Hard West 2 Gameplay And Build: How To Play The Game?

Hard West 2 is on the way, a second round of the 2015 weird western tactics you may or may not remember fondly for its odd structure and experimental narrative. Popping up on Steam and dropping a reveal trailer, Hard West 2 looks a heck of a lot like a sequel to Hard West.

Hard West 2 The New Game

Hard West 2 is a supernatural journey to the dark heart of the West. With a gun full of lead and a fistful of witchcraft, raise an outlaw posse and chase down the devil to take back what’s yours,” says the official description.

That said, it’s got a lot of new interesting things going on, the least of which is a really very pretty new overworld map, and a fight on a train, which always rules. It’s also with a new developer: Ice Code Games. The previous Hard West was made by CreativeForge games. The publisher, Good Shepherd Entertainment, remains the same.

Hard West 2 – Gameplay Trailer

The Wild West and occult collide in this supernatural sequel to the hit turn-based strategy game.

Hard West II delivers a classic Western world with a supernatural twist, where legends tell of an elusive ghost train with a bounty of gold for the taking. But when first-class con man Gin Carter raids the transport, he discovers this “ghost train” is exactly that! Now Gin must lead a posse of strange outlaws and chase down the Devil across a land touched by darkness, battling forces both living and undead.

You are Gin Carter, a notorious outlaw with a reputation as dangerous as the frontier itself. On the hunt for a big score, you hear talk that the legendary “Ghost Train” is heading your way loaded with federal gold. This is the one.

You swiftly assemble a posse of outlaws, some with guns, others with the kind of supernatural skills that make saloon bars fall silent in a split second. Night falls and the posse rides out, silhouetted in the spectral light of the moon. Together, you transform the prairie into an ungodly land echoing with gunfire and the screams of the hunted.

But once on board the train, you discover it’s not named the “Ghost Train” for nothing. What follows is the fight of your life through the uncharted badlands of the Hard West, propelled by bullets, witchcraft, and your pursuit of personal salvation at any cost.

Hard West 2 Build And Approach

The beta build for Hard West II starts with a train robbery. Gin Carter and his posse ambush a most peculiar line and get more than they bargained for. The train’s full of monsters, the conductor’s not who he seems, and Poor Choices are made. Pretty soon Gin, Indian bruiser Laughing Deer, and hex-inclined Flynn join forces with Old Bill, a literal dead man walking.

Combat will be familiar enough for tactical RPG fans jump right in, but also has plenty of innovation. Moving, attacking, and special techniques require action points, which restore every round. However, killing an enemy enables Bravado Mode, which immediately restores a character’s action points. Bravado kills chain, allowing well-positioned gunslingers to mow down mobs of weakened enemies.

Adding further gas to the fire, Flynn starts with the ability to swap positions with visible enemies. Teleporting a hapless sniper into the middle of a Bravado-fueled shootout isn’t just possible, it’s encouraged! Hard West II train mission. Gunners on horsebacks flank a moving train.
Howdy, howdy, howdy!

With maneuvers like this, Hard West II would seem to support a shoot-first approach. However, characters are mighty fragile. Careful use of cover between rampages is the safest way to avoid a visit to Boot Hill. Ricocheting pistol bullets off hardened targets like anvils and chandeliers gives crackshots a chance to bypass defensive positions. The first time we tried assaulting a bandit encampment, we over-extended my forces and ended up being whittled down one-by-one. The second time around, we paid more attention to defensive positions and sight lines for a satisfying victory.

Supernatural strategy sequel Hard West 2 announced

It should be a good year for occult cowboys, between this month’s Weird West and, announced today, turn-based strategy sequel Hard West 2 coming later in 2022.

Apparently Hard West 2′s protagonist has robbed a ghost train, and who’d athunk that would turn out to be a bad idea. Now you must chase the Devil across a bleak, supernatural wild west to reclaim your soul. That offers an excuse for some interesting level settings, including those that play out on horseback and on moving trains.

The most interesting feature to me is a new “Bravado State”, which rewards you for playing aggressively by replenishing your action points for chaining together kills. That was the best part of Gears Tactics, a surprisingly satisfying twist on XCOM that gave that game’s shoulder-padded meatheads their own crunchy flavour. 

Noted XCOM obsessive Alec (RPS in peace) had nice things to say about the first game in his Hard West review, particularly praising its combat while being uncertain of everything wrapped around it. “I’d say it’s definitely worth picking up if your XCOM and Jagged Alliance itches currently feel unscratched, but expect something to dip in and out of, not some grand timesink opus,” he concluded.

Hard West 2 is potentially a different proposition because it has a different developer. The first game was made by CreativeForge Games, who followed it up with the similarly strategic Phantom Doctrine. Hard West 2 is being made by Ice Code Games, who are otherwise known for the cyberpunk RTS Re-Legion.

Things to Know Before Playing Hard West 2

• This is not Xcom. The single most important mechanic to master is flanking; 99% of the time you want your team split and approaching the enemy from different angles, ideally multiple ones. That being said, they should not be so far apart they cannot support each other in case of emergency; you’ll get the hang of the movement distances and so on eventually. Just spread your guys out.
• Most of the weapons in Hard West 2 are pretty interchangeable; you generally want to go for either the things with biggest damage (rifles/shotguns) or ammo capacity (pistols).
• The campaign is episodic, you’ll be switching characters a lot. That being said, there’s no leveling up and customization is done by reusable cards so it is not an issue.
• Demons are bad news and you definitely want to focus fire them ASAP.
  The game’s “Luck” system is not, in fact, luck-based at all. Luck is a meter in Hard West 2, as long as you have some, you will dodge bullets and detract from the meter. Once it runs out, you take damage and the meter starts anew. Managing this is key for surviving longer missions.
• Don’t fret too much over the CYOA segments, even if you mess up badly, the missions are still winnable given some strategy; even a wounded unit can dish out plenty of pain.
• Ricochet is the single best ability in Hard West 2 because it lets you bounce shots so they can hit enemies from sides and behind. It bears repeating, this game is all about cover.

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