Off the top I’ll say that Wasteland 2 isn’t a bad game, its actually quite good in a lot of ways. The ways in which it isn’t though are what really end up hurting the game for me.
My main gripe is that this has the Bethesda style of choice impact where NPCs are hardly bothered by your choices and the world around you only meaningfully changes with a small handful of your choices. And when it does change, the thought put into those changes isn’t all that impressive or meaningful.
The world mostly reacts to your changes by just changing NPC dialog and then there is a slideshow at the end. Thats it. So each time you leave a location you feel like your main contribution is just clearing it of enemies.
The other side gripe I have about it is that the story and characters aren’t of particular interest. It has a couple good storytelling moments in it (that I won’t spoil here for anyone interested) but otherwise I just can’t say it pulled me in. I was initially interested after hearing the 3rd game got good reviews and this series is somewhat similar to fallout but I can still see why Fallout maintains its charm all these years later and Wasteland does not. You see glimpses of greatness with certain voices or ideas or plotlines but you are ultimately just edged by these stories and the payoff isn’t really there.
This isn’t just a space to complain though, I had a lot of fun with the combat and gore and other aspects of the game. They also feel light in a lot of ways but still are satisfying. I enjoyed my time here, looking forward to playing Wasteland 3.
So did anyone else play this or are interested in it? I’m curious if anyone shares these thoughts. Its a game I definitely feel like classic RPG fans will enjoy more than I did.
At the time it came out, true CRPG throwbacks were still a pretty rare sight, and the few that did come out after Baldur’s Gate 2 and Fallout had low production values, like Geneforge. Neverwinter Nights was boring, and Dragon Age was a big departures from the traditional CRPG mold.
Getting to see a new CRPG with modern graphics and lots of voice acing, but still be isometric, was really exciting. I know it’s why I bought it.
But I never finished it. The intro sequence at the farm with the killer rabbits was so unbalanced, the hardest part of the game, and poorly done. It was cool that you could have different characters do dialogue and be a hardass or a smartass or a kissass, they did all feel like different flavors if the same outcome. And the game was just too long, so after putting 40 hours into it and still not being close to done, I put the game down.
Someday I’ll definitely try Wasteland 3, since HowLongToBeat says it’s shorter.
