Video Game Review: Desperados III

Desperados III

Mimimi Games

Real-Time Tactical Stealth

Playstation 4

There aren’t enough video game westerns. Despite the problems the genre has with valorizing a particular brand of bygone toxic white masculinity, there’s still something incredibly appealing about the aesthetics of rootin’, tootin’, and shootin’ – especially when you get to be the cowboy and not just observe the cowboy. With video games, at least some of the appeal is that developers seem to be more able and more willing to dip into the Weird West genre, but obviously not every western title does this. Desperados III doesn’t, but it nonetheless scratches the itch I feel as a fan of westerns in a remarkable fashion.

So, the basics: Desperados III is a real-time “tactical stealth” game developed by Mimimi Games, the creators of another game in the genre called Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun. Despite being the fourth game in the Desperados series, this one is actually a prequel to the original, which means that if you’ve never even heard of the series before (like me) then no problem! The game gives players control over five characters who each have a unique set of skills that must be used in tandem with one another to quietly make your way across the levels. Enemies can be distracted, knocked out, killed, and even temporarily taken control of to get them out of your way.

There’s also a special “showdown” mode which lets you pause time (except on the highest difficulty) to queue up actions and then execute your plan with the push of a button, making eliminating multiple threats at once a cinch. At times it can be tough to make plans that don’t alert a guard you overlooked, but when one goes off without a problem it is an incredibly satisfying feeling, especially if it does so because you discovered a new interaction between some of the skills. To that end, there’s a very handy quick-saving and loading feature that the developers actively encourage the player to use, as the game is all about “trial and error.” In addition to making failure much less frustrating, I really appreciated the way the developers went out of their way to assure players won’t feel bad for using this feature. At the end of each level, the game shows you a saved replay of your path through it, tallying up the number of times you used each skill, where and when you killed or knocked out enemies, and even how many times you saved or loaded all accompanied by a timestamp. It’s a great feature that’s useful for looking over everything and figuring out what you could do better the next time you play the level as you go for special challenge badges which add a lot of replay value to an already lengthy experience.

In addition to having fun skills, the characters all have charming personalities. From the curmudgeonly Doctor McCoy to the Kind-but-Dangerous Kate O’Hara, I very quickly fell in love with the entire cast. It certainly helps that the levels feature some amazingly written playful banter between the gang that never failed to elicit, at the least, a hearty chuckle from me. Even better, the game knows exactly when to shift between this playful tone and the more serious one of the core narrative beats, so the story still managed to be intriguing and emotional.

As much as all the pieces of the game are phenomenal, there were a few minor issues I had with it. Occasionally trying to interact with parts of the environment can be interrupted by trying to move the character being controlled, which was easy enough to work around but still mildly annoying. Additionally, I encountered a few graphical and gameplay bugs including the camera sometimes becoming uncontrollable and one that stopped a character from doing anything and forced me to completely restart a level I had almost finished. Though many of these issues were ultimately minor, they were still there, and I hope the devs are able to fix them.

Before I finish this review and ride off into the sunset, I’ll leave you with this: I adored Desperados III so much that the moment I finished it I started downloading Shadow Tactics after owning it for roughly a year. That’s how hard this game got me hooked on the tactical stealth genre. Desperados III never feels too challenging, but even so, the mechanics and level designs are all so carefully crafted that the sense of accomplishment on figuring out a smooth plan is some of the best you can get from a video game. Every aspect of the game (barring glitches, of course) is thoroughly enjoyable all the way through and it is absolutely worth your time and money.