West of Loathing

West of Loathing is a comedy adventure role-playing video game developed and released by Asymmetric Publications on August 10, 2017.

The game takes place in the universe of Asymmetric's Kingdom of Loathing, in a fantasy Western themed frontier setting. The game was well received by critics, with Rolling Stone describing it as "one of the year's best games." A stand-alone sequel, Shadows Over Loathing, was released in 2022.

Gameplay
West of Loathing is a single-player role-playing video game with turn-based combat. The game has a stick figure art style. The player spends most of the game talking to NPCs and interacting with various objects to gain items or 'meat' (which is the currency in all of the Loathing games) to move the story forward.

Story
What happens in the game is generally decided by the player, but the story always involves leaving the family farm, making one's way to a town known as Boring Springs, then to a town called Dirtwater, solving problems for the Manifest Destiny Railroad Company to eventually get to the city of Frisco, where the player receives an "Ant-Eye" virus by Emperor Norton (a reference to Norton AntiVirus). The player cures the virus with a jellybean, fights Norton on the train in the finale, and then settles down in a very narrow house.

In the DLC, Reckonin' at Gun Manor, the player heads to Gun Manor, a house owned by Terri Gun (the supposed creator of the gun), and teams up with Flo, a ghost exterminator, to destroy the ghosts in the house. The player can either kill the ghosts or solve their problems peacefully.

Development and release
West of Loathing was developed by Asymmetric Publications. The game was announced in May 2016 as a follow-up to the browser-based multiplayer online role-playing game Kingdom of Loathing (2003). West of Loathing was submitted to the Greenlight community voting system on digital distribution service Steam.

West of Loathing was released for Linux, macOS, and Windows on August 10, 2017. An iOS version once was scheduled for a 2017 release. A Nintendo Switch version was released for download on May 31, 2018. It was released for Stadia on July 1, 2020.

The DLC expansion pack, Reckonin' at Gun Manor was released on February 8, 2019, for the PC version of the game. It was released on the Nintendo Switch on January 21, 2020.

Reception
West of Loathing received "generally favourable" reviews from professional critics according to review aggregator website Metacritic.

Writing for Polygon Noah Caldwell-Gervais lauded West of Loathing's humorous writing, music, and its underlying "surprising intricacy of design," while PC Gamer reviewer Christopher Livingston called the game a "delightfully written RPG absolutely packed with humor," but criticized its relatively simple combat system. In a review for Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Alec Meer recommended the game and praised its warm and welcoming tone.

West of Loathing was awarded Best Comedy Game and nominated for Best Open World Game in PC Gamers 2017 Game of the Year Awards, and was ranked #16 on Polygons "50 Best Games of 2017." It was also nominated for "PC Game of the Year" at the Golden Joystick Awards, for "Gamer's Voice (Video Game)" at the SXSW Gaming Gamer's Voice Awards, and for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the Independent Games Festival Competition Awards.

Soundtrack
The music of West of Loathing was composed by Ryan Ike and gained praise as a "pitch-perfect Spaghetti Western soundtrack." The 20-track soundtrack was licensed and released by video game music label Materia Collective.