War of the Western Deep Preview | PAX West 2025

One of my favorite movies is Disney’s Robin Hood, with its beautiful animation and art style. It’s no surprise, since Don Bluth worked on it. So when I saw War of the Western Deep, with an art style reminiscent of Robin Hood, was coming to PAX West, I knew I had to try it. It’s a wonderfully crafted point-and-click adventure with some light combat elements, and while my time with the demo was short, I enjoyed what I got to play.

Before playing, I spoke with the developers, who explained that Dragon’s Lair inspired some of the combat. I’ll admit, that gave me some hesitation. I love Dragon’s Lair, but it’s a coin-eater, designed around quick reflexes where one miss means game over. I shared this concern, and the team assured me that this won’t be the case in War of the Western Deep.

Thankfully, they were right. Although I only played one battle, the combat was well done. The creature I fought flashed before making its move, and a simple two-button system (dodge and attack) fit the game perfectly. It was nothing overly complicated, but still a fun mechanic that I look forward to exploring more when the game releases.

The rest of the game is a solid point-and-click puzzle experience. A few times I got confused, not because of the game design, but because I didn’t read the instructions closely. Playing games at PAX can be an intense affair, with lots of noise and only a few seconds of tutorials. After sitting down to play several games in a row, I sometimes gloss over the simple things.

The art certainly stands out in this game, but one small thing I noticed, only because the animation is otherwise so strong, is when the character portraits appear during dialogue. The mouths move, but the characters themselves don’t, albeit while changing poses. It’s a super minor critique, as plenty of other games do the same, but it stood out against the rest of the animation. Overall, though, War of the Western Deep should be on the radar of anyone who’s a fan of adventure games.