West of Dead review – a compelling shootout

Gunmen and mythic monsters lurk around every corner, but in this relentless combat game death is just a temporary hiccup

Dead, again," growls Ron Perlman, the voice of West of Dead's skeletal gunslinger. But it looks like dying ain't gonna take yet."

In video games, death has been, more often than not, downgraded from a terminal affliction to a momentary setback. The delicious do-over" - the chance to correct the mistimed leap, to retake the missed shot, to un-step the misstep that led to your undoing - is this medium's great gift. The video game is a realm of new beginnings. So it is in West of Dead, a game in which you venture into a shadowy, musty maze and, room by room, work your way downwards, sliding from pillar to post in a series of shootouts until you inevitably lose the last of your health and find yourself returned to the beginning, to try again.