Wasteland Options

[SubRosa]

I finally got around to buying Wasteland 2 from Gog.com. It was a long download, so I didn't have much time to play tonight. My first impressions are good though. It reminds me a lot of Fallout Tactics and Fallout 1, both in the style of play (turn-based, squad-level, tactical combat), and the sarcastic sense of humor. That is no real surprise though, as the original Wasteland is what inspired the Fallout games.

The game is set in the Arizona desert, in the aftermath of WW3. A group of Army Engineers was out in the desert doing engineering stuff when the war started. They took refuge in a prison, which gave them a fortified base. Fast forward to the present, where the descendants of the engineers are the Desert Rangers, bringing justice to the wasteland.

There was a hilarious dig at the Brotherhood of Steel at the very beginning, when an NPC mentions that the early Rangers (the faction you are part of), tended to stay in their base, and practically worshiped old technology, even if they didn't know what it did.

Creating a team took a while, as you not only pick stats, but the appearance, names, etc.. of up to four characters for your group. Here is my team. Venus is the leader, with social skills and an assault rifle. Mars is the muscle, packing an M2 Browning. Hecate is the sniper, and is also the team medic. Mercury is the thief, with lockpicking and safecracking skills and a shotgun. Finally an NPC named Angela Deth joined up at the start of the game.

The big globe in the background is the world map transition marker. Like the early Fallout games, and pretty much every Bioware game, the game is split into a world map where you move from one area to another. When you reach an area of interest you transition to a tactical map, where you actually get to do stuff.

This post has been edited by SubRosa: Jun 13 2015, 05:36 AM