Earlier today, Lavaboots Studios released a trailer for their upcoming indie game, Wild West And Wizards.
The trailer itself displays simple cel-shaded, cartoony graphics, bringing to mind the art styles of both Team Fortress 2 and The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. The game, however, looks to be a promising mix of two other franchises: Westworld and Harry Potter.
On Steam, the developers describe the title as, "...an open world exploration game with magic, loot, and RPG elements." Players are free to pick their class, level up, and explore a vast open world. The actual size of this "vast" open world is not provided on the game's website, however it does state that players will come across settlements, bandit camps, and secrets scattered across the land. Biomes include forests, plains, and deserts, which can all be explored at your own pace.
Although the concept is promising, and the gameplay looks engaging, the trailer displays a world that seems a bit empty at times. Sure, the graphics are unique and the combat/leveling system looks fun, but the game world itself doesn't appear all that dense. However, this could be due to the fact that a large portion of the trailer takes place in the desert, a location that doesn't lend itself well to being populated with vegetation, buildings... or really anything.
The towns themselves give off a distinctly Western feel, although we only get a short glimpse of them in the trailer. Time will tell if the world will feel fully populated, or if the game will be a virtual ghost town. This is always a fear for open-world-indie titles, as it's hard to pack a massive world full of content with a small team size.
Lavaboots Studios released a similar game back in 2018, Salt. This was another open world title, based on the concept of sailing and exploring islands across a vast ocean. Steam reviews were mostly positive, so there is hope that Wild West and Wizards will turn out to be another fun, obscure, gem of a game.
Wild West and Wizards is set to launch on PC this summer.