"Western" Games?

[sonson]

Bit of a misnomer maybe, but after sampling the slow burning brilliance of Deadwood and Hamlet on a Harley in the form of Sons of Anarchy I’m eager to sample some down home, bar brawlin’ shit kickin’ slide guitarin’ gamin’ son.

What I found particularly compelling about both was the way it allows for a set up of a fairly traditional social group collide with different cultural forces, and the dramatic fall out of that. It allows for a fairly focussed study of one community while providing scope for exploration of much bigger themes, it scales beautifully, and it allows plenty excuse for drama and violence and politics. Yet for some reason gaming barley seems to have tapped it.

Red Dead is the obvious example, but other than that the best examples of this sort of thing I’ve encountered so far haven’t actually been in Western games at all. Bastion gets the core themes perfectly with it’s music and narrator and casually violent poetry. I think it reads pretty naturally as an analogy of US expansion into the West and the collide of different cultures. The Witcher games are the closest I think games come to having made a real go at talking about different ethnic communities co-existing in a way which is nuanced and believable. They also cover the tension between frontier outlaw communities and bigger, more centralised social centres, and the difference between rural and urban life.

I honestly can’t think of any other examples though. I’d love to know if anyone is aware of anything that fits the sort of Western aesthetic in the way I’ve described above. Likewise American Gothic or anything Deep South. It’s a fascinating clash of cultures that hardly seems to have been explored in games at all. Maybe it’s still too politically sensitive? As a UK resident I wouldn’t know. Or maybe it’s too similar and everyday for Americans and thus doesn’t fit the traditional mould of escapism.

I’ve got Kentucky route Zero on the list to explore and the Real Texas, although I think they’re going to be more abstract. Any others?

[DaftPunk]

For someting alike to Sons Of Anacrhy there is first expansion pack for GTA4,Lost & Damned.


Otherwise western games,am Call Of Juarez 1&2,Gun,there is also turn based western series on pc,Dead alive or maybe something like that.

[Nalano]

If what you're looking for is the usual expansionary tale of exploring a wild land and meeting (and subsequently shooting) its wiley inhabitants, just about every American game ever is basically that story, including but not limited to all our futurist science fiction.

[rsherhod]

To my amazement, and annoyance, Red Dead Redemption isn't on PC. I felt sure it had been ported.

[Jesus_Phish]

GTA4 - Lost & Damned is basically Sons the game.

I'm not sure what you actually mean by Western though. You allude in one part of your post about The Witcher being a Western game but then you go on to seemingly suggest you want a game physically set in the "west" of the world, where the west would be the US?

*EDIT*

What Nal said. All I can think of for "american" games are games about the military or one dude in the military going up against an army somewhere, exploring somewhere he doesn't know and killing most of it's inhabitants.

[rsherhod]

If what you're looking for is the usual expansionary tale of exploring a wild land and meeting (and subsequently shooting) its wiley inhabitants, just about every American game ever is basically that story, including but not limited to all our futurist science fiction.

While that's true, for first or third person action-RPGs at least, the wild west is still an underused setting. I suppose you could consider the Fallout games to be westerns... except 3 of course.

Also, unlike sci-fi games, westerns have an excuse for sticking to a largely brown colour palette.

[Track]

Even something like Civilization could fall under that expansionary-tale umbrella (is there a Western TBS? There really should be).

On the more indie side of things, there's Westerado, which is a browser game that was posted here a while back. I didn't delve to much into it, but it seems surprisingly huge, and the conversation system is brilliant.

Also, someone mentioned Fallout. I always felt that New Vegas really captured that western feel. Whether it was the desert setting or the characters or both I'm not sure, but definitely give it a shot.

[Nalano]

I'm not sure what you actually mean by Western though. You allude in one part of your post about The Witcher being a Western game but then you go on to seemingly suggest you want a game physically set in the "west" of the world, where the west would be the US?

