Westerado: Double Barreled

Westerado: Double Barreled is a reworked version of the browser game Westerado. While many elements are similar, it has three times as much content as the original version and there is support for multiple guns and additional, unlockable characters. The gameplay has been made more fluent, all existing characters have extended storylines, there is new music for the different types of scenery, and additional elements such as full screen and control support, as well as save games and cooperative games for two players locally.

The game has a western setting and the protagonist lives on a ranch near Clintville with his mother and his brother. One day, after chasing an escaped buffalo, he returns home and discovers the ranch is burning, his mother is murdered and his brother is bleeding out. With his dying breath the brother provides a small clue and it is up to the character to avenge his family and track down the bandit. The game is set in an open world environment that can be explored in any direction and it has a pixel based look. There are many characters and everyone can be talked to. The game is shown from an elevated side view. Many different locations can be visited such as villages and cities, mines, a military fort, deserts, Indian territory, railroad tracks and mountains.

By talking to characters and helping them out, additional clues about the bandit are provided, gradually revealing a portrait based on clothes and colours to help identify the killer. It is eventually up to the player to locate the bandit, as almost any character in the game can be confronted as the killer with a dialogue option, just like almost any character can be killed. The game progress is also not linear, as there are many dialogue options that lead to different outcomes and influence the relationships with the other characters. A gun can be drawn at any moment, for instance to rob a bank or kill other characters.

Health is represented to hats that can be bought or acquired by killing enemies. When the character dies, he wakes up in his uncle's house, but an amount of money will be lost. Optionally money can be deposited in a bank and it is possible to buy a house in the game. Game and story elements include protecting deliveries while riding a horse, helping or betraying a banker by working with or killing bandits, playing poker in saloons, tracking down outlaws, helping farmers form a franchise against an oil tycoon, optionally killing an oil tycoon and taking over his fields, joining the military, cleaning out guarded mines and so on. Quests are stored in a separate screen and there is also a large map that is revealed gradually through auto-mapping. Locations with horses can be used to fast travel.

There are different guns and these can be used at any moment and at any location, also during conversations as a threat. A separate key is used to draw the gun and firing can only be done in a horizontal line, left or right. Battles often require a lot of vertical movement to line up shots correctly and enemies behave in the same way. Manual reloading is required as well.