WEIRD WEST

A new perspective on immersive sims

- James Davenport

NEED TO KNOW

RELEASE Autumn

DEVELOPER WolfEye Studio

PUBLISHER Devolver Digital

LINK weirdwest.com

What convinced me Weird West is a true immersive sim had nothing to do with the carefully prepared talking points from a recent 30-minute hands-off demo. It was a small dust devil, a random weather event, whipping through the scene.

While former Arkane founder Raphael Colantonio explains the finesse of the physics system, showing off by tossing a bottle and shooting it out of the air, a better, if less elegant example comes along.

The dust devil skirts around the edge of our bird’s-eye view of a destitute barn and gunslinger protagonist, first picking up some wooden debris, then passing over a campfire. It then transforms into a raging cyclone of flame and despair, a swirling monstrosity carrying a dozen flaming planks which then light the adjacent farmhouse ablaze and send our demoist scrambling out of the way.