The classic RPG returns
The role-playing game rises from the ashes with Wasteland Remastered. This game is an overhaul of the popular 1988 title, which brought the post-apocalypse genre to video games. It took everything the players loved from the original game and gave it a full remastering treatment. With a major graphical uplift and a massive change to the text, this game will give a classic RPG experience to modern gamers.
A blast from the past
As a classic title, Wasteland holds a special place of nostalgia in the hearts of the fans. However, old gameplay mechanics and limited interfaces have no space in modern gaming. The remastered edition handles those issues while still being true to the old school feel. Wasteland Remastered retained the story, locations, and characters of the original title. The year is still 2087, a century after an all-out nuclear war turned most of the Earth into a radioactive hellscape.
Players can still see Hell Razor, Angela Deth, Snake Vargas, and Thrasher roaming the wasteland trying to solve problems. You will still travel to places, such as High Point and the Rail Nomad Camp. Of course, they can still confront the genocidal robots in the Base Cochise. Needless to say, it is still the same game that took the gaming world over 30 years ago.
However, while it retains most of the original game—like the keyboard-based UI mechanics—some big changes happened in the game. For one, you do not need to reference a physical book to read the dialogue description anymore. Moreover, players can now make their crew from scratch. There are also new achievements that players can unlock.
Not so much change has come
Since this is a remaster, Wasteland Remastered is, of course, now more graphical-focused. The battles will have updated biting and shooting animations to make it more exciting. Furthermore, there will be brief animated cut scenes whenever you enter a new area or meet a new character. In short, the world is now more alive and immersive. The game also redesigned the background, map, and player icons and gave it a 3D aesthetic. However, enemy imagery is very close to the original sprites.
It’s as if the developers cut corners in overhauling the enemy graphics. It used the same base sprite for a bunch of different encounters. Additionally, some of the UI remains clunky. Pressing Space or Enter take you to the main menu, even though you are in the middle of combat. Moreover, you need to use the number keys or click the mouse when you want to move along to the next section of the combat. Since the game doesn’t use a mouse pointer, this maneuver is not very intuitive.
You also still need to take notes of keywords to type during dialogue—although the in-game journal highlighted most of them. Moreover, just like the original, the game breaks all the text in paragraphs. If you are an old fan, this is a welcome move because you don’t have to familiarize yourself with it. However, if you are a new player, you’re in for a bad time. You’ll be totally lost in figuring out this old-school mechanics. Luckily, there is a Getting Started welcome post available.
Still an old school game
Graphics aside, Wasteland Remastered is still the old-school game from 32 years ago. Sure, there are massive changes in the text and there is a high level of difficulty, but the mechanics are the same. It also doesn’t help that the game comes with a clunky UI. All in all, new players may have a hard time liking this game.
