Wasteland 2 Director's Cut Digital Classic Edition

I'd like to give this 4.5 stars, if there was a bit more rating granularity. If you are after loot explosions and mindless clickfests, or are allergic to reading, this won't be your cup of tea. If on the other hand you want a gritty, dark (but with understated touches of humor) post-apocalyptic RPG that rewards tactics and resource management, this might be just your game. I am about 30% through my first play through, on "Ranger" difficulty (one notch below the hardest). The game is nicely resource constrained on the higher difficulties, particularly if you don't cheat by reloading. That means there are locks you will break permanently, doors you won't open, resources you'll never acquire. You end up finishing fights thinking, "Have I found enough rounds of 5.56mm to make up for what I expended killing those mutants?" You might even want a backup weapon skill for those times you've run out of ammo for your main weapon and all you can find is a few rounds for that old 38cal pistol you've been lugging around. The post-apoc atmosphere is top notch. The are radio broadcasts from other squads "out there" in the wasteland, interesting characters to talk to, and an intriguing story to explore. It's a gritty world of burnt out trucks, rusted out abandoned buildings, sawed off shotguns, and choices that save or destroy communities. The native Linux version works great on Kubuntu 14.04; No crashes, only very minor bugs. On the negative side, random encounters are a good dynamic but feel repetitive. Unlike the primary exploration, the random encounters use a few "canned" maps, so feel a bit samey. Also, not all the dialog is voice acted, and some fights are too easy even on the 2nd hardest difficulty. Overall, it's imperfect, but still the best squad based tactical rpg in years. It was clearly made by folks who value the genre, not by a soulless EA-type company. More than worth buying, IMHO.

Short review - I read all the negative reviews, but bought the game (on sale) anyway. I'm glad I did. Still in my first campaign and I understand why the game has some of these reviews. The game is not boring but it does have it's technical problems, as in it crashes every so often. Save your games and it's a non-issue. There are people who have reported fixing their problems for good, I have not achieved that yet but might care enough eventually to fix it, it doesn't crash enough for me to care. The devs were not lazy making this game, it just has some high and low points to it. They did a good job making this like the old-school rpg games, lot's of nostalgia items and quotes that I'm sure a lot of the kids don't understand or have memory of. Fun game, I hope they make another.

I received the "Director's Cut" of Wasteland 2 for free a while back and what a gem it turned out to be! - If you're a fan of the turn-based isometric role-playing-games like Fallout 1 & 2 and enjoy the western look of New Vegas, then my friend you're in for a treat. The two series share so many similarities that for a long time I actually thought they were set in the same post-apocalyptic world. - Sadly, I fear Fallout/Wasteland fans will be the only ones that truly appreciate this title, since newcomers will be immediately put off by the DATED GRAPHICS and difficulty in CREATING A COMPETENT TEAM. - Fear not however, as there are many guides to creating the "perfect team" found over the internet. I admit to even using a mod called "Wasteland 2 save and char editor" found over at Nexusmods.com to adjust some of my stats later on, so as to not start the game all over again. Thing is, once I actually started playing, everything just fit into place and I stopped worrying about having the "perfect team". - When it comes to graphics, you either accept the dated look or move on. I recommend at least grabbing "Wasteland2 DC Patchwork Mod" from Nexusmods.com, since it fixes the camera view a bit. - Voice acting is good, just wish there was more of it. Ambient music is also good. - Without a doubt the BEST PART about Wasteland 2 is the journey you embark on. Exploring the war-torn world, meeting different factions each with their own quirks, picking sides and settling disputes, all make for a great time. - Just make sure you have ample free time as the campaign is quite lengthy, taking place on 2 large maps, Arizona and California. Nobody that finished this game can complain that it was too short. As I said in the beginning, Wasteland 2 is a real gem. But the initial experience can feel more like a "diamond in the rough".

Disclaimer; I was a kickstarter backer for Wasteland 2 I never played the first wasteland and when I looked into it; I felt that it was a touch before my time. I've played older CRPGs but Wasteland is quite different from the ones I've played from the late 80s. The best way to describe how Wasteland 2 plays is to look at Jagged Alliance (1 and 2) and Fallout Tactics. Wasteland 2 has many elements from both games combined with some elements you see in the older open world CRPGs from the late 80s and early 90s. Wasteland 2 has significantly more player involvement with the story compared to Jagged Alliance or Tactics, but not to the extent of Fallout 1 or 2. Be forewarned: your characters do not have personal interactions with NPCs so the game WILL feel empty and hollow if you are expecting dialogue interaction on the level of JRPGs. The dialogue is structured so that NPCs are essentially addressing your party as a whole, not individuals. The combat can sometimes feel a touch "same-y" as you near the end of various areas, but each new area changes things up enough to prevent it from getting stale. One carry-over characteristic of older CRPGs is that almost all loot drops and chests are completely RANDOM. They will have some algorithm like; "Chest contains random tier 1 ammo, and random junk drop" but you'll almost never get the same thing twice out of the same chest. On the flip side of things; the game feels rough lacking polish. Wasteland 2 is fully playable but the character models look like they are from neverwinter nights 1! The mechanics in combat can feel a touch clunky aswell. Bottomline; If the idea of merging Jagged Alliance 2, Fallout Tactics, and older CRPGs in a post apocalyptic universe sounds attractive, you will probably enjoy this game.

The game is enjoyable. If you like the post-apocalyptic RPG genre (like Fallout), you should like this title. However, note that the game is badly programmed. I am not talking about bugs, but about optimization. I am playing on an Alienware 17 laptop (i7, nVidia 980m) and this game, even if nothing is moving on the screen, sends the fans to their highest RPM in less than a minute. I can play games like The Witcher 3 at very high settings, without hearing the fans running.. but not Wasteland 2. I would give it a 4 if it wasn't for the game bad optimization, which probably is related to the Unity engine they decided to use.