The team over at Game-Labs have bought us A Twisted Path to Renown, a brutally unforgiving PVEVP multiplayer extraction shooter set in the wild west.
The first time loading into A Twisted Path I was instantly overwhelmed by the all the menus and vendors.
A lot of the information given to you is irrelevant at the start. Most of the Vendors don’t want to trade with you, you cant build anything in the workshop, and alot of the quests revolve you successfully returning from a match with specific items.
So, lets jump straight into a match which is called a ‘Raid”. Firstly, you need to recruit a mercenary from the roster. The first group of mercenaries you can recruit are all free, downside they have terrible stats like negative strength, negative movement speed. Some of them even have increased digestive speed. On the plus side they all have a weapon and a backpack. As you increase in Renown (this is what the progression system is called) more mercenaries become available at a cost. These have greatly increased stats but don’t have a weapon. One I saw had a side bag and an apple.
Once you have recruited your recruit its time to Riad! A Twisted Path to Renown is 5 player co-op but it doesn’t have any matchmaking so unless you have a bunch of friends who play you will be solo.
Currently there is only 1 map but by the looks of it there are 2 others in the works.
Upon loading into my first match, I was completely unprepared. You load into the match with no idea where you are. You need to open up your map, figure out where you are from almost no information and make your way to extraction which might be a ruined tent northeast of the Maple Tree at the Lumber Yard. Not all extractions are available to you either, some require a payment or a sheriff’s badge or maybe a portrait of some woman. With that information it was time to go and find this extraction. A few moments into my match my stomach started rumbling. A Twisted Path also has survival mechanics like eating and drinking. So, I’m glad I didn’t choose the mercenary that had digestive problems. Ok change of plan let’s find something to eat. After a few more minutes of wandering, I stumbled upon a patrol of NPCs. I approached them and they just opened fire killing me immediately.
In my next game I spawned into a completely different area, so after figuring out where I thought I was, using a river as a guide I started my adventure towards the swamp. I came across another patrol. This time I played it safe and fired first. I will admit with no idea of the optimum range of my weapon I completely missed my shot, went to shoot again and all it did was cock another round into the chamber and I was dead.
As A Twisted Path to Renown is set in 1899 the weapons from that time are basic single shot powder rifles or cowboy repeaters with 2 or 3 rounds in the chamber as well as your trusty revolver. There is a very big learning curve with the weapons, every weapon has different stats revolving around muzzle velocity, aim and reload time, recoil and even shot lifespan, what ever that is. I didn’t have any base numbers to go off so the range of 100% meant nothing to me. 100% of what?
So I played another few matches either dying from thirst or being killed by NPCs. Quickly realizing that playing solo meant I wasn’t going to be able to rush in shooting everything I came across. After changing my playstyle to a stealthier approach things started to get better. I figured out the giant mountain in the distance was North. Then I was away. I even managed to extract from a few matches with some resources to be able to turn in a quest. I found playing solo was a death sentence if you were discovered. You can just run away but what’s the fun in that. The enemy are so deadly accurate and take a lot more damage than you can meaning running became the only option.
There are vendors that you can sell your spoils too and an armory that you can craft new weapons, attachments and even some armor. However, I was earning so little experience and money from my escapades I didn’t have enough money or resources to buy the equipment to start exploring that side of things.
Anyway, enough about my trail by fire learning the ropes, A Twisted Path of Renown is gorgeous. The map is massive, full of different areas to explore like lumber camps, swamps and a fort full of soldiers who want you dead. I think you spawn in at sunrise, as the map seems to be full of light, and as your match goes on the clouds come over as afternoon approaches. Like I mentioned before its safe to say that any NPC you encounter is hostile. There is no Kill cam, so I have no idea if I ever came across any other players. Chances are we just I just snuck past them anyway.
The audio is a large focus in Twisted Path to Renown. It’s meant to be played with headphones. You can hear people talking before you can see them, and you feel amongst the action with the crack of gunshots echoing off the surrounding wilderness. It’s quite exhilarating when the echoes and the smoke fades and somehow you are still alive.
A Twisted Path to Renown does not hold your hand ever. In fact, it slaps it away. You are left to your own devices to figure out what all of it means, and as someone who doesn’t have a lot of time, it was a little bit of a turn off.
You can join the discord server to find people to play with, but it seems like a lot of extra steps that matchmaking would fix. A Twisted Path to Renown is still in its infancy stage and has a brilliant base to work off. Anyone who is interested in the numbers and stats side of shooters will love it, but a game that is this punishing is just not be for me.
I would like to thank Game-Labs for the review code.
A Twisted Path to Renown is available in Early Access on PC from the 6th of June with the intention to bring it to console in the future.
The post Review – A Twisted Path to Renown appeared first on Gamer Social Club.