Wasteland 2, Peter 2

I finished Wasteland 2.



Good game, overall. I enjoyed playing it.

- Combat was pretty blah, all the way through. If I could have done it again, I'd have given everyone assault rifles. They were way, way better than any other choice. Eventually, energy weapons were useful, but assault rifles always topped them. The 9 Action Points my .50 cal sniper rifle cost to do 180-200 damage from a headshot was easily topped by spending 9 AP with a 3-round headshot burst with a high-tier assault rifle doing 300+ damage. I actually topped one guy out with SMG at level 10, and then topped him out with Assault Rifle to make up for that poor choice. The guy I equipped with a handgun so he'd be useful close in was never useful with his pistol. I never found a weapon to match a top-end assault rifle, under any circumstances.

- it was generally clear what the "right" answer was and the wrong answer was. I'd have appreciated a bit more grey. My only reload-and-try-again issues were where I couldn't figure out how to trigger the good event with dialogue choices, not that I didn't know what to do.

- Occasionally I was frustrated because I got caught in conversation loops that just didn't make any sense.

- The lack of formations meant I started every fight bunched up, and the lack of surprise meant a sneaky long-range shot from cover at enemies didn't actually prevent them from reacting instantly and effectively.

- Once I hit Hollywood, the game kind of dragged. I'd play in spurts, instead of playing in marathons stopped by a desperate need to get to work or to sleep. Before that, it was the reverse.

- Again, if I could do it again, I'd have gone for higher IQ on everyone. Lack of skill points was the main slowdown for me. I actually had a desperate need for Lockpicking at one point, so I just spent an afternoon trolling for random encounters until I'd leveled up enough to buy up my Lockpicking to the needed level.

- As always in games, I ended up trucking around a lot of stuff I never used. If antivenom is useful for anything, I don't know what it is. Antibiotics? Used them once.

- I see I missed the "tell us how you want to be credited" message. The only me I could spot in the credits was a Peter D. That's got to be me, one of the 61,290.

- The end fights were good, and it was nice to get everyone I was friends with in on the action. It was odd the actual recruitable fighters didn't show. Maybe I should have left them behind, they might have been able to pitch in.

Still, I had a lot of fun, and the game is extremely visually and mood-wise an excellent post-apocalypse game. It made me feel like I need to talk andi into running a longer GURPS Gamma Terra game.