westward ho! (without the brothels)

I have heard there is a sequel to Westward nearing the end of development, so, it seems like a good time to talk about the first one.

It's a strategy game, of the sort where you identify resources and plant buildings to take advantage of resources and try to balance the needs of your growing community. I enjoyed it, I bought it. It had a sense of humor and it kept the 'combat' element very low. Some bandits would show up occasionally and menace your town, and you needed a sheriff available to deal with them, but it wasn't overwhelming like the typical RTS is to me. Having my base mowed over by an opposing army makes me upset. Dealing with some obnoxious troublemakers who have damaged my houses and harassed my womenfolk makes me feel the pleasure of Restoring Order after I chase them off.

On the downside, the version I had included a stupidly annoying bug (saved games, if saved in the special sub-levels, didn't work) and once you finished the story mode there was nothing else to do. I would have liked to be able to just play around building communities on randomly generated maps, instead of always following the trail of breadcrumbs.