Desperados III Review
Mimimi Games / THQ Nordic
Young gunslinger, John Cooper, is out for revenge. Another man has killed his pappy and now he’s made it his life’s mission to track down that evil son-of-a-gun and anyone else who stands in his way. Yes, Mimiimi’s new game, Desperados III, spins a yarn as old and tropistic as the Old West setting the game takes place in. But the way it tells its tale is gripping due in no small part to its excellent writing and equally impressive voice acting.
Along Cooper’s warpath, he’ll meet a bevy of oddball characters. There’s Hector Mendoza, a powerfully built man who likes to use his pretty little beartrap named Bianca, Doc McCoy, the healer of the group who likes to pick off enemies from long ranges, Kate O’Hara, who uses her comeliness to charm men, and Isabelle Moreau, a voodoo practitioner who likes to manipulate men’s minds.
Desperados III is played from an old school top-down perspective which harkens back to games like their last effort, 2017’s Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, or others such as any of the classic Commandos titles. If you’ve played any of those, you pretty much know what to expect, gameplay-wise; real-time tactics.
Like any good top-down tactical game, you’ll have to perform some recon in each environment that you enter into. From there, you’ll want to match each of your five character’s capabilities to what kind of approach you’d like to take. If you’re the guns-blazing type of player, you can do just that. On the other side of the spectrum, if you fancy more of a stealth-based approach (like myself), you can creep around in the shadows and stalk your prey.
If you are the former, you can actually rush in and not get totally punished if you approach each encounter strategically. Luckily, for all of the Rambo types of players out there, there’s a Showdown mechanic that can be quite helpful. Activating Showdown mode during combat will slow things down such as in the film, The Matrix, or video game, Max Payne. In this way, you can tactically orchestrate multiple character’s maneuvers all at once.
Each of the game’s levels has been designed so that players must gauge when-and-where to utilize each character. For instance, Doc McCoy can distract most enemies with his handy-dandy decoy bag. If they don’t fall for that ruse, you can bring in Kate O’Hara and have her work her womanly wiles and woo them into vulnerable positions. There are so many tactical considerations that I didn’t mind playing some of the same levels over and over; it’s that good from a replayability standpoint.
But then there are the long coats; these guys are some of the toughest enemies in the game and won’t fall for most of your tricks. You’ll either have to utilize multiple characters in order to take one down or simply send in Hector Mendoza to take care of business—provided he is used correctly.
Those players who like to speed-play through the levels of games could feasibly do so in about an hour or so, granted they don’t get their little posse killed too many times. However, if you’re like me and want to sneak around and investigate every nook and cranny in the game’s highly detailed environments, expect to spend at least 2 hours per level, if not 3.
The graphics of Desperados III are top-notch. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Wild West game rendered so beautifully (besides maybe Hunt: Showdown). You traverse through many diverse types of environments, including wind-blow high deserts, lush coastal areas, and bustling 1800s-style towns. The music is also excellent and is unique to each level you are traveling through.
Simply put, if you’re a fan of top-down tactical games set in immersive environments, getting your mitts on Desperados III is pretty much a no-brainer.
SCORE: 86%
Desperados III has some pretty good looking graphics that make its tactical gameplay truly shine. However, you want to have a pretty beefy gaming PC or gaming laptop in order to play it at a decent framerate. So, you may just want to invest in a decent gaming rig:
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