The PC Gaming Showcase continues on with a new action RPG called Weird West. It is being published by Devolver Digital and developed by Wolfeye Studios, made up of the co-creators of the critically acclaimed immersive sims Dishonored and Prey.
It is a top-down RPG set in a bizarre version of the American Wild West: A dark re-imagining where lawmen and gunslingers share the frontier with fantastical creatures. The game will revolve around the origin story of five different protagonists and their respective journeys through this unsettling frontier. Each journey is unique and tailored to the actions taken - a series of high stakes stories where everything counts and the world reacts to the choices you make. Form a posse or venture forth alone into otherworldly confines of the Weird West and make each legend your own.
Not much was shown about the game but if it's anything like the developers' past titles, it will include highly reactive worlds, confounding moral dilemmas, supernatural powers vying for their own personal agendas in the margins and the sobering reality of you having to live with the consequences of your actions.
That last element, in particular, was touched upon during an interview at the showcase with the President and Creative Director of Wolfeye Studios, Raphael Colantonio. While talking about how Weird West would maintain the immersive sim quality of Dishonored and Prey, the only that will have changed will just be the perspective, character death would also play a role in storytelling. In addition to their being an Iron Man mode of sorts where you only get one save file, he briefly mentioned that if a companion is killed, there is a way to bring them back, or worse, they return as some kind of vengeful undead, Nothing specific was stated, but it does bring up many unique and disturbing storytelling possibilities.
Weird West is slated to release some time next year.
