Wasteland 2: Director's Cut

 PC
User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 261 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 178 out of 261
  2. Mixed: 50 out of 261
  3. Negative: 33 out of 261

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  1. psycros
    Oct 27, 2015
    5
    As far as interface, gameplay go, this is how the game should've been from day one - the improvements are almost immediately noticeable. Unfortunately character generation suffers from a very limited variety of looks..in fact the Director's Cut actually has *fewer* visual options than the original release. There's also has far too much 80's "Road Warrior" influence. Does it really makeAs far as interface, gameplay go, this is how the game should've been from day one - the improvements are almost immediately noticeable. Unfortunately character generation suffers from a very limited variety of looks..in fact the Director's Cut actually has *fewer* visual options than the original release. There's also has far too much 80's "Road Warrior" influence. Does it really make sense that the "good guys" would mostly be sporting throwback "future punk" looks? As for the other aspects of art and design, its more than passable. Same goes for sound effects although the default volumes were much too high on my system. Strangely, the background voice acting (such as what you hear on the comms in Highpool) is much better than what's provided for the primary characters like Vargas. I was also somewhat disheartened that like nearly every game released these days, this one features R-rated language and adult situations to match its violence. We can turn off the blood in most violent games but not the fouler bits of dialogue, nor can we disable some of the less savory story elements. These days there really aren't any deep and "teen-friendly" games beyond a few JRPGs, and that's sad.

    The shortcomings I've mentioned are relatively minor and while sometimes inexplicable (like fewer chargen options) their not at all game-breaking. But there IS a major problem, and its due to one of the most common mistakes in game design: a completely broken difficulty setting. On the lowest difficulty you're basically in tutorial mode - everything is a cakewalk. Notch it up one setting higher (the de facto default) and you're going precisely nowhere. You'll be outgunned, outnumbered and outmaneuvered from the moment you set foot in the wastes..and not in the, "this is a nice challenge" way, but more the "you've got to be kidding me" way. You'll be getting slaughtered by everything that shows its face - in a game with permadeath. The difficulty jump from level one to level two is so radical that you'll think you've installed a survival mod. Field Medic and Surgeon skills are NOT optional on level 2 - and don't even think about trying a higher difficulty. Perception is also highly recommended for avoiding random encounters, which are often even harder than the regular ones.

    I don't regret Kickstarting this game simply because its a much-neglected genre that has oodles of creative potential and a grand pedigree That said, I'm pretty disappointed by industry veterans committing such a newbie design mistake. Until the badly scaled difficulty levels of Wasteland 2 are fixed you should spend your time and money elsewhere unless you enjoy a casual, R-rated "choose your own adventure" experience on the lowest setting. One other thing I've taken away from this experience: I probably won't be doing any more Kickstarters because each one I've contributed to has been a major letdown in some respect.    … Expand
  2. Artur_
    Dec 6, 2015
    6
    Another alternative to so called "AAA games": old-school perpective, equipment, team leading, tactical - not a mess - battles, reasonable story with choices. And a frustrating bugs, unfortunately game crashed quite often. AI of allied NPC - well, they never been clever. Worth playing if you are lucky to omit these bugs.
  3. Klewer
    Feb 18, 2017
    6
    I just couldn't get completely in to this. It has a good story and settings, but the combat and action parts are average and the game just takes on a grinding feel to it. Some people may enjoy it more but I think there's better alternatives out there that are similar.
  4. MR67
    May 6, 2019
    5
    A turn based shooter that plays a bit like Hard West or Divinity Original Sin 2 (but with guns). If you're a fan of the Fallout series but prefer the turn based combat of the older Fallout games then this could be worth picking up.

    I would have rated the game a 7/10 as it's good but not great (owing to a bit of a budget feel to it as it was funded on Kickstarter), but I'm deducting 2    A turn based shooter that plays a bit like Hard West or Divinity Original Sin 2 (but with guns). If you're a fan of the Fallout series but prefer the turn based combat of the older Fallout games then this could be worth picking up.

