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[Genesis Knight]

The American West is a pretty interesting setting for video games, I think. In some ways its cliches and tropes seem almost custom-made for games. You've got a very simple system of economics (that actually worked in real life at one point) that provides a basis for hunting and exploring. You have real-life factions such as the bandits, lawmen, railroad company, Indians, etc etc. The lawlessness and general chaos is just great for games as well.

But though we've started to see more games in this setting over the last five to six years, there wasn't really much for a long time. So it makes it pretty easy to play them all...which is kind of fun.

If you have some opinions on what makes these games great or awful, let 'er rip!

GUN - This game seriously underdelivered on its own promises and definitely didn't match the standards for the genre (set previously by GTA San Andreas), but I had a ton of fun with it. The story was compelling and offered variety, and although there wasn't nearly enough to do in the sandbox the graphics were great and there were a good number of side missions... It was a lot more impressive on oXbox/PS2 than on the 360, though. Great voice acting, and just all around pretty damn high production values.

Red Dead Revolver - What a weird game. Developed about halfway through by Capcom before being picked up and finished by Rockstar, and it shows. The characters are so quirky and the overall game design and mission structure is more arcade-y than GUN or its own sequel. But multiplayer was a blast. I think if I hadn't played GUN first I wouldn't have complained so much, but RDRev seems so cheesy in comparison...that might be a good thing though.

Red Dead Redemption - Still playing this right now, but damn I think this is what GUN was supposed to be. There's SO much content and it's all presented with such variety that it's sort of mind-blowing, especially coming off of the Assassin's Creed games. I've been playing for hours so far and I don't feel like I've really done the same thing twice. I think the multiplayer system is overly confusing and just plain badly designed at times, but I'm hoping for some patches.

Call of Juarez - Haven't played it - but it's more of a linear FPS if I remember right, which seems to kind of waste a bunch of the open-ended nature the setting provides. Should I give it a shot?

CoJ Bound in Blood - See above.

Dead Man's Hand - Second string FPS game from last gen. Also on PC? Any opinions?

Sunset Riders - I first played this on the Genesis; found out later that the port is almost nothing like the Arcade version. So then I found the arcade cab at the local bowling alley and started popping quarters. Gotta love pink bullets and jumping on cows. Great memories.

Mad Dog McCree - Not bad for an FMV game. Anyone remember the Sega CD version?

Lethal Enforcers II: Gunslingers - Wow, good times but this looks soooo bad now. Damn.

Custer's Revenge - LOL. I mean seriously, LOL.

Wild Guns - One of my absolute favourite SNES shoot 'em up/action/awesome games, and you can play it with a friend! It's made back when Natsume was still making great games (blast them for only making Harvest Moon games nowadays!).

Action combined with great music (even if you don't like the game you should definitely check the music out) makes this an instant classic. I just wish there were more games of the same genre on par with this one, but this is probably the best one there is. Anyway, a real treat for anyone who likes the genre. Warmly recommended.

Outlaws - Suggested by Pandoracell. A late-90s FPS game that looks pretty off-beat (Lucasarts, duh). Anyone played it?

Oddworld - Stranger's Wrath (Gitaroo Man) - We're getting pretty far from the American West but this is a) an Oddworld game and b) references a bunch of spaghetti westerns so it goes. The ammo system is simultaneously hilarious and engaging (you use animals and bugs as ammunition and have to farm them from the levels) and all the usual Oddworld humor and quirkiness is there. The Xbox port looked great, to boot.

 

[GitarooMan]

Red Dead Revolver - What a weird game. Developed about halfway through by Capcom before being picked up and finished by Rockstar, and it shows. The characters are so quirky and the overall game design and mission structure is more arcade-y than GUN or its own sequel. But multiplayer was a blast. I think if I hadn't played GUN first I wouldn't have complained so much, but RDRev seems so cheesy in comparison...that might be a good thing though.

This is a common misconception. It was always developed by Angel Studios (now Rockstar San Diego), it's just that Capcom dropped it as a publisher and Rockstar bought Angel out and had them finish, and they made a few updates after it was picked up again.

Anyway, I'm a real big fan of GUN. I know the world is pretty small and limited but until Red Dead Redemption I really felt it was the best at capturing a great western atmosphere. Was always hoping for a sequel until Neversoft became a Guitar Hero house.

