I took me way too much time to finally finish Wasteland 2, but I finally did it, and I'm glad I did so!
The classic Fallout games are some of my favorite games of all times, and when I heard that the game that originated those games was getting a sequel (way back then, when the Kickstarter campaign was announced), I was very, very hyped.
I played the game when it launched, and for some unknown reason, never finished it.
Now, after many years, I finished Wasteland 2, and, here's my review of it.
PS: Steam isn't tracking my playtime hours properly, and I think it has to do with the fact that I also played it before the Director's Cut Edition was released.
[hr][/hr]
So, first things first. What is [b]Wasteland 2[/b]?
It's a [b]Turn-Based Tactical CRPG[/b] based in a Post Apocalyptic USA, after a Nuclear War brought the end of the world.
Seems familiar, right? That's because the Fallout series is a spiritual successor to the first Wasteland game (which came out in 1988).
Basically, Wasteland 2 is a spiritual successor to Fallout 1 and 2 which are spiritual successors to Wasteland 1.
It's been developed by inXile, which was founded by some ex-Interplay/Black Isle devs.
[b]Story and Setting[/b]
The game is split in two major segments (which I'll not spoil). Both are very distinct between each other, so you'll know when you eventually reach the second half of the game.
You play as the newly recruited Team Echo from the Desert Rangers, descendants of the US Military, trying to act as the lawmen of Post-Apocalyptic Arizona.
Your first assignment is fairly straight forward: a old-timer called Ace (and a character from the first game) was murdered while trying to install some Repeater Units on some Radios after the Rangers started hearing some very troubling and menacing radio transmissions, and you're tasked of finishing his mission, leading to a huge quest on discovering who murdered him, why, and how you'll be able to install those repeater units.
During your quest you'll meet dozens of different factions, each trying to survive this nuclear wasteland their way. Your actions as a Desert Ranger will shape their lives, and the future of Arizona.
This game, as a CRPG, has some very tough choices to make. And, be warned: even though you have control over many different outcomes to quests, there won't always be a happy ending.
My only complaint of the story is that [spoiler]one of the Antagonists (Dugan) isn't very well explored, and the game's ending happens too abruptly[/spoiler].
Other than that, the story came out as very engaging, with some very good plot-twists. Speaking to every NPC and searching every inch of the map can be very rewarding too!
[b]Gameplay[/b]
Wasteland 2 features a Turn-Based Tactical combat, with a Action Points system to dictate how many actions you can do every turn with your characters. There's also a Combat Initiative system, to determinate which characters will act first on their turn.
You control a squad of up to 7 people, with the first 4 being your main characters. These can be either created from the ground up during Character Creation, selected from a pool of available pre-created ones, or, you can even pick these and customize them to your liking.
The last 3 squad members you can recruit during your journeys. There are a lot of different companions that you can find and recruit.
There's a big incentive on trying to balance your squad, ensuring that you'll be able to overcome the many different challenges that wait you (like having characters that can unlock chests, safes, disable alarms and explosives, and even talk to animals).
Just a head's up: there's no way to properly respec them without using external tools, unfortunately.
Combat isn't everything though. You'll spend a lot of time talking to different NPCs, and your choices during dialogue will shape the story going forward. There's also skills that can be used on dialogues to shape the outcome to your liking.
[b]Sound Design[/b]
Combat sounds (like firing guns, enemies sound design and stuff like that) sounded ok to me. Nothing too groundbreaking, but they did their job well.
Not all NPCs are voice acted, but among those that do are, they're really, really well done. There wasn't a voice-acted NPC that felt weird or badly recorded, in my opinion.
The best part on sound design was the Soundtrack. That was superb, very atmospheric and could be dark when needed.
A true masterpiece by Mark Morgan (the creator of the original Fallout soundtracks).
[b]Graphics[/b]
There isn't much to say about them, to be honest.
They're somewhat dated, but they're ok.
Some textures weren't very good, some character models and animations could be better.
Also, I had some framedrops at some areas, even though my PC is way above the recommended specs.
[b]Final Thoughts[/b]
So, to sum it up, I had a lot of fun playing this game.
It felt like a true successor to the classic Fallouts. A post nuclear experience with some wacky and dark humor, mutants, robots and raiders.
I can't say for sure how many hours it took me to finish it due to Steam's playtime being bugged for this game, but I think it was roughly around 50 hours, maybe?
Did every quest that was present, explored the entire world too.
In my opinion, if you like CRPGs as a whole, or liked Fallout 1 and 2, there's a huge chance that you'll like Wasteland 2 as well.
