Westward Review

Westward is a real time strategy game set in a rather quirky take on the Old West that lets you decide the fate of brave settlers as they set up camp, harvest resources, and try to build a thriving community in the middle of the parched desert.

Some Funny Dialogue

The story and its rather strange collection of zany prospectors, hotel moguls by the name of Harris Pilton, and industrious settlers is one of this game's main strengths. The writing is also very well done and you'll find yourself laughing out loud on more than one occasion, be it the advice when loading a level telling you “There is nothing more dangerous than a bear holding a shark” or when Esmerelda Fitzsimmons proclaims “I just can't get good tiramisu around here!”

Basic Gameplay - Easy to Learn and Use

Another great aspect to this title is how easy and simple the interface is and the quality of play. The main gameplay is like any other RTS title with an angled top-down perspective and simple mouse controls. You must collect resources such as water, lumber, gold, and food in order to keep your citizens happy and attract more settlers to join your budding community.

There are also a variety of goals which you must complete within each level that can range from constructing new town buildings, finding large gold deposits, or helping a waylaid traveler by collecting enough lumber to fix his wagon. These different missions and the results from each definitely help to give the game even more personality and keeps things fresh. For instance, at one point you'll need to build a saloon to keep your townsfolk from leaving town which is rather helpful since you can then hire gunslingers to run those pesky bandits out of town, but then some of your workers tend to turn to the bottle and you'll have to deal with some ye old town drunks as well.

Not Perfect....

There are only a few things which tended to cause some problems while playing this rather fun and addicting game. For one, the way in which you move characters around by clicking and dragging them around the map could get rather cumbersome when trying to move them over long distances and slowed down the play a little bit.

Also, it would have been rather nice if you had the option to speed up the gameplay especially when working towards certain goals, such as waiting for your miners to collect 1000 gold to pay off a debt. While these issues weren't glaring problems, they interrupted the gameplay and could be annoying at times.

Conclusion - Good Value for the Amount of Play Time

Overall, Westward does provide plenty of hours of fun and interesting gameplay. With 10 playable characters, plus dozens of secondary ones, and over 20 challenging levels that can take upwards of 30 hours to complete, you definitely get your money's worth.

Its simple interface and lengthy tutorial makes this a great title for new players, and the hilarious story and unique concept provide a fresh take for more experienced RTS fans.