Wasteland Early Personal Reviews/Impressions

[Cyberarmy]

I think California ended up having a lot cut due to time constraints, Santa Fe felt like they had some base building ideas in mind since early on they talked about "building the new Ranger HQ in California", so I think they just ran out of time in the end to really express on that.

That can be a real good opportunity for exp.packs.

 

[Volourn]

Expansions aren't needed. patch up the game for obvious bugs and crap. Then move on WL3 and making sure it's better than WL2. Expansion is useless garbage that won't add anything. I mean you are supposedly able to reach level 40-50. Those characetrs are over. time to move on to a whole new party.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Reached LA the other night, very disappointing how its turning out...

1. The first map is huge, and devoid of content beyond a guy with a radio, waste of resources;
2. Another empty map with only a guy selling guns;
3. Yet another empty map where you get to save some cows;
4. Yet another empty map where you get to save some whores;
5. Yet another empty map where you get to talk to a dentist and see a cow get shot;
6. Yet another empty map where you get to save a guy being shot by religious nuts.

Seriously, if the mannerite and Leather Jerk maps are the best LA has to offer so far, the game has gone from mildly enjoyable "desert wasteland murder simulator" to "we have run out of ideas and this is the best we can do"

 

[ZodoZ]

It has lots of skills because Wasteland 1 had lots of skills (even more, in fact). I'm utterly puzzled by the fact that people keep bringing this up.

This issue has probably been thrashed to death by now. It is puzzling though. What jumped to mind was the Dark Eye games like Das Schwarze Auge: Drakensang or Blade of Destiny. Both good (imho great games) games, but ALL those useless spells and skills. Along comes WL2 that gives us skills that we actually use in game quite a bit. Skills that get better and offer more as they level? Like weaponsmithing for example. How is this a bad or mediocre thing? Puzzling indeed.

 

[Roguey]

"Different containers different lockpicks. Unless you really believe that if you can pick a lot - say on a bike - you'd be equally skilled at cracking a safe. L0LZ"

Why does this game need different types of containers? As I understand it, all (or most of) the loot is randomized. There's no discernible difference between loot found in safes and loot found in lockpickable chests.

Toaster Repair is obviously a nod to the skill being in the first game. It was a silly skill in that game (3 toasters in the entire game) and I like that they have it in W2. It's silly, a bit nostalgic and can be completely ignored if you're that concerned about min-maxing. And god knows if you are a min-maxer everyone's got 10 intelligence so you're probably drowning in skill points anyway.

The inclusion of all these toasters is the equivalent of an alt-universe where Valve lacked talent and included a reference to cake every ten minutes in Portal 2.

I'm not going to bother with any lockpicking skills myself because of its god-awful implementation.

 

[Darth Roxor]

"All these toasters" "every ten minutes" aka people are yet again about to pick up Roguey's trollbait about a game he's never played.

 

[Roguey]

Portal 2 is much shorter than Wasteland 2 so they obviously have to compress the references gawwwwwwwwwwwd.

 

[ZodoZ]

"Different containers different lockpicks. Unless you really believe that if you can pick a lot - say on a bike - you'd be equally skilled at cracking a safe. L0LZ"

Why does this game need different types of containers? As I understand it, all (or most of) the loot is randomized. There's no discernible difference between loot found in safes and loot found in lockpickable chests.

Toaster Repair is obviously a nod to the skill being in the first game. It was a silly skill in that game (3 toasters in the entire game) and I like that they have it in W2. It's silly, a bit nostalgic and can be completely ignored if you're that concerned about min-maxing. And god knows if you are a min-maxer everyone's got 10 intelligence so you're probably drowning in skill points anyway.

The inclusion of all these toasters is the equivalent of an alt-universe where Valve lacked talent and included a reference to cake every ten minutes in Portal 2.

I'm not going to bother with any lockpicking skills myself because of its god-awful implementation.

