West of Dead (Nintendo Switch) Review

West of Dead nails the dark-Western tone that it shoots for, aided in no small part by Ron Perlman's excellent voice-acting. It's a shame he's not given more to say because when he does pipe up it's with a verve that suggests he was made for the role of an undead sharpshooter. His performance is complemented by some solid sound design all-round; the ricochets, falling shell casings, and general gun-related noises are all perfectly realised in this supernatural Western.

This coupled with suitably cartoony graphics contributes to an experience that is rife with personality. The cover-based shootouts and the tension of period-appropriate slow reload times establishes West of Dead as an experience that any fan of cowboy flicks will find charming. There is a variety of weapons to find in the procedurally generated dungeons and a host of power-ups and abilities to stumble into - not to mention the bizarre but organic characters and oddballs who serve as store owners and hint-givers in turn. They do a passable job of making Purgatory feel like a living, breathing place, as do the undead snipers and grizzled beasties you fight along the way. It feels at home on the Switch, too: the rogue-like structure is perfect for short bursts of on-the-go play.

Unfortunately, the gameplay itself is something of a letdown. The combat quickly becomes repetitive due to the sparsely available pickups. All but the most decadent weapons cleave too close to each other in function, and most runs end up feeling exactly the same with little to separate them aside from your growing skill level. West of Dead's lack of innovation in its mechanics make it feel like a baseline rogue-like experience, despite its well-established personality.

This sadly doesn't provide enough to sustain interest for very long, and even the level design that morphs with every new run can start to feel stale. Nevertheless, when there are breakthroughs in progress and your own skill-level, the sense of achievement is just as rewarding as any solid rogue-like. It's that rush you get from progressing, along with West of Dead's unique and well-established personality, that make it recommendable to genre enthusiasts.