Wasteland Wasteland 2 - what's your general opinion?

[Zeronet]

Promising but ultimately disappointing, maybe i overhyped it by expecting something equal to fallout, but it's barely half the game that was. I got bored around Seal beach and stopped playing. The Companions are the only part of the game that really shines and some the reactivity when it isnt forced on you (Arizona prison, Highpool/AG). Reactivity is wasted when your repeatedly thrown out of your immersion because of incongruities within the setting.

Here's a bunch of questions i kept asking myself.

Where did the red scorpians get such powerful auto turrets from? Why does this group i,ve never heard of before have better equipment than the rangers who own Guardian citadel? Why do none of the rangers have power armor, did they sell it all to hobos? Why do these hobo vendors sell me power armor and energy weapons? Why does this guy have psuedo-chitin armor? Where do the mutants get their food from? Why is the ranger base in California a glorified radio shack, did a bunch of dogs really kill these elite rangers?

In conclusion, i'd rather get a bunch of keycards from ancient pre-war military bases full of cool loot, like psuedo-chitin armor with lore and story behind them, than hunt for cat litter and buy my ancient artifacts from small time vendors and hobos.

I,ve mentioned this before, but a key moment in Fallout is getting your hands on cool energy weapons and power armor, via quests. It wouldn't nearly of been as cool as just buying it from some vendor (like San Francisco in Fallout 2).

 

[hiver]

markec

That and,

you get a deadly virus in AG center, which you cure just by magically clicking on ventilation,

you get infected by mutant zombie virus in Darwin, which you cure by magical ventilation,

and i think there was one more in California somewhere... ?

Here's a bunch of questions i kept asking myself.

Where did the red scorpians get such powerful auto turrets from? Why does this group i,ve never heard of before have better equipment than the rangers who own Guardian citadel? Why do none of the rangers have power armor, did they sell it all to hobos? Why do these hobo vendors sell me power armor and energy weapons? Why does this guy have psuedo-chitin armor? Where do the mutants get their food from? Why is the ranger base in California a glorified radio shack, did a bunch of dogs really kill these elite rangers?

Yeah, and the thing is that all of that could have been designed better relatively easily, with same assets and same scripts and stuff.

They just decided to do something else instead, ...

 

[Deleted member 7219]

My view:

Better than Divinity: Original Sin, but I stopped playing shortly after reaching LA. I got fucking sick of the seemingly endless nature of the combat. Fighting robots is just boring as hell.

I was going to go back and complete my playthrough, but then I heard inXile were working on a GOTY edition so I'll hold off until then. I haven't got to the best sections of the game with all the reactivity (going off what I've heard). I did encounter the Mannerites but wasn't able to do much. I couldn't even talk to the leader without someone counting down from 5.

 

[markec]

Based on the effort they put in the detail I would say that Wasteland is a fitting name for the game, also alternative name for W2 should be "Good Enough the Game". The most facepalming bit of dialog, where I was completely dumbfounded and came to conclusion that writers of W2 didnt really care too much about what they write was in prison.

So I fight trough hordes of bandits and come to the prison gate thats guarded by two turrets, both can withstand numerous direct RPG hits but not attack by a small robot which can only be repaired by a part found in another city, which upon visiting conveniently triggers a dialog option to peacefully enter the prison. I finally go face to face with the leader of the bandits, bandits who murder, rape and pillage and I actually heard this psychopath thinks he is a good guy, so before I kill him I want to expose him as a manic he is.

I tell him that he is evil and he tells me that this is a rough world and people need to be rough in order to keep order. I tell him how murder, rape, torture, enslavement and extortion is far from being rough and its just pure evil. The guy gets all dumbfounded, "Really so those are bad things, I really didnt know that, it seems you Rangers really have something to teach us." (Thats actually pretty close direct quote)

Really, I mean fucking really, the guy promises to become ally to Rangers if we point out to him what he did bad and how he should improve his ruling, because you need to tell people that things like kidnapping woman, putting them in dog cages, torturing, raping and murdering them is a bad thing.

 

[ghostdog]

Yeah the writing was all over the place. It was jarring, because at some instances it was pretty good, and then suddenly it went bonkers. Agent Oracle was also a pretty retarded area. They tried so hard to make it interesting and witty, but it ended heavy-handed and downright embarrassing. The final revelation about why all that shit was happening was soap-opera level of insulting.

 

[hiver]

I especially liked how that dude suddenly had already poisoned the dogs and has a antidote ready on the fly.

And then this can happen:



- there is no one alive in the prison, cleaned it before. he still dies from thin air.

 

[Zeronet]

I'm pretty curious if the Game of the Year edition will tweak the content at all, there's several obvious reactivity problems most glaring of which is the entire prison area. Another is if you kill everyone that can set off the titan, they can come back from the dead and do it anyhow.

 

[Soph]

I liked the turn based combat, even though the balance is way off, I liked the radio. I liked some of the questlines.

