Casualicious

(5 votes, average: 4.80 out of 5)

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After guiding settlers and thwarting bandit gangs from the previous Westward games, it’s now time for your pioneers to stake their claim from Northern California’s vast riches in Westward III: Gold Rush. A bright future awaits three new heroes as they find adventure in this third installment of the hit life simulator franchise. There are new stories to tell and new challenges to face with the same old gameplay mechanics that ensures this game to be a hit for fans and non-fans alike.

Just like Westward II: Heroes of the Frontier, in this game, you are to choose between three pioneers each with his or her own story to tell. However, even though each will follow a different path towards their destiny, there’s one common denominator between them too, and that’s to start a new life in search of greater fortune in the west. Furthermore, choosing your alter ego will also unlock one free building for you to use, depending on your hero’s personality and expertise.

Westward III: Gold Rush plays the same as the earlier games of the series where your objective is to fulfill tasks and quests in order to build self sustaining settlements and continue on your mission. As the hero of the story, your main mission is to tend to the people living in your current town and keep them happy and well-supplied. Building different structures, searching for supply sources and providing jobs is only part of the story. Defending the town against bandits by hiring lawmen is equally as important.

All controls of the game make use of the mouse, with some alternatives using the keyboard buttons. You are provided with an action panel, a map and several other tools at the bottom of your screen. Above, you will find your missions, the store interface, and well, more buttons that you’ll go visit from time to time. All in all, the icons can be a bit confusing at first, but just as traditional Westward fashion, you’ll get use to all the tools in the interface as time goes by playing the game.

Westward III: Gold Rush is rendered in full 3D which makes the game beautiful to watch, but this means that some occasional structures can also block additional benefits of the map unless you rotate your view. Sound effects are very nice with many of the characters sporting some Texan accent to match the Wild West theme of the game. Controls respond perfectly and are easy to grasp unless you skip the tutorial and complain, and the game’s longevity ensures that you also get your money’s worth as you enjoy every bit of the simulation.

One problem I noticed prevalent on Westward games is how the characters can get stuck on certain terrain when you queue them to walk on farther parts of the map. It seems that route calculations don’t work well, making them walk the shortest distance to the point where you want them to go, even though there are obstacles blocking their path. I guess this is already a recurring problem for most games of this type, but still, quite annoying as well.

Besides the route problems, Westward III: Gold Rush is still one very enjoyable game to play. There’s no doubt that the appeal of simulation god games help carried the franchise to the level it is now, but the overall idea and gameplay of Westward is still its greatest point. This game is definitely worth the buy, since well, you won’t get to go far with just the trial anyway.

Westward III: Gold Rush Download

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