Product Description

Western Outlaw lets you become a gunfighter in the Old West, dodging the law while fighting corruption!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23936 in Video Games
• Brand: Softek International
• Released on: 2003-09-30
• ESRB Rating: Mature
• Platforms: Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 95, Windows XP
• Format: CD-ROM
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: .31 pounds

Features

• You're a stranger in a Western town, looking for peace and quiet. Instead, you've been framed -- and now you'll have to fight crooked lawmen and hostile townsfolk to clear your name.
• Use your aiming and reflexes to stay alive in 10 action packed levels
• Fight off the bad guys with authentic period six-shooters, rifles and shotguns
• Ride a horse, hop into a mine cart or steal a stagecoach to escape
• Exciting first-person shooter action -- outfight the crooks and ride off into the sunset!

Customer Reviews

Don't get the various titles confused...
Reading the various 5-star reviews for "Western Outlaw", I had to say 'huh?' I may be wrong, and maybe they did like this game that much, but I'm wondering if there isn't some confusion here. This game has a copyright date of 2002 on my box. There was another western FPS game released in 2004 called "Dead Man's Hand" for the PC that is far superior both in graphics and gameplay. And neither of those games is to be confused with the original LucasArts games released in 1997 called "Outlaws". That game still rules this genre as far as I'm concerned, though you'll need an Win 95/98 machine to run it (and a VooDoo card to run it accelerated, though that's not really necessary).

This here game, "Western Outlaw", is not really a 'bad' game, but it can't hold a candle to the other two. I finished both of those each twice, while I'm still struggling to get through this one due to its very bland graphics and uninspired level design. The weapons are good, and I like the outdoor environments somewhat, but I'm about halfway through at this point, and instead of continuing, all I really wanted to do was start my other PC and play "Outlaws" by LucasArts again. If you can find that one, preferrably with the "Handful of Missions" add-on included (most of the re-releases contained that automatically, and it doubles the single player content over the original release), it's a much better game with excellent level design and a musical score you'll seriously be playing in your car CD player.

But if, like me, you simply have to have every western-themed first-person shooter ever made, "Western Outlaw" isn't a waste of money. Just don't expect a whole lot, and you'll be okay with it.

Whoa! TEX. Don't aim that dern thing at me!
I gotta say. I was more than pleasantly surprised. Like many, when i pay less than 20 bucks for a shooter, i expect total mediocrity. Well, at first, this game seems that way. Your basic walk across a train and shoot the guys with the scarves kind of game. But, once you get out of that level and start seeing more of the plotline and cut-scene goodness, you begin to realize there's more than meets the eye, or wallet, here. The simple details are what's important here. The game focuses very little on unnecessary background stuff. It's mostly focused on items and objects that are needed to play the game. Example : In a bar-fight, you won't see a 'Madam' standing at the top of the stairs crying over the death of her best customer. You'll see tables, a hard-wood floor, a bar with a bartender, a chandelier, etc. The outside elements are well crafted as well. The skies, the dust floating up from behind horse-drawn buggies/carriages. The reload time on your weapons is a little long. But, that adds to the shoot and hide mentality of the game. Head shots are an immediate takedown. No more pummeling seven rounds into their eye without them even so much as flinching. The body animations are a little stiff. It almost seems like they designed those first and let them be until the whole game was finished without really changing them. But, that's a small gripe. This game is a barrel of fun. A GUN barrel.....get it...well, read it again. It's also a smidge short. With only ten overall levels, don't expect to play this more than 4-8 hours overall. But, it's worth playing again, and the price is definitely right.

Got ye a hankerin' fer th' Ol' West?
First, let's set th' record straight, here. This here's valueware. It ain't no $50 game. If'n yer not gonna be happy without state-of-the-art graphics and 50 levels, yer not gonna be happy.

But if yer hankerin' fer about th' first Western in software since Outlaws, I'd check it out. I'm playin' Outlaws now, again, and love it. But I gotta say, 2D graphics gets old after awhile. This here game's in 3D, and two things stand out. First is the weapons rendering. The programmers had a real appreciation for the old guns. They were modelled with care. And the reloading sequences are nice, if maybe a little fast (but they're purely slower than pressing 'r' and thinkin' yer ready for that next hombre). I like how the Remington revolver has a fanfire option, and you can get twin Colts (that's Colt revolvers for you nature lovers that think it's young horses...)! I think the game is worth the value price for the guns alone (and we're talkin' Western guns, pard, not the super-duper goo blasters of some games. 6 shots from a revolver and you're done till you reload). Second is the leaning function. You can crouch by a corner, then lean out and shoot them varmints from a bit of cover.

The 'feel' of moving around in the game as you move is a little less 'sure' of what I'm used to in a game, but it's really more immersive than most games. I WILL say that climbing a ladder is more intuitive than I've seen yet. But that leaning function is priceless. I find myself losing myself in the game.

So, if'n ya don't mind valueware, and enjoy westerns and western guns, I'd pick it up. I did, and I'm glad I did. It'll shore tide me over until one o' them $50 games comes along. And if Groove games releases a level editor for it, or a pack of new missions, I won't waste time throwin' my lasso around it! I wanted MORE, and that tells me the game-play's pretty good.