Let me digress first. When I first played those Java games in the Symbian era, I never imagined that mobile games could be like this now. Judging from the name "Western Storm", my first reaction was that it was another reskinned martial arts MMO. After playing it for two weeks, I had many surprises.
The visuals and impact were the first things that impressed me. I don't want to brag about it, but the impact feeling is considered to be at the upper-middle level among mobile games of the same type. Especially for the skill release of the bow and arrow profession, the feedback of the arrow trajectory is very solid, not the kind of frivolous feeling that is obscured by special effects. The melee combos of Sword and Shield are also very rhythmic, and you can feel that the developers have put a lot of effort into the action frames.
As for the career system, there are three basic professions: sword, shield, bow and arrow, and knife, plus the free combination of the three types of Qigong of ice, fire, and thunder. This design is a bit interesting. To be honest, after playing games for so many years, the most annoying thing is that the profession is locked. Once you choose it, you can only go to the dark side. "Western Storm" gives a lot of choices. For example, the archer I play has a fire-based Qigong that can be used for bursts, and a thunder-based Qigong that can control the field. It can be adjusted at any time when fighting world BOSS or PVP. It really feels like "maximum freedom".
But when it comes to the core gameplay, I like its confrontation system between businessmen and escorts the most. Old players may know that the most fascinating thing about many early online games was the interaction and confrontation between players. In this game, the identity setting of the three parties of businessmen, escorts, and righteous men makes the gameplay of running businessmen, protecting escorts, and robbing escorts come alive. Although most mobile games now like to automate one-stop services, the business route in "Western Region" requires you to plan your own business route. You may encounter robbers on the road at any time. This kind of tension has not been experienced in a long time.
Of course, there are also shortcomings. The development curve after level 40 is a bit steep, and the material requirements suddenly increase sharply. If you don't spend gold, the later experience will be more uncomfortable. However, considering that it is a free game (the paid model is 0 yuan), there must be in-app purchases, which I can understand. In addition, some old players may feel that the UI interface is a bit too modern and lacks the charm of the ancient Western Regions, but that's a matter of opinion.
In general, "Western Storm" can be regarded as a sincere and small-level work among domestic MMOs in recent years. If you are tired of those "hang-up simulators" that automatically find paths and fight automatically, and want to get back a little sense of gaming and freedom of early online games, you can give it a try. Not to brag, but at least the first forty hours of experience was worth my download time. 😌