Following on from “The Three Skulls of the Toltecs “ in 1996 and the successful “The Westerner” in 2006, developer Revistronic and publisher Nobilis have delivered the third episode in the saga – The Westerner 2: Fenimore Fillimore’s Revenge. Promising a much more mature and tougher look than the previous episodes,“Revenge” is reminiscent of the old Spaghetti western films.
Our brief preview allowed us to plant our cowboy boots firmly in the gritty environments of the Wild West.
The story begins when Fenimore and Fillimore come across a wounded man in a barren wasteland who imparts a nugget (!) of information to Rhiannon revealing the location of some gold. However the wounded man was not the only person aware of the gold but up until now he was the only person who knew its exact location. So the treasure hunt begins ! Three men approach and take Rhiannon, leaving Fenimore for dead, hoping she’ll reveal the dying mans words.
Here we briefly get to play the role of Rhiannon attempting to escape from the gang. Controls are straightforward left click mouse to move (twice to run) hover over action hotspots and right click mouse to change function eg from look at object to pick up object. Inventory items are displayed along top of screen (hover). Conversations are mostly automatic but there are occasions when a dialogue tree is used. After completing a few fairly easy tasks you then assume the role of Fenimore.
Fenimore in the meantime has been rescued by another man interested in the gold. He wakens in the mans cabin and is assigned three tasks before they can go rescue Rhiannon and the gold. The puzzles are manageable though you may find yourself up against the clock and what seems the obvious path may not be the complete solution. Eg after hoisting a body from a grave to sit on a horse watch him slide off if you haven’t brought the saddle for the horse !
However they do lull you into a false sense of security as what you think is straightforward is not always the case and this intensifies as the game continues.
I did come across target practice whereby Fenimore had to hit four bullseyes in a limited time and it was unavoidable if you wanted to progress through the game. I’m not sure how this will go down with adventure gamers but it may add some variation to the gameplay however, it would be advisable to play with a mouse and not a scrolling wheel on laptop to give you a better chance of hitting the targets
Unfortunately my preview build didn’t allow me to get much further than this. What I was able to glean so far is that gone are the “toy story” type artwork giving rise to a much grittier style of graphics matched by the Clint Eastwood style of voice acting and the character traits and behaviour . Fenimore has certainly grown up in The Westerner 2: Fenimore Fillimore’s revenge. For the little time I had playing I enjoyed
The Westerner 2: Fenimore Fillimore’s revenge although I would’ve liked a bypass system for the target practice.
Pros
Artwork
Voice acting
Puzzle solving not always straightforward
Comedic moments
Cons
Target shooting (although others may enjoy this aspect !)
The Westerner 2: Fenimore Fillimore’s revenge is not without its faults but I’m still looking forward to the full release
