Even on easy mode, you’ll need to consider each action carefully or risk being overwhelmed. Like most tactical strategy games, Hard West 2 is challenging. This all adds up to combat scenarios that are right up there with anything else in the genre, and when your enemies start to get some of the same abilities, business really starts to pick up.

Speaking of hands, Hard West 2 returns the system of improving your character by building poker hands from cards you earn while questing. Keeping with the theme of giving players more ways to deal damage, you can also ricochet bullets off of signs and jugs to hit enemies behind cover and use all kinds of grenades and trinkets to give you the upper hand. Whether that’s Flynn’s ability to swap places with any character she can see, or the literal dead man walking Bill shooting every bullet he’s been hit with out of his corpse for massive damage, every single ability gives you game-changing power. Those magical abilities are one of the significant selling points of Hard West 2. So, far from your typical spaghetti western. As you work your way through the Hard West, you’ll add new friends to your posse, meet some odd NPCs, and use magical abilities to turn the tide of battle in your favor. He steals your soul, shadow, and former right-hand man, leaving you for dead in the snow. Along the way, they follow the legend of the “Ghost Train” and meet up with a demon named Mammon. Hard West 2 puts you in the shoes of a Wild West outlaw named Gin Carter, who is looking for his next big score. Lovecraftian powers for everyone Screenshot by Gamepur While most of these moves work for the wild west-themed game, Hard West 2 is let down by the frequency with which minor issues pop up. Hard West 2 is yet another in the genre, but like its predecessor, it does a few things differently to help it stand out. From instant classics like XCOM to excellent surprises like Desperados 3, fans of careful planning and percentage-based odds have been feasting. Over the last few years, the tactical strategy genre has become increasingly crowded.

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