From stirrups to shooting irons, the Wild West is laden with all kinds of iconic imagery we’ve seen dozens of times before. Whether it’s Unforgiven or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, most people have a pretty good idea what they’re in for when they decide to stick a Western on TV. When it comes to the best cowboy games though, things get a bit more… weird.
There are plenty of video game Westerns that are clear homages to their cinematic predecessors, although some of them carve out their own wacky identities by indulging in ideas like monsters, the occult, and bobbleheads that have over time evolved into $30 Funko Pops. While the majority of these games might seem inferior to the works of Clint Eastwood and John Wayne, they’re still intriguing in their own special way – hell, some of them might even be good enough to stand off against history’s greats.
If you’re looking for a good old-fashioned hog-killin’ time, giddy up: here’s our list of the 10 best cowboy games you can play right now.
Call of Juarez: Gunslinger
Call of Juarez was always going to appear on the list somewhere. Although Bound in Blood is also pretty great, we went with Gunslinger on account of the fact that it’s newer and more easily approachable for people tackling the series for the first time. If you already know Call of Juarez, then obviously you’re here for another one of the games below – if you’re new though, this is a great starting point.
Played from a first-person perspective, Call of Juarez: Gunslinger puts you in the boots of a bounty hunter and sees you shoot your way through bars and boneyards as you track down all kinds of drifters and desperados. It’s a high-octane freight train of bullets and belligerence that’s perfect for aspiring cowboys from all walks of life.
West of Loathing
Aside from the fact they’re both about cowboys, Call of Juarez and West of Loathing couldn’t possibly be more different. Here, you play as a cowboy in the Kingdom of Loathing, making your way through hilarious, hand-drawn, black-and-white panels flaunting a stick-person style. Where Call of Juarez gives you a double-barrelled shotgun to take down outlaws, West of Loathing asks you to punch idiot cows in their idiot bovine faces.
There’s also a very drunk horse – if that doesn’t sell you on it, nothing will.
West of Dead
Once again, we should probably debunk any similarities that might appear between this game and the last one. Yes, they’re both “west of” something, and yes, they’re both Westerns. Instead of drunk horses though, West of Dead tasks you with gunslinging your way through Purgatory. As in, yes, the enemies here aren’t just other cowboys or weird cows – they’re lizardmen and wendigos. Nice!
It’s an inventive indie cover shooter that takes place in a procedurally generated world, and makes excellent use of twin-stick shooting to keep the combat chaotic in the best possible way. Also it stars Ron Perlman, the only man in the world who is both Hellboy and a bona fide Son of Anarchy.
Desperados 3
Stealth? Check. Real-time tactics? Check. Cowboys roaming the frontier with akimbo revolvers and a penchant for gunslinging? You guessed it! Check.
Desperados 3 was one of the most surprisingly beloved games of 2020, garnering enormous critical acclaim despite a lukewarm reception to 2006’s Desperados 2. While some diehard fans of the series might cite Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive as the entry that belongs on this list, those same people don’t know dung from wild honey. They’ve got ten-dollar Stetsons on five-cent heads. If all their brains were dynamite, there wouldn’t be enough to blow their noses. Just a few cowboy jokes for you there. Hope you liked them.
Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath
Stranger’s Wrath is an exceptionally good cowboy game, but with the added benefit of also being an exceptionally weird Oddworld game. Instead of metal slugs, you shoot bad guys with… well, actual slugs, as well as spiders, bats, fuzzles, and more.
Like many of the games on this list, Stranger’s Wrath places you in the boots of a bounty hunter scouring the Wild West for outlaws in exchange for moolah. It’s got slick platforming, solid FPS gunplay, and some pretty weird octopi. It also got ported to Nintendo Switch last year, meaning it’s more easily accessible than several of the other games on this list.
Hunt: Showdown
While people might contest whether or not this pick belongs on a list of the best cowboy games, it’s important to look at Hunt: Showdown for what it is. For all its grimdark grit, this shooter is undoubtedly rooted in a Wild West setting that’s been reappropriated to accommodate the supernatural.
When you’re out with your pals, skulking through quagmires while enemies attempt to do the same, there is a very cowboyish quality to the duel that eventually ensues. It’s not necessarily just about who’s quickest on the draw, meaning there’s a little less respect for your foes here, but then again, this is a world that’s been infested by bloodthirsty zombies. There’s far less honor among thieves once the dead start walking.
Red Dead Online
A massive, open-world Wild West filled with many friends and more enemies, where you can listen to the sauntering of a breakaway creek or dive into the depths of all-out war. Red Dead Online is, in many ways, arguably the best cowboy game out there depending on what exactly you want to get out of virtual gunslinging. While we’re more interested in Rockstar’s single-player efforts, it’s hard to look at a game this good and deny it its rightful place on the list purely because we’re sick of getting robbed by veteran players who get a kick out of being nasty.
Red Dead Online has all the magic of a typical Rockstar world in that it’s dense, realistic, and ridiculously gorgeous. The main difference is obviously that instead of playing through a linear story, you get to explore this world with your pals and make it your own. It’s a must-play for anyone who can stomach their moonshine.
Fallout: New Vegas
You might be thinking to yourself, “Fallout: New Vegas? A cowboy game? Bit of a stretch.” And to be fair, it could definitely seem that way when you look at its Super Mutants and nuclear bombs. In a world of whiskey, watering holes, and weapons for wranglers, however, it’s difficult to see yourself being anywhere other than the Wild West.
Fallout: New Vegas is one of the most beloved RPGs of the last 20 years and is widely considered to be the finest entry in Bethesda’s beloved series, likely because it was actually developed by powerhouse studio Obsidian. This is probably the best game on the entire list for carving out your own cowboy story in that it starts with you being shot in the head, left for dead, and finding yourself on the cusp of inventing a whole new identity – I wanna be a cowboy, baby.
Red Dead Redemption
Nobody will ever forget that first ride into Mexico, where Jose Gonzalez’ Far Away accompanies the steady sauntering of your trusty steed. Red Dead Redemption is generally esteemed as one of the greatest games of all time, acting as a perfect showcase of that Rockstar X-factor that separated it from other studios in 2010 and continues to distinguish it today.
If you’re this far into the list, you’ll probably already know a whole lot about Red Dead Redemption – the premise, the characters, the critical consensus pertaining to it. Still, if you haven’t yet experienced it for yourself, this is your cue to change that. And if you have? Well, then you’ll know perfectly well why you should do it all over again. Unless…
Red Dead Redemption 2
The only cowboy game capable of topping Rockstar’s 2010 classic is Rockstar’s 2020 masterpiece. While bigger is not always better, Red Dead Redemption 2 is the kind of game you’d show aliens to prove that us lowly humans are actually alright. It’s written with drive and restraint in equal parts, built with an unprecedented amount of care, and designed with such brilliant cohesion that typing this now makes us want to quit our job mid-sentence and downl-
Sorry, we got distracted for 100 hours. Anyway, you should probably play Red Dead Redemption 2, the single greatest cowboy video game ever made. You know you want to, boah.
Written by Cian Maher on behalf of GLHF.
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