Hard West 2 Has An Open Beta On Steam

Now With Bravado And More Ricochets

If you tried the first Hard West and didn’t like it because it was a mining expedition simulator then you missed out on the rest of the vastly different and semi-connected campaign, not to mention it’s branches, so you should try it again; no more mining missions await you.  On the other hand if you did play through it and hated it then Hard West 2 is not for you as it is more of the same, with extras.

Ice Code Games and Good Shepherd Entertainment have released a free beta on Steam which it seems just about anyone can join, which gives you a brief look at Hard West 2.  They are also collecting bug reports, but so far the game seems more stable than many recently released ones have been.  One of the first things you will encounter is the Bravado mechanic, similar to the one Gears Tactics, where if you kill an opponent you get all your action points back and can keep on shooting and moving until you fail to kill another enemy.  This can be very rewarding as you string together a few posse members not quite able to finish off opponents and then use another to finish them off, one after another.

The other big change is that there are far more things to ricochet bullets off of.  The original had that mechanic, but the opportunity to use it was somewhat limited, especially if you are going for a double bank.  Not so in the first part of Hard West 2, where there are a plethora of things to bounce bullets off of.  It also introduces a melee character, who can be extremely effective if used properly.

It won’t cost you anything other than time and a bit of drive space, so check it out if you are at all interested.