How's the story?

[Thuzar]

Will the overall narrative be something worth experiencing or is the story only tacked on? I hope the devs have a truly well-made scenario for the entire game ready, so Blood West can go toe-to-toe with Deus Ex/Dishonored/Thief series as immersive sims that did the story justice.

[CHOO CHOO]

What story? There's a handful of breadcrumbs, some grimdark narrative of how almost everyone is hopelessly corrupt and insane except for a handful of weaklings who die, and it's all written fairly poorly to boot. I like the game, it's enjoyable, but not for the story.

[Gorecorpse]

There is no focus on narrative or story, but I find it quite immersive. For a straight forward game not based on text or dialogue, actually I'm very impressed how the level design manages to build such a powerful and charming world.

[FRIMI]

i feel like the story ist that important, what you enjoy the most is the gunplay, the story will be long like 6 hours i think i am getting close to beating the game ..

[Thuzar]

Well perhaps they should work on it, even if it is told via lore bits or journals you find laying around. Bioshock and Prey did this pretty neatly, and worldbuilding is important as much as gameplay, or else you can't really be all that immersed in a world that is shallow as a puddle (Blood West is not a boomer shooter, but is advertised as an immersive horror FPS first and foremost).

They have three more chapters to add, let's hope they spice up worldbuilding a bit - games with weird western themes are quite rare, and Blood West can set an example for future games set in this genre if Hyperstrange reaaaally put their backs into it.

[King Caesar]

IDK the hour I've played so far seems neat. Reminds me of Darkwatch. It's also really earlier in development isn't it? Story seems like something they'd add after refining game play.

[Gorecorpse]

Originally posted by Thuzar:

Well perhaps they should work on it, even if it is told via lore bits or journals you find laying around. Bioshock and Prey did this pretty neatly, and worldbuilding is important as much as gameplay, or else you can't really be all that immersed in a world that is shallow as a puddle (Blood West is not a boomer shooter, but is advertised as an immersive horror FPS first and foremost).

They have three more chapters to add, let's hope they spice up worldbuilding a bit - games with weird western themes are quite rare, and Blood West can set an example for future games set in this genre if Hyperstrange reaaaally put their backs into it.

Actually the player gets a glimpse into the background through notes, NPCs and a journal, but this is all kept to the minimum. I think it works just fine. As you play, you get more info about the locations, abominations and curses that haunt the canyons. Start/finish a mission, two short paragraphs, and thats it. Back to the hunt. Love it.

So even though there is more to come, I'm not sure if they aim to reach the narrative depth of the games you mentioned. Actually I really hope they keep it straight forward as it is.

I think they are putting a lot of their backs into it, I'm impressed with the level design, game mechanics and dev support. Since you are very interested in lore, maybe let this one out for now, but keep an eye on it, because there is indeed so much potential.

[BaconMonster]

I would compare the story to Metroid Prime and maybe STALKER games.
You can get some story out of it if you look for it, but the game is mostly about the creepy atmosphere and you trying to survive in world full of monsters.

[Thuzar]

Originally posted by BaconMonster:

I would compare the story to Metroid Prime and maybe STALKER games.
You can get some story out of it if you look for it, but the game is mostly about the creepy atmosphere and you trying to survive in world full of monsters.

This would be a good way to present the story - not in-your-face and like an exposition dump, but rather through bits and pieces you can find in the world.

Granted, those bits and pieces should address, even in a speculative manner, how the world came to be this way, be it through written testimonies of those who witnessed the first signs of "end times" or from live recounts of survivors you can meet on your journey.