Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West

Small indie developers that go up against large, already established brands impress me. Even when they don't succeed, and the final game doesn't deliver, it's hard not to admire the guts it takes for a small company to take a crack at making a MMO or - as in the case of Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West - an online shooter. Indie developers usually go for a more safer route, crafting together self-published puzzlers or adventure games either for PC or online distribution platforms like Xbox Live or PSN.

That's not to say that Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West doesn't succeed at what it aims to do; a Team Fortress 2-clone set in the Wild West. It's a pure online shooter fest, with four different character classes fighting it out over various maps either for a set objective or as a straight out deathmatch. It's hard not to see the traces of the same kind of gameplay that Valve's cult classic has, but with a fresh setting and good graphics the game manages to stand squarely on its own two feet.

The first thing that will probably strike you is how good the game looks, the character models and the environment look a lot better than you might come to expect from a fairly low-budget project such as this. The animations are not always up to speed, but textures and models won't leave you wanting for much more. The levels are limited in scope, and the amount of models in the game is limited to the four different classes, which might explain the graphical prowess of the game; it does not make it any less impressive, though.

The four different classes are varied enough to keep me experimenting with them, jumping back and forth between them during matches, but at the same time I would like to see more of them - the rather daunting amount in Team Fortress 2 might be a bit much at times, but one or two more would have done wonders for the game. The four that are present feel balanced enough though, and they do play quite differently from each other; from the more typical close combat oriented Blaster to the sniping Trapper, the game covers most of its bases well. I do miss the option for some character customization though, as killing my own twins over and over can feel a bit uninspired.

If you've ever played a shooter online, especially with strangers (or with me), you might be used to people zerging off on their own without spending a thought on their teammates. Fatshark have tried to put the teamwork on the front of Lead and Gold, with special abilities that you can use to aid your companions - either actively, such as "tagging" an enemy so the others can see where it's going, or passively by giving a certain buff to aiming or healing your friends' lost health when you're standing near them. It works well, even though most of the time people go rushing off on their own anyway - nothing that the game can be faulted for, of course.

Except for the lack of more character classes, the game's greatest weakness is really the available levels. I mentioned uninspired earlier, and that's how most of them feel as well. While they look good, and do offer some nice shootouts in time-typical saloons and banks, most of them are pretty bland and boring. My absolute favourite is the map that takes place in a goldmine, where entries must be blown up and stairs and shafts create a nice maze at the centre of the level. That's Lead and Gold at its finest, and also its most immersive. I hope for future maps to take a long look at that particular map for inspiration.

Comparing Lead and Gold to Team Fortress 2 is a bit unfair, to be honest. Not only did Team Fortress 2 have a much larger budget, it has also had years to patch and refine itself. Lead and Gold is a fun game on its own, it's an easy-going third person online shooter with the right amount of humour mixed in. More customization, more weapons, a bit more optimized netcode (it has a tendency to lag from time to time) and more inspired maps and Fatshark might have a cult classic on their own hands. For now, I'm cautiously optimistic and I really look forward to seeing the game run on both PSN and Xbox Live. It's well worth checking out.