It’s unclear if it’s the entire afterlife or simply Hell that should have a revolving door, but whichever it may be the souls confined to the afterlife really don’t seem to have much interest or obstacle to staying put. Tormented souls with unfinished business strain restlessly against the spectral chains holding them back from the realm of the living, or maybe they just forgot to pick up that half gallon of milk before death and really want to tick that box off the to-do list before eternal slumber. Whatever it may be, the afterlife is a busy place due to the sheer number of souls that refuse to pass on quietly, and the town of Purgatory, Wyoming is where they roam freely. It’s 1888 in the weird wild West and gunman William Mason has no intention of going peaceably to his final reward.
West of Dead is a noir horror western, like if Joe Lansdale wrote a script for Mike Mignola. It’s also a twin-stick shooter that relies heavily on cover, because there’s purgatory-dead and blasted-to-ribbons dead, and Mason would really prefer not to be the latter. Being a more tactical affair doesn’t mean it’s slow paced, though, with Mason wielding two guns, an assortment of possible single-use items, and a set of context-sensitive moves designed to get him out of trouble quick. Picking enemies off from a distance is certainly a possibility, but vaulting a crate, sliding to the next spot of cover, then diving for a lantern that, when activated, stuns the creatures in the dark long enough to unload a couple shotgun blasts into their mostly-dead faces is always an option too. As in any good action-roguelike Mason finds new abilities and weapons along the way, sometimes by trading for a curse he’ll need to survive for a limited time.
West of Dead is in open beta right now, noticeably buggy but a load of dark fun. It’s available on the Xbox Oneand Steamfrom right now until April 13, but if that’s a bit much there’s at least the announcement trailer from last November to look at.
