Wasteland 2 Reviews
Wasteland 2: Director's Cut is a fine role-playing game. It's immersive and detail oriented when it comes to the story. The turn-based combat and environments are built to appeal to your inner strategist. It's a great option for those who are looking for more turn-based strategy games on the Nintendo Switch.
When looking at Wasteland 2 from the outside, it doesn't look like anything special. However, once you get stuck in and persevere through the initial confusion of combat and little direction you are given, there is a gem to be found here. I began my travels in the wasteland with bitterness, desperately wanting to play something else, but eventually, I started to crave playing the game more and more. The skill system makes every squad member useful, and combat can be a rewarding experience, despite particular issues it can sometimes have. The game has an alluringly addictive quality that makes you want to keep playing and strengthen your ranger squad, even if it does look a bit rough around the edges. It may not be flashy and appeal to everyone, but those who do give it a shot will be in for a pleasant surprise.
There are between fifty and seventy hours of gameplay in Wasteland 2 for those willing to invest in its world, explore each new area fully and complete each available mission. That we were happy to do just that is testament to the brilliant design, engaging storyline and immersive combat of inXile's world. Brian Fargo and his team have excelled here, and it leaves us with one remaining question - if Wasteland 2 is this good, what can we look forward to with the forthcoming Torment: Tides of Numenara?
Wasteland 2 is a wonderful post-apocalyptic classic RPG romp through the radioactive dunes of Arizona and California. The game is unabashedly old school with its lack of hand-holding and harsh scenarios.
An old school RPG that you can really sink your teeth into. There are hours of combat and questing to be had, and with a little more presentational polish, Wasteland 2 could've been something really special.
Wasteland 2 is exactly what fans of the franchise were hoping to get: a well polished, old-school RPG. Minor issues aside, this should be considered a must play for fans of the genre, and for newcomers who are trying to see what all of the fuss was about.
Wasteland 2 Kickstarter backers will get what they paid for plus a few glitches they didn't. The game doesn't live up to its ambitions in a number of places, most notably the dialogue system.
Although I found the game to be frustrating and at times even annoying, I believe this speaks to the condition of such a trying way of life, of the feeling of near hopelessness which the game expertly...
I know I said I didn't have fun with the game, but that's because it was almost too much for me to bear during a holiday season. But for the gamer who wants to settle in for a really long ride with a well-written, lovingly crafted, difficult game set in a solid post-apocalyptic world, Wasteland 2 is great.
Like the post-apocalyptic wasteland in which it is set, Wasteland 2 is unforgiving, but unlike a real apocalypse, it's a blast to experience.
Brilliant stuff.
It still has great potential. Judging from our experience though, it seems that a lot of that potential has been wasted and a great bulk of the game crumbles under the weight of technical issues, which are all packed into a visually outdated game. High quality visuals can be substituted in favor of complex gameplay and fine storytelling. While the atmosphere can be great from time to time, on the whole, we just missed the post-apocalyptic sci-fi flavored ambience that's heavily incorporated into games like Fallout.
It's clear from the critical mass of backers that this style of adventure left a lasting impact on the previous generation of gamers, and now that Wasteland 2 has delivered on its promise, this underserved genre seems poised to capture the imaginations of a new generation.
As much negativity as Kickstarter has been saddled with over the past year, I feel reassured that good things can come of it thanks to this game here. Though Divinity and Shadowrun were also big successes that were funded through Kickstarter, it almost felt for a while there that Wasteland would get lost in their shadow. That thankfully isn't the case, since in this gamer's opinion, Wasteland 2 is a much bigger and more varied CRPG than either of those two titles. Fargo & Co should be proud of what they have here, and I sincerely hope that the market allows them to make a Wasteland 3.
Awaited for well over a decade by now-ancient gamers, Wasteland 2 manages to live up to the spirit of the original while going beyond it in terms of depth and detail. While there are bugs to be fixed and the difficulty may be too challenging for some, any lover of turn-based RPGs should add this one to their Steam library as soon as they can.
Wasteland 2 is a warm return to the RPGs of yesteryear. To quests that take hours to complete, to traps in every corridor, to desperate item foraging in light of dwindling ammo supplies. It's not a classic of its genre, but it is ultimately a beacon of hope for a certain style of RPG – the video game pen and paper style – that many thought had been lost in more recent years.
But when it's working correctly, Wasteland 2 is stellar. The tactical combat is pretty standard, but challenging and only occasionally overwhelming (those are essential moments, to me). Learning to deal with everything that goes wrong as you wander the wastes is a thrill that makes it all the more satisfying when a plan actually does come together. Wasteland 2 is a Real Game, bro.
In Wasteland 2, InXile has a classical RPG that will vindicate its early supporters on Kickstarter.
It's a wonderfully old-school RPG, something fans of a bygone era can use to scratch that nostalgic itch and new gamers can use to acquaint themselves with how things once were.
For those waiting since the original Wasteland, good on you for keeping your hopes up this long; it's finally paid off. To everyone else, while it might be a little too old-school RPG for some of you, I'd say give it a try anyway. The involved writing and story design more than make up for any shortcomings in graphical fidelity. See you in the desert, ranger.