This is a hard one on paper to throw too much concern at: a horror Western-themed jaunt through purgatory with a flaming skull gunslinger voiced by Ron Perlman... see, you're already either looking it up, or ignoring even these words to just learn more.

Which is how we felt, but does it deliver where, and how, it needs to?

There's a long and short to that question, with a long tall and a short stay attached in answer as well. But rather than mince, here's an excerpt from our review:

If I could collate all the audio, imagery, iconography and tone I love most across all media, I’d have probably made West of Dead myself. I mean it’s f***ing called “West of Dead”. I don’t think I need to sell it to you any more than that. But, you know, I will and am happy to do so, because since playing the game’s beta, I’ve been all in on this less than 1GB experience, superficially, but thankfully the gameplay packed within the relatively small installation is full of flare, variety and tension. The skill-level required is a learnt exercise built around animation and input, deliberately designed to have you tempering your reflexes over spamming inputs, which throws a layer into what, on paper, reads as a relatively simple reflex loop. But it isn’t.

Click here for our West of Dead review.

Looks pretty repetitive?

It is, but that's the hook with these games. Once you understand the loop and gain confidence and equippable gear, and can move through the world more freely and quickly, it presents itself pretty well.

But it is a slow burn early on, and you'll definitely need patience