Wasteland 2 - Review Roundup #3

Couchpotato

Couchpotato

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Here is the third round of reviews for Wasteland 2 this week. Most of the reviews are very positive, but I did find one average review that most won't like to read.

But first I have a new update the game has made $1.5 million is sales this week.
inXile Entertainment has just announced that its post apocalyptic turn based adventure role playing game Wasteland 2 has generated over $1.5 million in revenue since launching last week on September 19th via Steam in just four days. Brain Fargo of inXile Entertainment said:

“We are ecstatic that the style of game we love so much has been embraced so well.”

If you want to number crunch, then if the game is being sold for £29.99 you could argue the game has sold just over 50,000 units.
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Now lets get started with the reviews that I posted in no particular order.

Shack News - 8/10
Wasteland 2 has everything a deep role-playing game should: a large open world, multiple decision paths, and a satisfying mix of serious themes and dark comedy. It can be a long journey, and one where the end is nowhere in sight, but it's an experience that's easy to get lost in.
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Gamespot - 8/10
Wasteland 2 represents everything about classic computer role-playing games that the modern iterations of Fallout aren't. Where Fallout 3 gives you an extreme amount of general latitude, Wasteland 2 focuses on the narrative minutiae and tangible consequences of your individual actions.
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IGN - 8.4/10
Wasteland 2 might not be the prettiest CRPG to hit digital shelves this year, but it captures the harsh hypothetical realities of the post-apocalyptic American Southwest with excellent writing, decisions with terrifying consequences, and background voice work that reinforce the human suffering that results from them. It's a game about the power of choices, and the few remaining glitches and issues with its combat do little to diminish its power.
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Destructoid - 8/10
Wasteland 2 is an expansive game that demands to be replayed again and again to get the best out of it. While a lot of the detailed mechanics feel somewhat archaic, they're not going to hold back dedicated players who want to micromanage and really role play their group of characters. It has all of the familiar elements and even if some aspects of its presentation are not quite up to modern standards, its design and gameplay are timeless and welcome.
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Gizorama - 4.5/5
You know a game is good, when your real-life concerns morph into worries of how well your squad is equipped for their next encounter. And Wasteland 2 does that the best. Gone are the thoughts about the next day of work or school. You have more pressing concerns now. The water pumps of a post-apocalyptic town are about to explode!
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VideoGamer - 6/10
It’s not a bad game, and it’s worth playing for the plot and setting alone. But it’s not a great RPG, and that’s a problem, because it’s an RPG. Somehow, it amounts to less than the sum of its parts.
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More information.
 
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This VideoGamer guy is a total whiner.

I play this game on Ranger difficulty and have no problems with too much jams or "unbalanced skills". Train them if you need them!!
 
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I'm gonna play on baby level till I get my feet wet. I haven't played a survival type game in a while, so I want the game to take it easy on me :)
 
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Well I have my guns jam almost every second, or third attack in every battle. It seems they did this just to make the fight harder then they are.

And yes my rangers are well trained, and it still happens. This won't stop me from finishing the game, but it does get annoying on every difficulty level.:)
HiddenX said:
This VideoGamer guy is a total whiner.
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That I can agree on as the game is definitely not a 6/10.
 
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The videogamer review shows that the rreviewer likes easy and short games and probably doesn't know what good RPG is. He should have spent more time with game and change his attitude - not every game will hold your hand and tell you how to win all fights/encounters without challenging you. It is the same attitude that gave Battleguards lots of low/mediocre scores. You can't judge the whole game by first "five minutes" (or five hours) and saying to everyone the game sucks because it's not as easy at the beginning as you would like it.
 
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Couchpotato said:
Well I have my guns jam almost every second, or third attack in every battle. It seems they did this just to make the fight harder then they are.

And yes my rangers are well trained, and it still happens. This won't stop me from finishing the game, but it does get annoying on every difficulty level.:)
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Couch, by chance are you using the sturdy or high capacity mag attachments to your weapons?

I'm playing on Ranger difficulty and have nearly eliminated jams. Of course it depends on the weapon. The sturdy mag has cut down most jam percentages to either 1-2% and in some cases zero.
 
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spiraling69 said:
Couch, by chance are you using the sturdy or high capacity mag attachments to your weapons?

I'm playing on Ranger difficulty and have nearly eliminated jams. Of course it depends on the weapon. The sturdy mag has cut down most jam percentages to either 1-2% and in some cases zero.
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Four of my Rangers have the sturdy mag attachments the other two have the high capacity mag. Though even without the attachments my rangers weapons jam.

Also word of warning don't buy any knockoff weapons in the game. I learned that lesson the hard way as it saves you money, but the guns are terrible.
 
