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I got this game and the DLC around a month ago and have been playing it off and on ever since.
If you've ever played Kingdom of Loathing, this is sort of a sequel to that. I'd heard of KoL before, as I recall it being popular among some of the OtakuWars! bunch way back in ye olden days (well, post-OW!, since KoL was released in 2003, which is the year OW! [mostly] ended), but I had never actually played it myself until recently. I'm currently a level 6 Pastamancer in KoL. (EDIT 2) And I made it to level 9 before my interest kind of petered out. (/EDIT 2)
So. West of Loathing. It's a stick figure RPG based in an Old West setting. You can be a Cattle Puncher (melee class, focuses on the Muscle stat), Snake Oiler (rogue-ish class, focuses on the Moxie stat), or a Beanslinger (mage class, focuses on Mysticality). I've played through as all of the classes, but I think my favorite is probably the Beanslinger. All of them are pretty good, though. During the tutorial area, you encounter four different potential "pardners," one of whom you can have come with you. There's also another you can find/build later to aid in combat, though he's not controllable. And then there's the one that joins and accompanies you while you're in the DLC area, but only while you're there. And besides that, the Beanslinger and Snake Oiler classes can summon in additional help (as can the makeshift Necromancer "class" that you can sort of weld onto your existing class at later points in the game, if you find the right books, though that will weaken you in other ways).
Honestly, for being a RPG, there's not really that much in the way of story. There are four loose plots (five counting the DLC). There's the "get the train to Frisco" plot, which I guess is considered the main one, since only after you complete that can you access the "Final Cut-Scene." There's the Necromancer plot, which entails finding a bunch of clues spread all around the game world to access and deal with the Necromancer's lair. There's the "Cows Came Home" plot, which involves demon cows, their demon rodeo clown enemies, and ultimately dealing with the leader of the cows. And there's the El Vibrato/Roberto plotline, which is sort of Lovecraftian in nature. The DLC plotline involves clearing a haunted mansion of ghosts. Aside from that, there are several small sidequests that you can do. The only one you "have to" do in order to "beat" the game is the train plot. The ending will reflect the progress (or lack thereof) of all the other plots, and then you can pick up where you left off after watching the "Final Cut-Scene" thing.
The gameplay is pretty interesting. Once you're past the tutorial area (which you can skip on subsequent playthroughs), the game consists of basically going to different areas on the overworld map and then either talking to people, solving puzzles, or fighting various enemies, some of which pops up as random events while in transit between areas. Pretty typical RPG fare, though with a Old West spin to it (and the Kingdom of Loathing style of humor). The battles are turn-based, though some abilities and items allow you to use them without expending your turn, which is vital for some of the harder fights.
There's a ton of weapons (both guns and melee), hats, pants, boots, accessories and such that you can find, though only the weapons and hats show up on your character in world. Most of them can be used by all classes, but some are better suited to one class than others.
Steam says I've played it for 72 hours, as of now, and that's over the course of five or six separate playthroughs. Finally just got the last two Steam achievements today, which were the "beat the game on hard mode" and the "beat the game on hard mode in only one game day" ones. I didn't think I would even bother with those at first, but after going ahead and getting all the others, I just figured why not? It wasn't too awfully difficult. You just have to make much more use of the "Wander" function in the early areas to gain enough exp to not die horribly in the later areas (or else be ready to alt-F4 if you get into an unwinnable fight), since the enemies are massively boosted in hard mode (along with some other changes to how parts of the game work in order to make it more difficult). Also, in hard mode, you basically just want to beeline for Frisco as much as you can, without doing a lot of superfluous exploring and such. Though once you reach Frisco and see the "Final Cut-Scene" (and, thus, get the associated achievements), you can do whatever you want after that without worrying about it.
Overall, I'd recommend it. It's pretty cool. Apparently, there's more DLC coming at some point? If so, that would be pretty neat. I'd get it.
