Hard West: Scars of Freedom is the DLC follow-up to the turn-based shooter. Set in the midst of the Civil War, this expansion introduces a new character customization system. You play as Libertee, an escaped slave on the hunt for Dr. Gorman, a crazed doctor who turned her into a monster.
Dr. Gorman saved Libertee’s life after she was severely injured during her escape. He watched her fight her way to freedom, and believed she was strong enough to handle his experimental surgery. Libertee wakes up only to find Dr. Gorman has given her a hand, leg and heart that do not belong to her. She’s stronger, but hates what she’s become. Libertee is set on finding Dr. Gorman to get answers and make him pay for what he’s done to her.
iDigitalTimes spoke with Blazej Krakowiak, brand manager and developer for Hard West: Scars of Freedom , about the new challenges in the turn-based shooter. Hard West followed in XCOM ’s turned-based shooter footsteps. The developers were inspired by the game’s mechanics, but knew they wanted Hard West to be more story-oriented to increase replay value.
“Obviously XCOM is a AAA title and we’re not trying to compete, we were trying to carve out our own field. While XCOM used a lot of generated maps and randomized encounters, we decided to focus on storytelling,” Krakowiak said.
Players can look forward to 20-40 hours of additional gameplay, depending on their playstyle. The Hard West team worked heavily on their maps, as they did not want to reuse any of their previous levels. Hard West rewards players for being thorough and playing through the objectives. For example, fulfilling the optional objectives might let you unlock a new character that will help you in another part of the game. Your decisions to let people live or die impacts the story as well. Once a person dies in the game, it’s unlikely you’ll see them again. It’s up to the players how connected the stories are.
There are plenty of new challenges for players in Hard West: Scars of Freedom . For one, if you were reliant on the playing card system to get through the base game you’re out of luck. The original system was based on poker card hands; the better the hand, the more powerful the abilities you earned. Hard West: Scars of Freedom introduces a new character customization system, giving players the advantage of gaining some powerful bonuses early on.
“We are using this surgery theme to customize characters,” Krakowiak said. “This time, instead of collecting cards over time, which would mean that the most powerful skills come to you later, you start off with a lot of choice because the skills are now connected to organs, limbs, and [other body parts]. You can choose which direction you want to specialize in and then, for example, get a new stronger heart or a better stomach that’ll give you certain bonuses. An iron stomach gives you more courage for your character. [Strong legs] will allow you to move faster. This is definitely a ‘Frankenstein-ian’ approach.”
You’ll need Ether to pay for your surgeries to customize your Franken-character in Hard West: Scars of Freedom . You’ll find Ether as you play, and will also have to search different areas for body parts, including morgues. However, the developers increased the game’s difficulty because of the new customization system. You’ll need to be smarter with your moves if you want to survive the Weird West.
Overall, Hard West: Scars of Freedom is a bit more difficult than the base game. The developers assumed that most players would be familiar with the base game, and would want more of a challenge in the DLC. There’s an optional playstyle feature where if your character is seriously wounded in battle, you’ll get an injury debuff that lasts through your current mission plus the next one. If you survive both missions, the injury heals, becomes a scar, and gives you a powerful bonus. It can be anything from a HP boost or fast movements to attack resistance. You’ll have to be smarter with your moves, but the perk is worth it in the end.
“We had this idea that our characters would always be heavily outnumbered so we could control two or three, up to four characters against many more enemies,” Krakowiak said regarding the new character customization challenge. “To compensate, our characters would be closer to those legendary gunslingers in western movies. [Our characters] would be much more accurate, and they would have some special, supernatural skills as well. That extended to tricks. We could ricochet shots off metal objects and hit enemies from behind. That was our idea to break the paradigm of cover and shooting versus positioning and so on.”
Hard West: Scars of Freedom will be available for PC, Mac, and Linux for $2.99 on March 3.
