You might recognize West of Loathing‘s art style from the now classic browser game Kingdom of Loathing from way back in 2003, although when it comes to stick figure art, some things do tend to look like other things. With that said however, this long awaited spin-off (14 years!) follows in Kingdom of Loathing‘s great absurdist tradition and delivers said absurdity en masse.
West of Loathing was released back in August to rave reviews for keeping the adventure high and the humor low (brow). Yep, when it comes to West of Loathing, no joke is left unsaid and the puns are a dime a dozen. Like Kingdom, West of Loathing is an adventure game where you the player, moves through this badly (yet so endearingly) drawn world, picking up items, talking to characters, fighting adversaries, and ultimately getting absolutely immersed in this very weird wild west world. And, like Kingdom of Loathing, the writing and story telling in West of Loathing is top notch and succeeds where the artwork doesn’t. But that’s not even a fair statement, because it’s completely impossible to not love the artwork and character movement. We approve.
As West of Loathing is a role playing game, you’ll need to choose a character class (Cow Puncher, Beanslinger or Snake Oiler) and get yerself adventurin’ on to Frisco to make it big. The story itself is full of intricate details with a fair bit of text to read, so you’ll need to pay attention to the clues which will help you when solving all of the different areas such as the Abandoned Pickle Factory, Fort Alldead and Petting Cemetary (get it, Stephen King fans?) to name a few. It’s vast. The jokes are terrible. You should play it.
Check out the official trailer here:
If you’re looking for some tips for West of Loathing, check out this playthrough/walkthrough, although it’s much more fun to discover all of this zaniness without help. Just our 2 cents.
Developer: Asymmetric Publications
Official Website: West of Loathing
Get it on Steam for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux