Developer Ice Code Games
Publisher Good Shepherd Entertainment
Format PC
Release Out now
Bar-room poker games have long been a staple of the Western genre: grizzled men laying down cards around a saloon table, until inevitably someone is accused of cheating and guns are drawn and tables flipped. And from this one trope, Hard West 2’s entire design is spun. Not that the scene is ever restaged directly, you understand. Rather, developer Ice Code connects the dots between this and the casino thrill of XCOM’s to-hit percentages, with you cast as the light-fingered card sharp gambling with their life.
The link is most literal in the game’s character upgrade system. Instead of levelling up along a linear path,
