It’s hard not to be intrigued by the idea of a cowboy battling it out with fantastical creatures in the Wild West. At The Game Awards on Thursday, that's exactly what fans were teased with by the co-creators of the Dishonored and Prey franchises, Raphael Colantonio and Julien Roby.
Weird West is the first title to be developed by their new indie studio, WolfEye, and will be published by Devolver Digital of Hotline Miami fame. It's slated to be an action RPG with a kind of top-down isometric view. Described as an "immersive sim," Weird West will be a dark fantasy reimagining of the Wild West with gunslingers and lawmen sharing the world with fantastical, and presumably hostile, beasts.
A Steam page for the game has already been created, but as of yet it gives no information about the game’s expected release date. It does, however, describe a bit of what to expect from the game. Players will “journey through the origin stories of a group of atypical heroes, written into legend by the decisions you make in an unforgiving land. Each journey is unique and tailored to the actions taken - a series of high stakes stories where everything counts and the world reacts to the choices you make.”
This seems to imply that player decisions will have a real influence on how the story unfolds and how the game ultimately plays out. The game description mentions “origin stories” and “series of stories," and this could mean that players will either take on the role of different characters throughout the game or meet a variety of potential party members and learn their stories that way.
According to the Steam description, players will also have the option of forming a posse or playing solo. At first this brings to mind a possible multiplayer element. However, the game is listed as single player, so for now it’s safe to assume that the party that gamers create will be composed of in-game characters and not other players.
In November 2019, Colantonio and Roby announced the creation of their new endeavor, WolfEye Studios. Colantonio was one of the cofounders of Arkane Studios back in 1999 and also served as creative director until he left in 2017. Roby was also part of the Arkane Studios team for over a decade, filling roles that ranged from intern to designer to executive producer, before he also moved on to other ventures.
Weird West will be available on PC. Information about other platforms and a release date are still unavailable.