There are no dragons in The West, which already makes it unusual on a shelf like ours. Instead there is dust, hard work and a long road from greenhorn to gunslinger. You create a character, ride into a map of frontier territory and earn your living through jobs and quests, building skills and reputation one shift at a time. It is a role-playing game about a life, rather than a single heroic quest.
InnoGames made its name with browser strategy, and that heritage shows. The West is as much about towns and alliances as about personal glory, and its fort battles are coordinated affairs that need planning. It is the slowest burn of our six, but also the one where we felt most like part of a community, rather than a lone adventurer passing through other people’s world.
Greenhorn first, then a choice for life
Everybody starts as a Greenhorn, and the game makes those first levels easy with a huge boost to travel speed across the map. At level 15 that bonus goes, and you choose one of four permanent classes: Adventurer, Dueller, Soldier or Builder. The publisher’s own page calls the last of these the worker, but the idea is the same. Class and gender choices cannot be changed later.
Each class bends the game in its own direction. Adventurers find more items and products while working and get hurt less on jobs. Duellers travel faster, recover their appetite for duelling more quickly and earn more from it. Soldiers are tough in duels and lift their neighbours’ leadership in fort battles. Builders earn extra job experience and help raise town buildings more efficiently. Read up before you commit; it really does shape your next few months.
Honest work: jobs, energy and skills
Most of your time goes on jobs. You travel to a spot on the map, choose a task, and spend energy to complete it, earning money, experience and sometimes useful goods. Energy regenerates over time, so a sensible day involves a few short visits to queue work rather than one marathon. Quest chains run alongside, giving the work a story and steady targets.
Experience feeds into four attributes and the skills beneath them, and those skills decide which jobs you can do well. It is a satisfying web once you see it: better skills unlock better jobs, which pay for better equipment, which raises your skills again. Later on you can take up a crafting profession and make the right tools for the job, which ties your character into the town’s wider economy.
A town to call home, and a fort to hold
Joining a town is where The West becomes special. Members share buildings, with town hotels for resting and cheaper shopping as the place grows, and everyone chips in to construction. Towns form alliances, and alliances fight over forts. Fort battles are scheduled, multiplayer affairs where positioning and class bonuses matter, and they are the closest thing in our six to a proper strategic event.
We scored Company of others at nine because the game’s social structure is built in, not bolted on. A good town has a chat full of advice, people who will lend you a hand with a tricky quest, and a calendar of fort battles to look forward to. It is the game we would most recommend to someone who wants to play alongside the same group of people for a long time.
Duels, nuggets and the long road
Duelling is the game’s personal form of player versus player. You challenge other players to a gunfight resolved by your skills and equipment, earning money and experience if you come out on top. Duellers can even challenge opponents a short distance away without travelling, and can see an opponent’s equipment bonuses first. It adds a competitive edge to what could otherwise be a quiet working life.
The premium currency is nuggets, used for a premium account and various conveniences. InnoGames has said it aims to keep these balanced for non-paying players, and in our experience the free path stays respectable. Regular events, such as the autumn festivities on the official site, and new regions like Quebec keep the long road interesting. It is a slow game, but it is a fair one.
Your first week on the The West trail
- Enjoy the Greenhorn speed bonus and travel widely while it lasts, taking every early quest you pass.
- Queue jobs that suit your skills in short visits rather than waiting for energy to fill up completely.
- Read the four class descriptions properly before level 15; the choice is permanent.
- Join an established town early and ask what the builders currently need from new members.
- Sign up to watch or join a fort battle, even as a newcomer, to see how the late game works.
What we love
- A town and alliance structure that makes the game properly sociable
- Fort battles with real tactics and scheduled excitement
- Four permanent classes that meaningfully change your career
- A free path that stays fair over the long haul
What grates
- Slow beginnings that ask for patience before the good parts
- Job-based progress can feel like a routine in quieter weeks
- A permanent class choice punishes uninformed beginners
Whose quest is The West?
The West is for patient, sociable players who want a character to grow over months and a group of people to grow with. If you would rather be a respected member of a frontier town than a lone hero, and you like a slow, steady climb, it is a fine place to settle.
The West at the end of the trail
The West is not the most exciting game on our list in its first hour, but it may be the most rewarding in its fiftieth. Its jobs, skills and permanent classes build a character with real history, and its towns and fort battles give that character a community that cares. The pace is gentle and the free path is fair. For players who value company over spectacle, it is a quietly excellent choice.
