The Golden Years: Way Out West Game Review

Rating: 4.5/5.0

Relive the adventure and excitement of the California Gold Rush in The Golden Years: Way Out West, the town-building time management game! After an unfortunate incident lands Samuel in debtors’ prison, his wife has to set out into the Wild West in search of a way to pay his debts. Build wagons, inns, salons, water towers, rail stations and more as you establish self-sufficient mining towns. Use your strategy and time management skills to find gold and strike it rich!

The Golden Years: Way Out West is developed by Alawar’s Southpoint studio, and is a town-building game similar to the Royal Envoy and Hotel Mogul series, set in the romantic and chaotic American Old West. It boasts a very strong and beautiful story, giving you a first-hand view of what the pioneers faced during the Gold Rush. You will experience the trials and adventures of a penniless young family as they struggle to find gold and repay their debts.

At the start of the game, you meet an old lady who proceeds to tell you about the adventures of her youth during the Gold Rush. She and her husband owned a convenience store, but her husband was imprisoned when the store burned down and they couldn’t repay their debts. Desperate, she set out with her young son into the Wild West, hoping to find enough gold to repay the debts and get her husband out of prison. You will relive the many events of her past, from when she started out with only a decrepit old train to when she finally reached California.

The game is split into many levels as you slowly make your way west. Each level will present you with a series of objectives that you need to complete, and this is where the game really shines. Rather than being handed a whole list of things to do for each level, you are presented with a series of smaller objectives, each of which has its own time limit. For example, objective 1 could be to build a bridge to reach a gold mine, followed by objective 2 which requires you to recruit enough miners, followed by objective 3 which requires you to mine and sell the gold. This system allows you to experience the game as a developing story instead of as levels with no character.

The gameplay is pretty similar to other town-building games, and you need to focus on 4 resources: cash, lumber, gold and workers. You earn cash by building residential buildings such as wagons and ranches. These will generate rental income at set intervals. Lumber is used to build and upgrade your buildings, and can be bought with cash from the sawmill or trading station once you’ve constructed these buildings. Gold is used to upgrade certain buildings as well as to build more complex buildings, and is obtained from the mine or salon, or purchasable from the trading station. Workers are your manual labor, constructing buildings and collecting resources for you.

There are a number of building requirements that make The Golden Years a satisfyingly strategic game. Residential buildings can’t be built just anywhere, but need to be adjacent to a water tower. Similarly, salons produce more gold if there are more people living in their areas of influence. Even the number of workers is controlled, and can only be increased when your town’s population is of a sufficient number. Building upgrades are also strategic; do you upgrade your house to hold more population or to generate more rent?

You will also meet plenty of interesting characters in your journey, each of which has their own little story that has an impact on your venture. There is the architect who will sell you a blueprint when you meet his demands, and there is the native chief who will guide you across treacherous terrain once you’ve found his talisman.

The atmosphere of the game is vibrant and has that nostalgic Wild West feel, kind of similar to the Westward game series. The art is bright and colorful, and each terrain type is presented very well. There are also little bits of art and animation that make the game shine, such as the train that arrives from beyond the map into the trading station. The sound and voice-overs are also pretty decent throughout the game.

The game isn’t overly difficult, and may be disappointing for those looking for a real challenge. However, it more than makes up for it by delivering a very engaging and personal story set in a romantic time of gold mines and lawless bandits. The strategic aspect of the gameplay is also a huge plus, and makes the game stand out from other similar games. You will like The Golden Years: Way Out West if you enjoy town-building games such as the Royal Envoy or Hotel Mogul series, or Wild West themed games such as the Westward series.

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