Spoiler

Or, if your a compulsive completionist or enjoy aspects of games that are unusual...one can always recruit Ralphy {guided to him like a beacon in the night} who apparently enjoys swims in nearby ponds, sneaking off with local girls, and repairing toasters...or you can listen to Scotchmo ramble on about squeezins for a few hours...most likely these two npcs are "flavored mules" imho due to their very low skill up potential w/ such lousy INT - 2 skill pts per level = mule/water boys - note toaster locations - run w/ ralphy to locs, loot, dismiss. done - random loot is part of the apocalyptical nature of wasteland/fallout games - when all is lost in radioactive decay a pristine human eyeball is entertainment gold

 

[Onholyservicebound]

LA feels great to me so far, breath of fresh air, of course I'd logged 100 hours into the beta/alpha/whatever so I might be biased. I like the progression in this game, it's very satisfying, as well I felt the weight of consequences to my actions when I left Arizona. Although in at least one instance it was a result of incompetent design.

Spoiler

(Rail nomad's convuluted quest/dialogue structure needs to be seriously overhauled, if you have the skill, saved the girl, cleared the thieves and did the talking there is no reason you shouldn't be able to complete it, least of all the order you talked to people in.

Regardless I felt pretty good starting anew in LA,

Spoiler

and I loved werewolf wally's dialogue if you leave Damonta to the bots.(I was so beaten up I couldn't continue, so I cut my losses .

 

[Zetor]

I still find the loot system uninspiring -- it's worse than DOS, and that's quite an achievement. Right now it feels like 'walk around area, select right character (with safecrack, lockpick, demolitions, electronics or shovel), click on box until it opens, distribute ammo, take random grey junk, rinse repeat with the 3 other containers nearby'. Why are there 20+ 'hidden' caches in titan valley (that any yahoo can dig up with a shovel) containing anything from some .38 ammo to meson cannons? Why are (un)locked boxes / safes with mostly minor loot everywhere instead of actually being in guarded locations that made sense (some of them are, but very few)? I get enough minor loot just from killing raiders and critters.

It'd be a lot better (and differentiate between lockpick/safecrack/electronics/shovel) if 3/4 of those loot boxes / dig spots were removed and the existing ones were modified to contain a LOT more loot. Safes should contain smaller and more valuable items, locked boxes should all be 'typed' and contain a ton of ammo / several weapons or suits of armor / quite a few medical supplies. 90% of buried loot shouldn't exist (stuff like the turtle's cache is fine) and/or their location should be discoverable via notes/maps instead of a simple perception check.

Also, how luck-reliant is looting, and is it bound to the luck of whoever does the looting? 'Cos that's rather silly.

 

[Onholyservicebound]

I still find the loot system uninspiring -- it's worse than DOS,

No.

(Although it is bad.)

 

[Zetor]

I still find the loot system uninspiring -- it's worse than DOS,

No.

(Although it is bad.)

Yes, it's worse. In DOS I was at least finding some interesting rare/legendary items (or even greens/blues that could be situationally useful) ever so often instead of eleventy billion containers with Inferior Weapon, Generic Medical Consumable, Useless Trinket (these ones are rare, at least), Generic Ammunition, and Literal Junk Loot.

 

[Volourn]

WL2's loot system is 1millionx better than DOS. Fuck off with your bullshit.

 

[Onholyservicebound]

I still find the loot system uninspiring -- it's worse than DOS,

No.

(Although it is bad.)

Yes, it's worse. In DOS I was at least finding some interesting rare/legendary items (or even greens/blues that could be situationally useful) ever so often instead of eleventy billion containers with Inferior Weapon, Generic Medical Consumable, Useless Trinket (these ones are rare, at least), Generic Ammunition, and Literal Junk Loot.

No it isn't. If you're a fan of randomly generated 87 bazillion guns then maybe, but I'm not, and I sure as hell don't think such a system fits a game like Wasteland. This is a fucking WASTELAND, It's supposed to be scarce, I don't know about you but finding mundane things like health kits and ammo is a big deal for me, I ended up needing every little bit of scrap I could get when I first arrived in LA. You honestly think this game would be better if it had a Diablo style loot system? I'd much prefer less randomized, more worthwhile loot depending on the container, area, as opposed to D:OS which is much more randomized and makes sure no items feel special, especially for very long.

I think better loot would be nice, you should want to loot containers, especially when every second container is trapped even in nonsensical locations. Personally though, I think in a game like Wasteland, the difficulty, strategy, etc, is supposed to be about the scarcity. On ranger and above I felt this , besides weapon parts being unbalanced enough to keep you relatively wealthy, which in itself is a good use for low tier weapons((Along with the mods), those generic med-kits and the like were great to find.

 

[Zetor]

A diablo system would be stupid in the context of WL2? No shit, there is a reason I didn't advocate that... and why I said that a loot system worse than DOS is quite an achievement. Still, the diablo rng loot system was slightly less stupid in DOS (and more interesting) than the boring pointless "minor loot in 5000 containers" / "crack a difficulty 8 safe to find a pair of $8 pants" system in WL2. You will note that I suggested a few ways to improve the system and make it at least as good as the "loot system" in WL1 (which was also not particularly good). What we have right now is pretty damn terrible.

 

[Rhalle]

I'm through Highpool/Ag Center. Actual global/world design is pretty decent, while world/environment visuals are disgraceful. This had a $6m budget? Unity Engine is a real joke. 3d looks awful, runs awful. Looks like a game from 10 years ago. That much screen tearing in DX9 with vsync, triple buffering and AA off is absurd. Garbage engine. Pure garbage.

Writing-- especially character dialogue-- is good when it's good; amateur hour when someone with less talent and tact is at it. (Edit: I forgot to mention that the guy who wrote all the profanity-laden childish stuff for Highpool also doesn't know that it's "shoo-in" and not "shoe-in"; also: "another thing coming"-- or was that the joke?) Voice acting is hit-and-miss, but usually pretty good. I like how they let what is apparently someone's grandma do the voice acting for one of the Ranger teams on the radio.

Echoes of New Vegas; game begins at a gravesite--- lots of other things escaping me at the moment.

Combat is repetitive but fun and almost really good. It needs just a little something, a few more options, to make it first-rate.

Stats and mechanics follow WL1 too closely for WL2. They needed some more thought and adaptation.

2D interface-- I like it, and am very happy about there being a real inventory, even if it does feel a little bloated.





Despite all that negativity, I'm enjoying WL2; and I suspect it will get even more interesting-- both visually and storyline-wise-- further into the game, probably not least because the dev team learned as they made it.

 

[Shadenuat]

I've beaten Highpool&AG and killed some Scorps, Ranger difficulty, no companions (I ignored Deth cause I heard she was noobie helper, indian ran away from my 1 charisma, Ralphy had twice less levels when I've finally met him). Level ~10.
Can't say it's great.
Huge, often empty locations with little interesting to do, not very interesting quests, combat with same problems as new X-COM, even more (LOS + 150 hp machine gunners running 2 screens to gangrape party sniper, only to be blown up by 4-5-6 ppl at a time with a single grenade). Too much things waste player's time (skill icons should fill x3 times faster or the faster the higher your chances are, up to instant success with 100% chance; no option to go into particular area of each base from global map like in Fallout). Hundreds of random containers with boring loot.
Although game's economy is a plus,if we're talking difficulty. Can never have enough ammo or explosions, so you'd better loot loot loot all the shit with 5-6 skills that are all about getting more random loot.

Game is occasionally funny (at one moment I ran together with 3 screaming goats by using my animal whisperer skill too much), occasionally challenging and rewarding (when you have to fight strong groups of enemies who bunkered down, like Scorps), writing occasionally grabs my attention, and occasionally it looks pretty (I liked one of infested locations with sinked boats and rain).

And occasionally it crashes. But it doesn't freeze and I can play it on most options turned to best quality.

C&C, by beating one area I felt as I lost 70% of content of another area. But it had strong consequences and a few new missions (just cleaning job though, more combat).

The joke about too much writing works against this game. Everything is commented by typewriter, even when it is not needed. There is an advantage in having graphics and sound. It is also smart to make that sort of comment machine player's tool, not his secretary. It often almost feels like handholding. Only half of the story should be told with that. The idea of that thing in Fallout was to help player with abstraction that isometric view has, not to replace graphics completely.

