Cowboys vs. Zombies, oh my!
If Blood needs more... uh, blood.
Blood West is an Action Horror immersive stealth FPS developed by Hyperstrange, set in the Wild West with a Weird West theme.
It begins with your death in a shootout... regaining consciousness in a deserted valley, you have no idea why you're alive, again. As you approach a nearby cattle skull, it suddenly starts speaking to you.
"You're undead. We brought you here, by means of our immense powers from whenever place you've been before. We know of your exploits and achievements. Your fame reaches wide across the country. The nasty rumors about you reach even further. You're our Ace in a sleeve..."
And now, you're an undead desperado revenant. Reanimated by Native American spirits, you realize the Wild West, after dark, is inhabited by assorted undead, demons, and supernatural creatures. Luckily, you retain your skills in kicking ass and using firearms after being revived.
Blood West entered Early Access on February 10, 2022. The full game was later released on December 5, 2023.
"You have unleashed the devil himself upon this land..."
- Abandoned Camp Ruins: You can come across a few of these, with their occupants nowhere in sight. Some of them still have the campfires burning.
- Abandoned Mine: Appropriately for the Wild West setting, one stage is set in such a mine. You'll need to descend down various mine shafts while shooting at the undead.
- All Deserts Have Cacti: You can find cacti all over the place at random, given the game's Wild West setting.
- All for Nothing: What the end of the game reveals. Despite the Undead's efforts to undo the curse and free themselves from their undead existence - as well as all the good they've done for the people they've met along their journey - the curse persists, spreading across the country and allowing more and more demons to rise, leading to the destruction of entire cities and the deaths of thousands. As for the Undead, they wander the lands aimlessly, having no purpose and no way to find rest, until they end up going back to Totem of Souls, having nowhere else to go.
- Already Done for You: When you arrive in the Mountains region, you'll find that the region's Evil, a four armed King Kong-sized giant, is already dead, having been killed by a squad of monster hunters from the Alliance of the Iron Rose. Instead, the Totem of Souls ends up becoming the boss of the region and the final boss of the game when you summon it to the region.
- Always Night: Every single stage is set at night.
- Apocalyptic Log: A group of settlers were slowly hunted down by invisible monsters - children first.
- Artifact of Doom: Your mission in the first chapter is to find Artifacts of Doom. As an undead, your sight sprouts tendrils and you start hearing whispers whenever you get close to one of these. There are also Artifacts that are Cursed; they provide various benefits but often come with drawbacks as well and can't be removed unless you die or drink a curse-removing potion.
- Attack of the Monster Appendage: You might be attacked by fleshy, red tentacles coming from the desert ground or the floors of an abandoned cabin. You don't know if they're gigantic worms, or appendages to larger, unseen monsters.
- Badass Longcoat: The Undead is shown to rock a pretty sweet duster in all artwork and third-person cutscenes, although the arms on his in-game model show that he isn't wearing it for whatever reason.
- Berserk Button: Prodigal Daughters wear armored masks that hide their deformities. If they're shot off, they will enter an enraged state that causes them to run towards the player instead of walking so they can use their shotgun faster.
- BFG: The buffalo rifle (a Sharps rifle) deals the most single-shot damage in the game, doing slightly more damage than a high-end shotgun, essentially being the game's equivalent of a sniper rifle. You can turn this already potent weapon into a full BFG by loading it with nitro rounds; these are not Nitro Express (elephant gun) rounds, these are rounds loaded with nitroglycerin that turn your sniper rifle into a Wild West rocket launcher. Taken even further with the Call of the Abyss, a revolver multi-shot buffalo rifle you can purchase from the Undead Cowboy in chapter 3 for a whooping $18,000 (which you'd have to essentially 100% chapter 1 and 2 to be able to afford). Not only does it deal more damage than a regular buffalo rifle, it will randomly deal critical hits and also does bonus headshot damage. With the right perks, a single critical hit headshot from it can take off more than 1/4th of the Final Boss's lifebar.
- Bird People: Undead bird-men. They have large avian skulls for heads, small skeletal wings on their backs, and their guts are spilling out. They use rusty revolvers, and can somehow use their wings to evasively jump-hover out of the line of fire. Notably, they're more akin to fae or yokai, as they're hardier than they look but will take more damage from spirit-killing silver ammo.
- Elite Mook: The Birdman Outlaw in chapter 3 uses a standard revolver and can fan it.
- Bloodsucking Bats: The corruption has turned the Hellbats into literal flying leeches, which burst out of the head of their latest victim and then rapidly dart to stick to your face. Fortunately, the mutation has destroyed their intelligence; if they miss, they'll burrow into the floor or wall and stick there until they die.
- Boss in Mook's Clothing: Wendigos, Death Stalkers, Hell Bears, and both types of Wraiths (the gunslingers and Native American ones) are all mini-boss level threats. Demons are just as tough and dangerous, but come in similar numbers are regular enemies, at least in certain areas like the Chasm.
