Wasteland 2 Previews

A few more beta-based previews of inXile’s Wasteland 2 made their way to the ‘net over the past several days, so it’s time to don your survival kit and do some more reading and viewing.

RPGFan starts things off:

Wasteland 2 puts you in control of four Desert Rangers, an elite peacekeeping force tasked with maintaining order in and around the nuclear desolation of the western United States. The four party members are completely customizable, allowing you to bring friends and family into the gloriously dark fun of the wastes. Character customization currently features just the right amount of freedom without leaving players feeling too lost. Want to have a burly tank who punishes foes with a board with a nail in it? Go for it! Or perhaps you want a loquacious sycophant to take care of sweet talking his/her way through danger. W2 allows you to specialize your party for just about any danger, giving each character a distinct role in the party. I spent a great deal of time trying to cover all of my bases before setting out for adventure, but, thankfully, the party levels up quite quickly with a generous number of skill points to allow for substantial experimentation.

Strong writing is the hallmark of the classic cRPG (the “c” standing for “computer,” for those born after 2000), and Wasteland 2 brims with atmosphere and wonderful dark comedy. Raiders attacking friendly encampments seem rather blasé, but there’s also a science station developing a particularly dangerous brand of flora and fauna. There’s a strong representation of known science fiction tropes, but they are told well with a great deal of humor. A wonderful printer on the bottom of the screen narrates your adventures, and it had me giggling over and over again. It’s great to read, “It’s a door. You’ve seen many like it,” when you examine a piece of wood guarding a portal to another room.

Leviathyn picks up where they left off:

There are no umbrella combat paths like ‘˜small guns’ or ‘˜two-handed,’ instead characters need specialize in individual weapon types like SMGs or sniper rifles (pro-tip: sniper rifles are incredibly powerful but their ammo is expensive and rare, especially in the early game). With several different types of ammo (think Fallout) it pays to have your weapon skills spread out amongst your party.

Some skills should be familiar to any cRPG fan lockpicking, demolitions, medic, while others provide some more unique abilities to solve certain situations. Animal Whisperer lets you essentially charm animals in combat, making them run away, and solve certain quests. Perception highlights traps and secret caches that you can dig up with your trusty shovel. Leadership provides a small but valuable buff to the rest of your teammates, and more importantly keeps any additional party members you acquire from entering an out of control Rambo state.

And then The Mittani goes for a gameplay-filled video preview: