Anything is better when a supernatural element is added. Pirates of the Caribbean tapped into a winning formula with a haunted buccaneer, Stranger Things brought the devil to D&D, and Hard West hit a home run with a bizarre Western frontier tale, a tactical game like XCOM, except when it wasn't.

The game, like many masterpieces, begins with a train. You rob the train, of course, but upon closer inspection, there shouldn't be that many guards. The "you" in this case is Gin Carter, the horse-riding, hat-wearing, six-shooter-loving, nominal leader of a band of outlaws. This train robbery will make him rich. With him are Laughing Deer, a Native American close-combat specialist; Flynn, who appears fragile and hiding in the shadows; and trick shooter Kestrel Colt.

The train guards don't stand a chance, but they outnumber you more than you think. Fortunately, you have certain advantages that will give you an advantage throughout the game. First, your character has three action points instead of the traditional two. That means you can move, heal, and shoot. You also have a better chance of avoiding incoming fire by sprinting to cover and ducking for cover.

The trick shot is to make the bullet bounce off a hard surface to nullify the effects of cover, essentially unfairly betraying the enemy. To facilitate this, wheelbarrows, piles of junk, and barrels that do not explode are scattered throughout the level. You can even shoot bullets into hanging light fixtures. And then there is luck, and when luck is added to the mix, the accuracy of the attacks increases.

But it is prevailing that makes the biggest difference. Defeating an enemy replenishes action points. It's very simple, but it has a huge impact on the battle. Suddenly, enemies become chains that are pulled to see how far they will go. A living enemy is a stepping stone to your objective, and you risk being cut down on your next turn by overreacting or leaving other characters behind to end the carnage.

This means that, at least in the early stages, the laughing deer is a killing machine. Get him close, add some luck, and he can club anyone to death, instantly refilling his AP and moving on to the next unfortunate victim. Luck eventually runs out and a foe with more physical strength comes along, but he still delivers a strong blow. Therefore, it is too easy to leave him miles away from cover and allies at the end of the turn, unprotected, just because it is too much fun to tear through the bad guys.

Back at the train, you head for the driver's seat. The locomotive enters a tunnel and all goes dark. As you emerge from the other side, you see hundreds of centipede-like metal legs crawling along, which is unusual for a steam locomotive. The boiler is fired there by a man who turns out to have interesting powers and who is soon revealed to be the demon Mammon. And he wants to play poker.

Of course he does. Of course you lose. The only wager is your soul, but if you had won, he would have given you a sentimental train. He seemed like a very trustworthy man. When you lose your soul, you can't cast a shadow over interesting things. I'm not sure how that works.

You wake up on an overworld map, not unlike the base-building globes of XCOM, but a mix of Total War's strategy layer and 2D RPG. You roam around here, discovering towns, mines, and roadside oddities, usually getting into trouble and switching to a turn-based combat mode to get out of it. You unearth companions with new abilities (sometimes literally), engage in brief conversations, make decisions such as whether to take supplies or leave them for the starving villagers, and investigate the spooky stuff. Mammon and the Centipede Express to Hell are still out there somewhere, roaring through the countryside, mocking both timetables and 19th century engineering conventions. Kill him and you may get your soul back. It's worth a try anyway. It might be fun.

However, it's cold now. If you go to town, you might be able to get some new weapons.

Once you have a few more friends, start thinking about different ways to approach the mission. What "Desperado 3" has in common with "Desperado 3" is that each character has a special ability rather than a scantily clad setting or save. Gin Carter has a short-range skill that allows him to shoot through cover, damaging all enemies within his area of effect. Flynn can swap with any character by spending 1 hit point each, which is great for dragging out enemies in cover or finishing off bad guys with a few energy left. Some also have more eldritch abilities.

Eventually, a gang of six outlaws will be unlocked, each with their own unique skills and inventory, ready to take on riflemen, shotgunners, exploding drunks (grenade launchers with seemingly endless ammo), zombies, and witches infesting every hulking wooden structure You'll be ready to take on the witches that infest every lumbering wooden structure. The Hard West 2 lives up to its name, and the enemies are plentiful and quite formidable.

You can take them out with a single blow at first, but your hit points will soon double, and if you don't soften up the enemies first, there will be no point in going on a bluff rampage. Characters can have two weapons and a throwing weapon, each with a different AP cost. The rifle, for example, costs all three action points to fire, but its damage and range are unmatched. Shotguns and explosives have a range of effect and can hurt allies. However, killing an ally may be worth it because it can be a bluff. In particular, team members never really die, and they can recover only one hit point after the battle, and if they have money, they can see a surgeon.

Then there are the cards that you sometimes get while wandering around the map. The cards are just regular playing cards, slightly enchanted, that can add hit points, luck, and speed. But since this is the Old West, giving your character an effective poker hand gives you something extra. If you have two pair, you unlock abilities, but a full house will level you up, and a royal flush will make you even better. Unless you are an actual cowboy, it helps to have a poker guide or Wikipedia handy when dealing cards.

Take the laughing deer for example, you need to hold a pair to unlock the destructive ability wild run. Straight Flush increases base damage and gives perks to allies. Watching him zigzag across the level, slaughtering his way through scattered enemies at maximum range and igniting the void every time he clubs another rifleman to the ground is one of the most satisfying sights the game has to offer.

Less satisfying is when it's supposed to happen and it doesn't. Throw a stick of dynamite and it should have a devastating effect on a structure that is lightly built and appears to be dry of gunpowder. But it doesn't. The area-of-effect attack is two-dimensional, limited to the level you are at, and does not affect anyone immediately above or below you. The shotgun is especially frustrating when it could be used to knock someone off a rooftop. The characters do a good job of pathfinding the rest of the time, though, by scrambling up ladders and breaking through windows. The levels are more like solving a puzzle, enemy positions are not mixed up by firing another shot, and there is no multiplayer, so replay value may be limited.

After a time, enemies with super powers similar to those of your character appear, but this feels like cheating on the part of the enemy, since hit points are restored after a firefight. Then there are the massive amounts of explosives that other enemies have. They like to charge in and start throwing grenades all over the place, so the character depletes his hit points surprisingly quickly. Of course, there are ways to mitigate this. For example, you can stop the bleeding with a head-down or restore points with food, both of which consume action points.

But none of this matters, because "Hard West 2" is as solid as a vault in a township bank. It is a bank where the local outlaws have carefully planned their heist. The combat is crisp, the subplots in between don't bore you, and the whole supernatural cowboy setting still has enough sparkle to keep you hooked. There is plenty of room in our city for a game like this.