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Life in the Wasteland

Many gamers know the award-winning Fallout series, which are tales of epic adventures in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. However, few recognized Fallout as a spiritual successor to another game called Wasteland, published back in 1989. Widely renowned as “the original classic”, Wasteland was the first successful attempt of merging roguelike games with adventure and sci-fi elements. Without a doubt, it had a huge cult following. Last year, thousands of fans around the world rejoiced at the release of Wasteland 2, a long-awaited sequel to the original classic. Funded by a well-received Kickstarter campaign and directed by Brian Fargo, the director of the original game, Wasteland 2 quickly rose in popularity as it satisfied people loyal to the game and newcomers alike.

Wasteland 2 lets the player command a squad of fresh Desert Ranger recruits in the desolated desert in Arizona, roughly fifty years after nuclear war devastated much of the world. Throughout the game, players will need to use the strengths of their team members and any NPCs recruited along the way to overcome difficult obstacles, accomplish objectives, and survive. When starting a new game, you can pick a pre-made personality for your team or create a brand new character, along with all of his/her attributes, skills, perks, and back-story. Whether you are looking to create a lonely sniper with a demolition specialty and a depressing back-story, or a machine-gun-toting and charismatic scientist, Wasteland 2 has you covered. The key to squad creation, as explained by developers, is for you to find a way to balance the strengths and weaknesses of your squad and express your play style.

Despite the generally unforgiving and challenging nature of the game, the story and gameplay feature a balance of excitement and noteworthy factors. The multi-linear approach to a level means player will have to constantly make decisions and evaluate options. For example, when having to deal with a group of bandits blocking its way, the squad can simply go in guns blazing, persuade the bandits to let them pass, sneak around using an alternate route, or even find a nearby explosive cache to blow them up. Having a good mix of team members can help a lot in dangerous scenarios. However, just having high stats doesn’t mean some of the more difficult and morally ambiguous choices will be any easier to make. Sometimes, sacrifices will need to be made, and you’ll feel guilty for any and all of the choices you make. In this game, the choices you make could impact the fates of entire communities or beyond.

Being a huge upgrade in graphics, contents, engine, and pretty much everything else, Wasteland 2 retained fidelity to the core gameplay elements from the original classic. Wasteland 2 kept the overall tone of the game in line with what made the original Wasteland popular. It inherited many of the features from the original classic and adapted from the nerdy classic Dungeons and Dragons, namely a turn-based combat system, classic RPG attributes, the use of a complex skill and perk system to define characters, and the use of a percent change of success when performing a task similar to dice rolls. From the déjà vu of “Your life has ended in the Wasteland” Game Over screen to the familiar combination of attributes and skills, diehard followers of the original classic would find that the sequel contains a hint of nostalgia and yet, is fresh and improved.

What boosts Wasteland 2’s enjoyment and replayability, even more than the original classic, was the massive amount of content and the numerous choices the player had to make. Boasting 2.5 years in development, about 20 Gigabytes in size, and over 550,000 lines of dialogue and script (no, not computer scripts, actual scripts!), the game has to be played through more than once unlike a Call of Duty campaign. On top of that, using characters with different expertise and moral choices will also diversify the story and the outcomes, making the game, while replayable, never boring.

Wasteland, while retaining its position as one of the original classics during the dawn of gaming, would give inspiration to many of its spiritual successors and introduce gameplay elements widely used by many more. 25 years after its debut, the first direct successor to the original classic did not disappoint. With its unique blend of gameplay elements, excellent script, voice acting, and character dynamics, Wasteland 2 was seen as a sequel true to the original and will remain popular despite its overall average review.

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