Get your boots and stirrups on, cowpoke, because you’re about to take a trip back to the Wild West. Most extraction shooters like Tarkov are set in almost post-apocalyptic settings, but a new FPS that just hit Steam swaps out the gray for the lush greens and blues of 1899 frontier America. This is an early-access PvEvP shooter where you’ll fight through other players, the military, ranchers, and bandits. A new rival to Escape From Tarkov and Hunt Showdown, with a few dashes of Red Dead Redemption 2, you can try this one via Steam Early Access today.
For an early-access game, A Twisted Path to Renown looks stunning. The Wild West has been recreated brilliantly, with weapons that are true to the time, unlike Hunt Showdown’s more supernatural armaments. No shade to it, but if you’re looking for a more grounded experience then you may prefer Renown.
It offers a blend of survival mechanics such as managing hunger, thirst, and injuries, and tense extraction FPS game shootouts. Bullets have varying levels of armor penetration, and clothing also offers different levels of protection, so you’ll likely be spending a lot of time gearing up to take on quests and take down opposing players.
There are several factions in the game, and you can disguise yourself as them to try and gain access to their territories without being shot at. The types of holsters and guns you’re carrying will also impact how quickly you can do other important things like healing yourself.
The objective is to grab as much gear and loot as possible and survive against rival raid parties, AI enemies, and even local wildlife – which can be hunted and skinned to craft new items. This is the high-risk, high-reward style of Hunt and EFT, mixed with the survivalism of Far Cry. Combat is swift and deadly. You need to use communication, including the diverse range of in-game emotes, in order to effectively strategize.
Between rounds, you can use everything you’ve gathered to level up and get new equipment from vendors. The early-access launch also introduces new quests, new healing items which address specific types of wounds (no one-size-fits-all medikits here), and both the Founder and Premium Editions which offer extra in-game items on top of the base game.
I’ve not really gotten into any extraction shooters before – save for a disappointing affair with The Division – but A Twisted Path to Renown has me convinced. Maybe it’s because I’m a sucker for the Wild West and it’s been too long since I replayed Red Dead Redemption 2, but I like the idea of some cowboy realism.
A Twisted Path to Renown is out now in Steam Early Access and you can download it right here. If it doesn’t look like your thing, you could always go for other battle royale games or try some pure survival games.
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