Wasteland 2

[Rasix]

It's OK, I love that face. Also, there's a chance they will pull some last minute bullshit and price it at 25$ claining 15$ was only for the backers. 

Optimistic.  I'll bet you fake internet points that it's $40.

[Ingmar]

I am not disappointed in this, thus far. Haven't seen any real bugs but I imagine the early parts are the most polished. The VA isn't very good but there's not much of it.

[Zetor]

So far this game is in the "decent-to-good" category for me. Combat isn't anywhere near as good as in D:OS (I hope we get more options) but is OK. Similarly, writing/story aren't as strong as in SRR (especially Dragonfall, especially especially the Director's Cut version), but they capture the wacky post-apoc spirit of Wasteland pretty well!

One thing I'd note is that the game is freaking HUGE. The world map of Arizona? Yeah, after you're fully done with that, you have an entirely new region waiting for you with 60% of the game's total content. Madness!

[Threash]

So what's this stuff about shooting a boy and his dog and Red Ryder in highpool? i imagine its a wasteland reference but it has been too long and i didn't play the original that much.

[Ruvaldt]

In Wasteland, the first area you usually came to was Highpool, and if you killed the Chubby Kid in that town a character named Red Ryder appeared and fought you.  He was a challenge to kill, and dropped a Red Ryder rifle, though I don't think you could pick it up.  I haven't played the game in six years though so that part is hazy.  Doing this also emptied out Highpool, which was pretty neat because your actions had immediate and irreversible consequences.  It also elimated access to an affordable doctor though, as I recall.

I think Wasteland has influenced my taste in games more than any other title, and was the first real game I ever completed.  Strangely, I haven't started Wasteland 2.  Maybe I'm nervous that it won't live up to my hopes.

[lamaros]

Based on what you just said, it won't.

[Lantyssa]

Wasteland is a very difficult game to live up to.  It had tons of little hidden things, didn't hold your hand, could be brutal early on, had an extremely irreverent sense of humor, had consequences for actions, and had a new game plus well before the term had been coined.  Towards the end of the game you could actually clone characters and have them join the party in the next play through.  (Starting out you had four PC slots and three for NPCs.)

There's a reason the Fallout games were considered its spiritual successor.

Also I wasted so much of my childhood playing it.

[Signe]

Wasteland was my fav game ever for a really long time.  Maybe right up until the Fallout series.  I am extremely post-apocalyptic oriented.  I can't wait for the world to blow up so a gas mask can be part of my everyday outfit.   

[Jeff Kelly]

Yeah but does it live up to the expectations. If I'm a fan of wasteland and Fallout 1 and 2 will I like it or not?

[Teleku]

I've only played the first hour or so, but I would say yes, you should.  I'm enjoying it so far.

[Falconeer]

Yeah but does it live up to the expectations. If I'm a fan of wasteland and Fallout 1 and 2 will I like it or not?

Impossible to say. Those memories are so personal for each and everyone of us that is impossible to tell exactly what would they taste like in someone else's mouth or how we process them. The product itself is in my opinion really good, but how does it chemically reacts to YOUR memories? No one but you can answer. The original blocky pixels and the very brief flavour text left so many blank spaces that we had to fill with our own imagination that in a way we all played a different version of the original Wasteland. How the new one holds up to those uniquely customized personal versions? It's all too intimate, you gotta find out yourself.

[shiznitz]

I paid the $40 price a bit reluctantly but I wanted to support future efforts.  After a few hours, the game is fun although it does have a "discount" feel to the graphics and gameplay. I see it as 2005-ish.  I am glad they did not go crazy on the voice acting.  I am running a full custom squad at the moment - my third, actually.

I highly recommend that you have at least multiple options in the dialogue attitude skills (Kiss Ass, Hard Ass, Smart Ass) within your party as they do offer significantly different results - in a good way.

Don't be scared of melee early.  I have two bruiser types (high strength and speed) that fuck things up pretty hard.

Stay on the main quest line for at least a few levels.  I went off in a random direction and found wandering encounters with 5x my hit points.  It was ugly.  That is a good thing, though.

[Teleku]

Yeah, the game is refreshingly difficult.  My entire squad died to the first enemy I encountered.  Woops!

[Threash]

The frog?

[Ruvaldt]

Don't be scared of melee early.  I have two bruiser types (high strength and speed) that fuck things up pretty hard.

I'm very happy to hear this.  I always went melee in Wasteland with some characters because it gave double exp for melee kills.  Please let there be a proton axe somewhere...

[Xilren's Twin]

Yeah, the game is refreshingly difficult.  My entire squad died to the first enemy I encountered.  Woops!

