Wasteland 1: The Original Classic

I've been gaming since 1980. I'm grateful that it inspired Fallout and reasonably satisfied with Wasteland 2, but I never played Wasteland back in the day and I just couldn't go back to this. I get the sense that there's gold if you can look past the dated interface and extremely primitive combat but as gamer and a UI dev, I just can't. On the combat, it's not so much the lack of visuals so much as the complete lack of persistent feedback of the condition of enemies. You're often flying blind on how many enemies are still alive in a given group until you reach certain phases. There's plenty of room on the screen to handle that. Like its sequel, the game is very much invested in exploration and combat but combat stinks. Exploration is interesting but interesting enough.

Advance note: I played this when it first came out at the end of my teen years. I have a lot of nostalgia attached to it for that reason, but I'll take off the nostalgia goggles for this review. This game was the first venture into the Mad Max post-apocalyptic style of games that have been a standard ever since. Whether the apocalypse is of the nuclear, biohazard, zombie, or other type, they all have the same premise: survive, get stronger, and overcome. So it is with this. The story is straightforward. As the offspring of the survivors of nuclear devastation, you were raised to be Desert Rangers. Your task is to go out into the wasteland surrounding the relatively clean Desert Ranger center and see what has become of the rest of the region. Along the way you'll fight a variety of things, from mad dogs and brigands up to semi-military sects, mutants, and worse. You'll have to find clues and follow hints to discover what civilization might still remain, and face the greatest threat to the survivors of the devastation. The story is well done and is a relief from the grinding that many games require in the hunt for better gear, more money, and new allies. The combat is similar to The Bard's Tale, also made by the same company as Wasteland, but the exploration is done from an overhead point of view like the Ultima series. Everything is comparatively straightforward and simplistic. Buy and sell at shops, have simple conversations with NPCs, and simple turn based combat. This isn't a bad thing, but it can perhaps frustrate players of newer games as the grind goes on. The game is a great one for its time, but it is overshadowed by its thematic children of the Fallout series, which really took the post-apocalyptic games to a new level. Wasteland is worth playing, especially at this price point. There'll be some fun even for the attention-deficit kids of today (speaking as an attention-deficit kid of yesteryear), even if they never complete the game itself.

I played this when it was released and loved it. I played it several times since then and loved it. In fact I played it about 2-3 year back and loved it. Sure it has some flaws but for the time it was released it was ground breaking and the story is immersive.

This is the game I was hoping for back when GoG first started! Thanks to InXile for finally bringing it our way! I did not really get into this game until 1991 when I finally was able to get my own PC at home. I remember going to the local computer store and finding this and a couple other gems (which have been available on here for awhile now) in the bargain bin section. I bought them and ran back home to dive in. Now, I gave this a five star rating then and I still feel it holds today even despite the seriously outdated graphics. Why? Because this game is gameplay personified. That's why. Such a huge scope of imagination went into the development of this title. And InXile has done a beautiful job updating it so it works in 1080p with a lot of updated images. WARNING: It is HIGHLY recommended that newcomers (and probably a good idea for us old timers) read the manual before jumping in. While the game offers you a starting party (think the original Bard's Tale or Might & Magic games) it's still advisable to check the manual so you know some basics. It's especially important when wanting to create your own party to start. Anyway, just wanted to write this and to thank InXile and GoG once again for truly helping me relive my early PC days!

I remember playing this one a long time ago, and on another computer system outright. I enjoyed seeing the post-apocalyptic game play out as I went through it. This definitely brought back some happy memories. I've been waiting for this one to show for a very long time, and now I'm glad that it's here. Thank you GOG. :)