Call of Juarez 1 is a solid, but mostly forgettable game. Some of the vistas and setting are just fantastic though. Haven't played the sequel, but looks good

I would also throw Stranger's Wrath in there, which has such a fantastic western atmosphere and is a stunningly great game.

 

[Jigsaw]

bound in blood was awesome,best story of all the wild west games i've played

gun was fun too but it was so damn short,you could 100% it in 6-7 hours (on a side note,the jenny scene ruined the story for me,found it unnecessary)

revolver was even shorter,you could beat it in about 60 minutes :lol

redemption has the best gameplay but fuck it,the story is boring as hell...80% of the missions were filler and the ending sucked

 

[Sword Familiar]

Quoting myself from an older thread (In this Thread we Dicuss Hidden Gems...):

Wild Guns for the SNES:

One of my absolute favourite SNES shoot 'em up/action/awesome games, and you can play it with a friend! It's made back when Natsume was still making great games (blast them for only making Harvest Moon games nowadays!).

Action combined with great music (even if you don't like the game you should definitely check the music out) makes this an instant classic. I just wish there were more games of the same genre on par with this one, but this is probably the best one there is. Anyway, a real treat for anyone who likes the genre. Warmly recommended.

 

[Strummerjones]

Lethal Enforcers II: Gunslingers - Wow, good times but this looks soooo bad now. Damn.

I remember playing this with a schoolfriend back in the day at a local Sega arcade that had a night where all the machines were on Freeplay for a £5 entry fee. There was one point where you had a face off against a gang of goons, and you had to pull it off perfectly to pass, I think by quickly shooting every one of them dead on with one bullet with no misses. As we were playing it in two player mode, each player got his own cut off version of the same event, and both players had to do it perfectly to progress. After a few goes I got it down pat, but my chum was never much of a gamer and just plain couldn't do it. However, he insisted on continuing every time, resulting in us playing the same 20 second bit of gameplay over and over for a good 30 minutes with him failing it every time, until we both vowed never to play the fucking game ever again.

Another honourable mention: Outlaws on the PC. I believe it's actually the first Wild West FPS? Also the series of French Lucky Luke games on the Playstation. Oh, and coin-op Cowboys of Moo Mesa was basically another Sunset Riders game with some awful, long forgotten 90's kids cartoon licence bolted on.

 

[ULTROS!]

I hope mine counts:

Wild ARMs

It's basically a mix of a JRPG (including anime cutscenes) and Wild Western themes (cowboys, etc.). It's probably one of the first JRPGs to feature a Wild Western theme. It's one of my favorite JRPGs actually. In fact, it was my first 3D RPG.

Music is very Western-y (guitars to harmonicas, etc.).

 

[Sanic]

Perhaps add Outlaws to your list? But it's old, and I have no idea if it even holds up.

 

[viewtiful_dru]

Man Sunset Riders... I love that game. The SNES version was much closer to the arcade version (as you would expect).

"MARRY ME WITH MY...... MONEY"

That one native american boss was a complete and total asshole though. Most of the time I'd get up to him and lose all my lives there.

 

[Night_Trekker]

Red Dead Revolver is cheesy because it's basically a mash-up/series of homages to various spaghetti westerns. I don't think it was ever intended to be anything but.

GUN has great mechanics but, as has been mentioned, a really tiny world. I don't agree that the story was compelling. It could have been if the game hadn't been so obviously trimmed down to a fraction of what it was intended to be, but as it is the story feels like an afterthought, with lip service paid to ideas it never really explores. For example, you show up in town, get deputized by the sheriff, and then he "betrays" you (don't you have to know and trust someone to be "betrayed" by them?), all within the span of a half-hour. Given a few more missions in-between, that could have been effective. As it stands, it's just sort of embarrassing. I adore Christopher Lennertz's soundtrack and think it's a nice game (or the start of what could have been a nice game), though.

I should mention the Half-Life mod Wanted!, which was fairly compelling at the time of its release and very well done overall.

I should probably also mention the great Squaresoft Super Famicom game Live-A-Live (LINK CONTAINS PLOT SPOILERS), in which you play through different scenarios inspired by different entertainment genres. One of them is a Western, of course, and stars the Sunset Kid. The chapter has tons of nods to famous Westerns and is a real treat for fans of the genre. The game itself is unique and there's a high-quality fan translation out there to be found. It's worth your time.