I'll second that.  Plus killer rabbits.  Plus, you have to learn the wonder that is critical failures and friendly fire.  Don't get too comfortable that the cone of your shotgun arc is only highlighting enemies,  you might just smoke a squadmate.  I do seem to get a more critical failures than i would expect - for example, bruiser has 67% chance to kick down a door, with a 10% critical failure.  First try - normal fail.  Second try, breaks his own leg....

[shiznitz]

I love that.  It is like that crazy RPG I cannot recall in which we rolled d100s to see what crazy shit happened on 1s and 20s.

[Ruvaldt]

Might've been Rolemaster.  I loved Rolemaster.  I've integrated their d100 critical hit tables into my D&D campaigns.

As for Wasteland 2, I finally started it up last night.  I have some problems with the interface and how unresponsive it all feels.  Other than that I'm really liking it.  It also feels like Wasteland so far.  I reached the end of the first part of the main quest and was informed I should go to the Ag Center and Highpool.  I can't wait to jump back in and see what's happened to those places.

Also, if you like Fallout 1/2/BoS combat you're in for a treat.  This is pretty much a carbon copy.

[Rasix]

Also, if you like Fallout 1/2/BoS combat you're in for a treat.  This is pretty much a carbon copy.

Stop. You're weakening my resolve.

[Yegolev]

Also, if you like Fallout 1/2/BoS combat you're in for a treat.  This is pretty much a carbon copy.

If you are lying, I will find you.

[shiznitz]

He is not lying but it is a wee bit sluggish.  The animations are almost too slow.

[Yegolev]

Turn-based means I don't care.

[Ruvaldt]

It's turn-based, has action points, and essentially has the same interface for combat as Fallout did including switching weapons, etc, but with some quality of life adjustments.  I haven't seen a way to aim for specific body parts, but that could get pretty cheesy in Fallout anyway.  I also haven't looked all that hard and have only had three combats.  Those I've had have been really fun though.

And yeah, I have the same complaint about the animations.  The whole interface just feels less responsive than I would like, and the animations are slow sometimes.  Dragging items around the inventory screen is really annoying.

[shiznitz]

You can choose headshot (it is the head icon above your weapon sub-screen) at a significant to hit penalty.  This is not worth doing at early levels but I imagine will be awesome when you are fighting trash later.  I am hoping that encounter difficulty is absolute and not relative for the quest lines.

[Yegolev]

Sounds like targeted shots aren't part of the carbon copy.  Not a game-breaker, I guess, but I liked crippling legs.  I took this shot just now:

[Lantyssa]

I always went for the eyes.  With a Ripper.

[Daeven]

Yeah but does it live up to the expectations. If I'm a fan of wasteland and Fallout 1 and 2 will I like it or not?

Yes.  It feel right. And it's got the right amount of old school cRPG crunchyness along with the story instead of the usual Bioware Alien / Hero / Yoga Ball ménage à trois crap what is evidently the height of modern RPG's.

[Strazos]

So far, my main complaint I think is somewhat two-fold - performance is underwhelming on my laptop, and...for whatever reason, I may just not be into the whole look and feel of Unity engine games. The game is clearly decent, but as I felt with Shadowrun Returns, it has a slightly cheap feel to it.

Very tough to explain - the engine/interface itself just feels slightly buggy.

[Teleku]

The frog?

Yep....

[shiznitz]

The game is clearly decent, but as I felt with Shadowrun Returns, it has a slightly cheap feel to it.

This is a good description.  This game is absolutely worth $25.  $40 is aggressive but not a rip off.

[Ruvaldt]

I'm happy with my kickstarter backing, but I can understand why someone wouldn't want to pay that much/were unhappy with the cheap feeling of the game after spending $40.  I'm having a great time with it though.  Finally got to Highpool and had some excellent combats that I really had to think through including setting up ambushes.

[Lucas]

Sorry to double post it, but maybe some of you in this thread don't read the Steam gift one as often: I have a spare copy (Steam key) of Divinity:Original Sin that I'll gladly give out in exchange for a W2 key.

[Xilren's Twin]

In case you hadn't visited the Citadel yet, you can earn requisitions for special gear from Vargas and other folks there.  Just got my first named SMG. :)

[Rasix]

This feels clunky and cheap.  It could be fun, but right now it feels like a $15-20 game, not $40.  I used a gift card, so I don't feel too cheesed about overpaying.

Combat has either been a stomp (high ground + sniper = lol) or frustrating affair with lots of misses and jamming.  Ran into a random Gila monster encounter that one shot pretty much everyone.  

This kind of reminds me of Dead Man's Switch.  This needs a sort of Dragonfall touch up to make it truly outstanding.  Still more to play before I can give a definitive thumbs up or down as I'm still pretty early in.

[Strazos]

Luckily I backed it on the cheap side, so I didn't pay too much.

I may hold off on this until I get around to ordering a new PC and the rest of my furniture arrives.