The moral of this trailer: don’t rob a ghost train, lest the devil take your soul. The game sees you and your crew of cowboys working to get your souls back by travelling the world on horseback and then diving into turn-based fights (also sometimes on horseback). The first Hard West was released back in 2015 and scratched Alec’s ever-present XCOM itch, while being less all-consuming than its inspiration. The original developers went on to make Phantom Doctrine, while Hard West 2 has a new development studio at the reigns. One of the sequel’s main new features is a “bravado” system, which rewards you for playing aggressively by allowing you to chain together actions and kills. It should make you feel more like a rootin’-tootin’ cowboy than a duck-and-cover XCOM soldier. I’ve said this before, but that’s also appealing to me as someone who liked the gung-ho chainsaw combos encouraged by Gears Tactics. As well as the demo for Hard West 2, July 28th will also see the beginning of a free weekend for Hard West 1 on Steam. You can read about the details, and find an hour-long developer livestream of the sequel from earlier today, over on Steam
