Wasteland Did you find the story to be good or deep?

[Grape_You_In_the_Mouth]

Please discuss, storyfags

 

[Ivan]

I'm loving the radio communications. Characters you meet don't have much depth (AZ) but some of the moral complications are pretty delicious.

However, the idle dialogue from companions is hilarious

 

[Pegultagol]

In my opinion, it is mostly well written. I am not too far into the story, but there are little events and details part of this rather silly and absurd tale that are unflinchingly realistic and dark. They lend some very touching quality to the game and writing is a big part of atmosphere.

 

[Grape_You_In_the_Mouth]

Thanks. I'll definitely play it then.

Please sirs, have some Willow ending music:

 

[Tigranes]

A few hours in, nothing special on the writing front, the basics are there in terms of interesting situations and moral dilemmas, and if you presented all the major characters and areas in 1 paragraph form they'd look really good. The execution can however be mediocre.

 

[toro]

I would love a more interwined story-path: less factions, multiple-locations quests. But for now, it's good.

 

[Volourn]

Main story is nothing unbeatabley awesome but writing is pretty good. Better other crap that passes as 'best evar'. *cough* KOTOR2 *cough*

 

[DosBuster]

Just be aware, main story is very much "pulp" and it doesn't take itself too seriously. But the Characters and Writing are very good. Don't expect Torment levels of depth.

 

[Volourn]

One can't even expect 'Torment levels of depth' in Torment. FFS

 

[Admiral jimbob]

Pretty much, it's a very well-written pulpy adventure. Think Fallout 2 with better quality of prose and the occasional dumb meme instead of dumb Monty Python joke. Some surprisingly dark shit despite the generally silly tone that manages to work fairly well - for example, I didn't think through the obvious clues on one quest, leading to a blackmailed woman shooting herself when I left the room when I could have helped her out. Nothing amazing, but it made me feel actually kind of bad.

 

[Grape_You_In_the_Mouth]

Fallout 2 had some intense things to say about social order---I'm thinking the perfect city, which was actually a nightmare, but other examples are there I'm sure. Does Wasteland 2 exhibit points on such a larger scale? Everyone keeps saying it's pulpy---so does it only just have interesting character interactions, with no broader concepts?

For those of you who like melodies:

 

[mutonizer]

Each bit of writing taken individually is pretty good, but the general feel of the various plotlines it is just too stupid for me. Nearly always goofy extremes, no subtlety that would allow myself to really care and pay attention to what is presented.

The overall story is boring as well and very predictable. Heck, at some point while reading the synopsis for Wasteland 1, I thought I made a mistake and was on the Wasteland 2 page or something. So yea, while the writing is good, the plots are kindergarten level really.

Being shit-faced drunk only makes it slightly more involving unlike previously thought :/

 

[Junmarko]

The overall story isn't particularly deep, but it's consistently good throughout, and always interesting.
Wasteland 2, I think, shines most through it's individual descriptions of NPC's (hundreds of them) throughout.
Plot doesn't drive the story here, it's heavily outweighed by handfuls of characters driving the story. Like a Tarantino film pretty much.

 

[Lerk]

Pretty much, it's a very well-written pulpy adventure. Think Fallout 2 with better quality of prose and the occasional dumb meme instead of dumb Monty Python joke. Some surprisingly dark shit despite the generally silly tone that manages to work fairly well - for example, I didn't think through the obvious clues on one quest, leading to a blackmailed woman shooting herself when I left the room when I could have helped her out. Nothing amazing, but it made me feel actually kind of bad.

This, honestly. Stuff like Pitbull's "Fuk Shak" and the woman who gets her arms and legs blown off in Titan Canyon who entrusts you with delivering her locket to her lover in Damonta

Spoiler

who turns out to have been murdered

I found affected me far more than I would have suspected. Paying attention to clues is also important as you say. The "happy ever after" conclusion to the Rail Nomads feud and rescuing Binh are for example not foregone conclusions, and both can end rather grimly if you're not on your toes (and they did, on my first playthrough )

That's contrasted with stuff like Scotchmo's NPC barks (which I have no shame admitting I found funny) and the touches that take a dig at '80's culture. Finding the cache of buried video game cartridges and the Tinker boasting that his 10MHz SX processor brain can think much faster than a puny human brain raised chuckles. There's also Team Able with Captains Peppard, Schulz, Benedict, and Tureaud :D

Thing is the game manages to have plenty of both kinds of moments and neither feels out of place. That's pretty impressive IMO.

