GOL Cast: Maintaining the Law of Post-Apocalyptic World in Wasteland 2

Sorry I'm a bit late! This game turned out to be a bit more addictive than I intially thought and only now I managed to escape for a moment to write this article. But let's get to the point and see what awaits us in the post-apocalyptic world of Wasteland 2!

Wasteland 2 is a sequel to the post-apocalyptic role-playing game Wasteland, which spawned the famous Fallout series. It's done by inXile Entertainment, a studio formed by Brian Fargo who worked on the original game. Like the prequel, Wasteland 2 is situated in a world that was torn apart by a nuclear weapons exchange in 1998 leaving only a few people alive. Among the survivors was a U.S. Engineer company, who went to form a group called the Desert Rangers. These rangers worked to protect the innocent people in the wasteland and to rebuild the society.

Wasteland 2 starts 15 years after the events of the first original game. One of the rangers, Ace, is killed mysteriously and your group of newbie rangers is dispatched to figure out what happened to him.


Ah, post-apocalyptic role-playing games. There's a genre that I really really enjoy and also a genre that we are sort of lacking in the land of Linux. You can probably imagine how excited I was when I found out that we'd be getting one and that it was being developed by the guys really know how these sorts of games should be made. And I'm happy to say that I was not disappointed.

Wasteland 2 is essentially an RPG of the old era wrapped in modern graphics and user interface design, and I don't mean that in a bad way. It offers a lot more flexibility and complexity than many of the modern day action-RPGs. It stays true to the original game by allowing you to approach a problem in a number of ways depending on your skills, luck and knowledge and there are a lot of big decisions to be made that have permanent effects on the world around you. Even quite early in the game you will receive two distress calls and you can only help one of them and this will determine the fate of two major settlements in the wasteland.

You start your adventure in the ruined and hazardous world by creating your own party of Desert Rangers. In the beginning your party can have up to 4 either custom or pre-made characters but you can also have three NPC followers at any given moment if you simply find people who are willing to join your group. Preferably you will have people who are specialized in different things. One of them might be a field medic, another might be skilled with sniper rifles and one might even be an excellent toaster repairman. Seriously, that's a quite valuable skill in this game. At first you'll have quite limited amount of supplies such as ammunition and money, so it's important to manage your resources carefully, or you might get ambushed by a bunch of raiders without any means to defend yourself, apart from your firsts and maybe a blunt melee weapon.

Combat, which is a major part of the game, is very similar to XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Your people have action points they can use to move and to use weapons or skills. Cover is also essential: in an open area you are very vulnerable to enemy fire. And considering how hard this game can get you should use any advantage you can get. You and your enemies also have lots of different weapons they can use and others work better in certain situations, so taking your loadouts and proficiencies into account is very important when planning your strategy.

Though gameplay is probably the most important aspect of the game, it's worth also paying attention the audio-visual experience. Wasteland 2 isn't the prettiest game in town but it certainly isn't the ugliest either. The environments are designed well and I'm happy to see that the wasteland isn't just gray and brown. The Fallout games especially depicted their worlds as colourless ruins, while Wasteland 2's world has more vegetation and more (mostly) intact buildings. To me this feels maybe a bit more realistic and it also makes the environments less dull to look at. It's still gritty as it should be though, the villages and complexes definitely show their age and many walls are covered with rust and cracks. The soundtrack is also nice and really makes you feel like you are wandering through a desolate desert filled with mutants and whatnot.

In my opinion Wasteland 2 is the biggest and the best game we've seen this month and I am completely hooked at the moment. Since Friday I've played 20 hours of this game and I'm not even thinking about stopping yet. I'm sort of worried about the damage this game will cause to my grades at school though. All and all it's an awesome experience and you should absolutely get it as soon as possible.

GOG: http://www.gog.com/game/wasteland_2_digital_classic_edition
Humble Store: https://www.humblebundle.com/store/p/wasteland2_classic_storefront

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.