Wasteland 2 Director's Cut Digital Classic Edition

Another solid reason to buy outside of the game's own merits is that it makes you far better appreciate and understand as much as half of W3. If you're considering or have already started playing Wasteland 3 then 2 is a must whereas Wasteland 1 is eminently skippable with plenty of content in both games to fill you in enough on what happened to help you appreciate the related content to that. For Wasteland 2, this is a game that takes maybe an older generation of gamer to appreciate when things were less streamlined and hand-held, where a lot more exploration AND unknowns were more expected in games and players also had freedom to completely screw things up. The in-game world and space compared to W3 is bigger and this is really a game for those who experienced other games like Jagged Alliance 2 as well as Arcanum, Planescape and the original Fallout series. It's made in that mold. For younger players this may seem slower and more dated, especially the combat. Ultimately the choices, setting, atmosphere etc are all in-line with a "spirutual sequel" feel to the original Fallout series and what Fallout Van Buren was likely going to be. This is the closest we're ever getting to that outside of Fallout New Vegas itself. Very worth playing for me finally more than a half decade since getting the game :)

Open world illusion, linear as your grandpa's prune-filled poop. World design does not match with story narrative, multiple characters will talk about people and places that don't exist as they should, logically, or simply don't exist at all. Wasteland 2 becomes a slog back and forth, playing 'find the plot point', or it's a 'play along with a wiki guide' game. Don't bother.

Yes I know Wasteland 1 inspired Fallout 1 but this is a Kickstarted project 26 YEARS later that's clearly banking on the popularity of the Fallout franchise. And after decades of Fallouts, Metros and STALKERs, going back to pure Rangers v Raiders feels a bit empty – not bad, just basal, primitive. Roleplaying is a letdown. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of narrative choices and alternative mission paths but they're all aimed at YOU, the player. Opportunities for CHARACTER expression are really limited, not helped by having an entire squad of player-generated characters. Gameplay is based on XCOM but isn't as good (e.g. the cover system's a bit wonky). Really it plays on par with Shadowrun Dragonfall but without the aesthetic or writing or characters that make that game great. I just don't see what this brings to the table which hasn't already been done better. If I want the combat, I'll play XCOM. If I want narrative and roleplaying, I'll play Shadowrun Dragonfall or Planescape Torment. If I just want that Mad Max feel, I'll play Fallout.

Ran without problems on my Win10, Intel HD machine in late 2020, but I still lost a spade in an inventory bug. Wasteland 2 in a nutshell: There are three separate speech skills, featured prominently in your very first conversation: Smart Ass, Hard Ass and Kiss Ass (actual names). All of them have several levels and are upgraded separately at the cost of a few skill points per level. Your character usually won't be able to pay for a new skill level with just the points he'll get when advancing one character level, however. More skill insanity: Machine Repair and Toaster Repair, Field Medic and Surgeon, Lockpicking and Safecracking, Brute Force (for kicking down doors -you didn't think just being strong was enough, did you?). All these are actual skills. Combat isn't tactical, at all. There's cover but doesn't make a lot of difference. I wish it was like XCOM for XBox -not even close. The one thing I liked is everyone has their turn individually, not as a group. Camera control is unwieldly and room design doesn't help. Something that bugged me a lot: if you create a custom character you select his 2D portrait from a small, detailed premade gallery but then have to customize his 3D avatar separately instead of having a premade 3D avatar somewhat matching the portrait. If you don't fix it the immersion is totally ruined, as the UI relies on portraits a lot. And you'll want to make your own characters to avoid the insane skill system. I gave it two stars instead of one because they tried, but this is a case of more is less. The UI is great considering the underlying mess, but still has issues. Wasteland 2 was supposed to be great by doing the squad turn-based combat FallOut 3+ dropped. And I personally thought it could surpass XCOM by adding an immersive world with CRPG elements. Well, nope. I might give it a last chance by creating a squad of very similar soldier types who don't talk a lot, but the game itself warns you'll probably run into ammo problems.

Old fan of all the Fallouts here. This is in the line of the first ones. Not bad but too many shortcomings. First: lots of crashes on loading. UI: painful. Screen readbility: poor. I keep zooming in and out, using Z all the time to spot tiny colourless objects on the floor. Gameflow: laborious. Is the game fun? Yes. Do I come back to it? Yes. Is there a sens of urge to keep playing? Alas, no...