I guess Gunman's Proof (another SFC game that only got a fan translation) counts, even though it's Western angle is not in any way serious:

If it looks like a Zelda clone with a Western slant, it is in many ways. It's a fun, silly little time-waster I wish would get a VC release.

There's also a Konami-made Lone Ranger NES game. I haven't played but a little of it, but it seems pretty solid.

I'm glad Sword Familiar mentioned Wild Guns. It's an awesome game, and it recently got a VC release. I highly recommend it.

I'm trying to think of more games...

I hope mine counts:

I can't believe I forgot to WA. Yeah, it's Western/fantasy, but Western fans might like it. It's an uneven series but I like some of the games, especially WA3. The soundtracks are always enjoyable, even if the games suck.

 

[Polk]

Loved Gunfright on Amstrad. Ultimate's high quality represent.

Dust was awesome adventure game.

and of course another great adventure

 

[Spectral Glider]

I remember playing the demo of Outlaws back in 99 and thinking it was pretty fun.

Here's a couple more from the annals:

Outlaw

Law of the West

And a goofy but more recent one:

 

[Genesis Knight]

Great suggestions; added some to the main post but I don't think I can keep up with all of these.

I forgot Wild Arms - there are so many of those, which are worth playing?

EDIT: Oh yeah, Darkwatch was badass. The weapons designs were fantastic. I loved how you could fan your handguns, and the quad-barrel revolving rifle designs were great too. Some really unique direction on that one - makes me want to play it again but it doesn't support 480p...

 

[besiktas1]

I still stick by it Call of Juarez 2 was amazing (never played 1st one) and I wish we get more from a sequel, the story is just too good and it was fun to play.

 

[carlosp]

 

[ULTROS!]

Alone in the Dark 3.

One of the hardest horror games I've ever played (long time ago though).

 

[Night_Trekker]

I forgot Wild Arms - there are so many of those, which are worth playing?

2 made me a fan of the series, but it's a pretty average RPG to be honest. 3 is a very solid, old-school turn-based JRPG and is probably my favorite of the ones I have played. 4 is one of the worst games I own and should be avoided unless you have a high tolerance for anime bullshit and terrible writing. The soundtrack is excellent, though.

I haven't played the original (or its remake), 5 or that SRPG entry yet.

 

[Stumpokapow]

Vaguely... western... sort of.

 

[water_wendi]

A couple i havent seen mentioned yet..

Desperado series
Wild Gunman
Gold Rush

 

[Haunted]

I approve of this thread.


The Desperado series definitely deserves a mention. Aside from that, I'd call Red Dead and CoJ the games to play. Stranger's Wrath might be a fantasy/western hybrid, but it's also top notch.


I feel that the quality of games with western settings is generally pretty high, there are rarely duds there (ignore Mad Dog. )... maybe we got lucky, or maybe the teams pushing for that kind of setting are just passionate about it.

Good times for Western fans, good times.

 

[ULTROS!]

2 made me a fan of the series, but it's a pretty average RPG to be honest. 3 is a very solid, old-school turn-based JRPG and is probably my favorite of the ones I have played. 4 is one of the worst games I own and should be avoided unless you have a high tolerance for anime bullshit and terrible writing. The soundtrack is excellent, though.

I haven't played the original (or its remake), 5 or that SRPG entry yet.

Actually, the first one is my most favorite amongst all the Wild ARMs games that I've played.

 

[Night_Trekker]

Actually, the first one is my most favorite amongst all the Wild ARMs games that I've played.

Yep, that's a common opinion among fans. I will play it eventually (the PSX original). I might give the remake a try after that, but I've heard it changes a lot of things fans liked.

 

[KevinCow]

Red Steel 2 is probably worth mentioning if we're bringing up stuff like Stranger's Wrath.

 

[Leonsito]

Los Justicieros

Interactive FMW shooter, it was crap, but was my first CD-ROM game and I was in awe at the digitalized voices and video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2LlYEPPg0k

 

[Haunted]

And as far as recommendations go, Red Steel 2 should qualify as well. It's a bit of a mix, like Stranger's Wrath and other outliers, but the setting's got a distinctively Western vibe to it.

