Hard West II – An Overlooked Gem of 2022

Seeing how this year had no shortage of tactical turn-based releases, some of them may not have gotten the attention they deserved. According to this PC Gamer article, Ice Code Games and Good Shepherd Entertainment’s Hard West II is one such game.

Here’s a bit as to why, and you take it from there:

Hard West 2 builds on the bones of XCOM with swaggering style. The familiar shield icons for light and hard cover are there, but you can ignore any pile of rock or hastily raised coffin lid between you and your target by lining up a ricochet from a nearby object. Your posse unlocks abilities by looting magic playing cards and then assembling poker hands out of them, with better hands providing improved versions of their powers. And the system for earning extra actions on your turn, which encourages you to push just that little bit further out of your hard-cover comfort zone, has the extremely fitting name: bravado.