Wasteland Remastered

The original game itself isn't bad for the time, but does have flaws that make me not recommend it. In order of severity: First, I don't like the 'treasure hunt' style of campaign progression, where the only way to advance is to use one of dozens of skills or items on a particular tile on the map. For example, using your strength stat to clear rubble that looks like unclearable rubble you find everywhere else on the map, to reach an area where visually there is nothing there, because actually that region is full of enemies holding an item you need. A lot of the fault here is the remaster itself, because the map is full of background deco where before there was no art at that spot. The developers should have really made an effort to visually clarify what is deco, and what were original tiles you could interact with, but they didn't. Second, the interface is cumbersome, lots of menus and keypresses for common actions, with keypresses differing between different characters even for the same skill. Especially frequent and annoying is camping to gain HP after combat, healing 1 or 2 HP every press. You have to sit there hitting 'C' 30 times in a row, waiting for a slow animation between each press. Third, The remaster has a lot of bugs. Hit animations even when enemies did not actually attack you, playing gunfire sounds for a rabbit attacking you, showing a rat illustration for a rabbit, showing alive 3D character models during combat when they are actually dead, and more. Fourth, the remaster is lazy. Besides graphics, there are few quality of life improvements, not even the easy ones. Where are the tooltips to tell me what atttributes/skills do? Why can I not even be told how many enemies are attacking me, or are still alive? Fifth, during combat enemies do not advance closer, including enemies for whom you are out of range, letting you take pot shots forever. It really breaks the immersion. Sixth, the combat balance really gets screwed up once you get weapons that can burst or full auto. Full auto in particular; it's pretty close to just multiplying the damage by the number of bullets. The damage is even spread among multiple enemies. Suddenly a single character can instantly wipe out an enemy group that required your whole team before, which feels broken. Ammo isn't that expensive towards the mid-game, and if it just nearly multiplies damage anyway there's no reason to use single fire anymore. Seventh, the remaster has a lot of bugs. Hit animations even when enemies did not actually attack you, playing gunfire sounds for a rabbit attacking you, showing a rat illustration for a rabbit, showing alive 3D character models during combat when they are actually dead, and more.

A remaster is not a remake, which means you get the full experience of one of the foundational pillars of post-apocalyptic CRPGs, with both its charm and its struggle intact.

While this game isn't bad per se, even in the remaster it is blatantly obvious to see why the Fallout IP inspired by this one is the one that went on to be a major IP in video games. Basically my short form review is if you like retro games from before the 2000s you might like it, but else I'd just recommend play Fallout 1/2 instead, though you can get this game for super cheap in a bundle on sale. The graphics style is alright in the remaster, but its nothing spectacular and you'll easily realize how often they reuse the same image. The music is enjoyable and nothing bad to say here. The story is honestly a bit of a contrived mess that largely relies on a series of coincidences, where until Vegas nothing feels connected at all, and why the Rangers are even doing any of this. Game pacing and balance is honestly a bit of a mess, with multiple skills that are near useless, difficulty past the early game just randomly spikes and it gets ridiculous how slow you progressed in the story up until Sleeper Base, and then the game throws xp and enemies you can skill up at you, which also leads to feeling like you need to stop and grind in each new area where monsters can increase your combat skill. The game also effectively renders early weapons completely useless, which is why you see so many guides recommending ignoring pistols, smgs, rifles, and such for brawl. The pseudo tile system, isn't too bad, but with most of combat being text it does make things a bit boring and spam clickly. The also kind of requires looking up stuff on the wiki to try and figure out how certain things work and what even the stats of most weapons are. Many world progression interactions and dialogue trees are also way too finicky and you at times don't really get a good indication from the topics you know what key words, items, or skills to use. Character creation here is also very hit and miss given you either love random rolls or hate them and just view them as needless spam clicking until you get a good roll for stats. Stats as well are also horribly balanced, where Int is pretty much OP since you need it to use laser weapons, and need some for skills, and there are only 2 end game melee weapons, meaning you really can only have 2 Str based characters. Leveling non combat skills also falls right back into a grind fest, once you know where you can level them and what it caps at. UI is honestly another rough thing thanks somewhat to its age where you need way to specific click chains to do certain things and where being in certain menus locks off previous functionality. Also if you need Macros to make using skills tolerable and to not take forever your UI is inadequate.

I loved wasteland 2 and 3. I like retro games, but this game is a shrine of game design choices that oughta be left in the past.

[h1]Wasteland Remastered – 100% Completion Review[/h1] [i]All achievements earned, every quest resolved, all hidden locations found, all party builds tested[/i] [b]Wasteland Remastered is a preservation effort before anything else. It is raw, eccentric, and historically important, especially for completionists who want to understand the roots of modern CRPGs.[/b] This is the 1988 classic that inspired Fallout, rebuilt with updated visuals and sound while keeping its original systems intact. It is a game that trusts you to figure things out. Completing it fully means reading carefully, mapping manually, and accepting that mistakes are permanent. [b]The world is cruel, open-ended, and strange.[/b] You can miss entire questlines. Characters can die permanently. Some solutions are buried in odd phrasing or throwaway dialogue. But that unpredictability creates a sense of real consequence. Completion is not about checklisting, it is about survival and adaptation. [b]Combat is clunky but flexible.[/b] Every choice in squad creation matters. Balancing skills, weapons, and inventory becomes critical in the later areas. Fully clearing the game requires multiple approaches and a deep understanding of the systems beneath the surface. The remaster smooths out rough edges with sharper text, a modern interface, and voiced logbooks, but the original game still beats underneath. It remains stubborn, outdated, and fascinating. Wasteland Remastered rewards patience and curiosity. Completion is not easy, but it gives you something few games still offer, total autonomy, with all the consequences that come with it.

