Far Far West: the game that read all the others and decided to do the opposite

Let's start with the elephant in the room.

Far Far West has no microtransactions. No battle pass. No premium currency with a conversion rate designed to make you lose track of what you're actually spending. No loot boxes. No "limited-time exclusive cosmetic content" that disappears in 48 hours to manufacture artificial purchase pressure. You pay for the game. You get the game. That's it.

In 2026, a game without microtransactions is rare enough that it needs to be said upfront. That's sad, but that's where we are.

A supernatural western, and that changes everything

Far Far West is a four-player co-op shooter with extraction mechanics. On paper, nothing original. In execution, the game stands apart through a genre mashup that holds together better than expected: traditional Far West collides head-on with the paranormal.

The enemies you face aren't simple outlaws. They're creatures that feel straight out of American frontier folklore, supernatural entities that would fit right into the stories passed around campfires in the 19th century. The result is a distinctive atmosphere. The dusty environments of frontier towns and wild territories host threats that have no logical business being there, and that's precisely what works. The dissonance is intentional, fully committed, and produces exactly the unhinged blend the game is going for.

Guns and spells: the duo that makes the game

Far Far West's real proposition is two layers of combat that feed off each other.

Gunplay on one side: classic, readable, effective. Firearms handle crowd control and raw damage. The impact could be a little more pronounced, we'll get to that, but the foundation is solid.

Spellcasting on the other: and that's where the game really opens up. Spell combos are the genuine standout surprise of this session. Chaining effects, finding synergies between team abilities, discovering that a specific combination triggers something devastating: that's exactly the kind of moment that justifies the existence of a game system. Clearing a room with explosive magic while a teammate lays defensive enchantments on the squad is a chaotic choreography that gradually becomes less chaotic as you learn to talk to each other.

Because coordination is the real heart of the game. Far Far West asks players to fill complementary roles. It's not just shooting in the same direction at the same time. It's calling out threats, sharing resources, timing your abilities right. A team of four that doesn't communicate is a team of four that runs out of ammo and spells at the worst possible moment.

Bounties and extraction: the tension that keeps you coming back

The mission structure is built around a bounty hunting system. The team selects a contract, ventures into dangerous territory, neutralises the target, and must get out alive — or at least "mostly alive," based on the sessions we played.

This extraction mechanic is what gives decisions weight. Completing objectives is only half the challenge. Getting back out with your bounties intact is the other half, and often the harder one. The chaotic encounters on the way back turn successful hunts into desperate escapes. That's where the best stories get made, and games that make stories are the games you talk about afterwards.

What we felt

We played as a group, and we had a genuinely good time. The game is very easy to pick up, which matters more than it seems for co-op: when you pull friends into a session, you don't want to spend the first hour explaining systems. Here you're operational quickly, and the depth arrives naturally after that.

The art style is impressive. Each zone has its own palette, the visual identity is strong, and the art direction knows exactly what it wants. The music follows the same register: great and completely unhinged, in the best sense. It doesn't try to be atmospheric and understated. It commits, it overflows, and it matches the game's overall tone perfectly. We had several laughing fits during sessions because of what was happening in our ears at exactly the wrong moment. That's a win.

What doesn't work

Weapon impact first. It's not bad, but there's a missing last tenth of game feel that would turn a satisfying shot into a memorable one. Enemies react, effects are there, but the feedback loop isn't quite at the level of everything else. That's the kind of thing that gets resolved in polish.

Performance next, and that's more concerning. On an RTX 3070, the game caps around 70fps regardless of graphics settings. Lowering quality changes nothing, nor does raising it. Meanwhile, an RX 5700XT in the same session was hitting up to 100fps in certain areas. This behaviour suggests an Nvidia-side optimisation issue or an unresolved CPU bottleneck. The playtest ends on the 16th: there's still time to fix this, and we hope the team at Evil Raptor is paying attention.

The verdict

Far Far West is fun, coherent, and honest. The supernatural western blend holds up, the spell combos are a genuine success, and the bounty hunting structure with extraction creates exactly the kind of tension that makes you come back. The performance issues and slightly weak weapon impact are things that need addressing before launch, but the foundation is good.

And still no microtransactions. We won't get tired of saying it.

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Review based on Early Access version, playtest build. Playtest ends May 16.