Couldn't bother finish the game though.. it became stale, boring, nothing new is gained in abilities or weapons other than more damage output. Enemies become bulletsponges and always just charge you with horrible AI. The new base in california is lackluster and I was hoping to upgrade the whole thing into a sprawling military outpost. Maybe you can actually do that, I don't know. Also, too many containers, waiting for bars to fill like you're installing a game -_-. I want to play a game, not install it all the time to get some random loot you don't want. Should make them less prevalent somehow and more rewarding.

Maybe I'll try again in a year or so, when all the updates and added content are out, I loved the premise, the execution was just lacking.

 

[hiver]

I was hoping to upgrade the whole thing into a sprawling military outpost. Maybe you can actually do that, I don't know.

 

[Florian Gheorghe]

I have 290 hours spend in WL2 and I loved every single bit of the game. Stopped playing because Pillars of Eternity was released and I have played it, finished it and wanted more of the setting so I finally managed to play Planescape Torment after so many years and I have reached almost the end of it (and will finish it) . Can't wait for the GOTY edition so I will replay it. I really think we are lucky to be playing new CRPG games in our era. Sure, they are not as good as FO1,2 , PS:T , BG2 or Arcanum but maybe if they keep on doing what they do they will manage to capture the essence of the games back in the days. Hopefully they will not turn into money greed companies like Bioware, EA and Bethesda, hope that they will not turn into open world shit games...

BTW: WL2 has more C&C then PoE but PoE looks and plays better.

 

[shihonage]

So I came to this town called Rodia, seemed like a nice place if it werent for armed bandits acting like assholes to everyone, and your locals were scared, hungry and also diseased.

Being such a good samaritan I decided to help out, first thing I choose to help about was the mysterious sickness plaguing the townsfolk, no point of starting a rebellion if people cant even stand.

I went to a doctor and offered to help, he said that he needs a microscope to find out the cause of the illness and he mentioned that the disease first started showing with the farmers.

Before leaving to find the microscope at the other end of the state I decided to check out the farm and have a few talks with locals.

After some questioning I came to information that people who got sick all drink water from a nearby well, so I decided to check it out.

It was your pretty standard well with nothing really out of ordinary about it but when I looked in I was shocked to notice a corpse floating inside.

First I tried to pull it out but couldnt find anything to help me reach it so I went back to Doc for help.

Me: Doc, I think I found the answer to the epidemic.

Doc: Did you find the microscope?

Me: No, but I found corpse in the well I think thats what made people sick.

Doc: I really need that microscope, you better hurry with that.

Me: But, the corps, the well, I think you should look it up.

Doc: God dammit man, I need that microscope, lives are at stake you need to hurry.

Me: ....

So I went to get the fucking microscope after days of travel, (God knows how many people died in meantime) and ran straight to Doc.

Me: Here is your microscope, did you maybe take care of that corpse while I was gone?

Doc: Thank you for the microscope, now I can get to bottom of this.

Me: ...

Few minutes later.

Doc: I came to a discovery, it seems like the disease is due exposure to bacteria that finds itself on rotting flesh.

Me: There is a corpse in the well.

Doc: I have and idea, it might be that a source of food or water is contaminated so you should check food storages and wells.

Me: There is a fucking corpse in the fucking well.

Doc: No time to talk, you need to hurry and find that source of disease!

Me: ...

Goes to the well, see corpse floating inside, try to pull it out, still no luck, go back.

Me: There is a corpse in the well.

Doc: I knew it, good thing you got us this microscope or we would be in trouble. Now I need you to pull the corpse out from the well...

Me: I already tried that few times but just couldnt...

Doc: With this ten meter rope and large iron hook I was keeping in my back pocket.

Me: Fuck you

Hey this can't be true, we all know Brian Fargo is a brilliant mastermind who knows how to design his way out of a paper bag

 

[CryptRat]

About story : The main story is functional at most, I liked the companions, some area are good, while some others would deserve more interactivty (choices or more ways to resolve).

About the skill system : I think that it's well balanced, since it sometimes requires some backtracking after some level-ups.

About combat : Many battles probably look like each other, because of the lack of fighting skills and the abundance of similar enemies (lack of heavy resistance to something for example).
That said, the combat system is average as a Tactical Turn-based standard, which make it overall better than the combat system of maybe 90% of the RPGs I have played.
While playing the game I have never remarked that rifles were too strong (I never got stucked and never had to "powergame") ; I used every kind of weapons.

Overall, i loved the fucking game. Note that I still haven't played the first game, if it's important.

 

[Innsmouth Dweller]

I expected more.

• The combat was fun, although not as fun as in D:OS, there is no co-op so I cannot blow up my friend with portable oil barrel and aimed fireball. Still, I prefer turn-based over active pause or action. It's more fun than in Shadowrun, tho.
• Story was typical cliche, but engaging. Most stories are cliche, so I guess the engaging part is important.
• I have hard time remembering NPC names, while I remember all PoE ones.
• Atmosphere and setting - you can't go wrong with post apocaliptic/cyberpunk/steampunk setting.
• Quests are interesting story-wise but with little or no branching. There is no way to talk your way out of combat or avoid it by taking alternative route.
• C&C is surprisingly nice tho
• There are some annoying points of no-return
  Spoiler

  I wanted to check out mad monks silo after doing quests for them, hoping my reputation will increase and I wouldn't have to shoot them. I knew they were insane, but never imagined they were so stupid. Story-wise that was awesome and surprising. Gameplay-wise - I was pretty butthurt I missed some loot.
• There is no hand-holding, which is great. Downside is if you want to beat the game on higher level, you need to know what to expect
  Spoiler

  which means beating the game at least once or struggle with 2 points in energy weapons, praying to RNG, because they never seemed powerful enough and my sniper guy has too low int to boost them this late in-game.
• There is not much actuall dialogue flavour, unless you count writing your own lines to which NPCs respond with "huh?". I'm a fan of POE's disposition system - it's a damn good tool for roleplaying, even if it's not yet fully developed
• No editable map markers... annoying maps, traversing known locations is PitA, quest from far NE on the map requires you to run through a labirynth in slow-mo to reach quest item B on far SW, oh wait it wasn't SW, it was NNW, let me run entire map again to reach that guy's hut. And then go back. At least I have a time to pick a nose.

All in all, it's has potential of a really good game, but... the execution is meh.

 

[Lord Azlan]

Looking back a bit - passage of time gives some perspective.

Overhyped. Good first attempt.

I remember reading all the reviews going about this "choice" you face in the beginning of the game. You can choose to save A or B and there is no right choice but there will be consequences.

"Early in the game, you have the choice to help either the Ag Center, which is being overrun by infected plant life, or Highpool, under siege by your typical Road Warrior wasteland goons. Whatever your decision is, it will determine potential team members, and you’ll eventually visit the other location later in the game, realizing that those calls for help that you didn’t answer led to something terrible. This is just one example, as the game continually enjoys forcing you to make decisions with lives hanging in the balance" GameInformer

"A memorable early quest forces you to choose to save either the inhabitants of Hightown or the Ag Center, for instance, and you'll have to listen to the tragic fate of the town you didn't choose over the radio..... they help to emphasize that your choices have meaning and that there's a world that exists beyond the immediate action in front of you" IGN

"There were few easy decisions as I struggled to prioritize one group over another. Early on, for instance, I received distress signals from Hightown and an Agricultural Center, both needing urgent assistance. I saved the Ag Center first, battling mutated plants and giant, man-eating rabbits, but when I got to Hightown, the attacking raiders had killed everyone. Oops." PC Gamer

Thanks to fellow Codexer - I can use "C&C" and understand the meaning. I was a bit disappointed in the C&C in this game. Maybe I have to do another playthrough doing the opposite or making different choices to see what all the fuss was about. But isn't this 2015? Have we moved on at all? If C&C is so great in this game why can't you go back and explore Arizona after leaving it and see the result of your choices?

Maybe this is the apex of C&C in current RPG - I dunno - I am disapointed after the hype. In the overall story does any of C&C make any difference to the end game apart from having 20 extra characters in the final battle?

Character creation - some people said it was complicated but I could not see why. Give every character a weapon and maybe melee skill to conserve bullets. Spread the other skills out. Just like in the first game and in many other games.

Yes and confirmed. Dire and detrimental implementation of various speech skills and ways to open chests that often had nothing of use in them. Needs to be streamlined but then no doubt some would say WL3 has been dumbed down as it has less skills - we will see.

Combat - not quite decent. Poor enemy AI and implementation of cover. Was efficient and not too time consuming though. Really hating the "random encounters" that occurs in spots that suddenly disappear. Don't remember this being a feature of WL1 - I thought all loot would remain accessible. I need to check. Feature from Fallouts for sure and I accept its from earlier games but c'mon - least see some innovation about this.

Little stealth but don't mind. They are desert rangers right - not Thief of Fate and (H)iding in the shadows for a backstab.

Loot - dire, dire and DIRE. Better Toaster Items Implementation required considering this requires player to go off track and spend skill points. Variety of weapon skills and weapons good but I would have liked to see more variety so choices about Damage v Action Points come about more often than the 2-3 times I experienced in the whole game.

Story telling moments - hmm. I think good overall. Some memorable places but then some dredge like the Rail Nomads and Hollywood. Currently doing Fallout 2 for the first time and have some feeling for Vault City. I accept WL2 is in our real world and therefore needs "real places" but would really like some imagination here. Ald'ruhn and Vivec. I really like the way the story was accessbile in text and by sound - huge plus from me on this.

Not played DoS or PoE and LoX would be my game of the year so far. I liked WL2 and played to completion and would possibly play again when the enhanced version comes out. I think it's better than BG and M&M X and Grimrock 2.

Good first attempt! Incline (assuming I know what that means). I enjoyed it quite a bit.

 

[CryptRat]

One thing I really liked was the nonintrusive dialogs between your companions and NPCs.

 

[Mech]

I am currently enjoying it. Better than most games nowadays. Good job Brother None
You put your money where your mouth was.