Thanks to THQ Nordic for sending us a review code!

The Wild West has been greatly romanticized by Hollywood since the beginning of film. Without strong law enforcement to curb the excesses of human nature, this period of American history is naturally conducive to tales of interpersonal conflict, personal grudges, and redemption. It’s all the things we love in drama with the magic of fantasy, yet grounded in harsh reality. Video games have likewise been enamoured with this period since their inception. Over the decades, we’ve seen all manner of takes on frontier lifestyle, from Oregon Trail to Age of Empires 3 to Red Dead Redemption and more. Desperados III is a 2020 real-time stealth-tactics game that brings to life the ruthless aesthetic of this era.

The story follows quintessential cowboy John Cooper on a quest to avenge his father’s death at the hands of another cowboy named Frank, and in turn free the town of Flagstone from the oppressively exploitative DeVitt Company. I’ve never played the first two titles in the series, so I can’t say whether it is a prequel worthy of the Desperados name, but it does stand as a solid piece of storytelling on its own merits. It’s a typical cast of varied character archetypes, and they’re all likable in their own way. Hot-headed Cooper’s single-minded focus on vengeance is a character flaw to be overcome. Hector seeks redemption. Coldly methodical McCoy’s burden is to learn forgiveness and forbearance. Feisty Kate’s is a story of perseverance and true grit. Even Frank gets some development as a brutal but honourable villain, and his relationship to Cooper takes on a “friendly enemy” dynamic similar to Xavier and Magneto from the X-Men comics. Idealistic Isabelle is the only one who might be a little short-changed in character development. The story isn’t going to win any literature awards, but there’s enough to warrant your attention and garner some investment.

The game’s 16 missions constantly deliver new scenarios and mechanics, and switches characters in and out of the team for further variance. This changing of available characters between missions doesn’t quite sit well with me, since the likes of Satellite Reign has spoiled me with having access to a full party at all times, but it does serve the story needs and help keep things fresh. Characters are controlled much like a real-time strategy game, with keyboard and mouse to select the characters, issue move orders, and queue up commands. Desperados can also be played with just a controller, and after a bit of wrangling with the interface settings I found it to be much more intuitive than keyboard and mouse. The relevant buttons at any moment are also indicated on-screen, so you’re never lost regardless of which controls you go with.

The bulk of gameplay involves sneaking around enemy vision cones with the help of distraction abilities, maneuvering characters into position, killing multiple enemies simultaneously, and then hiding the bodies. If you’re spotted, or if you fail to time your executions properly, the guards will sound the alarm and actively search for you. Rinse and repeat ad infinitum. It doesn’t get boring though. Besides the basic Thugs and Gunmen, there are Ponchos that are resistant to distractions, and the Long Coats are an enemy that commands respect with their immunity to distractions and sheer toughness and deadliness. Despite the relative dearth of variety in enemies, the level designers have done a superb job of finding all manner of novel setups.

Each character brings their own perks to the team, and their presence or absence in a mission distinctly affects the options available as you play. Cooper’s dual pistols and knife-throw allow him to rapidly execute multiple enemies, but when he’s not around to brute force encounters, more careful planning is required. Hector’s absence is easily felt in any encounter with a Long Coat. McCoy and Kate can remove “watchtower” enemies from deep inside enemy territory, and the puzzle element of each encounter is amplified when these two are absent. Isabelle’s ability to spirit link enemies together opens up a lot of creative possibilities. The variety of abilities and the ways they can be chained together reminds me of indie stealth hit Monaco.

Much of your playtime will be spent skulking around, analysing enemy view cones, and figuring out which enemies to remove and in what order, and this naturally gives the game a significant puzzle feel to it. Coordinating simultaneous actions between characters is no easy feat, and the Showdown Mode is a solidly built suite of tools to enable this. At the press of a button, time is paused and you can ready a single action for each character. When you’re ready, give the order and your plan will execute. Setting things up for that final execution is what this game is all about. It’s extremely satisfying when a plan executes perfectly to eliminate five or six enemies simultaneously, and you’ll feel like a Chess Grandmaster for a few seconds until the dopamine rush wears off.

