It’s starting to look like a good time to be a fan of Western games, and the latest reveal could be the best Red Dead Redemption 2 successor yet. While living up to the legacy of Rockstar’s defining Western is quite a challenge, there’s plenty of space in the genre for other titles to try something new.
Leaning into a different angle is often the best approach, and taking a more fantastical route has helped games like Weird West, Blood West, and Far, Far West (quite the naming convention, isn’t it). In the case of one upcoming release, a twist of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower could be the perfect ingredient.
Announced with a full trailer on the official PlayStation YouTube channel, Guns of Eschaton is set to take players to an “occult Wild West” for a soulslike FPS experience. The gameplay hook is certainly intriguing, but the setting could be the game’s biggest draw.
Guns of Eschaton‘s take on the Wild West was created by Viktor Antonov, a legendary artist and designer who helped craft the worlds for games like Half-Life 2 and Dishonored. Antonov sadly passed away recently, so the announcement of a new game with his craftsmanship is a real treat. Up until this point, it was known that he was working on a new game about a gunslinger, but the project hadn’t been revealed in full.
First-person soulslikes aren’t very common, as even shooters like Remnant tend to favor a third-person perspective when trafficking in soulslike mechanics. Guns of Eschaton isn’t the first game to try its hand at the concept, though, with the upcoming title Valor Mortis serving as a particularly strong example of the idea. While a lot of Guns of Eschaton‘s trailer consists of firing pistols at slowly approaching enemies, it also shows off a few clever tricks, like lighting alcohol on fire in a gloved hand.
Above all else, the footage highlights the visual flair you’d expect from Antonov, with imaginative set pieces rendered with strains of Dishonored‘s painterly sensibility. After the disappointment of The Dark Tower‘s film adaptation, this could be the best way to get an on-screen experience in a genuinely wild Western world. I wouldn’t go into it expecting the polish or breadth of Red Dead Redemption 2, but this looks like it could be a fun and flavorful way to blast through enemies in either single-player or co-op.
- Released
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October 26, 2018
- ESRB
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M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs and Alcohol
- Engine
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RAGE
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer
- Cross-Platform Play
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N/A
- Cross Save
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N/A