(EDIT)
Also, this:
(/EDIT)
If you've ever played Kingdom of Loathing, this is sort of a sequel to that. I'd heard of KoL before, as I recall it being popular among some of the OtakuWars! bunch way back in ye olden days (well, post-OW!, since KoL was released in 2003, which is the year OW! [mostly] ended), but I had never actually played it myself until recently. I'm currently a level 6 Pastamancer in KoL. (EDIT 2) And I made it to level 9 before my interest kind of petered out. (/EDIT 2)
So. West of Loathing. It's a stick figure RPG based in an Old West setting. You can be a Cattle Puncher (melee class, focuses on the Muscle stat), Snake Oiler (rogue-ish class, focuses on the Moxie stat), or a Beanslinger (mage class, focuses on Mysticality). I've played through as all of the classes, but I think my favorite is probably the Beanslinger. All of them are pretty good, though. During the tutorial area, you encounter four different potential "pardners," one of whom you can have come with you. There's also another you can find/build later to aid in combat, though he's not controllable. And then there's the one that joins and accompanies you while you're in the DLC area, but only while you're there. And besides that, the Beanslinger and Snake Oiler classes can summon in additional help (as can the makeshift Necromancer "class" that you can sort of weld onto your existing class at later points in the game, if you find the right books, though that will weaken you in other ways).
Honestly, for being a RPG, there's not really that much in the way of story. There are four loose plots (five counting the DLC). There's the "get the train to Frisco" plot, which I guess is considered the main one, since only after you complete that can you access the "Final Cut-Scene." There's the Necromancer plot, which entails finding a bunch of clues spread all around the game world to access and deal with the Necromancer's lair. There's the "Cows Came Home" plot, which involves demon cows, their demon rodeo clown enemies, and ultimately dealing with the leader of the cows. And there's the El Vibrato/Roberto plotline, which is sort of Lovecraftian in nature. The DLC plotline involves clearing a haunted mansion of ghosts. Aside from that, there are several small sidequests that you can do. The only one you "have to" do in order to "beat" the game is the train plot. The ending will reflect the progress (or lack thereof) of all the other plots, and then you can pick up where you left off after watching the "Final Cut-Scene" thing.
The gameplay is pretty interesting. Once you're past the tutorial area (which you can skip on subsequent playthroughs), the game consists of basically going to different areas on the overworld map and then either talking to people, solving puzzles, or fighting various enemies, some of which pops up as random events while in transit between areas. Pretty typical RPG fare, though with a Old West spin to it (and the Kingdom of Loathing style of humor). The battles are turn-based, though some abilities and items allow you to use them without expending your turn, which is vital for some of the harder fights.
There's a ton of weapons (both guns and melee), hats, pants, boots, accessories and such that you can find, though only the weapons and hats show up on your character in world. Most of them can be used by all classes, but some are better suited to one class than others.
Steam says I've played it for 72 hours, as of now, and that's over the course of five or six separate playthroughs. Finally just got the last two Steam achievements today, which were the "beat the game on hard mode" and the "beat the game on hard mode in only one game day" ones. I didn't think I would even bother with those at first, but after going ahead and getting all the others, I just figured why not? It wasn't too awfully difficult. You just have to make much more use of the "Wander" function in the early areas to gain enough exp to not die horribly in the later areas (or else be ready to alt-F4 if you get into an unwinnable fight), since the enemies are massively boosted in hard mode (along with some other changes to how parts of the game work in order to make it more difficult). Also, in hard mode, you basically just want to beeline for Frisco as much as you can, without doing a lot of superfluous exploring and such. Though once you reach Frisco and see the "Final Cut-Scene" (and, thus, get the associated achievements), you can do whatever you want after that without worrying about it.
Overall, I'd recommend it. It's pretty cool. Apparently, there's more DLC coming at some point? If so, that would be pretty neat. I'd get it.
(EDIT)
Also, this:
(/EDIT)
