Another Closure & the Ghost Town of the Virtual Wild West
Paintball War — Closed!
Of course. We can’t have Paintball War 2 if Paintball War 1 has yet to be resolved. I’m assuming this game involves paint, war, and balls in some capacity.
That and some quite awful sound effects is all you get now. Luckily, I was prepared…
If this was someone’s first attempt at an FPS, a final project for an undergraduate class, or a similar scenario, the developer(s) did quite good work. They also seem to be trying to make their product better, even if their process for doing so comes across as a bit sketchy (why couldn’t Paintball War just get updated?).
This isn’t Deathmatch or Aerial Guardian levels of bad but it’s definitely not a quality FPS. Poor optimization, lack of any real visceral feel to any of the guns, uninspired landscapes, and low-end stock sound effects create an experience that’s entirely playable and even quite a bit of fun with a good group of friends, but far from an ideal choice. I wishlisted Paintball Wars 2 and will check it out when it’s released!
Abandoned / In Development Limbo (American West theme)
Many of these game closures are either for games so obscure that hardly anyone even knows of the game or the people who did love the game had mostly left. Here are some titles that have the potential to be definitive titles but due to various issues, are in a state many find worse than closure — developmental uncertainty.
Outlaws of the Old West
Almost two years of Snail Games (publisher) and Virtual Basement (developer) being unable to reach an agreement regarding updates, etc has resulted in this project coming to a near complete halt. It’s a shame, given it seems to have the potential to be the wild west MMORPG many have been wanting. Perhaps RDR Online or bust is the way it must be.
Best in the West
It’s been awhile since this title has received an update. 522 days according to SteamDB. This was initially very disconcerting, especially given the relatively early state of the game when I checked it out previously. Initial thoughts were that this was definitely abandoned, but I did some digging and found that there are still some active players looking for matches and the developers have kept up communication with the community, with the most recent post occurring less than 48 hours ago on Discord. Personal issues, family issues, and COVID-19 set this project back a bit, but an update is in the works and coming soon. We’ll keep an eye on this project and see how far it has come since it’s initial launch. Out of the Western titles, it’s looking like it has the the most promising route to release.
New Frontier
A wild west PvP sandbox game with a quite beautiful map where it’s actually developed. Zombies were added in about two years ago. Last update according to Steam depots was almost 500 days ago. Many former and current players complain about losing items and not getting an answer from customer service. The game is mostly abandoned, littered with half-built and out-of-place player structures. The lack of any significant story quests, coupled with a few of the remaining players being extremely high level and willing to gank anyone that shows up, creates the never-ending cycle of players leaving and new players not sticking around. There’s potential here but the game appears to be abandoned.
Magnificent 5
It’s New Frontier except in battle royale format. 20 total teams of 5 players each. I’ve never seen a lobby fill even when players have tried to organize and I’m not interested enough to organize 100 Steam accounts to get a match going. It’s essentially a dead-on-arrival product as a result of no bots and no population.
Final Thoughts
There’s not a single game on this list where I could both recommend the game on it’s own merits and also recommend it on the basis of it’s current development and financial status. However, if you are going to check out any games on this list, you might as well go with the games with either the highest active population (Outlaws of the Old West) or help small developers grow as developers and refine their currently flawed, incomplete projects (Best in the West, Paintball War 2 possibly?).
And what ever happened to Bone Gulch, the 2014 highly publicized MMORPG on Kickstarter? Leave a comment if you know!
