Well, it’s been less than a week since Asymmetric Publications absolutely knocked it out of the park with West of Loathing, but I’m already coming at you for my second impressions. I’m doing this for a reason, though, and that reason is that they’ve already released their first patch for the game. This is a great sign on its own, as it shows that West of Loathing is far from a cash grab and it’s developers actually want to provide the best possible experience to West of Loathing players. Scanning through the list of patch changes also shows that this game did not have any real game-breaking bugs on release, which also shows the amount of care that went into the game from the beginning.
If you haven’t played West of Loathing yet, I’m sure these patch changes show just how funny and unique this game is.
Aside from this patch, I wanted to come back and say a few more things I’ve discovered about the game as I’ve gotten further in.
The first observation is related to the story. While Kingdom of Loathing is most often thought of as a funny game, the story in West of Loathing is deeply moving, thought-provoking, and immersive. In fact, one of the first things you do early on in the game is choose your pardner from a few characters you’ve already interacted with. These backstories were so compelling that I genuinely struggled with the choice of a pardner, showing how well-written the game is beyond humor.
Aside from that, the scope of the story is astounding. Some West of Loathing subplots are deep enough to serve as the main stories of plenty an indie RPG, so don’t let the graphics distract you from the fact that this is an open world RPG with a scale similar to a game like Fallout. This game is really deep enough to serve as your own Westworld-type fantasy, where you can live out the type of Western tale you would like to rather than own pre-written for you (or at least it feels like that).
Part of the reason the world is so engrossing is that even seemingly-irrelevant locations can hide incredible secrets that reward only the keenest-eyed observers. In fact, you might not even realize you missed something at a certain location until you see something else hours later and miles away, showing that West of Loathing’s puzzles are anything but casualized. This is a hallmark of a legendary RPG, and I think it is safe to say that that is exactly what West of Loathing is.
Check out My Dpad’s West of Loathing review