- But Thou Must!: The opening cutscene doesn't even give you the option to turn down your mission."Before you ask: no, we cannot send you back. Not yet, See, that's the nature of every summoning, it must have a reason. And a reason you have. As an undead outside of other's influence, you will be our torch in the dark, Your spark will become the flame to purify the rot of this world and free us from the unending cycle of despair..."
- Captain Ersatz: Given the Western setting, a Player Character who's an undead desperado and right up to the game's title, the unnamed protagonist is a rather blatant clone of Caleb from Blood. The voice actor even emulates Caleb's voice from the older game!
- Curse: When you die, you start developing a lesser curse known as a Soul Flaw, which has some detrimental debuff. Die three times, and you develop a full-blown curse, which is a major debuff. You get an achievement for beating a chapter with four whole curses.
- Dead to Begin With: You begin as a slain desperado, who's revived by the forces of darkness for reasons you don't uncover until later on.
- Dead Weight: Skin Collectors are morbidly obese giants who have sewn the skin of their victims across their bodies. Their heavy helmetsnote and thick kevlard makes them some of the hardiest enemies in the game, yet they're also acrofatic and can quickly catch a sprinting undead. Their weakness, as lampshaded in the bio, is that they're really stupid; they'll sprint until they exhuast themselves and catch their breath without a care to how many times you unload. There's even an achievement for tiring out a skin collector three times in one fight.
- Desert Skull: That speaks to you. You'll find bovine skulls on poles all over the desert, all of them inhabited by a Hive Mind of dead spirits that comes to life when approached, with glowing blue light emitting from their eye-sockets. The first NPC you spoke to is in fact one such skull.
- Downer Ending: At the end, you fight and defeat Totem of Souls, so the curse is lifted and the Undead is freed, right? No. Totem's monologue makes it clear that it's still alive, and the Undead's efforts amount to nothing. The following scenes show the curse spreading beyond the Barren Lands, with one showing a battle between some ironclads and a giant demon in the middle of a city. The credits show the Undead wandering aimlessly, fighting demons wherever they go, only to end up going back to the Totem because they have nowhere else to go.
- Dungeon Bypass: Many locations have hidden passages that can take you close to the area objective while skipping most of the enemies around. You'll still have to kill some enemies going through them, and since you'd need to know where the objective is beforehand they're generally only useful on a second playthrough of the game.
- Face–Heel Turn: In Chapter 2, if you give the cure to the priest, Annabelle disappears from the safehouse and eventually succumbs to the curse from her mask, becoming an evil undead. In Chapter 3, you'll learn from the priest (who followed you and the undead cowboy) that Annabelle came back to the safehouse and killed Twen. She can be found wandering around near the chasm in the center of the map just past the circus, acting like any other enemy. She's armed with a shotgun and has Wendigo-level health, making her quite a tough opponent.
- Flying Face: Flying human skulls animated by ghostly blue flames are another enemy type. Beware when their flames turn red, they're about to tackle you.
- In Chapter 3, the red ones explode.
- The Goomba: The first enemy you encounter, the Animated Dead (basically, garden-variety zombies). They're painfully slow and can be taken down easily from the back, although they do have a sudden jumping attack that could catch a player unaware. The bio for these enemies briefly lampshades their uselessness.They can stare at a wall for hours, seemingly even enjoying it and then shamble thoughtlessly around...
- The Animated Dead can at least catch you by surprise in melee, as their claws have deceptively long range and they actually run faster than you do once aggro'ed. The undead Miner is even weaker, with half as much health and a much easier to avoid attack.
- Heavily Armored Mook: One of the enemies you fight are Animated Dead wearing their coffins as impromptu armor. They can take far more damage than regular undead as a result, though their "armor" can be bypassed by targeting their limbs or (if you've got really good aim) headshoting them through a small hole in the front of the coffin. The weight of their coffins prevents them from running, but they can throw wood stakes ripped from the coffin instead.
- Hero-Tracking Failure: Averted, enemies lead their shots so you need to change direction once they fire in order to dodge their bullets.
- Immersive Sim: Despite the chunky Quake style Retraux graphics, the game is not a throwback "Boomer Shooter" style FPS, but rather has a greater emphasis on stealth, exploration, and character skills, being closer to games like Deus Ex. That said, it is an indie-budget game by a handful of developers, so it doesn't have as complicated interweaving systems as other games in the genre (don't expect an NPC ecosystem or the ability to bake bread).
- Informed Species: The giant "leech" enemies in the swamps look suspiciously reptilian and nothing like leeches, and are more like zombified baby crocodiles. They suck your blood if they manage to attach themselves on you, albeit with tentacles instead. The codex notes called them Depths Hunters and suggest they're part alligator, part leech, and possibly even part human. The hellbats in chapter 3, conversely, are much more like leeches with wings rather than bats.
- Invisible Monster: The Broken Screams in chapter 3 (so named because the only trace of them the scientist cataloguing the Barren Lands' inhabitants could find was one of his assistants screaming and suddenly being cut off). They're not quite as tough as other Wendigo variants (though they're tougher than most other enemies) but have the ability to turn invisible once alerted. Some are invisible from the start, which you can accidentally stumble into when exploring the woods.
- Kill It with Fire:
- You have access to both molotov cocktails and incendiary ammo.