    I would have rated the game a 7/10 as it's good but not great (owing to a bit of a budget feel to it as it was funded on Kickstarter), but I'm deducting 2 points because the game does not allow you to flee combat, which is a complete deal breaker for me. I discovered this the hard way when my party engaged in combat with a couple of automated gun turrets near a gate I needed to get through. After my sniper got two shotted in one round of combat, I moved the party away from the turrets, figuring that combat would end automatically once there was some distance between us, but nope, combat just carried on. I then Googled this and found out that this is indeed the case, as the developers decided not to cater for it owing to "issues around scripting", etc. What a lame excuse. Kind of ruins immersion when my 5 surviving characters can't run away from two stationery gun turrets! As I'm the type of player who does not believe in save scumming, I quit the game in disgust and have not bothered to go back to it since then.    … Expand
  5. agurczuk
    Dec 14, 2016
    7
    Wasteland 2 scratches all the classic Fallout itches but is still a far from perfect game.

    I think this game is a mix of the classic Fallout series (1 and 2) and Fallout Tactics. Praying a lot on the nostalgia so people loving the mentioned games will feel right at home. I admit the atmosphere is there. Travelling wasteland is fun and engaging. Combat is well designed and satisfying.    Wasteland 2 scratches all the classic Fallout itches but is still a far from perfect game.

    I think this game is a mix of the classic Fallout series (1 and 2) and Fallout Tactics. Praying a lot on the nostalgia so people loving the mentioned games will feel right at home. I admit the atmosphere is there. Travelling wasteland is fun and engaging. Combat is well designed and satisfying. The quests are varied and most of the times interesting giving multiple ways to tackle the problem (most of the times at least).

    There is a steep learning curve though and having played it once I would have made a completely different starting choices. Which is a shame as I did take the original pre-defined party of characters. It's not bad but due to my choices on levelling up some characters ended up as cannon fodder rather than the useful team members.

    Guns are fun but some of the gun classes feel useless. Especially the handguns and shotguns. I wanted a varied party so had a medic with a pistol and guy who was supposed to be close combat shotgun wielder. Sadly had to re-purpose both of them changing the first into energy weapon sniper and second to standard rifleman. The shotgun just felt so useless.

    Quests for the most part are well designed though there's quite a few of 'go and fetch' ones. Some require a bit of thinking and are not all that straight forward which is a nice change from the current generation of "go to this spot and press this button" missions. However there are some really badly designed - one for example hints that there are multiple ways to approach the problem but there are actually two. And while the first one is obvious the second one unlocks only after you acquire the part required for first approach. And the part is somewhat 10-15h of game play away (out of around 60 for the whole thing in my case). That is just stupid. And you can't even go at it guns blazing as this is the only part of the game that has super turret guns killing you instantly no matter how many explosives you throw at it. Really annoying.

    There is a few quests that are not interesting especially near the end but those you can tackle with guns blazing approach which was nice. The amount of text in dialogues seem to get out of control at certain points without any real benefit to the game.

    This is also a game of two parts. The Arizona one which feels more fleshed out and the LA part which for some reasons changes mechanics, introduces completely not necessary plot lines and feels a bit rushed. It also introduces an instant spike in difficulty making all enemies two times stronger. Luckily from the get go there is a vendor selling guns that are way stronger than your current loud out.

    Graphicly it's pretty bad. I played the directors cut which should be updated version with better graphics and assets. And it still looks bad. The texture quality is pretty low, the game sometimes look worse than Fallout 2 in my opinion. The camera works sometimes really strangely. There is no tilt control, and the angle sometimes feel weird - though you can get used to it. The worst looking part must be the world map though. Such an ugly thing.

    Audio wise - there's not much to tell. Didn't notice any soundtrack. The voice acting is good although not sure why some characters have the voice and others don't (excluding the main characters of the game). The screaming goats are pretty annoying and not sure who decided it was a good idea even if meant as a joke.

