So . . .
Wasteland 2 . . .
Spoilers, if it matters.
It feels like
Fallout Tactics. Except less polished, less content, less options in combat, less capable AI, and much buggier than I anticipated. It started with a quaint quantum state of various characters around the citadel commenting on how pleased they were that I'd apparently helped Kate Preston become mayor of Highpool, whilst also somehow fucking everything up, letting Sean Bergin cosy up to the Red Skorpions. Even though I had, in fact, let Highpool burn in favour SCIENCE, and the fact that inexhuastible oases are, apparently, everywhere. Seriously, if they can't hold their own against two dozen raiders with kitbashed gear for a day or two, what use are they and their (eventually) repairable reservoir ? When compared with potential limited terraforming and TOMATOES ? This phenomenon of mutually exclusive quest state commentary continued intermittently for the remainder of the game.
Writing, briefly, of the combat, are enemies intended to be Olympic tier marathon specialists ? Even those armed (and presumably supported by appropriate attributes and skills) with rifles and LMGs ? The repeated absurdity of their running immense distances
in a single turn so that they can give my team a hug . . .
As for the Skorpions, I am wondering what the thought process was with regard to the prison, specifically options for resolution(s) ? Arrive, murder the RSM, chat with Jobe, find the absurdly durable and deadly turrets and their dear friend indestructible minefield, leave - head east to Damonta, find the tread, return to the prison and find everyone dead . . .
Or, arrive at the prison, chat with Red about the rad suits, leave and proceed to Damonta, grab the tread - and later find everyone dead anyway . . . EXCEPT FOR THAT PETULANT FUCK JOBE . . . all for the opportunity to play at being a veterinarian and the realisation that A : Bobby survived
Wasteland 1 and G : he is a moronic psychopath (yes, brilliant idea to destroy your entire shoddy infrastructure in a fit of pique, while conveniently missing the twit responsible for your precious dogs dying horribly) ?
I've read that the trigger for the prison slaughter is the installation of the repeater at the Damonta tower . . . I wonder what would happen if one were to acquire the tread, return to the prison without touching the tower, exterminate the RSM including Danforth and co, then return to Damonta and attend to the tower ? Probably the same goddamn thing. Or a crash.
As for minefields, I know
Wasteland 2 is deliberately retro, but why would it be designed that clicking a mine without using demolitions means that you want your group to walk onto it ? Combine this with the lacklustre pathfinding and . . .
Will concede it was mildly cathartic watching Jobe get shot to bits, though.
And what the fuck was with that endlessly dying, endlessly moaning woman on the radio at the prison, who one cannot even attempt to assist via skill or item ? Schrödinger's invalid ? Was I meant to feel sad ? Conflicted by the sudden manifestation of weepy plot child ? In the end, I was glad for the quiet.
Maps are linear and claustrophobic, can you imagine how large Quartz or Las Vegas would be ? Disappointing.
I found the opening Ag Center/Highpool dilemma to be contrived. The Rangers are shown to have vehicles (helicopters, for fucks sake !), the bloody distillery near the Rail Nomads camp has a functioning truck, so why in hell is the (apparently)
only squad in the region expected to
walk in a time of Great Crisis where it is impressed upon us via radio that every second matters ?
Between that, the live Davy Crockett in the museum (WTF ?), the bold choice to expand into LA (and immediately announce the Ranger Help Desk) with exactly
one team (who must, once again, walk everywhere), also Woodson 'forgetting' to take precautions against triangulation of his signal, leading to an 'ambush' in which he does fuck all to assist ; compels me to theorise that both Vargas and Woodson must have been replaced by synths. Or perhaps, they are simply extraordinarily vacuous.
Regarding the Rail Nomads camp - the tortoise quest was absolutely brilliant.
Too much bloody looting. I gave up in LA, as it seemed every container had some combination of trap/lock/alarm (which perception would fail to flag), and usually held nothing of value. Also, the arbitrary LA jump from a skill level of 10 being highly proficient to barely competent was rather jarring.
Also, fuck Titan canyon. Particularly, the alarm system beneath the temple. Somewhat redeemed by being able to completely devastate both the monks and the DBM for the crime of being ethically bankrupt, hypocritical, and worst of all, aggravatingly fuckheaded. Best possible resolution.
'You killed our brother who was trying to kill you while he extended protection to bandits who were trying to kill you, fetch us more sludge, and a nuke' versus 'How dare you kill our awful murderous thugs who were trying to kill you, you awful murderous thug - also, give us your weapons and fetch us a nuke'. What the fuck did they expect ?
Pity there was no option to deliberately nuke the site. In my mind, letting the synthetic sleeper agent do the honours just doesn't count.
And then that fat fucking bastard cook at the citadel has the gall to whine that I didn't bring the warhead to the Rangers ? How, exactly ? The rail lines that don't go anywhere near the citadel ? The vehicles that the Rangers are too precious to ever use ? Hammerspace trousers ?
From LA onwards, it felt as though it lost cohesion, from the uninspired search for bags, the abject lack of any actual investigation of the ominous threat (an objective which was still entirely unresolved at the end of the game) generic trader/healers placed at seemingly every map exit, NPC barks preceded with code snippets, the frequent absence of descriptive texts, vanishing NPCs, duplicate NPCs, numerous placeholder 'man' and 'woman' NPCs with endlessly repeating barks, easily broken quests and a general lack of feedback and world reactivity . . .
While I'm aware that the beta eventually ended at the transition to LA, Hollywood/Griffith in particular felt unfinished, threadbare and broken. Bad fucking luck if you happen to do any of the quests out of order, hope you've been saving like you have OCD !
The Seal Beach sequence was hilarious. How do the recruits travel there ? Do they all scavenge for cat litter and fertiliser too ? Do they swim ? You mean Dugan (ahahaha, GENOCIDAL ROBOT OVERLORD
Dugan)
wasn't directly opposed to Matthias all this time ? GOSH. HOW DEVIOUS. Certainly didn't see that coming, what with the absence of any sort of Go Kill Dugan objective before that point. Also, the complete lack of closure on the fate of Foxtrot, deliberate ? To be honest, I was almost shocked not to run into a borged Angela boss fight.
The return to the citadel was . . anticlimactic. Linear, combat heavy, no skill checks via dialogue, can't even attempt to send Matthias into a frothing, apoplectic rage (BUT . . BUT WE'RE THE GOOD GUYS
). Was amusing, though extremely cliché, when he was overwritten by Cochise. Clearly he didn't read the manual . . . PITY ABOUT ROSE AND LEX. Knew it was a very bad idea to bring them along, did so anyway out of sheer curiousity. Random thought : am I alone in being dissatisfied by being unable to try shouting paradoxes at Cochise instead of immediately resorting to the bloody museum nuke, of all things ? As antagonists
and last minute, heavily foreshadowed twists go, Cochise is immensely bland. And the whole exculpation of humanity from any direct responsibility for the war ahahahahaha. What.
Could claim to be surprised by incorrect ending slides, but it would be a lie.
Overall, it seems my hopes were unreasonably high. What a shame.
Might replay after a few patches (or else wait five to ten years for a decent fan patch
) . . . Though probably not. Which does, in fact, disappoint me, as I'd been hopeful for a worthy followup since '94, and looking forward to this particular game for the better part of the last two (?) years. TIME IS FUZZY.
)