Wasteland 2 - GameBanshee Review

InXile has done a good job offering a large amount of opportunity to use most skills, either because they feed directly into the game's core systems, or because checks for those skills were handplaced in many areas. Even skills like Outdoorsman, Animal Whisperer and Mechanical Repair can occasionally solve a quest, and, as one might expect, checks abound for skills like Computer Science. As for combat skills, Wasteland 2 has a large number of them, but still manages to make every weapon category feel distinct. The game also does a good job of giving every weapon type a similar progression from low-level to high-level weapons, so every combat build feels viable (if not optimal) throughout the entire game.

I do, however, take issue with some aspects of Wasteland 2's skill system. There are a number of balance problems with combat skills (at the moment, Assault Rifles are the de facto kings of all weapons) and a few of the general and knowledge skills are underused (Mechanical Repair, in particular, becomes useless past Arizona), for starters. The way skill checks are implemented (percentile checks with a chance for critical failure that can otherwise be repeated indefinitely) also rewards players for wasting their time rather than building their characters properly, an issue compounded by the large amount of skill checks present in the game. Finally, too many of the skills boil down to small variations of the same theme: Lockpicking, Safecracking, Toaster Repair, and even Brute Force and Computer Science to some extent, are all used to open containers and doors.

Fair review and it's mostly what I got out of it as well. This may sound strange, but as I am nearing the end of Dragon Age Inquisition right now, the two games feel like two ends of the spectrum. I almost wish I could combine them, as everything that's positive about Wasteland 2 is neglected in DAI and vica versa:

DAI:

+ Fantastic main plot
+ Great characters (party members)

+ AAA blockbuster game, insane graphics, incredible setpieces
+ Tons of perks, extensive skills trees

- Downright stupid & simple MMO sidequests
- "Hold your hand" minimap & quests "go here" "pick up this"

- Not much strategy or challenge to combat, not even with friendly fire and on higher difficulty

- World feels somewhat empty, not much interaction with it at all.

Wasteland 2
- Dull and generic main plot,
- Under developed partymembers/NPCs (I can't even talk to them)
- Indie look & feel, graphics are bland, camera annoying
- Underdeveloped skill tree & no perks

+ Amazing sidequests with multiple outcomes
+ Let's me figure stuff out on my own, can be a challenge to find what to do in a good way

+ Combat is a ton of fun and quite challenging
+ World feels alive and shapes to events, interaction feels right and meaningfull

Originally Posted by Corwin
Isn't it obvious?? Picklocks is for when a key is required while safecracking is needed for a combination lock which has no keyhole!!

Originally Posted by joxer
Won't spoil the read, it's a nice review, I love the conclusion.

But there is an interesting user comment below the review:


Just to correct this. DA3 world doesn't feel empty at all. It respawns mobs every single second.
HOSTILE mobs.
I just hope Wasteland 2 doesn't do that.

Originally Posted by Silver
I've found mechanical repair quite useful to repair safes that I critically fail the first time. In fact I have used it much more past Arizona as you can use it to repair robots under your control.

Originally Posted by Caidh
Oh my god - I never even thought of using Mechanical Repair on things I broke through critical failures. Seems obvious once you mention it but NEVER thought of it.