badges do not count towards the “Earn 90 Badges” achievement can be maddening since it unequivocally indicates you’ll have to complete some of the less glamorous challenges from the main story section if you want the achievement.
• Special Effect Failure: One of the game’s post-launch updates introduced Bounty Mode, a mode that lets you bring the canonically unavailable player characters into every main-story mission while also disabling badges. Usually, this works without a hitch. But for the “Troublemakers in Flagstone” level, if you attempt to import McCoy via this mode, the game will spawn a second one in addition to The Artifact version of him standing in the center of the map. Talk about doubling up…
• That One Level:
  • “Until Death Do Us Part” is a three-part mission that can quickly become this as it’s the only main-story mission of the game that leaves you with no healers. That, coupled with the fact Cooper and Kate are the least versatile members of the roster (to make matters worse, Kate doesn’t even have her Derringer in this mission) can make beating this level a trying experience. Doubly so if you try to go for the badges one of which demands you kill absolutely every foe on the map in all three segments of the level. Oh, you forgot to get rid of some of the guards when the scenario gave you access to Cooper? Tough luck, they’ve despawned now and there’s no way you can earn that badge without restarting the entire level.
  • The "What If?" mission of the Baron's Challenges pits the fourteen-year-old Cooper and young Hector in Devil's Canyon (already a very long and challenging level) on a mission to assassinate Frank. Cooper gets two throwing knives and his coin, but no firearms or a melee attack. Hector has no melee attack either, nor Bianca, limiting his abilities to his whistle and the shotgun. Beating this mission will require every last iota of game knowledge.
• That One Sidequest: The "don't use any of Cooper's skills" badge in "Dirt and Blood". For most of the mission, it’s not a problem as Hector and Kate are perfectly capable of clearing the map even if Cooper’s left idle. The kicker? The last part of the level where Cooper leaves his team behind and goes to confront Frank alone still counts towards this badge’s progression – i.e. he cannot use any of his abilities against the seven guards patrolling the barge. To stay alive and earn the badge, you can only rely on viewcone surfing, perfect micromanagement, and a massive dose of luck.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Ross Cooper, John’s brother who appeared in the second game, doesn’t show up at all in this game, even though it could have given him a chance to develop his character more than in his debut game where he exists only to die to further John’s character arc. In this game, it’s John’s father’s death that motivates him for much of the plot. Ross’s addition to the story could have added even more to John’s character arc and play with the dynamic between the two brothers while also possibly having a call forward to the second game as well. Instead, Ross doesn’t even get a mention.
• Trans Audience Interpretation: Given he’s – once you remove the coat – skinny as a stick, uses a gun that’s so phallic it earns him his own Visual Innuendo and a Compensating for Something quip, is good at a stereotypically feminine task (baking), and the fact he’s been coded as inherently queer ever since Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive, has caused some to speculate that McCoy might be trans. The matter of him being, to quote the source material itself, “an alchemist” has been used to justify him transitioning to his canon gender decades prior to the invention of synthetic testosterone.
• Win Back the Crowd: Compared to Desperados 2: Cooper's Revenge and Helldorado, which both received mixed reviews and were seen as disappointing sequels, Desperados III received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics and fans alike and is seen as a return to form for the franchise.

---