Wasteland 2 Director's Cut Digital Classic Edition

If you like turn based tactics games, then you will love this game. If you hate them... then don't bother. If you don't know much about tactics games and want to give one a try, then this is a good option. Solid story, solid tactics games. It has a few hiccups like inventory management but most people who really like tactics games won't be put off by that. I didn't even notice it as an issue until I read a review complaining about it. I like the humor and I like the characters. The story is entertaining, and there are a decent variety of weapon types to choose from. Also please note that the director's cut is a vast improvement over the base game. Base wasn't bad, but the director's cut does a lot of little things that make your life easier and also adds in a ton of extra voice acting. All in all I highly recommend this game unless you just can't take turn based tactics games.

I was very reluctant to play this game. It was promoted as a spiritual successor of the original Fallout series. But upon release it failed to live up to the expectations due to game breaking bugs, bad combat AI, etc. A month ago I needed some distraction: Some old school character creation and slow paced adventure and combat. I wasn't into magic but preferred some shooting. This game seemed the only option, so I thought what the heck, even if I just create the character and play for a few hours it will satisfy me enough and I can go on with my life. Some 100 (?) hours later I am writing this... I really liked this game. Probably the main reason is that it combines the elements of original Fallout with Fallout Tactics. I played Fallout 2 during my teenage years and it left an unforgettable impression of storytelling, adventure, combat and companions. Tactics I played much later during my mid twenties due to nostalgia. The community had by then fixed all its bugs. That game also left a big impression. It has nothing of Fallout but its engine, and it concentrates fully on the one aspect of Fallout which was not utilized to its maximum potential: tactical combat. I played it on maximum difficulty: no saving during missions which made the game a blast. I would meticulously prepare the recruits in the best possible way for the upcoming mission. And once the mission started there was no turning back. I still remember my heavygunner being overrun, and my exceptional sniper blasted out of cover. On mission completion I would mourn the losses and start strategizing how to best fill the gaps with new recruits for the next mission. Wasteland 2 combines the good of Fallout - the audio and the visuals, the atmosphere, interesting cities and encounters, rich textual content, plurality of situational approaches, the storytelling - with the tactical combat of Tactics. The game is not perfect, but frankly, I see little space for improvement. Furthermore, I didn't encounter any notable bugs. inXile has done an incredible job with limited budget and Unity. And for that, hats off. Period. If you need some distraction, prefer slow and tactical combat and want to get lost in an immersive world, then buy this game, put it on supreme jerk difficulty and be a Desert Ranger!

After playing about 50hrs the game got broken by an update and I could not load any old save (or a new one from a new save). That's going to get fixed, hopefully, but as of now the game is unplayable for me, so I thought I'd take time for a review. First off, let's defend the title of the review and get the "computer game history buff" argument out of the way: I KNOW THAT WASTELAND WAS THE INSPIRATION FOR FALLOUT 1 & 2. But: (1) Fallout 1 & 2 sold together more than 10x as many copies and thus did much more to define player's expectations about the genre than the original; and: (2) Wasteland 2 is trying to bank on the nostalgia of players who (like me) did play Fallout 1 & 2 when they went out and not so much to cater to the (limited) number of players who played the original Wasteland. With that said, does the game work. Well, frankly, not that well. It's more of the same, with nothing new. Here's a quick list: * Same college humor as Fallout 1 & 2, but not as good. * Same quirky NPCs, but not as memorable, and with immersion-breaking discrepancies between text descriptions, thumbnails, and models. * Same turn-based combat, but not as satisfying or fun (no PIP-boy-like computerized silhouettes). * Same enemy power creep throughout the storyline (us-versus-raiders-and-occasional-mutated-critter, then-us-versus-bots-and-stronger-critters, then... cultists?). Now, I don't think that I've gone far enough in the storyline (I explored a lot and ran 2 playthroughs in parallel to get the two alternative starts) so I may not actually be able to tell if there's a surprise change coming. But do I really care to play longer to find out? Well, if the bugged update is fixed, maybe, just out of nostalgia for Fallout 1 & 2. But if not, would I care to start over a playthrough? Maybe not. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to love this game. But so far, I just don't.

My experience with RPG started many years ago. I've played Fallout 1 thru 4, The Elderscroll series, Baldours Gate series, Divinity series, Diablo series, etc. The graphics for Wasteland 2 Directors Cut aren't bad and the story is decent, but the combat is a slog. This is by far one of the worse combat systems. I see no reason to finish this game. The story is not enough to entice me to finish. Based on my experience with 2, I will not be purchasing Wasteland 3.

I've played 20+ hours and so far the game has been loads of fun. Contrary to some other people, I like the story and really enjoy the gameplay and graphics. I love leveling up my characters, getting new gear and battling enemies. Combat in general is quite enjoyable to me. I cherish the feeling of getting more XP and plotting out which skills I will level next and how they will benefit my party. I am amused by the wide variety of skills available and actually found myself enjoying having separate lock picking, hacking, and safe cracking skills, as well as various melee and ranged weapons options. There are so many options that make me think strategically about what I want for my group. I love the updated graphics. The camera is not sluggish at all for me. Neither is the UI. I have a high-end GTX 580 (lots of modern GPUs are probably on par with it or better nowadays). On my Dell U2312HM (IPS) monitor things aren't hard to spot or see, especially once you get used to the graphics and UI which doesn't take too long. I haven't had this much fun with any game for a while. The simple fact that it is a CRPG totally makes the game for me. The only (small) gripe I have with it thus far is the limited selection of pre-made character portrait images. I'll give it some more hours and update this review... the first few missions have been incredibly fun.