Failed plans aren’t a major setback though, as Desperados comes with an extremely fast quick-save and quick-load system. The game actively encourages you to save constantly and re-try bungled attempts, and it’s easy to get into this rhythm. Quite often I had a solution that accounted for all enemies on screen… only to have an off-screen enemy spot the corpses and raise an alarm. Sometimes what looks like an obvious solution to a puzzle is actually a dead end. Sometimes you’ll be spending 10 minutes on an elaborate plan only to discover that it won’t work. It’s very fortunate that saving and loading takes less than a second, because the tactical puzzles in here are brutal, and it could have been extremely frustrating to have to spend more time watching a loading bar than actually concocting plans. It’s a little ironic though that the save system being so robust might also be holding back the game just a little bit. When plans go wrong and additional guards come out in search of your ragtag crew, it becomes instinctive to load instead of playing things out. The highest difficulty simply discourages playing things out since it removes the time pause from Showdown Mode, in turn making it almost impossible to recover from any slip-ups.

At the end of a mission, your actions are presented to you in a summary replay form, and these can also be saved. It’s quite a spectacle to watch the dots representing your characters move around the level and deleting red dots as they go about their business. Just as you think you’re done with a mission, Desperados throws it back at you and dares you to go again. Expect to spend around two hours per mission on your first run (30 hours total), but each mission also has a challenge to finish in around 20 minutes once you’re familiar with the map layout. Other bonus objectives are also available for every map, plus a Challenge version which adjusts enemy layouts and changes the characters used. These challenge missions will test the most dedicated players to come up with new ways of overcoming old obstacles. It’s an elegant way to extend the life of the game. Further, the difficulty is highly customisable. Enemy presence, player health, player ammo, enemy vision, and Showdown pausing can all be customised independently to fine-tune the experience.

The graphics are superb, and there’s plenty of detail to be seen. The semiarid deserts are littered with the detritus of railroad constructions and desert flora, the bayou environments exude a humid aura, and New Orleans bustles with activity. Character actions are expressive and it’s always easy to tell what’s happening. I especially appreciated that icons for pending actions are different between characters, even when the action it represents is identical – it’s a serious dedication to detail. The only issue I had here was that Ponchos and Long Coats are initially difficult to distinguish from regular thugs when zoomed out, but by the end of the game it was mostly second nature. The sounds are likewise everything that Hollywood has trained us to expect, with shots echoing off metal and melee attacks having a satisfyingly loud punch. The soundtrack blends into the background, but the mix of guitars, piano and violin definitely give it a Wild West country vibe.

To the moral outlook, there’s plenty of violence in this game unsurprisingly. While you do have the option of non-lethal melee, there does not seem to be any reason to bother with it. Slain corpses persist, although this is a key part of the stealth mechanics, and there is no blood for the most part except for the final cutscene. However, a few levels do allow you to set enemies on fire, and their corpses will continue burning after the fact. All the heavier swear words are represented here (f---, s--t, b---h, H-ll, b-----d), and they are constantly used in small talk as enemies go about their patrols and chat with each other. God’s name is also used in vain quite a lot. Kate also uses double entendre to lure guards away by suggesting a quickie, but the vocabulary is perfectly clean.

A brothel is present in three missions. The comfort ladies here are dressed as you might expect for the period, which means an extremely modest dress by modern standards, so there’s no issue with the dress code for the women. If anything, it’s the topless thugs with their brawny chests that might be a little too exciting for the girls. One mission briefing however does indicate the group as having binged on alcohol, and that Hector has had a wild night with the Sheriff’s wife while in an alcohol-addled state, but he does immediately regret the momentary tryst.

Isabelle’s entire kit revolves around the use of voodoo magic, and enemies will mention witches as a possibility when strange things happen around them. Her character design is free of any prejudice or negative stereotypes, but it should be noted that the game momentarily alludes to the racial issues of the time.

Desperados III is a solid entry into the Stealth-Tactics genre, and watching a plan come together like you’re orchestrating Ocean’s Eleven is a high you’ll get to feel over and over again. If the significant moral issues don’t bother you, this is a game you’ll want in your vision cone.