Review: Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West (PC)

I downloaded Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West on my Steam account this past week to try out the new old west themed FPS game. Priced under $15, it provided an inexpensive opportunity to try out something fresh and different than COD4 or MW2.

The game is rated "Mature," apparently because of the amount of blood produced during the shoot-outs. I've so far noticed little or no text or dialogue at all, much less any profanity or vulgarity. However, I have not played the single player or "practice" mode yet. That could hold some language surprises I suppose.

The multiplayer mode allows players to band together via the steam interface. You can either join an established game by selecting from a short list of available games, or you can create a new game yourself. While no dedicated servers exist, you can select an "invite friends" option that takes you to your list of Steam friends to place invitations to play. This can be done while already in the game or before creating a game yourself.

The gameplay is very basic. The developer states, "The game is mainly about jumping in a play easy set-up games with and versus your friends online. Story and background is therefore mainly there to enhance the mood and setting of the game. There are no lengthy campaigns as such in the main game release." Your choice of players is limited to four: a gunslinger with a pistol, a "sniper," a deputy-type character with a levered rifle and a pistol, and a close combat minor-type character with a bit shotgun and who can throw a lit keg of gun powder that explodes. There is no way to change the player kits of the various characters that I've discerned.

The multiplayer teams are generally about five players. There are several different game types, Greed, Powder keg, Robbery, Conquest and Shootout, which include the standard straight combat and flag capture varieties. I've not noticed any voice chat options, but text chat is available for teams and all players. (I've already been told by team mates how terrible I am!)

One thing that takes some getting used to is that the view of your player is a hybrid of 3rd person and 1st person. You are in 3rd person view as you move through the maps, but are transferred to a 1st person(ish) view when shooting. This does take some patience. Aside from that the game offers some nice features such as healing of teammates and a "synergy" feature that increases player effectiveness as experience points are accumulated during gameplay.

Verdict: Barring any language issues yet unknown, the game's M-rating appears to be due to its use of blood during the game. The blood is cartoonish and over-exaggerated, but is present nonetheless. With no way to turn off the blood graphics, it could be a bar to some players. Aside from that, this game provides a refreshingly different setting of FPS gameplay that will provide an opportunity for players to get a dose of old time wild west shootouts. A big plus is the ease of includings friends in the multiplayer gameplay despite the lack of dedicated servers. Lastly, the cost of this game coming in at under $15 makes Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West a safe investment to have on hand when you need a break from COD4, MW2 and BFBC2 for a while.

For more information from the developer's interview see this link: http://worthplaying.com/article/2010/3/5/interviews/72835/