It’s always cause for celebration when a unique new game with a special flavor of original concepts and solid gameplay manages to bud from the developmental cocoon and spread its wings as a full fledged release. Well, Lavaboots Studios sort of managed to achieve that with Wild West and Wizards.

The concept of the game is pretty cool: it’s a sandbox RPG set in the Wild West. However, in addition to collecting weapons and loot and upgrades, you also gain access to various magic spells and attacks.

The combat is fairly straightforward and you’re able to fire from the hip or aim down the sights.

You can also utilize magic in the off-hand, casting spells and causing status effects on enemies. You can get a glimpse of what the gameplay is like with the launch trailer below.

The open-world concept and design looks very similar to Sir, You Are Being Hunted.

The scale of the world is also very reminiscent of old 3D PC games where everything was much larger than it should have been to avoid clipping, camera issues, and making sure players didn’t get stuck or lodged in tightly rendered geometry.

In this case the large scale buildings and rooms is used more for stylistic purposes than due to technological limitations.

I don’t really mind it that much, but I do mind some of the criticisms about other aspects of the game… namely the inability to duck, and some of the complaints about it being a bare bones game.

There are various negative reviews that all have the exact same complaints: the game lacks content and polish.

Kyvarus seemed to sum up most complaints with a simple review, writing…

“While I really wanted to like this game, It is not something that is currently worth even 5$. It is missing tons of core first-person shooter mechanics, such as crouching, picking up items and moving them in the world and more than I’d care to list.

“Overall very unpolished and made me feel like I was playing a developer release of game premise. This was not what I had expected.”

Now this isn’t to say that the game is bad. As pointed out by other reviewers, there are over 80 quests to complete, 50 spells to acquire, lots of weapons to loot, and a simplified combat system where you’re not facing off against hordes of bullet-sponge enemies.

The lack of depth to some of the content is juxtaposed with a focus on exploration and discovery set across three different biomes. So if you enjoy being set into a sandbox and just picking up quests and having fun at your own pace, even in the face of some lacking features other larger-budgeted games feature, then you might enjoy Wild West and Wizards.

You can learn more about the game or pick up a digital copy for $14.99 from over on the Steam store.

(Thanks for the news tip durka durka)