Camera choice and whole perspective is awful. You either can see your guys or huge areas like in RTS. Armor doesn't show on characters, so I can't even remember sometimes who is more tanky in my party.
Also, for it's whole goofy parentage, game is very bland and devoid of color. Levels full of garbage and washed out containers and cars... sometimes there is a splash of color or a very cool looking 3d piece, but it's hard to appreciate them while you fight the camera or try to understand if you have LOS to that sharpshooter behind crates or not. Some solid objects like houses can be shot through, some that have holes in them can't be.
Some objects just miss the textures, like veggies in AG center.

Overall it's not the worst RPG I played, but it doesn't have any particular strong points. Shadowrun combat was more fun, D:OS was more interactive... and it's combat also was more fun.

 

[Volourn]

WL2 > DOS + SRR COMBINED

 

[Space Satan]

My main complains is about small annoyances. Mistakes, that any designer should recognize.
- Darwin Village - a clear sign of a faulty design - lots of SLOW moving enemies in a turn based game. Here, enjoy 13 zombies slowly crawl towards your squad across the map.
- Movement speed- sometimes units could run across the map - literally towards your squaddies. What make is worse is that they are gunners, who run and stand next to your chars.
- Charisma locking - one of the worst decisions in RPG. At some point I take followers not because thye are fitting in a team, but because they add to that charisma level to recruit certain character. I ignore advancing in certain areas containing desired recruitable NPC because I have to loot previous areas for a chance to get that +1 charisma item.
- Loot system - slready been said - its horrible and uninspiring...I'd say more - it's almost identical to abominable Dragon Age 2 same greyed junk items, lack of armor etc.
- Empty maps - probably a direct result of rushed release and lack of time.
- Useless skills - alarm disabling, mech repair,
- Weapon disbalance - heavy weapons are almost useless early on due to lack of ammo that does not balance with heavy weapons effectiveness.
Overall, the game look mediocre so far. But I am glad it earned money to fund for Torment, which already looks better.

 

[Volourn]

Most of your complaints are either stupid or nitpicky. The only real legit one is movement speed. So, in conclusion, you are retartet.

 

[Space Satan]

Being called retraded by Volourn, is a rare and honourable praise on Codex.

 

[Onholyservicebound]

Space Satan 's retartet complaints
-As annoying as that part of the game was I can understand the aim, slow moving overwhelming zombie horde a la the old films. They didn't quite get it though, since even with time they don't become a threat. Funny enough more numbers would probably fix that, yet make the experience even slower.
-Yeah that's an actual bug that's been reported, it's hilarious, but not a concious design choice.
-I didn't even know that was a thing, maybe that's why I've been getting so few quests resolved.. With the promotion rate being higher I don't see why it was still necessary to have party CHA matter, everyone can benefit from more exp.
-Mech repair isn't useless unless you're a save-scummer, I've found plenty of uses for it throughout the game. Alarm disarming however, is, it seems like something that would have fit nicely with stealth, but since that isn't an option and you almost always kill the enemies first and loot later, it's never useful, hasn't been yet for me at least.
-Your heavy weapons complaint is stupid, that's exactly how HW are supposed to function.

 

[Mortmal]

Finished first map, most of the areas are really small and straightforward, corridor level design at its finest. Half of it is ok still , AG center, prison, canyon all ok , anything on side is super linear. Alas all of it is filled with the same encounters over and over, and really nothing tactical about them, theres so few option, few use of terrain, theres no real reason for turn based . Alll of it would work in RTWP , or even in real time ala cannon fodder if you remember that amiga game .

People giving them too much slack because some friends are on team and we waited far too long for a post apoc game.Lot of good humor, nice art direction, but for one good thing there's an annoying design flaw next , it ends up being just an ok game.

 

[Onholyservicebound]

People also cut them too much slack because they like RPGs more than strategy games.

 

[Mortmal]

The rpg part is light too,few way to complete a quest. Theres many skills i never use , even speech one , and when i finally get an option to use them , after a sea of filler encounters , they require very high level or its instant failure. I already said melee is usless, now i notice armor is useless too, no even worse than useless , detrimental. They could have done that easily better .Oh and i appreciated greatly that my science character was completely obsolete as soon i encountered rose in ag , with far superior science and surgery....You need to read a walkthrough before creating your char, knowing companions stats before hand.