    Overall I'd say a decent title. Had fun for the most part with exception of some annoying situations. Wouldn't recommend it for everyone but for all Fallout 1/2 without a shadow of doubt. Good world design, fun storyline, engaging game play, a bit disappointing ending    … Expand
  6. CoreGamer1408
    Dec 19, 2018
    7
    Not as deep a CPRG as Fallout 1/2, but way better party based combat that is a lot of fun. I'd say this was more combat heavy than story rich. Stuck playing the Rangers wasn't a problem. I mostly role play as the good guys anyway. Tactics of Lazer Squad meets a good guy Fallout lite sort of experience for sure.

    This DC version has more bells and whistles, but for the life of me this    Not as deep a CPRG as Fallout 1/2, but way better party based combat that is a lot of fun. I'd say this was more combat heavy than story rich. Stuck playing the Rangers wasn't a problem. I mostly role play as the good guys anyway. Tactics of Lazer Squad meets a good guy Fallout lite sort of experience for sure.

    This DC version has more bells and whistles, but for the life of me this looks visually worse. Yes even on the newer versions of this unity engine, so go figure. So plus one point for more polished content and minus one point for the poorer visual look. On the Steam the pubs/devs give the DC version as a free upgrade with the standard version. So one purchase with slightly two different game directions and major difference in art styles.    … Expand
  7. D3D11
    Nov 23, 2019
    6
    The game mechanics is far from Fallout. It is a lot more simplistic, which is a bad thing, though, it have interesting elements. They story line isn't interesting, the characters are not interesting at all.

    Not a bad game though and not so short, but you not going to play it twice, that's for sure.

    I looking forward to the next sequel. That can hit the nail.
  8. Arakkun
    Dec 14, 2018
    5
    Mediocre game at most.
    Gameplay is unbalanced, most weapon categories are totally unuseful for example.
    The game crashes quite often.
    Story isn't actually that great and despite the claim, you aren't that "free to do what you want".
    The graphics itself is pretty unpolished in most parts
  9. Soullex
    Nov 30, 2022
    6
    Oyun bir yerden sonra gerçekten çok tekrara bağlıyormuş gibi geliyor. Sürekli belirli siperlere geçip ateş ediyorsun.
  10. tommydlbass
    Jul 3, 2020
    6
    Es un juego que me hubiera gustado decir que he disfrutado, pero no sería totalmente cierto. La primera mitad del juego está llena de personajes y lugares interesantes, con misiones divertidas y enemigos justos. La segunda mitad está totalmente desbalanceada, y definitivamente no es tan divertida ya que se necesitan unas cuantas horas para llegar al final del juego, y es mucho másEs un juego que me hubiera gustado decir que he disfrutado, pero no sería totalmente cierto. La primera mitad del juego está llena de personajes y lugares interesantes, con misiones divertidas y enemigos justos. La segunda mitad está totalmente desbalanceada, y definitivamente no es tan divertida ya que se necesitan unas cuantas horas para llegar al final del juego, y es mucho más olvidable que la primera parte sin lugar a dudas. Muchas armas son realmente inútiles y no vale la pena utilizarlas, al igual que muchos personajes que nos pueden acompañar en la aventura son inútiles o aparecen demasiado tarde para darles un uso aparte de mandarlos a morir. El endgame es absolutamente injusto con una batalla final demasiado difícil. Si te gustan los juegos de este estilo lo recomiendo comprar en rebajas y después de mirar muchas reviews. Podría ser mucho mejor de lo que es.… Expand
  11. JackPlack
    Mar 7, 2022
    7
    Good, first 20 hours but next wasn't enought interesting. A specially linear level up/weapon progression. Better weapon skill limit is dumb. Fallout 4 progression logic is much better. Locations and opponents are also with too much linear lines. Should be more situations when need too ran and good scouts to avoid too dangerous enemies. Thats why not played Wasteland 3 until these days.Good, first 20 hours but next wasn't enought interesting. A specially linear level up/weapon progression. Better weapon skill limit is dumb. Fallout 4 progression logic is much better. Locations and opponents are also with too much linear lines. