Self-Loathing

Sometimes you've just got to do something a little silly.  For me that silliness consisted of purchasing the goofy game parody West of Loathing.  If you're looking for the chance to play a game that's not at all serious, you could do a lot worse than WoL.

One of the first steps in WoL is creating your character and picking a class.  Since your character is a stick figure you don't need to spend hours trying to correctly position their eyebrows.  You can pick the gender for your character--who, again, is a stick figure--and then choose from a small selection of hairstyles.  Next, you get to choose from three really silly classes--the cowpuncher specializes in melee, the beanslinger is (somehow) a magical class that throws beans, and the snake oiler who specializes in using pistols.  I opted for the cowpuncher because I like punching things and possibly cows too.

Like any good RPG, WOL has character stats and talents.  Since my character was a cowpuncher the bulk of my experience points went into the "muscle" category.  Other classes have stats in "mysticality" or "moxie."  You can also put points into abilities like "Intimidatin'" or "Leatherworkery."

The Western themed story starts off with your character leaving home to seek adventure.  You say goodbye to your Ma, Pa, and genius brother Rufus and head to the nearest town.  There have recently been some problems in the West--namely the event known as "When the Cows Came Home."  Demon possessed cows have been terrorizing the settlers and attempting to take over the entire world.  No one knows how or why this event has happened and you can choose to unravel why this phenomenon is happening.

In your first town you encounter several characters who are willing to accompany you on your journey.   There's a crazed miner named Pete, a vengeful gunslinger named Susie who lost her whole family to the cows, an alcoholic doctor named Alice, and possibly a goblin named Gary.  Each character is goofy in their own way--I opted to take Susie and her dialogue is always a little on the crabby side, but who can blame her she lost her whole family to demon possessed cows.

Combat in WoL is turn-based and very simple.  Your character has a set of action points that allow you to use certain abilities depending on the number of points you have.  Your pardner (companion) also has a set of abilities and points.  The combat in WoL is very simple and only gets challenging when you encounter larger groups of enemies (of which there are few).  Most likely you will get bored with it and try to avoid fighting.

The highlight of WoL is its sheer silliness.  You can unlock an ability that allows your character to "silly walk" which makes you do all kinds of goofy dancing and sliding across the screen.  The item descriptions and missions that you complete will have you chuckling.  For example, there are many spittoons located around the map--the entire concept of a spittoon is completely disgusting, a putrid bowlful of human tobacco spit.  But who knows, there could be loot in it!  The descriptions of having your character dig around in those spittoons looking for possible loot (spoilers...there's always loot in a spittoon!) are witty and hilarious.  Then your character (who only wears a hat) gets to equip a bunch of spit soaked items.  It's ridiculous.

In the end I enjoyed West of Loathing.  The nonsensical nature of the game made up for many of the shortcomings (combat is super boring).  I did find myself becoming a little bored at certain points but was usually able to find something to make me laugh.  If you expect anything even remotely serious about WoL you will be sorely disappointed.