World To The West Review

World to the West is Rain Games follow up to 2015’s Teslagrad, a title that at the time I missed for one reason or another and I’m not entirely sure why. In retrospect, it looks like the kind of game I’d enjoy so maybe it’s purely down to the ever-growing backlog I have that I didn’t pick it up. This is a stand-alone follow up to Teslagrad, so there was no need to go back and catch up before I dove into this.

World to the West has you taking control of one of four different characters at a time, each with their own abilities and weaknesses. For example, Lumina can use her abilities to “blink” across gaps, but she’s unable to crawl through small holes. That’s the task of Knaus, who can also use his shovel to dig under rocks to access other pathways. Both of these aren’t much cop against bigger enemies, which Lord Clonington and his huge fists are perfectly suited to dispatch. Teri can control the minds of her foes in order to have them perform duties for her. Separately, their talents don’t count for much, but when together they become a formidable team indeed.

You’re introduced to the characters’ skills one at a time, such that you’re never overwhelmed with having to remember what each character can do, which keeps the learning curve of World to the West down somewhat, but the puzzles can have you scratching your head as you come up with different plans to solve them. Refreshing, in a time when we seem to have our hands held throughout most games with auto-hints that World to the West doesn’t prescribe to that notion and instead leaves you to your own exploratory devices. Combat on the whole remains quite minimal in terms of difficulty, so it never really becomes terribly daunting when going up against enemies and bosses.

The graphics boast a colourful yet simple approach, giving the world a cartoonish, lively feel. It fits the world perfectly, allowing the gameplay to be the focus of the title, without being distracting. Musically, it’s much the same, tinkling along in the background allowing gameplay to take centre stage.

The controls feel tight, with probably my only bug bear of World to the West being that it can be sometimes a little frustrating when trying to use Teri’s scarf to hook onto a pole to pull you across a gap. A little more lock-on might have done that a favour, but honestly, that’s such a small nitpick in a great game.

The concern is that it might not last you if you’re a fan of more RPG aspects of titles like this. There’s no inventories to manage, no stats to boost and little in terms of character upgrades. It makes this friendlier for people wanting to get into this style of game play, but could still be relevant if you’re after a more laid-back experience than your usual RPG affair.