All Live a Live chapter timelines, ranked

2) The Wild West

The Wild West has a lot going on but, unlike The Near Future, it all pays off. It has a ton of old west tropes that work really well too. You got a rival who teams up for a common good. You got a cowardly sheriff desperately needing to redeem himself in the eyes of his son. You have a bunch of no-good varmints that want to roll into town and stir up trouble. Oh, and your character has the kind of low gravelly voice that makes Tom Waits sound like the Little Mermaid.

The story follows your character, the Sundown Kid, who rolls into a little town named Success that’s under constant attack by the Crazy Bunch, a terrifying group of gunmen who want to take everything for themselves, led by the evil O.Dio.

It’s got a lot of what you want in a western. Showdowns, telling-offs, bar fights, sass, and a squad of bandits put the heroes in overwhelming danger. But there’s a twist.

See, after the main part of the story, you find that the entire Crazy Bunch is going to roll into town at eight o’clock. You get the townsfolk on your side and then you have until a timer runs down to find things around the town to make traps to give to the townsfolk to install. If you time it right when the Crazy Bunch rolls in it’ll look like a straight-up Western version of Home Alone.

While this was a little silly for a western, I honestly loved seeing the traps play out when the gang came in. While dynamite had the obvious reaction, I didn’t know what the townsfolk were going to do with things like carrots or “naughty poster”. But watching them all play their part after I set up every trap was really fun.

There’s even a really cool thing at the end where you can either choose to have a showdown with your rival or spare him which adjusts your ending.

The only thing that really keeps it from being number one is there’s a really weird story twist in which you beat O.Dio and…he turns into a purple horse and runs away. While you’re standing there baffled, the Sheriff goes “oh, I heard a rumor that the ghosts of a great war took the form of a vengeful horse, that must have been him.” And then NO ONE TALKS ABOUT IT AGAIN. Dude, spirits Voltroned into a purple horse that shape-shifted into a massive cowboy with a chaingun and we’re NOT going to talk about it?

This is why you’re second play, Wild West. Dagnabit.