While death is never permanent or as punishing as a Soulsborne game, it has its downsides. The setting may appear familiar, but Blood West makes terrific use of it, and is often eager to reward careful exploration. While these biomes represent well-trod territory in games, each chapter is stuffed with content, be they alternate routes and tunnels or run-down wooden structures hiding piles of hidden loot, all surrounded by menacing enemies which slowly repopulate when the player dies. Blood West kicks off in a dusty gold-rush-era canyon, then moves to a bayou in the second chapter before finishing off in a mountain range.