He means John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and our infatuation with romanticized cowboys, railroads, and shooting as many Mexicans and Native Americans as you can get away with.

He means also, in a larger sense, Manifest Destiny stories of bringing civilization to the frontier.

[sonson]

He means John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and our infatuation with romanticized cowboys, railroads, and shooting as many Mexicans and Native Americans as you can get away with.

He means also, in a larger sense, Manifest Destiny stories of bringing civilization to the frontier.

Thanks for suggestions so far. Yeah, this basically, although more interested in the sort of fall out of expansion rather than the initial phase. Northwest conquest itself but the attempts to create some form of compromised civilisation afterwards. I need to try New Vegas for sure, forgot that one. Borderlands obviously has the attitude of a western although it's the attitude and nothing much else.

[Jesus_Phish]

Ah I see. The Witcher part threw me off.

Anyway, you'll like Lost and the Damned probably, it's very Sons to the point that most people say its Rockstar up to their old tricks of just copying the shit out of tv and movies.

New Vegas has a good wild west feel to it and it's much more open than Fallout 3 in that maybe halfway through the main story you're basically told, go do what you want with the story.

You mentioned Red Dead, but I'm not sure if you played it. If you didn't, you should sort that out.

You could also try something like Sim City and Settlers, though you'll mostly have to make the story up as you go along and by the sounds of it you want something with a good slow burner story.

[Nalano]

Borderlands obviously has the attitude of a western although it's the attitude and nothing much else.

Story, too: Large multi-planet corporations (civilization) stake claims and settle on dusty backwater planets (frontier), send legions of disposable mercenaries (gunslingers) to clear out the hostile fauna and break open vaults of a dead civilization (local flavor). The vaults are basically indian burial grounds, complete with curse. The protagonists are just particularly good mercenaries (Clint Eastwood).

[Jesus_Phish]

I always forget Borderlands 1 and 2 has a story. Probably because it gets in the way of shooting things with my friends and the four of us tend to gloss over it.

[fiddlesticks]

We had a similar thread a while back.

Some good recommendations were the Fallout games (particularly 2 and New Vegas), Freddy Pharkas: Frontier Pharmacist and Outlaws. Not a very large collection, admittedly. Good games which take place in the Old West are surprisingly rare.

[Internet]

There's the oft-mentioned Gun and Call of Juarez.

Fallout New Vegas is Western themed. Also the surprisingly good (and surprisingly adult) adult swim game Westerado:
http://games.adultswim.com/westerado...line-game.html

Keep an eye on Meriwether, it seems right up your alley:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...-american-epic

I feel like part of the problem of actually making a Western game is the vast gulf between our image of the West and the actual West.

In a somewhat unrelated note, an indie folk song that's been stuck in my head for weeks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3WrGLn4Ahg

I would love to see the image of a "great harmonious storm" make it into a game.

It would be also be interesting to see groups inside a game draw inspiration from Shakers or perhaps Mormon mythology.

[Nalano]

I feel like part of the problem of actually making a Western game is the vast gulf between our image of the West and the actual West.

I also don't live in 1865, nor is General Grant currently leading the bluecoats.

[Internet]

I also don't live in 1865, nor is General Grant currently leading the bluecoats.

That doesn't mean the dreams of the 1890s have died.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPKe9OfWs-M

[Nalano]

That doesn't mean the dreams of the 1890s have died.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPKe9OfWs-M

KILL IT.

KILL IT WITH FIRE.

arglebargle

[Winged Nazgul]

Lead and Gold from Fatshark. An underrated team-based multiplayer shooter that nobody plays.

[RakeShark]

Look around and see if you can pick up Outlaws from LucasArts. Not on any digital distro, but it's a classic.

Also, Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath is western-themed with some jamming music tracks to go along with every thing else gravy.

[Kaira-]

I remember Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive being some good Commandos-like fun set in the traditional landscapes of Westerns.