Edit: One more thing. I know a lot of people don't like the dot matrix printer spitting out area/item/character decriptions, but I loved it. Makes the game feel a lot like a PnP session led by a descriptive GM and really reinforces the retro vibe.

 

[Tigranes]

Fallout 2 had much tighter writing than this. The main issue with WL2's writing is the actual execution: the pacing, the delivery, the tone, etc. Often the premise is interesting and when you recount to yourself the big choices & events it sounds really interesting, but there is little tension or excitement while you're going through it because, depending on the area, (1) you're spamming keywords in one dialogue to get an infodump then you just get the same infodump 15 times from different people; (2) some lines and NPCs are really poorly written; (3) there's not much sense of mystery or wonderment in how things are revealed anyway, as you either get everything dumped on your lap, or everything is a mess.

It does have a lot of nice little moments scattered around, though. Buried vidgame cartridges and other references are fun, the Rodia setup is very Fallouty and the various options to disable the lieutenants there also recall the best of Troika / BIS / Obsidian, the Mannerites are generally written and voiced quite competently.

 

[Tigranes]

Fallout 2 had some intense things to say about social order---I'm thinking the perfect city, which was actually a nightmare, but other examples are there I'm sure. Does Wasteland 2 exhibit points on such a larger scale? Everyone keeps saying it's pulpy---so does it only just have interesting character interactions, with no broader concepts?

For those of you who like melodies:

1) Go play it?
2) Some premises are interesting. Mad monks who blow themselves up in an area which is basically one post-apocalyptic spin on MAD; Mannerites who are basically a Big Brother totalitarianism predicated on an etiquette fixation; the mythologisation of prewar material and stories in places like Angel Oracle and Rail Nomads.

 

[Bradylama]

The story is adequate. It's nothing particularly special or interesting, it simply fulfills its purpose as a platform for an adventuring module. Wasteland 2 has a lot of really great ideas that just aren't implemented very well. The most disappointing one being the God's Militia/Salvation Curch.

The best thing to say about the story and the writing for this game, is that it wasn't afraid to try something new and interesting (in parts). It feels fresh in a way that other games can rarely achieve and it's enjoyable on the first play through, but it's mostly a lot of hints toward an underlying complexity that isn't there. At least not a complexity you can actually play with.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Story is not good enough to make me forget about the shitty combat, so i dont see it as a "redeeming point".

The writing itself i found to be significantly inferior to AoD, an RPG made by self taught enthusiasts, so thats saying a lot.

 

[Lemon]

Did you find the story to be good or deep?

No.

 

[Black]

I found it appropriately cheesy.

 

[oneliner]

Story is meh, game is fun but it seem inxile need some more years to "develop" it. How can Blackisle make fallout 2 in just 1 year ?

 

[Black]

Story is meh, game is fun but it seem inxile need some more years to "develop" it. How can Blackisle make fallout 2 in just 1 year ?

Because it was dumb and much of it was copy pasted from FO1?

 

[Morkar Left]

Overall good writing so far like Admiral jimbob wrote. Some things could have been made with more style.

E.g. the prison. Not really a spoiler since it's obvious:

Spoiler

The red scorpions could have been made a lot better. You know right from the start that they are bad boys. In Highpool you probably will think you can maybe negotiate some pact with them because maybe they are just incompetent in that protecting people stuff. But as soon as you enter the prison you know right from the start that they aren't interesting in having a functional society.
Would have been way better if their trick to luring people to them would be a lot less obvious. Maybe show the farm right when you enter the location and let everything indead look tidy and orderly. Only when you advance or are listen to the people carefully you can get the clue that something isn't right. Would have been a lot more interesting.

 

[oneliner]

Story is meh, game is fun but it seem inxile need some more years to "develop" it. How can Blackisle make fallout 2 in just 1 year ?

Because it was dumb and much of it was copy pasted from FO1?

I hope you are not serious otherwise your 7 year 6k post is a waste.

 

[Saduj]

The "main plot" of WL2 is very simple/barely there. Basically there's a rival faction that is making lots of threats against the Rangers and your job is to find them and determine what they are up to. Once you do that, it becomes your job to destroy them because they turn out to be the "Muahaha, we're going to take over the world" type. That's it. The plot does its job of moving the game along and not much more. It could have been better. But a lot of times when writers try too hard it ends up worse. Coming off the "you're the special chosen ones because endless mystical nonsense" plot of D:OS, it was a nice change of pace for me.

I do think there is good story telling in the game though. By not tying everything you do to the main plot, it allowed the writers to create more ambiguous situations that didn't have to be resolved in a certain way in order to advance the game.