GamesTM, 9.
Wasteland 2 doesn’t drown the player in equipment, ammunition and medkits – you’ll have enough of all of them, but only if you actively go to liberate items from (often aggressive) wastelanders. There are hundreds of weapons and thousands of other items, from the hidden copy of something called ‘Wasteland’ you can find, through new pairs of trousers and scrap metal, on to amazing energy weapons that literally melt your enemies. There’s a lot to be found, and a surprising amount of it is useful.
Though admittedly a lot of it is instantly sold to any trader you can find, as in any other loot-heavy game. This typical drive for loot joins the aspects mentioned – the freedom of choice and exploration, the team you create, the way you approach obstacles (physical and metaphorical) – in making Wasteland 2 a captivating experience, and one that can easily chew through your free time if you let it. Sometimes even if you don’t let it. It has depth in abundance, a shining personality and an atmosphere so thick you can almost feel the sand in the back of your throat.
It is a throwback in so many ways to the cRPGs of old, but that was a winning formula then – and now it’s been updated to modern standards.
GotGame, 4.5/5.
Wasteland 2 is hard! As a veteran Fallout player I brazenly attempted “Seasoned” difficulty (only the second of four) and got a lot of my squad killed fairly early on. In the interest of seeing as much of the game as possible for this review, I clicked through a lot of the dialogue, which usually ended up with me having to kill that person, and all of their friends…and the entire rest of the town. Still, there is a lot of well-written story in this game and it pays to read carefully. A note to people who do not like reading: this game has a lot of reading. There is a little voice acting for some of the characters, but the majority of the time you are reading text. Of course the people that this warning is meant to help have probably not read this far into my review.
Gaming Illustrated, 80%.
Combat in Wasteland 2 is highly tactical. The transition from exploration to combat is smooth, but players will have to pass a learning curve. In a fight, characters have an allotment of action points to spend. These dictate how far a character can move, how many times they can attack, and useful tactics such as reloading or plotting an ambush. Because characters can move independently, planning becomes an important part of battle. Players want to make sure they can crouch or lean against cover to avoid damage.
Once the battle begins, the game transitions from free exploration into turn-based combat. Wastelands 2 doesn’t hand hold — without proper planning, weapons, party composition, and ammo, the game can be overly punishing. Thankfully, there are multiple difficulty levels that can be changed at will. Sometimes, NPCs will join the party, making it easy for players to lose control of them. These characters will make their own decisions, and the AI will sometimes put the NPCs in harm’s way.
realgamerreviews.com, A+.
The gameplay and story stays true to the original game with modern twists, of course. But I read more than one younger gamer say that it was too hard, too complex, they couldn’t beat it, Wah! Welcome to the Old School! We called them ironman games. You can’t just bust in with no tactics and blow everything away. Plus, how boring is that? (Aren’t people tired of just mindlessly blowing shit away?). If your character died, he died. If you saved in the wrong place, you were screwed.
There are new things that are fun, like being able to modify your weapons. My current M16 is shiny, accurate and deadly…and so is the grenade hanging off of my Leader’s belt. I like being able to see and customize my character, as well as write bios for them. It just ads to the create that the player gets to interject into the game. Not only do you get to play the game, but you also get to really role play. For example, one of my characters is older and originates from Darwin, dating back to the first game. Another one of my characters is younger and is too young for the stories from Wasteland 1.
TechRaptor, 83%.
The core of the game’s meat, the combat is a pleasure to see revitalised. Unlike the incredibly fast paced text battles from Wasteland, Wasteland 2 incorporates that written element ingreater detail. Wasteland 2 also has animations and utilisesideas from Interplay’s Fallout. The combat system works off an action point system with powerful weapons requiring more to fire. Weaker guns can fire multiple times. Healing items cost more action points than melee weapons while heavy weapons cost far more than all. You aren’t given the option to aim for specific body parts, however you can aim for the head with a far diminished chance to hit as well as the ability to ambush enemies. You can start the fight from a long way away should you wish to engage long distance. The problem with that idea is enemies close the gap rather fast so it’s beneficial to have a mix of long range, mid range and melee fighters. I did not do this so at the start, I had most long and mid range distance combatants. This became a real issue when I was struggling to find ammunition. Having no points in any melee skills meant that any close combat weapons would only hit 15% of the time, making the game quite hard. The thing I especially liked was, much in the same way that Fallout presented combat, each battle can go a different way in every attempt. Sometimes you can have a sure thing, doing well until your character misfires. The bullet from the weapon can then fell 3 team members in the one hit. This unpredictability keeps the combat fresh, including critical hits, and misses. This keeps you wanting to reattempt failed battles on the basis that what happened last time will not be repeated.
gamrReview, 8.3.
Wasteland 2’s mechanics start out obtuse, but rewarding. Throwing you right into the character creation pool as soon as you start the game, you are directed to create not just one, but four characters for your team of Desert Rangers. Between dozens of base stats, abilities, and character traits to choose from, this task seems daunting, especially without any indication of how these abilities will affect your journey across the Arizona wasteland (just how effective will “Toaster Repair” be anyway?). After careful consideration (and a couple of hours replaying the opening areas to get a feel for the mechanics), I elected to choose from the healthy selection of pre-set characters, leveling them up over the course of my journey to suit the needs of the situations I came across. Hardcore fans and enthusiasts will no doubt get the most out of the experience with completely custom characters, however, but Wasteland 2 seemingly accommodates for all styles of play.
GAU Studios, 84.35%
Rage3D, 5/5
WTBFun
The Gamers Paradise
Rocket Chainsaw, 3.5/5
That Game Guy, 3.5/5
shortgamereview.com, 8
WhaTech
Good Game Review, 16.5/20
Aussie Game Geek, 7
Universal Gaming Reviews
Hardcore Gamer, 3.5/5
Shelter Network, 8 (Italian)
RPG Italia (Italian)
HDBlog.it (Italian)
GamePlane.de, 87% (German)
GamersGlobal, 8.5 (German)
GamersGeek.com, 4.5/5 (French)
GamAtomic, 4/4 (French)
Indius, 9 (French)
3DNews, 7 (Russian)
AG.ru, 80% (Russian)
Playground, 8.2 (Russian)
iPon, 83% (Hungarian)
Sg.hu, 5/5 (Hungarian)
budget gaming, 85 (Dutch)
gamersNET, 8.5 (Dutch)
TwojePC, 9 (Polish)
PressFire.no (Norwegian)
City.se, 5/5 (Swedish)
it-blog.ro (Romanian)
GameOver, 7.5 (Greek)
HerniWeb.cz, 8 (Czech)