Without Wasteland there would be no Fallout. At times I hated this game. It's repetitive, frustrating, unnecessarily difficult and obtuse. It's confusing and not particularly pretty to look at and yet.... Here I am 85 hours of total playtime later. It's taken me a few attempts to beat the game, but beat it I have. There's something special about this game that kept bringing me back. If you're a gamer from a certain generation then i think you'll enjoy Wasteland. If you're a more modern gamer then you'll probably despise the game from the start and should avoid. Me personally however, will more than likely jump back in for another go and try out some different builds/solutions to the obstacles the game presents as you move forward.

This game is a truly remastered one, which I recommend only to those who have played the original back in the 80s. Without wearing huge "Retro"-spectacles, it's not feasible to play it a whole run through. It's not easy to command, the graphics are up- but outdated, you've to search the game (or the internet) thoroughly for hints to find certain passwords and the final grind without using macros would be tedious ! Therefore I can tell you that this game is not for the ones faint at heart or who are younger than me. By the way "The Bard's tale trilogy" is the better remaster, which has been also developed by Krome.

Note : 2,5/5 En préambule, je précise que j’évalue l’aspect REMASTERED du jeu 6 ans après sa sortie, histoire que les développeurs aient eu bien le temps de peaufiner. Je ne doute pas que le jeu d’origine sorti en 1988 était très bien à l’époque 😉 Pas la peine d’y aller par quatre chemins, je suis très déçu. J’ai grandi avec Fallout 1 (et ses suites évidemment), et j’ai longtemps ignoré l’existence de son père spirituel. Le jeu d’origine me paraissait déjà trop rébarbatif d’aspect, c’est donc avec plaisir que j’ai fait l’acquisition de sa version « Moderne ». Quelle déception ! Il n’a de moderne que sa traduction française (et c’est une très bonne nouvelle), son amélioration graphique assez timide finalement, et sa possibilité de se laisser jouer à la manette (et franchement, je n’en vois pas du tout l’intérêt). Et s’il y autre chose, ce n’est pas éclatant de visibilité… En revanche, la lourdeur de l’interface, de certaines mécaniques du système de règles et du gameplay, alors ça, je m’en serais bien passé !!! Par exemple, il y a des armes et des armures, je peux comprendre qu’en 1988, les caractéristiques de l’équipement étaient sûrement trouvables dans un manuel papier. Et bah là, rien, démerdes-toi ! C’est quoi la différence entre un flingue et un autre ? On sait pas ! Les dommages, la portée, les munitions par chargeur, les points de protection, etc., c’était si compliqué que ça d’avoir un petit encadré quand on passe la souris sur un objet ??? On va me dire, « cherche sur Internet pour trouver les infos sur des sites ». Mais je n’ai absolument rien contre, quand je joue à un jeu d’origine !! Mais pas pour un « remaster » ! Si encore, on nous avait mis le manuel à télécharger, même en Anglais, sur la page Steam, mais pffft la flemme ! Parler à un PNJ, OK dans les années 80, on adoooorait faire des dialogues à mots-clés que tu dois trouver par toi-même (surtout dans les jeux d’aventures). Mais c’est chiiiant ce système de devinettes permanentes ou on te répond « je ne sais pas de quoi tu parles » parce que tu n’as pas mis le BON mot-clé dans la BONNE forme ! Là aussi, on ne pouvait pas mettre une option « moderne » avec proposition des mots-clés pour ceux et celles qui préfèrent ? Le système d’expérience ? Misère… Seul le membre du groupe qui donne le coup fatal à un ennemi en gagne. Ah génial, donc le plus fort devient toujours plus fort, et les plus faibles se font dégommer par des ennemis, par manque de points de vie !!! Pareil, pas possible de proposer l’option ou les points d’expérience sont partagés entre tous les membres du groupe ? Comment on gagne des niveaux ? Bah comme c’était chiant de préciser à quel montant tu peux prétendre de passer un niveau, tu es bon pour passer des appels radios (c’est comme ça dans ce jeu) tous les X combats pour savoir si c’est possible ou pas. Mais à quoi sert ce dispositif ? J’aurais même accepté de devoir revenir à une base pour passer mes niveaux (comme dans les Might and Magic), mais qu’on te prévienne que c’est bon ! Vous avez des compétences comme escalade, perception, c’est chouette, mais le problème c’est que leur utilisation doit se faire à la case près, dans la bonne direction et en passant par l’interface textuelle (et des clics, youpiiii !). Vous avez envie de passer votre temps à faire des tests de perception sur chaque meuble, vous ? Dans Baldur’s Gate 1, si ta compétence était assez élevée, on te mettait l’élément en surbrillance, ou dans d’autres jeux il y a un texte descriptif qui te met la puce à l’oreille pour employer telle ou telle compétence ! Je veux bien me faire agresser par des monstres aléatoires tout les 10 pas, mais se soigner, c’est la croix et la bannière, c’est lent, il faut cliquer des dizaines de fois. L’interface d’inventaire est purement textuelle, c’est une souffrance que d’échanger des objets parmi les membres du groupe. Bon, je vais arrêter là le massacre, c’est un « remaster » paresseux (même les graphismes, ne me dites-pas qu’il n’était pas possible de faire de belles images en respectant le matériel d’origine…) à de nombreux points de vue. C’est vraiment dommage !

Es como vivir en mexico, no puedes salir sin que algo te ataque, robe o secuestre.