#lavaboots

Want to give a shoutout to an uncut gem of a game currently out on Steam called “Wild West and Wizards”. It’s a class-based first person RPG that I could best describe as El Topo 4Kids with shades of Driftmoon, Magicka and Stardew Valley. Simple polygonal landscapes that are impressively extensive with a cutesy character design, populated by bandits, wizards, bandit-wizards, and other such nasties. Combat is a little clunky but nothing too abrasive once you get into the rhythm of things, with a very easy-to-understand system of resistances and weaknesses for each enemy type. Music is good, very much in the chill vein of Stardew Valley or Starbound even if it’s not as extensive and seems to come and go at random. And with no other in-game sound besides projectiles, copy/pasted gun sounds and the *tok!* noise of taking damage it unfortunately gets a little dull as you wander the world. The graphics are nice as long as its the landscapes, but the character design (i believe it’s a prepurchased asset with some work put in, nothing wrong with that) actually clashes a little too much, especially as there’s so little animation that there’s a constant wide-eyed gormless smile even as you gun them down or find murder victims (as in the screenshot). Quest design is basic but well-done, with many interesting side adventures dotted around the landscape and easily found in a very organic way, from stumbling across a double-murder in a remote cabin to discovering the Bounty Hunter’s Guild by spotting their commemorative statue off in the distance in a manner that immediately made me think of New Vegas’ Long 15 Outpost. Notes found in the game are well-written, also reminding me of Fallout and doing just enough to flesh out the world as to give it the feeling of being lived-in. 

In this exciting episode of Let's Play Salt we get some loot and also wonder why there is no game audio.