Deadwater Saloon

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In Deadwater Saloon, players navigate a creepy, abandoned saloon as they uncover a dark mystery. With a focus on exploration and puzzle-solving, the game features a unique card-based inventory system. As players delve deeper into the saloon, they'll encounter eerie supernatural occurrences and a cast of strange characters.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

Reviews

65%

Audience ScoreBased on 168 reviews

gameplay8 positive mentions

stability10 negative mentions

Engaging initial gameplay with a fun premise of managing a saloon and interacting with townsfolk.
Atmospheric background music enhances the overall experience, immersing players in the Wild West setting.
The developer is responsive to feedback and actively working on updates and bug fixes.

The game becomes repetitive and lacks depth after a few hours, leading to a lack of long-term engagement.
Many gameplay mechanics feel unbalanced, making the late game too easy and diminishing the challenge.
There are numerous bugs and performance issues, particularly in the late game, which detract from the overall experience.

gameplay
42 mentions
19 % positive mentions
74 % neutral mentions
7 % negative mentions
The gameplay of Deadwater Saloon starts strong with an engaging premise of managing a saloon and navigating relationships in a wild-west setting, but quickly devolves into a repetitive cycle of tasks that lacks meaningful progression and variety. While the game features interesting mechanics and a diverse cast of characters, players often find the gameplay monotonous and overly reliant on random events, leading to disinterest after a few hours. Overall, despite its potential and atmospheric design, the game currently feels more like an early access title in need of significant improvements to maintain long-term player engagement.
- “Engaging initial gameplay: the game kicks off with a promising premise – design and manage your own saloon, navigate relationships, expand your influence, and handle adversaries in a wild-west setting.”
- “The ability to forge relationships with a diverse cast of characters, ranging from townsfolk to outlaws, is a fun gameplay mechanic. However, as the game progresses, the lack of meaningful progression becomes evident, and the game becomes repetitive.”
- “When I started playing the game, I felt overwhelmed by the amount of features and mechanics, but after I figured out how they work, the game provided an amazing experience.”
- “Repetitive gameplay loop: unfortunately, what starts off as an engaging premise quickly turns into a tedious cycle of tasks.”
- “The gameplay loop of managing the saloon, dealing with enemies, and increasing your inventory feels monotonous and lacks the variety needed to keep players engaged over the long term.”
- “While the initial allure of building a saloon empire and dealing with the complexities of the old west drew me into this game, the lack of meaningful progression and a repetitive gameplay loop ultimately led to my disinterest and boredom.”
story
29 mentions
21 % positive mentions
69 % neutral mentions
10 % negative mentions
The game's story aspect is criticized for its limited events and shallow narratives, leaving players feeling aimless and repetitious. While there are promising elements and some engaging story arcs, many reviewers express a desire for more diverse content, immersive storytelling, and additional challenges to enhance player engagement. Overall, the potential for a richer narrative experience exists, but significant improvements are needed to maintain interest beyond the initial gameplay.
- “The story and plethora of events are a treat.”
- “There are some bigger story arcs, so clearly the developers do know how to raise the stakes…”
- “Very cool mix of RPG story and building sim.”
- “The game shows promise, especially with its atmospheric music and core mechanics, but it desperately needs the infusion of additional events, storylines, and challenges to maintain player engagement beyond the initial stages.”
- “The development team's challenge lies in addressing the issues of aimlessness and repetitiveness by introducing a more diverse array of content, storylines, and challenges.”
- “Deadwater Saloon is a lightweight 'design and management' game with somewhat shallow story.”
music
17 mentions
59 % positive mentions
24 % neutral mentions
18 % negative mentions
The game's music is frequently praised for its atmospheric quality, enhancing the overall experience with a beautiful and perfectly themed soundtrack. Reviewers highlight the standout background music as a key feature that contributes to the game's immersive environment, despite some concerns about the gameplay's depth and engagement. Overall, the sound design, including environmental sounds, is noted as a strong point, complementing the visual and narrative elements effectively.
- “The sound and music are amazing, and the art and writing are strong for an independent game developer.”
- “The game has great atmosphere and music.”
- “A beautiful soundtrack.”
- “The game shows promise, especially with its atmospheric music and core mechanics, but it desperately needs the infusion of additional events, storylines, and challenges to maintain player engagement beyond the initial stages.”
- “While Deadwater Saloon exhibits potential with its atmospheric music and core mechanics, it currently falls short of delivering a satisfying gaming experience.”
- “It's a shame as the background music in particular is really atmospheric for my little crowded saloon.”
graphics
15 mentions
33 % positive mentions
47 % neutral mentions
20 % negative mentions
The graphics in the game receive mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the aesthetic of the Old West setting and noting good performance at 1080p, while others criticize the visuals as janky, grainy, and lacking detail. Although there are some enjoyable elements, such as attention to detail in certain areas, many users find the overall graphics mediocre and plagued by glitches and bugs.
- “Old West is an aesthetic I'd love to see more publishers explore... mostly because I love the history, and partly I'm tired of the prehistoric dinosaurs and post-apocalyptic dystopian zombies.”
- “Graphics are very good.”
- “The graphics are pleasant.”
- “The graphics are simply ugly, the textures are grainy, and the lights are... nonexistent?”
- “While there was some attention to detail, the graphics are mediocre, with negligible differences between high and low settings, worse than Tavern Master - its closest competitive game by style.”
- “There are no options for graphics or controls.”
atmosphere
12 mentions
83 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
17 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is highly praised for its immersive background music and sound design, effectively capturing the essence of the old west and enhancing the overall experience. While the setting and auditory elements are commendable, some players feel that the game lacks sufficient content to sustain engagement beyond the initial appeal. Overall, the atmosphere is considered a strong point, contributing significantly to the game's charm despite its other shortcomings.
- “The authentic and immersive tunes successfully transport players into the rugged landscapes of the old west, enhancing the overall ambience and providing a nice touch to the game's atmosphere.”
- “It definitely puts a lot of work into the atmosphere of living in a struggling town out in the American West in the 1800s.”
- “The muffled sounds of chatter, piano tunes, and plates clattering add to the atmosphere in saloons.”
- “I liked the atmosphere, the music, and building up the saloon from nothing to a thriving enterprise.”
stability
10 mentions
0 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's stability has received mixed reviews, with some players encountering minor visual glitches that can be resolved with a reload, while others report more significant issues such as frequent crashes and freezing during gameplay. Despite these problems, many users appreciate the developer's responsiveness and commitment to addressing bugs and improving stability.
- “Game appeared more buggy than the demo available prior to release; however, the dev is actively tackling issues as they pop up.”
- “So far, this game is pretty buggy... I'm not sure how it's not early access.”
- “I keep experiencing crashes and the game is very buggy.”
optimization
8 mentions
25 % positive mentions
38 % neutral mentions
38 % negative mentions
The game's optimization has been widely criticized, with players reporting significant performance issues, particularly on mid-range hardware like the RTX 3050, leading to frequent freezing and poor late-game performance. While some improvements have been noted since the demo, many still feel the game is not well-optimized, likely due to its development by a small team.
- “I attribute it to this being developed by a small team, and the fact that it's seemingly not well optimized.”
- “The performance is also awful, so much so that it started freezing constantly on an RTX 3050 at what I would guess is about 50% of the playthrough.”
- “Poor late game performance.”
- “Having played the demo before release, the game has come a long way from fixing the bugs and improving the optimization of the game.”
replayability
6 mentions
17 % positive mentions
17 % neutral mentions
67 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's replayability is viewed as limited, with many players expressing that the lack of furniture options and long-term content diminishes their desire to replay. While some appreciate the randomness and difficulty settings that offer a degree of replayability, the consensus leans towards a lack of engaging content that would encourage players to return.
- “This is a remarkably fun game, with enough randomness and difficulty settings to provide lots of replayability.”
- “It's not super replayable in my opinion, since there's limited furniture and no options for expansion.”
- “Unfortunately, I do not feel as though there is replayability for me.”
- “I had fun, but I don't see the point in playing anymore nor restarting; there is no replayability at all.”
grinding
4 mentions
0 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be a significant drawback, as the initially engaging gameplay devolves into a repetitive cycle of tasks that can feel tedious. Many note that late-game content requires excessive grinding for achievements, leading some to multitask by running the game in the background while engaging in other activities. Overall, the lack of variety and the grind-heavy nature detracts from the overall experience.
- “Repetitive gameplay loop: unfortunately, what starts off as an engaging premise quickly turns into a tedious cycle of tasks.”
- “From this point on it's just a matter of achievement grinding.”
- “The game is so grindy that I just ran it in the background watching YouTube videos, tabbing in to change my research, befriend new townspeople, and buy out the new stores and their stock.”
humor
2 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
Players find the humor in the game's quirky interactions, particularly how new residents can inexplicably dislike the player, leading to amusing situations. The blend of challenging gameplay with unexpected comedic elements adds a unique charm, although some feel the balance shifts as the game progresses.
- “I find it hilarious that new residents move in and immediately hate you (like -50 and lower) - why?”
- “Gritty and challenging, yet humorous too - in the early game, the game is quite hard, but once you figure out how to make a profit, there's no challenge left, making it feel unbalanced.”