- Subverted at the end of chapter 2 - fire is used to defeat the Giant, but it only makes it vulnerable to the player's attacks.
- Menu Time Lockout: Averted, the game doesn't pause when you access your inventory or other character menus. However, the pocket watch artifact you can buy from Jim Hooper does allow you to pause while accessing your inventory. Time also pauses when speaking to characters in safe zones.
- Non-Malicious Monster: Downplayed with Mary the Boo Hag in Chapter 3. She does enjoy killing humans, but she's not a mindless beast and doesn't kill every human she meets and is quite friendly with you as a fellow undead. She notes that her fellow Boo Hags have all gone insane and will not be as friendly.
- Parasite Zombie: Defilers, encountered in chapter 3, are the wretched bodies of humans who have had a hellbat burrow into their head turning it into a misshapened flesh lump. They're incredibly slow, but come in hordes, and if killed with a headshot the hellbat will burst out of their head and try to latch onto you.
- Post-Mortem One-Liner: You let out one of these periodically after killing an enemy.Stay dead, pal! [BOOM]I will rid this land of you!
- Regenerating Health: The Vendigo Heart artifact gives you relatively slow regenerating health (1 hp every 8 seconds) at the cost of reducing your max health by 10%. It's too slow to be useful in combat, but if you're patient it can save you quite a lot of money on health potions and let you regenerate your health for free without respawning enemies by resting. Later chapters of the game let you get improved hearts from the tougher variant of Wendigos (Death Stalkers) or Hellbears. The best heart is a unique artifact (seemingly resembling the Mother of Roots from chapter 1) found in a hidden location in chapter 3.
- Revolvers Are Just Better: Averted. Revolvers are one of the weakest firearms in the game and they can be found commonly in both rusty and normal variations throughout Chapter 1.
- Played straight with the Chain Revolver, which can hold 28 rounds. It's one weakness is the slow reload speed, but you'll have all the time you need to reload after fanning this thing across the battlefield.
- Sadistic Choice: In Chapter 2, you're tasked to get a priest back to camp, who is afflicted with a disease that could possibly end his life. When you get him back to camp, he reveals how he came to the area because of rumors of a cure for all diseases, and because of his state, you have to retrieve it. After this, if you talk to Annabelle, the woman who asked you to retrieve him and also has a disease that's slowly killing her, she'll tell you that she overheard your talk with the priest and asks you to give her the cure if you find it. Whoever you give the cure to will be cured of their affliction while whoever didn't succumbs to theirs. Downplayed in that the priest, while unambiguously an ally, is very much presented as an Asshole Victim, while Annabelle is both the game's Ms. Fanservice and an overall more sympathetic individual.
- Sawed-Off Shotgun: One of the first firearms you can use besides the revolver. It can be reloaded quickly due to its length and takes up much less inventory space than a full shotgun, at the cost of somewhat reduced accuracy and range.
- Silver Bullet: Available for the pistol/rifle or the shotgun. They deal triple damage against ghostly enemies. Gold bullets are also available which deal double damage against everything.
- Sinister Minister: In Chapter 2, you meet a 'priest' who's as corrupt as they come. He used to be a rich aristocrat who bought his way into the priesthood, but developed a fatal, boil-growing disease. He funded an expedition of Church Militants for a cure, smoking and drinking all the way while hypocritically claiming the holy importance of his crusade. When things came to a head, he fled instead of fighting evil, and then spent most of his time looking for a 'relic' that turns out to be a moonshine distillery. His former partner really hates him.
- Skull for a Head: Most of the humanoid enemies have skulls in place of their craniums, even if the rest of their bodies still have flesh on them. You do encounter a benevolent example when you revive a cowboy whose face is all bones to ask him for clues.
- Suspend Save: Your save file autosaves whenever you exit the game. There's no going back to a previous save, and the game autosaves when you die to prevent Save Scumming.
- Swamps Are Evil: The Putrid Swamp, a stage set in an undead-infested marsh.
- Treacherous Quest Giver: At the end of Chapter 3, the Totem of Souls betrays you and becomes the game's Final Boss. From context this seems more like a spur-of-the-moment impulsive opportunistic action rather than part of any grand scheme. The Undead Cowboy even warns you the Totem is made up of thousands of unstable souls and its actions can be unpredictable. In the end, it's not even clear whether the Totem is the source of the Curse of the West or just another symptom of it (from context it seems the Totem is a master-level Evil like the Mother of Roots or the Cursed Giant, it just happens to be the one who's your boss).
- Wendigo: One of the Boss in Mook's Clothing-type enemies you can encounter, depicted as a beast with shaggy white fur and gigantic talons. It's even named Wendigo in-game. An even bigger and nastier variant with a deer skull for a head, the Death Stalker, appears in chapter 2.
- When Trees Attack: The Mother of the Roots boss is a gigantic tree growing in a lake of blood, who attacks you with her roots while being stationary due to growing on the ground. Her bark is invulnerable, and you can only damage her when she starts absorbing blood to power herself - at which point her midsection opens to reveal a human heart-like organ.
