Console Corner: Review of Desperados III

There are games like the Dishonored series and the original Assassin's Creed, games which emphasize stealth. But playing them, the feeling of stealth is always limited given the first-person perspective and space it share with other aspects of gameplay—rpg, story, side quests, etc. On the other hand there are games like Hitman, games which truly force the player to think how they are going to navigate a space to set up a kill and accomplish an objective. This is precisely the bread and butter of Desperados III. Cowboys sneaking and shooting their way across the Wild West, it makes for some of the best, truly stealth experiences in modern gaming.

Desperados III is a real time tactics (RTT) game. Map by map, players take on the role of a group of five heroes attempting to stealthily navigate spaces filled with enemies to complete objectives—kill a certain bad guy, get everyone in the group to a specific place, collect an object, etc. The baddies all move in preset patterns and have detection viewcones which sweep the areas. If they see/detect one of the heroes, they raise the alarm and attack, which usually means game over.

Desperados III tells the origin story of John Cooper. Trained by his father to survive the wild west, it's unfortunate that he is forced to witness his father's murder at the hands of a gang leader named Frank. Dead set on vengeance, Cooper brings together a group of talented people to realize his ambition. From Arizona to New Orleans and back again, together the group plot to to take Frank and his gang down once and for all.

The five heroes, including Cooper, have unique abilities. Cooper can throw a knife and ping a coin to distract enemies. Doc McCoy has a bag of medicine he can use to lure unsuspecting cowboys into a sheltered place to murder them. And if that doesn't work, his magic bag also has some ultra-powerful sleeping gas to put enemies to sleep. Hector is a Latino rough rider with a massive bear trap and potent whistle, a combination he uses to lure baddies to surprise deaths. Kate O'Hara is a Western belle with a sting. Her perfumes stun enemies and her gaudy clothes can distract them while her friends “go about business”. And lastly is Isabelle, voodoo queen extraordinaire. Her cat distracts enemies, her poison darts voodoo pairs of enemies, and she can mind control the body of individual enemies to do her dirty work.

The sheer joy of Desperados III is figuring out the puzzle of enemies each map: how to kill them one by one without alerting the others. Find the right thread to pull to start unraveling the sweater. The more threads you pull, the faster the sweater unravels. Hiding in bushes and crouching at points of surveillance, players will observe enemy movement and try different ways of “pulling threads”. The game's save system critical, starting and restarting (trial and error) are part of the experience. With multiple paths to victory per map, the trial and error is likewise a sandbox affair, giving players freedom to accomplish the missions as they see fit.

Some people coming here will have played Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun, another RTT game from Mimimi. And so it's worth comparing the games. Both use the same game engine and feature the same style of play, with aesthetics/storyline (samurai Japan vs wild west and cowboys) being the key difference. The heroes of the two games are essentially the same, only the abilities have been mixed and matched. With the exception of Isabelle in Desperados III, however. She brings powerful new abilities to the game which give players fun, new options for stealth killing. Another difference is map size. Desperados III's maps are significantly larger, and often offer two designed paths to victory. This is a two-bladed sword, however. For players who want more RTT, Desperados III offers roughly 33% more gameplay than Shadow Tactics (in hours of play). That being said, some of the maps can drag due to length. I personally prefer the tighter, punchier maps of Shadow Tactics. But again, players who want more will get it with Desperados III.

Comparing Shadow Tactics with Desperados III, however, is ultimately like comparing a Lamborghini to a Ferrari: everybody will have their informed opinion about which is better, but ultimately the two have more in common than different, meaning personal preference is the biggest factor distinguishing the two. I personally prefer the samurai and the smaller levels of Shadow Tactics, but I fully understand how some people may like Westerns and the replay value inherent to larger maps with multiple designer routes to victory.

Desperados III does offer a few additional quality of life improvements over Shadow Tactics. Players can now choose the order to trigger programmed moves—or all at once. There are more menu options to fine tune gameplay, display, sound, etc. There is an additional game mode for players who enjoy chasing trophies and challenges. And there is fun replay system which displays the actions of all the heroes once a map has been successfully completed. All in all, Desperados III offers more of almost everything.

In the end, Desperados III, like Shadow Tactics and Hitman, is the best the current generation of gaming has to offer in terms of stealth. Movement on the maps occassionally hiccups, and there are a couple levels which overstay their welcome, but overall the freedom players have to explore ideas, the speed of reloading if an attempt fails, the attention to music and voice acting, and the overall love and care that went into level design makre for a highly sastisfying game. Combining character effects to take down a group of bad guys, puzzling out where to attack, seeing a well laid plan bear fruit, and Hector's shotgun, ohh, Hector's shotgun, it's a fun, fun game.