Despite being a relatively popular genre, we don’t get too many games set in the Wild West. That’s a bit of a surprise, especially considering how successful cowboy-centric games like Red Dead Redemption 2 have been over the years. For whatever reason, most developers have never even attempted to capture the time period, which is rich with possibilities. That said, a few teams have made the move to the Wild West, giving players a few solid hidden gems to dive into. If you’re looking to have a rootin’, tootin’ adventure, these games can help you out.
Here are five great cowboy games you forgot about.
5) Darkwatch
Recently, games like Weird West, Evil West, and Hard West 2 have explored more fantastical versions of the land of cowboys, but those are far from the first to give a supernatural flair to the genre. Developer High Moon Studios released Darkwatch in 2005, mixing elements of a classic gunslinger with horrific vampires.
You play as an outlaw named Jericho Cross, who is bitten by a vampire while trying to hunt them down. He slowly starts to morph into one himself, giving him abilities like the Vampire Jump and Blood Vision. You can further augment Cross by going down good or evil routes, giving him even more abilities to work with in this thrilling FPS. There was a planned sequel that would’ve taken players to a new time period, but that was cancelled when High Moon moved on to working on licensed games like Transformers: War for Cybertron and Deadpool.
4) Wild Guns
Wild Guns is another cowboy game that doesn’t exactly treat history with much reverence. Instead of a gritty Western adventure, this shooting gallery game imagines what it would be like if the Wild West were filled with robots. Still, this is a Western game through and through.
The visuals are obviously aping famous Western films, with a sci-fi twist. The gunplay is some of the best in the genre, keeping the action fast and frenetic. It gets even better in local multiplayer, because you’ll have someone to cover your back during the massive firefights. Thankfully, an enhanced remaster called Wild Guns Reloaded was released in 2016, making this one easy to get your hands on.
3) Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive
Most of the great cowboy games are shooters. That makes sense considering how integral gunslingers are to the genre. However, Desperados decided to instead turn its Wild West adventure into a turn-based tactics game. Each member of your gang has their own abilities, making careful planning paramount to success.
For example, Doc has access to knock-out gas, meaning he can set up stealth opportunities. Meanwhile, Kate can seduce bandits, providing a distraction from other players. Unfortunately, the sequel is a big step back, but in 2020, developer Mimimi Games took a stab at reviving the series, giving fans the exceptional Desperados III. It’s a near-perfect evolution of the classic game, and a must-play for fans of the original.
2) Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
Call of Juarez had an up-and-down run. The first game was middling, while Bound in Blood took a big step up. It seemed like we might have another great Wild West series on our hands. Then, The Cartel dropped in 2011, frustrating players with its decision to move the series to the modern day. Thankfully, Gunslinger took us back to the Wild West, but it wasn’t enough to save the series.
That’s not an indictment against Gunslinger. It tells a phenomenal story, and the arcadey action is some of the best in the series. Despite also doing relatively well commercially, developer Techland decided to drop the series in favor of its new series, Dying Light. In 2018, Techland took over publishing Gunslinger from Ubisoft, but we haven’t seen anything new since 2013.
1) Gun
Developer Neversoft is pretty much synonymous with Tony Hawk. Yes, they eventually took over as the leads on Guitar Hero and did make a decent Spider-Man game in 2000, but Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater is the reason Neversoft was a household name in the 2000s. In the middle of its run with THPS, Neversoft decided to take a break and put out one of the best cowboy games of all time.
Gun is a thrilling action-adventure game that stood next to Red Dead Revolver as the best we’d ever seen until Rockstar upped the game with Revolver‘s all-timer of a sequel, Red Dead Redemption. Reviewers described Gun as “a 19th-century Grand Theft Auto” filled with things to do. From the dynamo combat to the colorful cast of characters, there was never a boring moment.
It also sold relatively well, pushing well past one million units over its lifetime. Unfortunately, those are not Tony Hawk numbers, so Neversoft never got to try a sequel. We did get a port to the PSP, which added new side missions and a multiplayer mode, but with Neversoft closing its doors in 2014, a sequel seems impossible.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!