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"Wasteland 2 represents everything about classic computer role-playing games that the modern iterations of Fallout aren't. Where Fallout 3 gives you an extreme amount of general latitude, Wasteland 2 focuses on the narrative minutiae and tangible consequences of your individual actions."

This sums it up nicely, and it's from...Gamespot??? I'm impressed.
 
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Well the full quote is larger as I made it smaller to fit the front-page.
In many ways, though, Wasteland 2 represents everything about classic computer role-playing games that the modern iterations of Fallout aren't. Where Fallout 3 gives you an extreme amount of general latitude, Wasteland 2 focuses on the narrative minutiae and tangible consequences of your individual actions. Where Fallout 3 tries to craft a broad world that feels whole, Wasteland 2 loosely strings together several locations with hidden connections, with secrets waiting to be discovered and picked over. And where Fallout masterfully uses comedy to lambast the ludicrous tone of paranoia surrounding Cold War America, Wasteland 2 attacks the natural arrogance of the individual. It forces us to confront the painful truth of our own blind self-righteousness, and shows us how childish our own grand plans truly are.
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Posted it here in-case no one visits the site.:)
 
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And still I agree. With Gamespot. And IGN. I expected the good reviews with D:OS because even though it's turn based it still feels more accessible (though not dumbed down) than WL2. But I never thought the big sites would also be praising WL2. Maybe now I'll actually have to start visiting those sites once in a while? Nah, I'll just let you do it Couch, and I can stay here on the Watch where it's nice and cozy.
 
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tomasp3n said:
And still I agree. With Gamespot. And IGN. I expected the good reviews with D:OS because even though it's turn based it still feels more accessible (though not dumbed down) than WL2. But I never thought the big sites would also be praising WL2 .
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I don't know I'm still mad at them for the poor Risen 3 review scores, but your right. I also never expected the larger reviews sites to give the game good scores.:celebrate:
 
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Well, we all know IGN is not likely to give a game like this 8.4 unless they really like it, so that's one more sign I need to give it another go :)
 
I'm finding the game fun - but the weapons you have make a profound difference. I was using lower-end weapons and getting badly banged up, finally saved money to upgrade and *wham* fights became much, much easier. My own stats/attributes seem to have limited impact. I'm playing on normal difficulty. The gun jams are quite irritating - and way more frequent than is resonable I think. I do not have many mods on my weapons, and only one that reduces jamming frequency. Can you only have one mod per weapon? So far it's about a 7.5-9.0/10 for me - it does feel tedious at times after 20 hours or so.
 
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I don't understand the complaints about difficulty, when you can select it. Is the normal difficulty frustrating? Choose the easy setting. Does it itch you to know you're playing on easy?
 
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Malkavian said:
But that's what RNG means and how RNG works. It's very possible that he has lots of jams and you only a few.
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No - a random number generator approximates a normal distribution.
After 30 hours every gamer should experience overall roughly the same number of jams if they have similar stats and weapons.

Pro tip:
Only use weapons with a jam probability <= 3%
Enhance your weapon skill (only one!)
Don't dump your Luck-stat too much
Learn a melee skill, too.
 
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booboo said:
Can you only have one mod per weapon? so.
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Depends on the weapon. You can only have 1 mod of a type on a weapon (eg barrel or magazine), but some guns will take up to 4 types of mods, letting you do a fair bit of upgrading to them. Right-click on them to see what they can take. I don't sell any of my old guns, I break them all apart for parts with my weaponsmith for the upgrades (and sell the excess upgrades instead)
 
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They are many reasons. One, players over 30 hours have no reason to have the same number of shots.
Two and most: over 30 hours, players do not have taken (and by far) enough shots for the normalization to materialize.

booboo said:
I'm finding the game fun - but the weapons you have make a profound difference. I was using lower-end weapons and getting badly banged up, finally saved money to upgrade and *wham* fights became much, much easier. My own stats/attributes seem to have limited impact. I'm playing on normal difficulty. The gun jams are quite irritating - and way more frequent than is resonable I think. I do not have many mods on my weapons, and only one that reduces jamming frequency. Can you only have one mod per weapon? So far it's about a 7.5-9.0/10 for me - it does feel tedious at times after 20 hours or so.
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That is the problem with this type of turn based games: the reliability of the estimates.
How often the lower estimates show up and how often the higher estimates do not show up.
This game does not escape that.

The relationship between attributes and skills is yet to be tested. Getting proficient in a certain skill will ramp up the efficiency.

It is turn based "ugoigo" so the same old applies. Putting some effort in deployment (before engagment) determines for the most the outcome of the encounter.

I am playing on ranger difficulty, the party is still working on the starting equipment or the loot, I have not reported for some time and the characters are probably all two or three promotions behind as I dont know how to spend the points. So I am saving.

Turn based "UgoIgo", always the same recipe: time and methology.
 
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