 

[Sword Familiar]

Not really a western game per se, but LiveALive for the SFC is an RPG divided into seven chapters that can be played in any order. One of these chapters, Wanderer, is played out in the wild west.

Most notable is the intro song, which captures the feel of old wild west movies quite nicely:
Wanderer

 

[Totalriot]

Wild West Games without C64?

The Law Of The West:

West Bank:

Cliff Hanger:

Shoot Out:

Kane 1+2:

Express Raider:

Western Games:

Plus many more but I am too lazy to look them up...

 

[GhaleonQ]

http://shrines.rpgclassics.com/snes/lal/westchar.shtml
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXydDvQVdYo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzxWk8rpdZU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOLzdwOSbco
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nXVURSUfbA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lf0Gq-D1pg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_x-jvIdk70

Live-A-Live's Old West chapter starring Sunset is really intriguing. You team up with the antagonist, go collect items, dodge traps, and then have a climactic, post-boss encounter with your enemy/friend. There are even 2 endings. Shimomura's soundtrack is fun, too.

I'll let someone else recommend Gold Rush or Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist. Avoid Al Emmo And The Lost Dutchman's Mine.

I always wanted a Yukon game, though.

 

[Spectral Glider]

Great suggestions; added some to the main post but I don't think I can keep up with all of these.

I forgot Wild Arms - there are so many of those, which are worth playing?

EDIT: Oh yeah, Darkwatch was badass. The weapons designs were fantastic. I loved how you could fan your handguns, and the quad-barrel revolving rifle designs were great too. Some really unique direction on that one - makes me want to play it again but it doesn't support 480p...

Yeah, I never did finish Darkwatch. It would be cool to have an HD version.

 

[Wiggum2007]

Now where's my 360 port?!?

 

[LakeEarth]

Bury me with my money.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

Outlaws - Suggested by Pandoracell. A late-90s FPS game that looks pretty off-beat (Lucasarts, duh). Anyone played it?

It was only the best Western themed shooter for a long, long time.

 

[cooljeanius]

Does Red Steel 2 count? It has Wild West influences, but it's not exactly purely Old West though.

 

[LocoMrPollock]

Loved GUN back when it came out, I wonder how well it holds up post Redemption.

Both of the Call of Juarez games are great and well worth playing. Loved both of them.

Dead Man's Hand is a turd.

 

[Sword Familiar]

http://shrines.rpgclassics.com/snes/lal/westchar.shtml
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXydDvQVdYo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzxWk8rpdZU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOLzdwOSbco
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nXVURSUfbA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lf0Gq-D1pg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_x-jvIdk70

Live-A-Live's Old West chapter starring Sunset is really intriguing. You team up with the antagonist, go collect items, dodge traps, and then have a climactic, post-boss encounter with your enemy/friend. There are even 2 endings. Shimomura's soundtrack is fun, too.

I beat you to it, but I'll let you have the credit because your information was more detailed than mine.

 

[GhaleonQ]

I beat you to it, but I'll let you have the credit because your information was more detailed than mine.

OMG IT'S LIKE WERE SHADOW AND MAD DOG

I just wanted to post the excellent YouTube walkthrough and RPGClassics shrine.

 

[Night_Trekker]

I beat you to it, but I'll let you have the credit because your information was more detailed than mine.

I beat you both to it in my wall of text up there ;P

 

[SlasherJPC]

Played most of the games mention in this thread. I think that from a technical standpoint Redemption is probably the best looking and most realised old west game ever made. Though I find that Call of Juarez Bound in Blood to offer some of the best missions and sets ups in a western game ever. Really good stuff and some awesome setpieces.
Red Dead was good for the time and interesting with all the characters. Gun was fun but seemed like a very small world, though I enjoyed the story in this quite a bit too. I'd have hoped for a sequel.

Sunset riders and Wild guns are classics for me!

 

[faridmon]

darkwatch is the only ''western'' game i ever played (well i played RDR at my mate house, very short session)

Darkwatch is just bloody fantastic.

 

[DryvBy]

Outlaws. Played this over and over again, with the mission packs. People made maps for this game for 10 years!

The level designs were awesome. The characters were yes, 2D, but seriously, I could still play this. Aside from RDR, this is the most authentic western shooter ever, at least according to how Hollywood portrays the wild west.

Anyone who hasn't played this is missing out on a golden gem of a game.

