Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West Coming to PSN

Howdy Pardners!

My name is Martin Wahlund and I’m the Executive Producer at Fatshark, an independent development studio based is Stockholm, Sweden.

I am going to tell you a bit about Lead and Gold: Gangs of the Wild West; a fast paced and team based multiplayer shooter releasing this Thursday on PSN.

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The game features 6 multiplayer maps, 5 multiplayer game modes, 4 Professions and a single player practice mode.

So what does Lead and Gold play like?

Many comparisons have been made (by people watching previews) to Team Fortress 2 which is understandable due to the similarity in genre. Although we do love TF2, we are very confident that the gameplay and feel of LnG has an identity all of its own.

The matches are 5v5 affairs and game mechanics, game modes and maps have all been designed with one common goal: Teamplay. Let me give you some examples:

Player characters have aura buffs, we call them synergies, that strengthens your gangmates if they stay in your vicinity. This is a simple but effective way to encourage players to work together.
We have an experience system rewarding actions that actually helps the team like carrying mission objective items and reviving gangmates. The experience system is non-persistent so everyone starts a new round on equal terms.
Yes, you can revive fallen comrades. Before death, players are usually left in a knocked down state from which they can be revived by a gangmate. This is yet another incentive to hang around your mates.
Game mode objectives generally require cooperation. Carrying a heavy sack of gold or a keg filled with gunpowder makes you quite an easy target unless you have back up.

What/who do you play as?

There are 4 professions to choose from. We have the shotgun toting and dynamite hurling Blaster, the quickshooting Gunslinger, the mid range marauding Deputy and finally the long range specialist known as theTrapper.

Each class has their own special ability or traits as we call them. The blaster chucks dynamite, the gunslinger fans his revolver for unparalleled rate of fire, the Deputy tags enemies making them more vulnerable and the Sniper can lay traps to incapacitate her prey.

Game modes?

LnG offers a rootin’ tootin’ selection of game modes that fits nicely to the western setting.

Let’s start off with the Conquest mode, a zone capture mode that we have added our own little twist to. The zones must be captured in sequence which makes for a focused and intense tug-o-war like battle.

Next up is Greed, a game mode in which the objective for both gangs is to bring as much gold as possible to your drop off zone. Remember to cover your teammate carrying the gold!

Powder Keg is a great game mode where one team must sabotage a specific objective, like a waterwheel, and the opposing team tries to defend it. The attacking team needs to bring a powder keg to objective and shoot it to blow it up. As always, the player carrying the keg must be protected but don’t stay too close if it blows up.

There is also Shootout, the only game mode without specific objectives. It’s a straight up team deathmatch.

Last but not least is my personal favorite, Robbery. Robbery is like a combination of Greed and Powder Keg. The attacking gang must first bring a keg to as safe to blow it open and then carry the gold to their drop off zone.

Finally, why the Wild West?

When we were thinking about our next project there was one thing we all could definitely agree on during our creative discussions and ramblings. It was the fact that the Wild West has been a criminally neglected setting in videogames for many years.

One day, in one of those meetings, we had a collective revelation. Gunshots and screams of horses were heard in the distance, a fragrant smell of campfire beans filled the room and a Morricone medley played on the old static ridden radio.

We realized we need to make a cowboy shooter.

A multiplayer third person cowboy shooter.

And so it was to be, at least that’s the way I remember it.