Wasteland 2 Beta Previews

A pair of new previews based around hands-on time with the beta version of inXile Entertainment’s Wasteland sequel have emerged on the web, starting with this relatively detailed piece over at IncGamers:

No matter which choices you make, Wasteland 2 seems to do a pretty good job of both rewarding and punishing you for them. One minute you’ll be trudging smugly past a rowdy bandit gatekeeper after intimidating her with your ‘˜Hardass’ dialogue skills, the next you’ll be stuck in a basement with killer maggots, bereft of ammo and relying on the only person in your group who can kill things by hitting them with blunt objects.

Relatively early in the game, you’re forced to make a choice between saving an Agricultural Center or a settlement called Highpool. Going with the food-producing building seems like an obvious priority, until you learn that Highpool is the place supplying most nearby areas with water.

I chose the Ag Center, purely on the basis that their problem was (our plants are out of control) and that sounded funny. After killing a tag-team of giant flies and maggots in turn-based combat, the commander of the Ag place yelled at me for being late. That’s one of the refreshing things about Wasteland 2. Nobody treats you like a hero or some kind of post-apocalyptic Jesus. You’re just a bunch of Desert Ranger recruits who nobody really believes they can rely on. You’re the DMV with guns and a can-mostly-do attitude.

And then we stop by Game Debate for some more impressions:

The desolate world is also filled with NPC’s and some are offering lots of information via an interesting chat system (certain words will be highlighted and added to your vocabulary to enquire about as the conversation proceeds).

Wasteland 2 is also full of decisions and consequences, some are small like attempting to pick a lock early on with low skill level can destroy the lock forever to much bigger decisions that will decide the fate of entire towns and NPC’s, who you decide to save or let die is up to you but you’ll inevitably have to face the consequences later on.

Now onto Enemy encounters, this is probably my favourite part as I’m a big fan of tactical combat. Once you encounter Enemies the game will switch from free roaming to turn-based where you’ll have a set number of AP (Action Points ) to use on movement, crouching, reloading, unjamming weapons, single round shots and burst fire.