News Weird West (Devolver + ex-Arcane team Wolfeye) - coming Fall 2021

[prudis]

Survive and unveil the mysteries of the Weird West through the intertwined destinies of its unusual heroes in an immersive sim from the co-creators of Dishonored and Prey.

Discover a dark fantasy reimagining of the Wild West where lawmen and gunslingers share the frontier with fantastical creatures. Journey through the origin stories of a group of atypical heroes, written into legend by the decisions you make in an unforgiving land. Each journey is unique and tailored to the actions taken - a series of high stakes stories where everything counts and the world reacts to the choices you make. Form a posse or venture forth alone into an otherworldly confines of the Weird West and make each legend your own.


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[DollEyes]

Not what I was expecting but interested to see more of it.

 

[Oldschool PC]

 

[Alextended]

Reminds me of Hard West, hard to tell.

 

[Kvik]

I thought we'll be getting a new immersive sim, but in the meantime, I'll grab a CRPG just as well thank you very much.

 

[Alextended]

Game description calls it an immersive sim, the trailer an arpg, lol :x

Hope it's good whatever it is.

 

[Jadax]

This actually looks like a really funky game, can't wait to see how it turns out.

 

[Oldschool PC]

Game description calls it an immersive sim, the trailer an arpg, lol :x

Immersive sims are not mutually exclusive with other genres. Warren Spector classifies Deus Ex, System Shock, and Underworld as RPGs.

 

[Alextended]

Yeah, so?

Was just responding to the "crpg not immersive sim" post. Seems like they don't quite know what to market it as for exposure.

Immersive sim resonates with the hardcore fan, but not the average gamer, where arpg does, so as long as it's technically correct they go for it.

Though immersive sim is a stretch, are there any others that aren't in (immersive) first person? Not saying it can't have elements in the world and interactions.

 

[texhnolyze]

I still don't get the action part, the trailer shows nothing other than some gameplay snippets.

If it's in the West setting with guns, then it'll be something like Diablo with ranged weapons? Not really a fan.

 

[Alextended]

Action I guess can just mean real time combat? Every fp immersive sim technically has had action combat. Doesn't make them (sh)looters or just FPS games.

 

[Oldschool PC]

Though immersive sim is a stretch, are there any others that aren't in (immersive) first person? Not saying it can't have elements in the world and interactions.

Hitman and Ultima 6-8 have often been referred to as immersive sims. At no point has Warren Spector (creator of the term) ever defined them as being strictly first person. At the heart it's about having believable mechanics and emergent gameplay.

 

[Alextended]

But going down to such semantics the term is useless and we should just be calling them RPGs (with a focus on this or that, a Cinematic RPG that is story focused, a Sandbox RPG that is, well, that, a Strategy RPG that is, also that, or an Immersive RPG when it has these elements) if just about anything can fit in.

First time I hear Ultima games other than Underworld are called that. I cba to properly look into but the way wikipedia has been worded it implies it's really not.

Warren Spector considered Ultima VI: The False Prophet (1990) the first game to have an immersive sim mentality as while played from an top-down view, it relied less on events and planned-out puzzles, and instead provided the rulesets and systems through its living world to allow players to craft their own solutions to situations. Spector described one playtesting example from Ultima VI that he considered the genesis of the immersive sim genre, in which a playtester lacked a magical spell needed by his party to pass by a closed gate, and instead used a pet mouse character to sneak through small spaces and access the necessary controls to open the gate, something none of the developers had anticipated.[12]

Ultima Underworld (1992) is considered the first game to demonstrate the necessary elements of an immersive sim according to Spector and others.

Again though, I'm all for that mentality but we'll see if it can stand up to all the others in that aspect or if it's gonna be genre x or y with immersive sim elements.

 

[Oldschool PC]

RPG is an even broader and more muddled genre description. By calling it an immersive sim, they reassure fans of their previous games that it has the same core design principles at heart. Most people will understand that.

First time I hear Ultima games other than Underworld are called that. I cba to properly look into but the way wikipedia has been worded it implies it's really not

"Garriott pioneered that sort of immersive space," says Spector. "The Ultima games sent you to a fantastical kind of place that you couldn't see any other way." He spent two weeks locked in a room with Garriott hammering out a story and design document for 1990's Ultima VI: The False Prophet, which Spector considers to be the first immersive sim.

From Wikipedia's source: How Warren Spector Created a Genre, and Set Games Free

 

[Durante]

I really don't think it matters that much what it's called.

Anyway, it's the most interesting new announcement to me out of the batch.

 

[Ge0force]

Yeah this looks promising. And ex-Arkane staff working on this even generates some hype for me

 

[Aelphaeis Mangarae]

Definitely a different style of game to what I was expecting, but interesting nonetheless.

 

[Oldschool PC]

Fun fact: Raphael wrote and performed the song in the trailer. He also wrote some of the OST for Dishonored and Prey.

 

[Oldschool PC]

 

[Alextended]

So on the one hand you say that calling it an immersive sim is the quick way to explain fans what it is versus calling it an immersive RPG and actually using words to explain what it's like as if immersive sim and crpg fans are the kind to need buzz words for effective to them marketing but then you have to go out of your way to ask spector these questions and how you could philosophically argue this or that game had "the trappings" even if Underworld was the first and so on to convince them this, despite not looking like any of the games people actually think of when they hear immersive sim, can be one too. Yes, it could be.

Obviously had System Shock been what it was but with a different camera angle it'd still be almost the same game and genre, it just so happens no other game people actually think of when they hear the genre wasn't in first person since it's among the first things settled when any developer so far has decided to make one (already you have more people saying "this" doesn't look like what they expected from Arkane - and it's not by chance their own games have been using a certain camera angle for the most part - even though you can obviously expect an immersive sim from them) and this game too is called different things at different times so we'll have to wait and see what the development focus even is compared to the attempt to market it to different crowds so far, from the core immersive sim fans as in the description to the people who perk up when they hear ARPG as in the trailer when, even if both can be technically correct going down to the semantics, they clearly mean different things to different people. All that matters is if it's good and appealing to one's sensibilities anyway, immersive sim fans don't only play the most immersive of immersive sims (or hold Spector's word as gospel given his post-2000 output).

 

[Oldschool PC]

then you have to go out of your way to ask spector these questions and how you could philosophically argue this or that game had "the trappings" even if Underworld was the first and so on to convince them this

I didn't email him to win some petty internet argument, my dude. The topic genuinely interests me, so I thought I might share his answers with you guys.

 

[HK-47]

Major Deadlands vibes

 

[texhnolyze]

It looks like the combat is twin-stick shooters. I expected it to be turn-based.

 

[Phoenix RISING]

Devolver-published games always get huge spotlights. IDK why.

I will say that this game looks more interesting than most of the other stuff shown today.

 

[prudis]

not turn-based after all

Survive and unveil the mysteries of the Weird West through the intertwined destinies of its unusual heroes in an immersive sim from the co-creators of Dishonored and Prey.

 

[prudis]

We were quite impressed by our first look at Weird West, a new isometric third-person shooter from WolfEye studios, a team comprised of ex-Dishonored and ex-Prey developers. This is our first-look preview, written by Luke Winkie.

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Journey through the Weird West this fall on PlayStation, Xbox and PC