 

[GhaleonQ]

I beat you both to it in my wall of text up there ;P

And by that you mean "hidden among other people's gigantic pictures COME ON PEOPLE."

 

[Sword Familiar]

I beat you both to it in my wall of text up there ;P

Wow, yeah. That's awesome. I tried searching, but I guess something went wrong.

Edit:

Noted: Night_Trekker and GhaleonQ have great taste.

 

[Night_Trekker]

And by that you mean "hidden among other people's gigantic pictures COME ON PEOPLE."

Wow, yeah. That's awesome. I tried searching, but I guess something went wrong.

Edit:

Noted: Night_Trekker and GhaleonQ have great taste.

 

[Dizzy-4U]

Quoting myself from an older thread (In this Thread we Dicuss Hidden Gems...):

One of my absolute favourite SNES shoot 'em up/action/awesome games, and you can play it with a friend! It's made back when Natsume was still making great games (blast them for only making Harvest Moon games nowadays!).

Action combined with great music (even if you don't like the game you should definitely check the music out) makes this an instant classic. I just wish there were more games of the same genre on par with this one, but this is probably the best one there is. Anyway, a real treat for anyone who likes the genre. Warmly recommended.

+1

I absolutely adore this game and the music is fantastic. More people need to play this. It's definitely in my top 5 Snes games.

 

[Stumpokapow]

And by that you mean "hidden among other people's gigantic pictures COME ON PEOPLE."

Let's be honest, 99.9999% of the time when someone posts images of a game, they just images.google.com -> query game name -> take random pictures from the first page -> post -> if there's anti-leeching tech, swap out the photoo.

 

[Dead Man]

This is a common misconception. It was always developed by Angel Studios (now Rockstar San Diego), it's just that Capcom dropped it as a publisher and Rockstar bought Angel out and had them finish, and they made a few updates after it was picked up again.

Anyway, I'm a real big fan of GUN. I know the world is pretty small and limited but until Red Dead Redemption I really felt it was the best at capturing a great western atmosphere. Was always hoping for a sequel until Neversoft became a Guitar Hero house.

Call of Juarez 1 is a solid, but mostly forgettable game. Some of the vistas and setting are just fantastic though. Haven't played the sequel, but looks good

I would also throw Stranger's Wrath in there, which has such a fantastic western atmosphere and is a stunningly great game.

Yeah, I am a huge fan of GUN. Way too limited in scope, but great action, great world, and a few cool things to do as well.

RDRedemption is only other one I have played here, and I love it. A few quibbles about mission structure and game play choices, but overall, possibly my game of the gen so far. Now giv us another one where we have to build our own ranching empire, GTA:VC in the wild west. That would be perfect.

 

[Jme]

Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive
PC (2007)
Strategy/Tactics game a la C&C
Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desperados:_Wanted_Dead_or_Alive

Wild Gunman
NES (1985)
Awesome

Bank Panic
Sega Master System (1986)

Lead & Gold
PSN/XBLA (2010)
Team Based 3rd Person Shooter

 

[Neuromancer]

No Gunsmoke for the NES mention? For shame.

OK it may not look like much now, but it was awesome back in the day and I can still remember some of the music. The NES Advantage was crucial for that game because of the turbo fire, giving firepower equivalent to an M16. :lol

Honorable mention should also go to Timesplitters 2 because it had an awesome Western level. You got to make a trail of gunpowder, ignite it and blow a chunk out of the jailhouse wall.

 

[Jme]

No Gunsmoke for the NES mention? For shame.

OK it may not look like much now, but it was awesome back in the day and I can still remember some of the music. The NES Advantage was crucial for that game because of the turbo fire, giving firepower equivalent to an M16. :lol

Honorable mention should also go to Timesplitters 2 because it had an awesome Western level. You got to make a trail of gunpowder, ignite it and blow a chunk out of the jailhouse wall.

8th post

 

[Polk]

Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive
PC (2007)
Strategy/Tactics game a la C&C
Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desperados:_Wanted_Dead_or_Alive

Wah? C&C? I hope you mean Commandos: Behind Enemy Lines & Commandos: Behind Call of duty

 

[SappYoda]

Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive
PC (2007)
Strategy/Tactics game a la C&C

The game is nothing like Command and Conquer.

Its more similar to commandos.