Stealth games don't necessarily have to be about atomic weapons or various geopolitical intrigues. Sometimes the stories can be even simpler. El Hijo A Wild West Tale is the concrete proof: the title was developed and published by the German team HandyGames (the same as Chicken Police) and released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Google Stadia, Nintendo Switch and PC. The atmosphere, the soundtrack, almost everything manages to put the player in the conditions of our protagonist: a child who wants nothing more than to reunite with his mother. We've already had the opportunity to tell you about the game in its PC version, but how does it fare on the Sony console? Let's find out all the details of El Hijo A Wild West Tale with our review.
Western spaghetti ...
El Hijo A Wild West Tale opens his story with a little boy and his mother having fun together near home. The mother trusts her baby so much that she teaches him how overcome some obstacles without being seen from enemies, but soon all this happiness and lightheartedness is broken for reasons that are not exactly clear. In fact, we see our house on fire, and our mother will decide to "abandon us" in a monastery ... but we know: mum is always mum, and we are not willing to give up everything what we have left to rejoin her. Our aim? Escape from the monastery.
… Stealth?
First of all we must applaud the controls of El Hijo A Wild West Tale, which are very easy and intuitive: although, of course, everything will be shown on the screen, we can assure you that they are very simple to understand. Our protagonist will not have many skills from his: in fact, he can only run, stoop and hide. As for the last two actions, they can only be performed by pressing square (and respective) when possible.
The power of El Hijo, however, lies not only in the controls. In fact, one of the strengths of the HandyGames title lies in the present stealth gameplay and puzzles in a simple way, so simple that it almost seems easy to be completed, but appearances can be deceiving. In fact, during our adventure we will have to get from point A to point B, but there are a number of ways to do this, especially when you reach the more advanced levels. In case we get caught by the monks, we have to start over from some checkpoints, which are simple blue particles. Also sometimes we will be able to interact with some boxes and move them. This could help us for example in escaping from enemies, or to open a passage and reach the end of the level.
El Hijo A Wild West Tale has a stealth component already seen in many other games. In fact, by pressing L1 we can check the visual cone of the various enemies, and then using this mechanic it becomes much easier to be able to escape. But beware: sometimes abusing it means losing. Seeing as the title is dynamic enough to undergo abrupt changes, but controlling the cone is one useful tool for memorizing patterns of the various "enemies".
Cartoon graphics, less funny bugs
The graphics of El Hijo A Wild West Tale are very cartoon and well done. The chosen color palette, ranging from orange to brown, is very apt and pretty typical of western movies. But the choice of the cliché has been very successful for the developers, since it manages to immerse the player in the adventure of our child. The same goes for the animations, well done and that are exploited by the gameplay as an element to generate "anxiety". Yes, why see the protagonist hide just in time it gives satisfaction and at the same time makes us breathe a sigh of relief.
Unfortunately, however, it is not too rare to run into annoying bugs: in other words, sometimes when it ends hiding animation we will be catapulted into another place to hide, but we will not have the opportunity to move, so we will have to start the entire level from scratch, since from the pause menu it is not possible to repeat from the checkpoint. Also, even if you were to turn off the console while you are walking through one of the many areas of the game, unfortunately you will find yourself at the beginning of the level. So, before you leave, remember to finish what you are doing, or put the console in sleep mode, so as not to lose any progress. A real shame in short, and we hope that everything is solved with a patch by HandyGames.
The soundtrack is an excellent accompaniment to the player's actions, light and enjoyable, accompanied by very nice situational sound effects (in fact you will often hear some piano notes when you lower yourself and cross the monks' field of vision).
If you like or are interested in the world of stealth El Hijo is a purchase that can be made for you, net of a narrative that serves more as a pretext than a real accompaniment. The world created by HandyGames manages to bring together those who are more experienced in the genre, but also those who want to have fun trying this type of games. The title is currently available on GOG.com and Steam for 14,99 euros, while on all other platforms it is priced at 19,99 €. So it is also quite accessible for everyone. But most importantly, it is a fun game, which manages to engage the mind but without being overly "heavy" (grant the term ed) like a Metal Gear Solid or a Splinter Cell.
