Outlaws Of The Old West Game Review

Outlaws of the Old West, the survival MMO set in a large western world developed by Virtual Basement LLC and published by Wandering Wizard. “Survive the wild, build your own homestead, defeat villainous bandits and work with others to tame the Wild West”. Originally released on March 12th, 2019, the game is part of Steam’s Early Access program. Remember, like all Early Access titles this game is in active development and player experience is constantly evolving.

The Game

Set in a vast world with multiple biomes ranging from deep forests, spectacular mountains and arid deserts. Starting out, peering through a hole from within a coffin, a bird maneuvers for a chance to peck at your face. Busting free from the coffin wearing only a union suit (long johns), scouring your environment for life’s necessities becomes your first priority. Gathering resources, building tools and a shelter are the cornerstones of any survival game, Outlaws Of The Old West is no different.

Gameplay

To be fair in this Outlaws Of The Old West game review, despite having a single player mode, I have only played online multi-player. The experience in the single-player game is likely very different, take that into account while reading this review. My intention for Outlaws Of The Old West was always to purchase the game for the multiplayer experience.

Initially, I ventured onto an Official PvP server but quickly understood I’m simply just not very good at PvP and honestly, the community was a bit toxic. That said, the game truly shines in RP mode and there are quite a few great supporting communities out there. Multiplayer servers are available in several modes; PVP, PVE, RP and ORR (Online Raid Requirement – require a player to be online for other players to destroy their buildings).

Anyone having played a survival/builder game will be mostly at home with the game’s controls. Movement is the typical W, A, S, D with E being your action key (long-press reveals special actions). Players may switch from first and third person view, additionally, holding the ALT key allows you to look around.

Crafting

Starting out, before crafting any tools, there are a limited number of craftable items available via the player’s inventory. Hand axe, pickaxe, bow and arrow are the basics but additionally, you’ll find a hammer (construction), various crafting tables and even wagons. A recent update to the game has shifted the lasso out of being a crafting table item to one of the basic initial tools. This may not seem noteworthy but considering people were crafting spinning wheels all over the landscape to simply craft a lasso for their horse, its worth mentioning.

Overall crafting is intuitive, quickly build simple structures, tools and weapons. Foundations, walls, door and ceiling components all snap nicely making building fast and fun. The tool equipped during construction determines the style or components of the structure. Basic hammer for a log cabin structure, a claw hammer for your traditional plank house, a trowel for brick buildings, etc. As mentioned before, holding down the “E” key will display a pie-wheel with different construction options.

The Wild West

The vast open world of Outlaws Of The Old West captures the expansive pioneer feeling imagined by those classic Hollywood westerns. Once you begin building your character, gaining experience and carving out your homestead, the developer’s vision can be felt. Galloping around the frontier on horseback, discovering new landscapes, hunting wildlife or a group of bandits camping under a cliff face give the feel of the wild west. Packs of wolves howl at your presence, wild turkeys dart off to avoid your dinner table and bandits open fire if you get too close.

Fishing, trapping, mining and farming are all possible. Fish with a traditional pole or set traps in nearby streams or lakes. Traps of different styles and material catch prey of different sizes which provide skins or meat. Build irrigation systems for your farmland to grow fields of cotton, berries or the glorious hemp plant. Craft your cowboy boots, that glorious cowboy duster or the required stetson. Craft any bit of that cowboy nastalgia to fully immerse yourself in the wild west.

Graphics And Sound

Outlaw Of The Old West at times inspires awe with fantastic majestic landscapes that force you to sit back in the saddle and soak it all in. However, still being in Early Access there are glitches, bugs and strange animations that can detract from all the beauty. Server latency in multiplayer contributes to some glitches with wildlife spawning from mid-air, animals stuck in the environment or your cowboy walking through walls and floors.

Admittedly I am not an audiophile but definitely do appreciate any experience when sound unmistakably contributes to the feel of a game. The sound fx and overall audio was pretty standard however, thunderstorms are quite impressive. Additionally, the differentiating sounds of your horse’s hooves on various terrains is an appreciated attention to detail. The soundtrack is subtle and does contribute to the atmosphere but as a pro-tip, queuing up your favorite wild west movie soundtrack is the ticket (spaghetti western anyone?).

Performance And Value

Quite honestly, my initial impression shortly after joining a server was not favorable. Rubberbanding, clipping and some strange animations immediately reminded me what Early Access meant. A Steam friend reached out to me after I’d been in the game about twenty minutes asking what I was playing and “how was it?”. I warned him this wasn’t something he’d like, very rough around the edges. However, I write this Outlaws Of The Old West game review with nearly sixty hours invested playing my cowboy. What I am trying to say, although it has its flaws it has so much I enjoy, I find myself drawn to it.

The retail price is currently $20 on Steam, and it has dipped to about $14 in a few sales. Whether you pay full price or grab it at discount, I feel it is well worth the price. The developers are active, almost too active in that they release so many new features and fixes the servers are wiped quite often. It seems every time I get my homestead all established and I’m making a name for myself in the wild frontier, they go and release a huge patch and I have to start over.

Overall the game client performs well but client-server communication needs tweaking to address latency issues. I recommend sticking to using servers with the lowest ping possible, going over 100ms you may see rubberbanding and other issues. Wildlife dropping from the sky when riding into a new area, animals getting stuck on terrain or teleporting short distances are a few of the common bugs. Given the constant activity from the developers, the long list of bug fixes present in each update, I have no doubt these issues will be addressed over time.

Summary

Although my initial impression of Outlaws Of The Old West was not the greatest, I really did grow to like this title and have high hopes for the final version. Role Play is the way to go in my opinion, so much fun can be had adopting that pioneer persona and engaging with the community either as a farmer, shop owner or outlaw. If you’re looking for epic boss fights, dungeons or anything of the sort, nothing currently exists to that extent. Hunting, building, fighting off bandits or just riding around on your trusty steed through the beautiful western landscapes is worth the $20. In the current state, do not expect perfection or polish but if you can overlook the bugs and give the developers some love, I think you’ll be glad you did.

Learn more about Outlaws Of The Old West via their Steam store page or follow them on Twitter.