The Western MMO Wild West Online has started its closed alpha phase. I am visiting the game and going on a quest for gold and bandits. The most important question: What kind of game is this? A Western epic like Red Dead Redemption? Or a survival game like ARK Survival Evolved.
I haven’t had much to do with the Wild West for a long time. Sure, I watched a few episodes of “Lucky Luke” as a kid, but that was about it.
Then in around 2010, the open-world game “Red Dead Redemption” came out and man, that trip to the Wild West kept me glued to the console! Now, developer 612 Games wants to set new standards with its new project Wild West Online. This Friday, the game entered its first alpha, and I checked it out.
Wild West Online is still in an early stage (Technical Alpha), and all impressions are provisional and relate to the current version.
The game promises an open world where you can decide for yourself how to earn your bread. Will you be a sheriff and protect the towns, or will you become a bandit, start bank robberies, and rob innocent players?
My first minutes as a real cowboy
Before it even starts, you create a character. Here you notice that the game is in an alpha phase because there are no real options for customization. Quickly enter the name, and then nothing stands in the way of playing. Once you are done with the meager editor, you start randomly on the map, in my case, right in the middle of nowhere. Equipped with a revolver and a pickaxe, I first head to the graphics settings. Meanwhile, another player has the glorious idea to kill me. Here I realize that PvP and survival will play a big role. I die… so back to square one.
And what do I have to do now?
After respawning, I wondered what I was actually supposed to do. According to the listed features of Wild West Online, you can do whatever you want. I take the path of collecting gold with my pickaxe and plan to exchange the gold for some coins in town. With the “H” key, we can call our horse so that we don’t have to walk the entire way. What bothers me a bit: I miss the mini-map. Although you can call up the large map at any time, you remain immobile during that time. With a small map somewhere in the corner of the screen, I could find my way around much more easily.
After a wild ride with my horse, I then find one of the so-called “Safehouses”. Here I can essentially save, so to secure the inventory in a loot chamber. For much more, I still lack the gold.
On the way to gold
So back on the horse and finally find a suitable mine for gold mining. To make the search a little easier, there are special maps that show you available materials, such as gold ore. Along the way, there are some villages that you can examine. There is also the possibility to steal items from houses. However, this lowers your reputation and you might easily become a bandit. In addition, there are various camps where you can pick up items without harming your reputation.
After a thorough stroll, I finally find gold that I can work with my pickaxe. Now I have gold in my pockets and want to go sell it, but I have to be wary of hostile players.
As they say, speak of the devil: A player is looking for trouble and wants to get to me. Now we stand opposite each other, equipped with our revolvers.
As in a Western, I am quite tense and the occasional bead of sweat runs down my face. Then the first shot comes, and I can finally take out the enemy. Now I ride triumphantly into town and sell my gold to the trader.
How does Wild West Online play?
The Western MMO runs fairly stably for an alpha. I only struggled with a few stutters, and in general, the game ran quite smoothly.
In terms of gameplay, Wild West Online can be classified with other survival titles like ARK: Survival Evolved. At the beginning, you struggle with meager equipment and try to survive. Aside from a few outposts and in town, PvP is present, and you constantly keep a wary eye on players to see if they are hostile or not. What bothered me a bit was my horse. As soon as I move too far away from it, it disappears, and I have to call it again. So far, no problem. However, the horse spawns up to 200 meters away in the wilderness. The developers need to rethink and make some fine adjustments, but the Western MMO is still far from finished.
Conclusion: Does Wild West Online live up to its hype?
I must first say, that you could already do a lot in the alpha. People were shooting each other, collecting gold, or riding around the desert for hours. According to a note from the developer, one should focus on gathering resources in this alpha, and that has worked wonderfully.
As you may have gathered from my last sentences, I also successfully defended myself against bandits and safely transported the gold to the trader. What I missed a bit was being guided. There was a tutorial on the official site, but one in-game would have been preferable for me.
At the beginning, you really don’t know what exactly you are supposed to do. The game is a sandbox title, you can do whatever you want. For me, the game feels like another survival title. Sure, the setting in the Wild West sounds refreshing, but here too, it’s about pure survival, just like in other genre representatives. You can collect, craft, and shoot each other.
I would have liked to conduct the advertised heists, but it seems that they were not available in the alpha yet. Overall, for my taste, there is simply too little PvE content. Sure, the focus is on PvP, but sometimes the world feels a bit too deserted. Maybe I played at the wrong time.
Little resemblance to Red Dead Redemption – more of a survival MMO
The question remains whether the Western shooter is a good alternative to Red Dead Redemption? Currently, the game reminds me more of a survival title like ARK: Survival Evolved, just with horses and cowboys. A good story with quests needs to follow to really connect with RDR.
For an alpha, Wild West Online was decent, but some features were still not fully available. Maybe more will be revealed in the upcoming alpha/beta phases.
At the presentation, Wild West Online likely sought proximity to Red Dead Redemption 2 with a targeted leak; in the meantime, doubts about the game have arisen:
