The longer letter from The West

The West is the oldest card on the rack and it looks it: a map, a town, a character sheet, a lot of tables. Under that is an unusually patient role-playing game. You pick jobs on the map, each takes real minutes or hours, and your character slowly gets better at them while collecting clothes, tools and a small fortune. There's a story in the saloon, duels against other players, and fort battles where whole towns line up to fight.

What it does well is time. Jobs run while you're away, so a day of The West is a few check-ins to queue the next task and spend the last one's rewards. It never asks for an hour. The town system gives the social side a home, and fort battles are genuinely tactical if your town turns up for them.

Upkeep is the weak mark. The interface creaks, the tutorial is long, and some of the shine has worn off the paint. The shop sells premium nuggets, but the game is designed so that patience substitutes for them almost everywhere. If you want a slow western you can tend from a work laptop, it's still here, and still good.