THE BEST WESTERN VIDEOGAMES

In the last years, many major and indie videogame developers have created, inspired in the Wild West imaginery, such a load a great stories that keep up with the best western movie scripts, with the added value of being the main character, who will be in charge of preserving the justice, although in some of these games you’re able to decide if you prefer to do good or bad deeds, transforming yourself maybe into a bandit.

Taking a look at this list you’ll check how videogames have also evolved from the classic arcades where many people spent in their childhood a lot of hours (and plenty of coins), where the only goal was just to move your joystick around and smash all buttons while jumping and shooting and having a good time while the experience of advancing to a new level was almost a festive event, to the actual generation of games (and gamers), played at home in a solo campaign, with some friends or joining multiplayer matches with people around the world who share the same passion that yourself, in this case recreating the endeavours of an armed gunslinger. Even some players love to roleplay as a genuine cowboy or cowgirl, performing all gestures and dialogues and wearing in their streamings or just for themselves a full western attire, including a western hat, a pair of cowboy boots, an embroidered western shirt or various cowboy style accessories, all of these available at our specialized online store.

Today we’re going to time travel both in the history of videogames and into the western world shortly reviewing some titles that are well-representing a Far West ambientation, where a drastic evolution has been noticed in the last decade, not only in terms of graphics  but in the complete player immersion. Also, this genre has been sometimes twisted to create new scenarios like a futuristic western world where the newest technologies are crossed with the already known western stories and behaviours

Also, these videogames can be a great way to learn some American history lessons where real people like Buffalo Bill, Wild Bill Hickok, Billy the Kid or Wyatt Earp could make an appearance or being selectable characters to reenact all of their deeds, besides the fun of doing something that a movie or book won’t let you do: control all of your acts and be the one who decides their destiny at any moment, being yourself while controlling a virtual representation located in a beautiful yet harsh place as an old western town or desert.

Western-themed top video games

Red Dead Redemption 1 & 2

Launched by Rockstar Games, company mostly known by Grand Theft Auto saga, in 2016, Red Dead Redemption is also an open world sandbox game with a much more realistic game mechanics and physics than his ‘big brother’, and very well reviewed by all gaming specialized magazines, being also a bestseller with more of eleven million of units sold, at least from their first game.

As in all this kind of open world games, but taken to the extreme, in Red Dead Redemption saga you definetely will experience the living of a cowboy: with the golden thread of a thrilling story starred by an exconvict called John Marston, being blackmailed by some marshals that are threatening his family in exchange of some kind of information, a huge interactive world will be within your reach to make justice, so long as the game allows you to reach those goals by the way you prefer, siding with the good ones or the bad ones, as the final decision of all your acts, hence of pulling the trigger, will be just yours.

Nonetheless, the main shocker wasn’t about the main plot, as we had in the past another titles like this, but the possibilty of enjoy a ‘regular cowboy day’, visiting a saloon, taking a drink and gambling, going through the ranch to help the villagers taking care of their livestock and hunting and taming wild animals such as many horse types, wolves and another mammals and reptils which you can skin out to sell their fur or meat, for example, an innovation never seen before, as allows a relaxed gameplay where to stop between chapters or completing secondary missions that will give you a better background history.

Without weapons, the West wouldn’t be Wild, this is why the Red Dead Redemption saga includes several revolvers and guns, rifles and shotguns inspired in real models like the 1873 Colt Peacemaker or the Winchester Model 1866 (whose replicas are available at our online store), so frequently you will follow your step to the closest armory in order to carry the best possible arsenal to defeat your enemies and take down the most dangerous animals.

Red Dead Redemption was published for Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, whilst Red Dead Redemption 2 is available for Playstation 4, Xbox One, Google Stadia and Microsoft Windows 

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood

Back in 2008, Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, along with all prequels and sequels, was the best attempt before Red Dead Redemption of bringing a full western experience, in this case as a first-person shooter with a simple target: pump all your enemies with your bullets before they’re doing the same with you.

In this game you will control both brothers Ray and Thomas McCall, two deserted Confederate soldiers that tried to save their family and their home from the Union soldiers. 

After witnessing the destruction of their homeland, both McCall brothers decide to seek in the West another chance for fortune and glory, but their excommander is raging about the desertion, so he is going to chase them for leaving the Confederate cause. 

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood is still available for Playstation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows.

Sunset Riders

Back in the 90’s, the Japanese developers had still a full control on videogames market, and one of their contributions were to become popular in Europe and America the arcade Japanese style, creating new games for those new markets but with a peculiar nippon imaginative spark.

Sunset Riders is one of these arcade classic games, where your only mission was to chase and arrest various bandits and felons, obtaining different rewards depending on the stage you are. 

This oldschool videogame was designed to play along with more people and to be insanely difficult, as the real purpose was to find the way to implement a frenzy gameplay in the style of other classic games as Metal Slug or Contra, just pressing the shooting button while moving away from the enemies. 

Wild Guns

Wild Guns was the forerunner in mixing a western story with a steampunk and science fiction look in a third person shooting gallery game where the artistic details are incredible if we think this game was launched also in the 90’s as well, showing us how Japanese creators are able to merge and make sense to opposite visuals to elaborate and develop a new niche that later was replied even in some Hollywood movies.

Have your ever played to any of these games or remember other titles? Let us know in the comment box!