Tombwater review – Zelda meets Dark Souls, set in the Wild West

Something’s wrong in the Wild West. Very wrong. Lovecraftian levels of wrong, actually. And in Tombwater, it’s up to you, a lone gunslinger, to find out why. Arriving into a ghost town by train, you’ll be chasing clues, fighting back Eldritch horrors and trying to figure out why the remaining locals roaming the streets have been touched by madness. All in a day’s work in the world of video games, right?

Currently only available on PC and released last week, I fear that Tombwater is one of those games that has somehow slipped under most people’s radar. If so, it’s a travesty, because this action RPG is one that truly deserves to be played and celebrated. Imagine an old-school Zelda game crossed with a Soulslike, with Lovecraftian themes and set in the Wild West, and you’re part-way there. Like A Link to the Past et al, there are environmental puzzles to solve, and you’ll need to gain various tools to allow you to access new areas of the map. And like a Soulslike, combat is key here: you’ll need to keep your wits about you, otherwise death comes all too quickly.

Just like Dark Souls, if you die, you’ll start back at the last campfire you visited. You’ll lose your money and any experience points gained since your last save, unless you can get back to the place you died. Easier said than done, sometimes, but anyone who has played a Soulslike before will be more than aware of the risks.

You can’t really wander too far off the beaten path here to simply explore and level up. Due to the nature of Tombwater’s progression, you can only really move forward until you’ve unlocked the tools you need to access new areas. That means if you want to level up and give yourself a better fighting chance against the horrors that exist in the world around you, you’ll need to farm the same areas. Enemies respawn every time you rest at a campfire, so they’re yours to defeat again and again.

It’s not the most enjoyable way to go about things, admittedly, and so it’s a relief that Tombwater comes with difficulty options that you can change at any time in the menus. Rather than a preset difficulty, you can change how much damage you receive from enemies and how much damage you deal out, tailoring the experience to suit. You can take just 1% damage if you want to simply enjoy the adventure. Or if you’re a true masochist, you can make it even harder for yourself.

There’s a whole argument to be had about the difficulty of Soulslikes, but Tombwater being more accessible in this way is incredibly refreshing. And even without the combat being challenging, there’s enough here to make this an enjoyable, fulfilling experience.

For one, traversing the world is a joy; there’s a challenge in simply finding your way forward as there’s no waypoint – only a vague description of where you need to head next. There are also environmental puzzles to solve, mysteries to find and a story to engage with, and so if you’re more of a casual adventure fan, turn the combat damage all the way down and simply enjoy being part of Tombwater’s world.

For those of you who do want a challenge, though, you’ll certainly find a satisfying one here. Being a gunslinger, you’ll have access to a gun alongside a melee weapon, although ammo is very limited. Performing melee hits will reload your weapon – a cheeky way to make sure you don’t become over-reliant on shooting from a distance. As you play, you’ll find different guns and weapons, and you can equip three of each at any one time to switch between them on the fly. Your revolver is great at doing focused damage, but a shotgun is useful for spreading damage over multiple enemies at once, for example.

Eventually, you’ll also have access to an array of magical attacks, which can really make or break a fight. You’ll need to use these carefully and sparingly though, because prolonged magic use will increase your madness meter, sending you spiralling into your own Lovecraftian nightmare. And when the real world around you is bad enough, it’s not exactly ideal.

The enemies you’ll against are wonderfully designed and, considering the pixelated art style, the artists here have captured an incredible amount of detail. Whether it’s a weird, demonic woman crawling across the floor or a giant mess of limbs, eyeballs and viscera, some of the monsters here will make you reel in horror and squeal in delight in equal measure. It’s a fantastic-looking game on the whole, actually, with brilliant environments that are in keeping with the Wild West theme and yet somehow still foreboding and Lovecraftian.

So, whether you’re looking for a Zelda-like RPG or a challenging Soulslike action game, Tombwater absolutely won’t disappoint. A wonderfully-designed adventure that caters for all players thanks to accessibility options, it shines because of its excellent visuals, puzzles, exploration and rich combat. It’s undoubtedly a highlight of the year so far, and it deserves its moment in the spotlight.