Weird West Adds Support for Mods in 1.05 Patch

Although Weird West was released a little under eight months ago, it has been continuously updated and has followed a road map that was provided not too long after launch. Those updates primarily included new content and new modes. There was also a surprising development with the option to play the first of the campaign’s five journies for free. What many have been waiting for is the final step on the roadmap that’s sure to extend its life: modding. The latest 1.05 patch added a handful of platform-wide bug fixes and mod support for the PC versions.

A starter pack of sample mods has been automatically added for the community to immediately experiment with. Two visual-changing mods include a gender-swapping mod for four of the playable characters and an Undead Animal reskin. Two mechanic-changing mods have also been added with the No Friendly Fire mod and the Long Last Tools mods which increases durability for shovels, pickaxes, and skinning tools.

What may arguably be the craziest mod is one with a working first-person mode. Created by Joe Wintergreen, who had worked on the game as a Systems Designer and Technical Designer, the mod allows most of it to be experienced straight from the eyes of the playable characters. Some interactions use a third-person view like stealth kills and the slow-motion dodge, but nearly everything else is done in first-person. It’s a very impressive new way to play and the transition from a top-down action-RPG camera to a first-person view is a lot better than you’d expect.

While mods can be browsed and installed from a new in-game menu, those interested in doing some modding themselves can find all the important information on the Weird West mod.io page. Many other open-source tools made for Unreal Engine games can be used, so modding should be a breeze for seasoned creators.

Something interesting about the update is that the Twitter post about it does mention this being the final update that’s “handing our game over to the community”. Considering that the original roadmap seemed to have a small tease of more to come at the end, it’s difficult to tell whether this is merely the final free update or truly the last official update planned. The wording makes me lean toward the latter, and if that’s the case, it’s great that the game can have such a strong last hurrah. I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing more of this weird world though.