Wasteland 2 Beta Preview Roundup #4

HawK-EyE · le 14 janvier 2014

More press has come in with their impressions of the early access version of Wasteland 2.

What’s notable about Wasteland 2 is that choices matter. This is an element that seems to have been lacking from recent similar turn-based games, notably XCOM Enemy Unknown, where choices such as which mission to pursue affected just what resources you had at your disposal. Here, choices visibly affect the world, well articulated early on when two SOS calls from different locations come in – you can only save one of them, and a later visit to the other finds the consequences of your inaction clear. This really contributes to the rich nature of the game world, not only do your choices have an impact, but your non-choices and things that happen off-screen also have an impact. It’s not unique to Wasteland, but it’s a good touch that suggests a lot of promise.

The devs are very keen to be transparent that this isn’t a complete experience yet. There’s still some bugs and there only seems to be the first few hours of content in place. You’re going to run into missing textures, and the UI gets a little touchy in places, where trying to select an enemy to attack becomes a huge challenge. The biggest issue however is that there are a lot of reports of major slowdown on a widespread range of hardware. I’ve been fortunate enough not to encounter that, so it doesn’t affect everyone and it will almost certainly be addressed shortly, but be warned, this is still a true “Early Access” game.

MMORPG.com.

From the minute you’re handed control over Wasteland’s 2.5D climes, it’s clear that this is a labor of love for both nostalgic cRPGs and isometric graphical engines. Details matter, from the hand-drawn environments to the descriptive chunks of text illuminating beyond the top down perspective; this is old school roleplaying, the type your grandpappy told you about.

The comparisons to the Fallout series squeeze out of the monitor immediately. For those with Van Buren R.I.P tattoos, this feels like a tear stained apology for that ill-fated project. Murky browns return, as do overgrown reptiles. It’s like returning home - the radioactive, goo-sticky, mutated homestead that is.

Dealspwn.

Though it bears the less familiar Wasteland name, there’s a sense that actually Wasteland 2 is the sequel to Fallout 2 that we might have gotten had things turned out differently. Stepping into inXile’s Unity-crafted landscape is like stepping back in time, which isn’t surprising given that Brian Fargo has wanted to make this game for a quarter of a century. That works both for and against Wasteland 2 here in 2014. It rides the nostalgia card well and though you can certainly enjoy the game without ever having played the original, there are a large number of throwbacks and references for series stalwarts.

By far my favourite thing about the whole experience is the text printer that serves as your log, situated towards the bottom of the screen. The an enormous amount of voice acting in the game, and the dialogue is snappily written, but the environmental context given out by the log is outstanding and brilliantly detailed. It’s the sort of vivid, descriptive-yet-frugal prose that one would have expected from classic text adventures: conjuring up images easily, but never indulging in verbosity.

Gizorama.

Missions try to guide the players way across the wasteland but the openness allows access off the beaten path as long as the party has water and no fear of running into enemies that are faster and stronger. Smaller optional missions are found through exploration while the more elaborate missions are from major plot characters such as being radioed in by the General at the ranger’s headquarters. Quite a few seemed to favor player choice between the combat and noncombat route with multiple solutions. Pay the toll or resist and fight the bandits. Choices seemed to be a bit typical of games that follow a similar philosophy but that could just be due to the limited amount of content in the early access beta.

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