Black Water Review

There’s nothing like a classic story based in the Wild West. There’s just something about a gun-slinging adventure that captures my attention. Black Water is a tale of an accidental deputy that must defend a new city from the wrongdoings of reckless bandits. This third-person, over-head shooter comes to the iPad as one of few Wild West games available.

The story of Black Water follows a man looking for a new life in the west. After witnessing the death of a sheriff, the man becomes a deputy and is now the source of protection for a small city named Black Water. The game is broken down into missions that are assigned by different townsfolk. Each mission entails the new deputy going out and thwarting the plans of the bandits that plague the city. The Deputy runs out, guns blazing, whether he is on foot, on a horse, or a stagecoach to assist the citizens of Black Water any way he can. As he completes missions he collects money to upgrade his weapons and skills to become a bigger threat to the bandits.

Players control the Deputy using only one finger. Simply tapping and drawing a line on the ground will navigate the Deputy where he needs to go. Tapping on approaching enemies causes the Deputy to shoot. It doesn’t get much simpler than that. The only drawback to this control scheme is that my finger got tired from constantly tapping on the screen to shoot at enemies. The Deputy gets overrun and players need to tap and shoot like crazy to stay alive. Maybe I just need to do some more finger exercises.

The storyline behind the game is good and the gameplay is fairly entertaining. There are plenty of missions to complete and should keep players busy for a while. I did, however, find the gameplay to be a little repetitive. I starting losing interest after I had completed several missions, as each mission has essentially the same objective.

This is a pretty good attempt to bring the Wild West alive on the iPad. The $1.99 price tag is about right for what is offered. Although I personally think the game is a little repetitive, there is still enough there to keep players entertained with the Deputy’s adventures.