![]() Figure out a way to take out the guy on the water tank. Will I get away with killing this dude? No, didn’t see the guy on the water tank and now the entire town knows I’m here. The gameplay feels a lot like solving a really large puzzle, but a little too often it falls into trial-and-error tedium: Quicksave. The game actively encourages save scumming, and the dedicated quicksave button is mercifully responsive, because you will be failing and quickloading a lot. Although enemies are all on tight pre-determined loops that can be memorised, they’re a fairly savvy bunch, and if they see you murdering their buddy then they’ll raise the alarm and be on you like a duck on a June bug. Small groups of guards in near-linear scenarios quickly give way to sprawling levels densely populated by tight clusters of guards with complex, intersecting lines of sight which have to be navigated with extreme care. Your ultimate enjoyment of Desperados III will hinge on one thing: are you a hardcore enough dude to handle its difficulty? After a fairly brief introduction to the basic mechanics, the difficulty skyrockets to dizzying heights. I could have done with less of the repetitive conversations between guards in an endless loop, but it can be forgiven in the context. Sound design is also on point, particularly the slightly modernised Western-flavoured original score, which is unobtrusive for the most part, but kicks in at key moments. The animations are extremely impressive and life-like – it’s clear the developers spent some resources on hiring some talented tiny people to do motion capture with, and it has paid dividends. The presentation is impressive, with lots of tiny environmental details bringing the diorama-like settings to life, without obscuring the tactical aspects of the terrain. On your quest for revenge you’ll be taking part in such classic Western capers as crashing a wedding, hijacking a train, breaking into/out of of jails, surviving a hangover and burning steam boats by the bayou. The 16 missions are visually and thematically distinct and help sell the Western setting well. There’s a handy Showdown Mode which allows you to stop time and coordinate a series of actions and abilities for each character, and pulling off a perfectly-timed and well orchestrated strike using multiple characters is a definite highlight. No one character is really strong enough to solo a mission (except maybe Isabelle, she doesn’t muck around), so combining skills and strengths provides the best outcomes. Doc is the team medic and is also handy with a sniper rifle, whereas Isabelle Moreau is a mysterious Southern mystic who dabbles in voodoo and mind control. For instance, Scarlet O’Hara isn’t good at lethal takedowns, but as long as she’s got a disguise she can distract most male guards, and even lure the weaker-willed ones away from their post. Each of the five characters you can take control of has wildly different abilities, making them suited for different situations and setting up a multitude of combinations. You have the ability to display the vision cone of any guard to see whether they’ll spot you, and there are a handful of abilities for each character to distract, lure, bamboozle or disarm them. The name of the game is stealth (lethal or non-lethal) and strategy, as you creep around various classic Western locales, completing objectives and outsmarting (or in my case, killing) guards. There are a handful of impactful moments and twists that shine a light on John’s history, as well as those of his compatriots, but the fact the fairly brief story moments are bookended between lengthy gameplay sequences means the finer narrative can easily get lost in the noise.ĭesperados III is presented with a top-down isometric view, with the player given full control of the camera to scope their surroundings. The narrative is fairly straightforward, but well delivered through basic in-game cutscenes. For reasons revealed in the first chapter, John tracks Frank (not to be confused with the film When Harry Tracks Sally) across 1870s America on a mission of vengeance, aided by a ragtag band of deadly misfits that he picks up along the way. ![]() The narrative centres around gunslinger John Cooper, a guy primarily on a mission for revenge against a man with the unassuming name of…Frank. ![]() ![]() Desperados III is a prequel to the original Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive game from 2001, but having no real knowledge of that game other than a small primer, the tale stands well enough on its own.
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