Thoughts about the Hard West 2. This game need to be improved.

[UNSEEN]

1. Game and gamesave loading time is awful! I have an SSD and most games load very quickly. But not HW2. This game urgently needs optimization. Even exiting the game is very slow (initiating loading process for the game exit, seriously?)
2. The number of enemies on the map. Why is the number of enemies on the map always 2x and more times higher than the number of people in the squad? I don't mind a lot of enemies, it can be fun, but why not allow more than 4 squad members to be taken on a mission? Why these stupid restrictions from classic computer role-playing games?
3. Some enemies use their special attacks every turn. How about balance? Why not only are there more enemies but they can use their special skills/inventory more often (this guys who throwin grenades on every turn, for example)?
4. HW2 is a game focused on a deep tactical gameplay, am I right? If so, where is all of this familiar tactical tricks like attack of opportunity?
5. Mission maps in the game are relatively small and the characters can cover a really long distances in 1 turn and even a pistol can shoot at very long distances (relativity to map scale). It's kind of ridiculous.
6. Grenades don't miss ever. Enemies are constantly throwing grenades at me at the strangest angles and always hit right on target (throw at an angle from the window on a quarter of the map? No problem!).

Get it right. I liked the Hard West 1, and I still like Hard West 2. But damn, there's still so much to improve and re-balance. IMHO the current state of the game would be more suitable not for a release but for a beta version.

[beri319]

1. I agree. There should be a quit to desktop option (unless I've missed it?)
2. Big difference between HW1 and HW2 is bravado. Due to the chain kill mechanic there needs to be plenty of enemies, otherwise it would be too easy. Look for ways to take down multiple enemy's health (like the Bill skill) to where a character (say Gin) can go off on a rampage.
3. Yea, certain enemies are very high priority to either kill quickly or keep your distance from (Wendigo comes to mind). Many enemies won't have enough AP to move and use their attack ability if enough distance is kept.
5. Map sizes compliment bravado imo, having enemies grouped closer makes chaining kills easier.
6. See 3.

I think the many of the issues are related to the bravado mechanic. It fundamentally changes how the game is played from HW1 to HW2. Once I got my posse tuned (on hard at least) it wasn't unusual to wipe an area in 1-2 rounds. Very different playstyle from HW1 where I would be a bit slower progressing and try to avoid incoming damage as much as possible.

[drusca]

So what if you don’ t have attacks of opportunity??? Not all games do. It depends on how the game is designed. Why should it be in beta because you ask for features not meant to be in the game? Beta is for something else.

[Tal0s]

I agree with all of your points. I also cannot stand that cover seems useless and there is no attack of oppertunity / overwatch.

[Railgun]

1. Memory leak, they work on it, save and alt+f4 every 1h to avoid very long loading until they patch it.

2. I finished the first chapter and i think they play tested well their game, because it's doable in hardest difficulty but you have to perfect you'r run, so in lower difficulty this should be very more easier without the need to savescum 100 times / mission.

3. They will rebalance some ennemies next patch, i play in the hardest difficulty and it's very tricky, i have to savescum MANY times because of the turn limit/or miss hit and ennemies wave trigger is strange we can loose turn if they don't want to come and when you trigger them they attack first so they have an advantage, sometimes they crit and kill my buddies while they are covered and hidden :/ so let's see.

4. They don't want you camp, overwatch and wait 15 turn until the IA decide to come and kill themselve into the overwatch, this feature suck in xcom when you can have 2/3 guaranted shot / character and free win, i personnaly don't like to play like that but it's forced in those games.

5. Yes and every tile far away you get a hit malus, like in every other games.

6. Maybe focus them first or one shot with snipe ?

[drusca]

In all fairness it would be quite strange to have grenades missing the target. Then your dynamite should also miss sometimes. And I don’t know of many games with this “feature”.

[LukanGamer]

2. its a puzzle game where you suppose to chain infinite kills... that why (like/hate that is different, but yaa... it already has challenges like kill all enemies in 1-2 rounds despite their numbers...) Plus it is as you know common as your heros and they are grunts for most part.

3. they already said they looking into balancing (especially on the bs life steal).

4. its puzzle game not a video game on combat like xcom or w/e (again to each their own)

5.... .... ..... lol mostly just see above though overall silly

6. seen worse and players always in gaming been able to do equal or even far worse with "perfect" aiming - some like to spend minutes linning up a perect angle in some games, xcom being a big 1 in this even.

[BloodyPork]

Originally posted by drusca:

In all fairness it would be quite strange to have grenades missing the target. Then your dynamite should also miss sometimes. And I don’t know of many games with this “feature”.

The problem with grenade isn't the 100% hit rate and ignore cover because that's how it is in most games. The problem with grenade in this game is that the enemy can throw grenade every turn, while grenade is scarce, expensive and you can only carry 1 in a mission.

This is why xcom is a better game. Many aspects of this game is just annoying honestly, and all the little annoyance adds up. Things like no free healing after mission and costly team heal (alongside limited amount of unfarmable money) is just annoyance, rather than difficulty. Tight side mission time limits and all those annoying side mission like kill x enemies with y skill is just annoying, not challenging.

People mock other games for being xcom clone. But maybe the reason why those games copy xcom is because there are many aspects in xcom that people like? Take staple things in turn based tactics such as overwatch or attack of opportunity for example. Most people like them that is why those are common features. On the contrary, many design aspects of this game (much more than the usual turn based tactics game) deviates from the expected norm, which is what cause many complaints.

[UNSEEN]

Originally posted by drusca:

In all fairness it would be quite strange to have grenades missing the target. Then your dynamite should also miss sometimes. And I don’t know of many games with this “feature”.

100% hit chance and long distance and limitless of grenades makes it IMBA weapons in enemy hands.

[Cat]

I'm curious how many people who seem to absolutely hate this game for not being XCOM Wild West Edition actually played the original Hard West, the game improves upon that one in a way that feels satisfying to me, the bravado system rewarding kill chaining is also a fun inclusion, maybe you should look into what you're buying before wasting your money.

The game isn't flawless by any means but the comparisons to XCOM is getting tiresome, they only share the fact they are both turn based tactical games.

[drusca]

And trolling room is the other way. What makes you think the game should have overwatch??? And that an early access would bring overwatch??? How do you explain some users make do even on nightmare. Even more they take no damage.

[drusca]

Originally posted by UNSEEN:

Originally posted by drusca:

In all fairness it would be quite strange to have grenades missing the target. Then your dynamite should also miss sometimes. And I don’t know of many games with this “feature”.

100% hit chance and long distance and limitless of grenades makes it IMBA weapons in enemy hands.

I am not denying this but this is completely different. The solution is not having grenades that miss the target. Anyway the devs will rebalance some things.

[Lonestar1804]

Originally posted by Sunricer:

I'm curious how many people who seem to absolutely hate this game for not being XCOM Wild West Edition actually played the original Hard West, the game improves upon that one in a way that feels satisfying to me, the bravado system rewarding kill chaining is also a fun inclusion, maybe you should look into what you're buying before wasting your money.

I don't hate the game - it's decent and has some nice ideas. But Hard West 1 is by far the better game to be honest. I'm a bit disappointed, that the sequel is not on the same level.

[Eterna2]

as a way of keeping fit. I am doing push up and squats while it loads.

[PuppYofDOOM]

My playtime was 3hrs but 2 hours and 30 mins was load screens

[Yeyo]

Its strange to me all the reports about loading times....... it takes on my pc just 20-35 /40 secs to load anything in game...... When I reload a saved game, it might go up to a min or so. Ryzen 5 2600, 16gb ram, rtx2070.... really strange why I dont have this issue.........