The obvious comparison to Creative Forge Games’ turn-based tactical combat game Hard West is the peerless XCOM: Enemy Unknown; both feature top-down, grid-based violence, but the former switches laser gins and aliens for six-shooters and… demons.
Yes, that’s about the only aspect of this gameplay demo that I’m not totally sold on. At a certain point in each map, generally once you’ve finished mopping up human bandits and ruffians, a horde of demonic foot-soldiers arrives, intent on devouring your face and possibly your soul.
I get it. Creative Forge wants to add a sense of urgency to the game, and demonic enemies might allow for some more interesting tactical challenges, but honestly I wished they had pitched it as a straight historical game. Still, there looks to be lots of cool tactical combat of the table-flipping, six-shooting variety, and that can’t all be bad.
After a successful Kickstarter campaign, Hard West is expected to launch later this year.
