The War for the West

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About this game

As the ruler of a province in the Western Peninsula, it will be expected of you to hold court and make yourself available to petitioners, settling disputes and delivering justice to the land and its inhabitants.

The War for the West is a grimdark 485,000 word interactive medieval fantasy novel by Lucas Zaper.

Among your duties will be to administer the money collected from taxes and see that it is well spent, be it in improvements to the local infrastructure or in purchasing personal objects and services. You will also need to manage your relationship with other powers and arrange a proper suitor for marriage, which will serve both to ensure the continuation of your lineage and consolidate your alliances.

But even if diplomacy fails, the military will always be at your command, ready to suppress rebellions and defend your fief against foreign invaders. To guarantee their supremacy in the field of battle, you must keep a steady flow of recruitment and enforce constant training.

Alas, not all problems can be dealt with by soft words and sharp blades. In such circumstances, one may find that there is little a few drops of poison or a well-placed agent cannot solve.

This all may appear overwhelming at first, but you will count with the assistance of your counselors, each with their own specialties. Their advice will prove invaluable as you navigate through the dangerous dynamics of the realm’s politics.

If you can keep their treachery in check, that is.

* Play as a Lord or a Lady, and find pleasure wherever you see fit.
* Fight in the open field, withstand a siege, join your enemy or avoid conflict entirely.
* Marry for love, power, or convenience, and use lovers to settle your lust if necessary.
* Bow to the church or defy it by joining the northern heresy or making your own religion.
* Uncover the secrets of your lineage and the ancient mysteries of the world, as well as many hidden endings.
* Make allies and enemies as you visit neighboring provinces and interact with other nobles.
* Decide over a vast number of random events that might happen as you hold court.
* Build your army and test it in battle against your enemies.

Ratings and reviews

The game was pretty good, if a bit short (about two-three hours for my latest playthrough). Writing is pretty good, I look forward to a sequel. Character designs could use some refinement, mostly art wise. Shading and color would help, maybe a bit more stylized art in general. But that's aside from the story. Still occasionally find random new bits, like a certain romance at the end. Overall a good buy.

I'll preface this by saying this is a fantastic story with a great deal of player freedom (for a text game) and wildly varying end game states to carry over to the next game. Another review likened it to a text version of Crusader Kings, and that hits pretty close to home. That being said, it isn't without it's flaws (mostly of a technical nature) and the game becomes somewhat increasingly frustrating to play the more subsequent playthroughs you put into it (at least if you're like me and like chasing that "perfect" end game state to carry over to a sequel). ***Potential spoilers past this point*** So, at it's core, the final objective of the game is either to survive until the end in one form or another, or if you die, to leave behind an heir that will carry on in your stead. There are a great deal of ways to achieve either of these objectives which can lead to a boatload of different endgame states depending on your choices. Where the experience becomes marginally more frustrating is in the chasing of certain endgame states, for two reasons: the random nature of the "Hold Court" events, and the lack of a save system that lets you keep multiple files (or at least one that is visible to the player). For folks who just want to play the game and enjoy the randomness of it these things work fantastically as is, but players who enjoy building specific endgame states to carry over (and to a lesser extent achievement hunters) will find these two points frustrating to some degree. This is particularly true in the endgame section; there are multiple "bad ends" that allow you to reload a save, however there are also a few "bad ends" that don't count as such when completing the game, and reaching these endings will force you to play the entire game over from the start if you got a result you didn't like, since the game seemingly deletes your save once you reach an ending (which circles back to the issue of not being able to keep multiple saves as well). As said, the inability to keep saves for multiple characters is certainly a significant demerit for a game that was designed with a sequel already in mind, and the inability to manipulate when certain events proc will be something of an annoyance for save chasers and achievement hunters, but all in all I feel this is one of the best Choice games out there and despite my gripes I still think it is most certainly a must play.

One of my absolute favorite choice games. It has a massive degree of replayability and quite a few endings. It also has a very well developed management system which actually shows results. How you build your character and nation can alter things, including choosing a wife. Alliances can be made, battles fought, etc. Very good. Fully worth the money and I can't wait until the next one.

What's new

Bug fixes. If you enjoy "The War for the West", please leave us a written review. It really helps!