Why Aren't There More Westerns?

[BytByte]

Gun is actually one of my favorite games. The combat especially was pretty great. It was a much cheesier take on the Western with the ridiculous weapons.
Speaking of under-visited periods of history, I want more gladiator games. The only one I can remember is Shadow of Rome which was stupid fun and I don't understand why since that's a great setting.

Try Spartan Total Warrior and Gladius. They are a bit more mythical, but still pretty grounded in the ancient setting I think.

 

[Freakazoid]

Gun is actually one of my favorite games. The combat especially was pretty great. It was a much cheesier take on the Western with the ridiculous weapons.
Speaking of under-visited periods of history, I want more gladiator games. The only one I can remember is Shadow of Rome which was stupid fun and I don't understand why since that's a great setting.

Try Spartan Total Warrior and Gladius. They are a bit more mythical, but still pretty grounded in the ancient setting I think.

It's just that there's been a while since a decent one came out. Shadow of Rome was a PS2 game as are both of your options. I guess Ryse is the closest thing to the basic idea and as far as I know it's pretty terrible. I enjoyed how ridiculous Shadow of Rome was. It's the only game I've played where I can cut off a man's arm and then beat him with it.

 

[Mike Fang]

Rather than repeat myself, here's what I had to say on this issue back from my comment on the Outlaws review: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/6.873797-Outlaws-Where-Are-You-Marshal#21943368

 

[Robyrt]

Westerns have pretty much packed up and moved to space, these days.

 

[SecondPrize]

Red Dead Redemption is has an ESRB rating of M. Exactly what moments does it contain that would make adults so comfortable they should have been removed from the game?

 

[octafish]

Probably one of the other reasons is simply the fact that westerns in other media have not been popular during much of video game history. We have the cliched idea of a stereotypical western in all our heads but when was the last time a western was major hit besides Django unchained which had Tarantino stamped all over it. While world war two games took from movies like Saving Private Ryan and Sci Fi games liberally took from franchises such as Alien and Star Wars. If we had one or two westerns being major hits I can imagine down the line westerns in video games would start to proliferate. Also trying to depict the classic part of a western, the stand off and quick draw in game mechanics seems to be very hard to pull of.

While the remake of 3.10 from Yuma did pretty good box office and the Coen brother's True Grit was exceptional I think you need to go back to 1992 when the Western was redefined yet again for a major impact on cinema.

 

[Kyrian007]

The article mentioned the reason right up front. The reason for the lack of westerns IS Lucasarts' Outlaws. The BEST western game has already been made. With such little possibility available to make something better, why not move on to a different backdrop for a game where making the best is at least possible?

Not really of course, but Outlaws IS awesome. Still I'm thinking the better game might come from taking a traditional western out of its traditional setting. Like Whedon's Firefly did. A "space frontier western" sounds like it could be an awesome game. It makes for great tv, like Firefly, Trigun, El Cazador De La Bruja, and so on. Or take a western, but don't put it in its traditional video game genre, the shooter. Like Telltale did with taking the Walking Dead and making a zombie game a traditional point and click adventure game, make a western a Telltale style adventure game. Or make it a survival horror type game (basically my most hoped for game of all time, a fallout 3 engine style rpg based upon Pinnacle's Deadlands.)

As good a very traditional western as something like Red Dead Redemption was, I think a better way to go is to mix up style. Perhaps a cyberpunk/new west game. Kind of a "Shadowrun as written by Joe R. Lansdale" sort of feel.

It wouldn't have to compete with Outlaws, which means it COULD be the best.

 

[Jakabotch]

Red Dead Redemption has what I think of as the quintessential moment in all Western games, when you first arrive in Mexico and Far Away by Jose Gonzales starts playing. I happened to end up in Mexico just as the sun began to set, and riding along the dusty mountain trails toward the first town, the red tinged sky gradually darkening as mournful guitar filled my ears, it was the only moment in video gaming I can remember that I wasn't spurring myself on to the next section as fast as possible.

The entirety of the game I spent most of my time watching the little meter in the lower left corner, either using the minimap or seeing how much harder I could ride my horse to get where I needed to go a little faster, but this one moment, this perfect combination of song, setting and sun, got me to slow down, completely organically. Where I would normally be frustrated by a game forcing me to not go at full speed, I found myself just riding, feeling the whole of John Marston's character, his struggle. It might have been my favorite moment in all of gaming, because the Old West has always been my favorite setting and, while I have played quite a few games that made me feel like the rootinest tootinest cowboy in the wild, wild west, RDR made me feel something closer to what I really want out of the genre; a desperate man in a desperate situation, knowing that whatever lay around the mountain might kill him dead as easy as anything else and continuing anyway out of sheer grit and determination.