Review round-up: Wasteland 2

Twenty-six years, one Kickstarter attempt and $3 million dollars later – Wasteland 2 has released.

How did it fare across the web? Not so bad. 

Two things stick out in all of the reviews: 

  1. It stays true to what Wasteland was in 1988 – only updated to manage in today's world.
  2. It has some bugs.

People who were invested in the series before will probably be just as invested this time around. Without further ado, here's how it fared:

Joystiq

Wasteland 2 is exactly the sort of game the industry should be making. It's a clear labor of love featuring clever mechanics, novel design ideas and lovely, if sparse aesthetic design.Wasteland 2 is so packed with stuff to do and things to see that the game demands multiple plays, yet its story options are so intricate that replaying the plot never seems like a chore. But all of that is overshadowed by omnipresent bugs. Most often they're benign and understandable, but when you've forgotten to save for two hours then attempt to travel back to the Ranger Citadel only to have the game crash and lose your progress, it's hard to feel anything but rage.

3/5

Eurogamer

Minor issues aside, Wasteland 2 is a great sequel. It's very clearly made with love to be true to the original game while still learning from the games that followed. In going for something so unapologetically old-school it does sacrifice the ability to do anything new with the format, as Divinity: Original Sin managed to do in many ways; that game's flexibility does arguably make it the better of this year's two old-school, turn-based computer RPGs. 

8/10

Game Informer

The game is huge and offers strategy fans a substantial serving to devour. However, even with a handy quest log, not everything for critical progress is laid out in an understandable fashion. Even players familiar with the genre may find themselves wondering how to proceed at certain points after exhausting dialogue options.

Wasteland 2 feels like a perfect execution of what inExile hoped to accomplish with this Kickstarter-fueled project, not only an excellent retro nod to the computer RPGs of decades ago, but a great RPG of today After a 26-year hiatus, this long-awaited sequel is a worthy successor to the CRPG throne.

8.75/10

PC Gamer

In my 50 hours in Wasteland 2, I mostly found myself merely annoyed by them [game issues], and almost never felt the bugs were in the way. Weighed against the sheer amount of content in the game—my 50 hours skipped entire subplots and side areas—they’re small problems. I’m already planning my second playthrough

83/100

Average: 7.76/10

Are you going to grab a copy of Wasteland 2 (have you already)? Let us know what you think!

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