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 :)
If you don't play Wasteland 2 before you play this (and see the majority of the content), you won't appreciate why as much as half the game is in here the way it is. I asked someone else who hadn't played W2 first and it seems they completely missed out on so much unlike me :) Very complex and indepth story around the Patriarch who you work for, a good sign of how well written everything is is the amount of debate it generated but ultimately what's also very well crafted is why the character did everything he did and how he came to me if you pay attention leaving things far less ambiguous for me. Unlike others here I felt the streamlining of systems here was badly needed and reduces the higher risk and chances of wasting points, ending up with unworkable builds like in W2. The towns and levels are much smaller vs W2 but the graphical quality ends up a lot better. This may sound like you get a lot less game but in practice but in reality my play time was pretty similar for both and this ends up being a welcome relief in terms of streamlining again for backtracking and generally having less filler for everything. The most impressive thing is just how many choices and outcomes have fleshed out consequences and reactions from other NPC's. Attention to detail is marvelous. My only gripe was that the refugees as a faction seemed quite neglected and underdeveloped in what they could offer and what you could do with them. This is the only thing that seemd like it was obviously cut/ developers ran out of time on. For the amount of entertainment I got out of this, anything other $30 on sale s practically giving this game away. If you do play through everything to the end, it's well worth the full pricing
