Gatsby's Reviews: Lead and Gold

Is this the western that can hold us over until Red Dead Redemption?

At $15, I'm going with a definite yes.

Full disclosure; I am a huge fan of pretty much anything western. I loved Gun and Red Dead Revolver, even though those games weren't perfect. So I am skewed a bit in that direction. If you don't like the Western Genre, your probably not going to be a fan of this game for all the reasons you don't like Westerns.

However, if you like Westerns, this game will certainly satisfy you. Every part of it seems drawn from classic western films. The music is an excellent blend of twang folk and 19th century strings that really capture the setting. It's nice that they spent time putting together good music even though the game has no single player and is essentially a 3rd person shooter with no story. Each class/character has a stereotypical look and feel, from not only their costume but the way they use their weapons and the synergies they give off. It makes sense that the Old-Prospector, aka the Blaster, wheres overalls and a mining helmet, throws dynamite, and gives off an Armor buff. That makes sense to me. The levels also mirror what you would expect from a western games, from farms and oil rigs to ghost towns to old mines.

While the setting, music, and art draw you in, its the simple, effective game play that gets you hooked. The game has an easy to understand HUD, a simple aiming system, and five weapons: Buffalo Rifle (single shot sniper), Lever action rifle, Coach gun (Double barreled shotgun), the Admiral revolver and the Negotiator Revolver (instant reload/Gunslinger only). Each class also has one unique ability; Trappers lay bear traps, Deputies mark a target which makes them always visible, even through walls, Gunslingers can rapid-fire their pistol, and Blasters chuck Dynamite. The third person shooting aspect is very easy to understand, pick up and play.

Fatshark does a great job at softly encouraging teamwork. Rather than forcing the player to play a specific role, Players can choose to play a given class a variety of ways while simply having an advantage of going down a certain path. A gunslinger may charge in and flay his revolver at enemies in close range, or hang back amongst a group of deputies, giving off an accuracy bonus and protecting them from blasters or gunslingers that get too close. No synergies stack, so players are encouraged to have a few classes running around together. Another way teamwork is encouraged is the flag spawn system. When a player picks up the flag from the spawn, other players have the option of either spawning at the flag's location or at the main base. It is especially useful to have the flag carrier near the front line, in the thick of action, but it is also important that the carrier stay alive so the enemy cannot reset the flag and force the team to spawn back at base. Finally, everyone's a medic: All classes give off a healing buff to other players, and all classes can revive knocked down teammates, who never bleed out and are always indicated on the level with a medical cross.

This game misses a few beats in more technical areas. For one, no integrated voice chat, which makes things difficult in such a team focused game. However, the action isn't fast enough that type chatting is impossible. Also, as of this moment no dedicated server support exists. However, Fatshark has repeatedly said they are working on adding support ASAP, and from how interactive they've been with their beta community (which I was a part of), I believe them. It's also currently not possible to switch teams, which could be annoying playing with friends.

Overall, this game is very fun and very addictive. It's inexpensive, and it doesn't have all of the frustrations that come with many shooters. I think I'm going to go play right now.