App Review: Westward

Price: $4.99



Howdy, Pardner! If you haven't heard about or played Westward yet then you must be living under a rock! In case you are, or in case you aren't quite sure about spending the $4.99 on a game about the old west then let me tell you it is more than worth it! Keep reading for a more in depth look into the world that is Westward!...

I was extremely surprised with this game. I had heard a lot of talk on both sides of this application. Some said it was great "better than SimCity" I was told, and others said it was a "complete waste of money", but I knew the only way to find out for myself was to play it. Been playing this game a LOT over the past few days, and let me be the first to tell you that it is addicting! Gameplay is extremely fun, graphics are amazingly good, and the developer did a great job keeping with the old west theme.

The entire objective behind Westward is almost the exact same as SimCity. You start with practically nothing and are given the task of building up a settlement that can contain itself before you leave and move on to the next. Each settlement you work on brings new quests, buildings, and experiences. One major difference (and one that I LOVE in fact) is that you can actually control your citizens. You can tell each individual settler where to live and where to work when they arrive in your camp. Once you have housed a settler they will become a full-blown citizen. Westward covers a lot more than SimCity does however, which is a plus in my mind. Instead of just money to deal with you have food, water, lumber, and gold. Each is equally important to keeping your citizens well fed and to be able to construct new buildings. New buildings means more citizens which in turn means more resources and more buildings. It's a viscious cycle!

The buildings in this game aren't just realistic, they are also quite amusing. You can build everything from a saloon to an outhouse. Lumber mills, mines, churches, town halls, all sorts of things you can imagine, and even some you can't. Each building holds it's importance and in some way promotes your camp. Once you have fulfilled every task given for that specific settlement you will bid farewell and move onto the next challenge. As I said before each new settlement brings new buildings and things to discover.

What would a old western game be without showdowns with the old trusty revolver though? Well thankfully Westward has these. Once you build a saloon you can hire gunslingers. These men don't work, but they are a huge help if bandits ever decide to show up and try to wreak havoc on your perfect bliss. On top of gunslingers you can also hire a Sheriff and Deputies once you build a Sheriff's Office. Once again each has their place in the world. Be careful though, a lot of the quests that require your sheriff and deputies also require that your sheriff remain alive. So be sure you have plenty of backup for your sheriff at all times.

Usually about here is the time that I list off all the things I found wrong with Westward. I go into extreme detail explaining what I think could be improved, or changed, but honestly I can't find anything. It's a great game. I guess my only recommendation would be a simpler way to control things. It would be nice if you didn't have to manually assign each settler to a house and job. It would be nice to have the ability to set a list of importance for jobs. For example let's say that you need more gold than you are making at the time. Well simply put gold as top priority on your list of jobs and any new settler would automatically pick up that job if available. This would make things a lot simpler in case you are in the middle of dealing with bandits or something. Plus trying to drag a new settler halfway across the map to a gold mine can get a bit frustrating at times. Another option might be to give us a list of options when we click on a settler. Instead of listing that they live nowhere, allow us to click on their home box and select a home from a list of available ones, same idea with jobs.

All in all Westward is a fantastic game. It is one that I would easily recommend to anyone who is a fan of SimCity or games like Warcraft or StarCraft. Granted their isn't near as much fighting in this as those two games it follows allow the same lines of resource gathering and building. On top of great gameplay there are also funny lines on each loading screen making the hassle of loading a new zone at least a little less annoying. All of these things topped off with accurate slang for the time period makes Westward a great game, and very entertaining.

Rating: 4.5/5 Stars!

Download Westward HERE for $4.99!