Hard West 2 reaches PS5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 10, bringing Ice Code Games’ occult Western tactics game to consoles a little over four years after its August 2022 PC launch. Klabater handled the console version and is publishing it, and Microsoft’s store lists the Xbox unlock at 7:00am PT (10:00am ET). PC players who never picked it up have a cheaper route this week: GOG has the DRM-free version at $7.49, 75% off its $29.99 price.
Bravado Turns Every Kill Into Another Move
Hard West 2 is turn-based squad tactics, but it plays more aggressively than most of the genre. The hook is Bravado: take down an enemy and that gunslinger gets their Action Points back, so a well-planned turn can chain one kill into the next across your whole posse. It rewards pushing forward instead of sitting in cover and trading shots.
Your posse is built from more than guns. Each member’s abilities grow through playing cards you find while exploring, and the poker hands you build out of them decide which skills unlock. Loyalty matters too. Choices on the road earn Loyalty Points with the people closest to you, and bad calls test whether they stick around.
Gin Carter and the Ghost Train
You play as Gin Carter, an outlaw who sets out to rob a legendary “Ghost Train” and finds it is exactly that. The gold stops being the point fast, and the campaign becomes a chase across the Weird West to win back his soul. Fights move around with you, including horseback chases and train holdups, and the cast mixes gunslingers with teleporting witches and stranger company. Jason Graves (Dead Space, Tomb Raider) wrote the score. The Microsoft Store rates it M for violence, blood and language.
A Console Version Rebuilt for a Controller
Klabater calls this the definitive console edition and says it is not a straight port, with navigation and controls tuned for a controller on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. Microsoft’s listing marks the Xbox version as Optimized for Series X|S, with 4K and 60fps support, single-player, and achievements. There is no Xbox One or PS4 version.
Console prices were not posted yet when we checked the Microsoft Store and PlayStation Store on November 9. The PC version sells for $29.99 at full price, which gives a rough idea, but the stores will have the final word at unlock.
$7.49 on GOG for the PC Version
If you play on PC, GOG is the place to grab it. Hard West 2 is $7.49 there right now, DRM-free, with achievements and cloud saves. Steam has it at the regular $29.99. The free After Dark update in October 2022 added new content and player-requested balance changes on PC.
The specs bar is modest. Steam and GOG list the same two tiers:
| Field | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Windows 10 (64-bit) | Windows 10 (64-bit) |
| Processor | Intel Core 2 Duo E4700 2.6 GHz / AMD Phenom 9950 Quad Core 2.6 GHz | Intel Core i5-2320 3.0 GHz / AMD Ryzen 3 3200 3.0 GHz |
| Memory | 8 GB RAM | 8 GB RAM |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 / Radeon RX 550 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti / Radeon RX 570 |
| DirectX | Version 11 | Version 11 |
| Storage | 35 GB | 35 GB |
Turn-based tactics on console have had a good few years. Hard West 2 sits next to recent strategy releases like Age of Wonders 4: The Silver Seas as a shorter, meaner take: turns where the best defense is the next kill. Console players finally get a shot at it on Tuesday, and PC holdouts can own it for less than a lunch.