It's also just a preamble to the stuff you'll hear once your group advances to places filled with the oh-so-proper factions like the 'Mannerites' in California, and they help to emphasize that your choices have meaning and that there's a world that exists beyond the immediate action in front of you. The voice work in such cases is uncommonly good in fact, it's rather disturbing. A memorable early quest forces you to choose to save either the inhabitants of Hightown or the Ag Center, for instance, and you'll have to listen to the tragic fate of the town you didn't choose over the radio. What voice work there is in Wasteland 2 is wisely put to effective use. On the other hand, much as in Divinity: Original Sin, Wasteland 2's quest objectives are often frustratingly unclear, and I did run into the occasional bug that impeded my quest progress if I deviated from what must have been the proper sequence of events. Thanks to good writing, it's a world that often feels real. It's a world where a character with the 'hard ass' trait can usually bully necessary items out of wary townsfolk without a fight. However, I liked how it rewarded my taking the time and attention to read carefully with not just a considerable dose of dark humor and descriptive depth, but also a wealth of choices that depend on the passive skills of your party members. If you’re in a hurry, you’ll see only the highlighted key words and objectives you need to complete your mission. For example, it disavows heavy voice acting for quests in favor of reams of text. Everything afterwards reveals an old-fashioned drive to make you work for your satisfaction. That flashy cutscene is one of Wasteland 2's few nods to the sensibilities of the modern era.

They're imperfect and flawed, and much of the following story gains its momentum from the surrounding populaces' unwillingness to trust them after past failings. Our heroes are the Desert Rangers they're not The Avengers. Play A surprisingly competent live-action cutscene introduces us to a band of grizzly-bearded biker types and hard-eyed women.

Download wasteland 2 metacritic