Friv2Online Studio has revealed gameplay from its debut dark fantasy friv game. We share our first impressions of Weird West, an isometric action game in the Wild West setting.
First, a little background. Friv2Online Studio is a very young team of independent game developers, formed in 2018. Young but very experienced. Wolfeye is made up of only 25 people, and 15 of them are former employees of Arkane Studios, who took part in the development of high-profile titles such as Dishonored and Prey, as well as in the work on Dark Messiah of Might and Magic, released before Arkane became "daughter" of Zenimax.
According to the creative director of the studio Rafael Colantonio, the Wolfeye line-up was united by a common passion - love for the conditional immersive sim genre. And the team intends to dedicate its time to creating games with deep immersion simulation that provide the player with a wide range of options during their passage, as, for example, Weird West does - an alternative version of the Wild West in the style of dark fantasy.
Technically, Weird West should be classified as an Action RPG, but many of the mechanics in it are modeled by Wolfeye in accordance with the immersive sim subgenre. So, the friv game will not have corridor level design and linear exploration of the world, all choices and actions of the player will have consequences, and experiments will be rewarded with logical results.
As an example, Rafael cited a situation in which the player can play any role that is consistent with the setting of the wild west and the Weird West universe. For example, if he wants blood and destroys all the inhabitants of a village, and at the same time a key plot character, he will still be able to move towards his goal.
As soon as the main campaign of one hero is completed, the game will provide the user with the next one. At the same time, all the changes that have taken place during this time with the friv game world will not disappear anywhere, so the mass genocide can greatly complicate the life of the future protagonists of Weird West.
According to leader Wolfeye, Weird West's visual style is inspired by French graphic novels. The stylized isometric picture is replete with details and atmospheric scenery, and the camera can freely hover at the height of the condor's flight, conveniently shine through obstacles and vignette the image, simulating limited visibility.
Zachin introduces us to Jane Bell, the first character in Weird West, who is literally in front of the bandits terrorizing the district and killing her teenage son. Without much thought, the former bounty hunter buries the boy, digs up her gear, and sets off on the trail of the thugs, but the further she goes, the weirder and tougher the West gets.
So, on the outskirts of the Blackwater camp, the player will first encounter a monster masquerading as a person, which instills fear in the entire bandit brigade, and one of the five playable heroes will be a magic- wielding witch. Avoiding spoilers, Wolfeye promised a lot of fantastic content.
Each Weird West hero has four unique skills. Jane, for example, is able to briefly boost reflexes, bringing death and destruction in Slow-mo mode like Max Payne. Among other things, heroes have access to special skill branches for revolvers, shotguns, rifles, bows, and cutting weapons, as well as a perk system. To acquire passives and abilities, you need to find relics and golden aces hidden in the game world.
Another distinctive feature of Weird West can be considered complete freedom of interactive. The developers threw chairs, searched other people's houses, dragged bodies, shot flying bottles from a revolver, started a fire with oil lamps and extinguished it after filling a bucket with well water.
If you don't want to break open a locked door, knock it out or blow it up with a stick of dynamite, and if you shoot at an ammo box, you can do, as Colantonio put it, making "bullet popcorn." At the same time, the control in the friv game gives off classic twin-stick shooters. Heroes can hide and jump. Isometry does not limit their vertical movement in the least. If you want - run on rooftops, climb high obstacles, go down with a rope.
The weather and time of day in Weird West change dynamically, opening up additional tactical options for players, and moving between locations is made similar to the first parts of Fallout, where the hero can go wherever he wants with a high chance of being drawn into a randomly generated event.
At first glance, Wolfeye's work impresses with its technical implementation, visual style, and world concept. Even bugs were not noticed during the early build run, but we will not rush to conclusions yet and wait for the test build of the friv game.
Weird West is scheduled to release in fall 2021. The game will be released on PC, PS4 and Xbox One.
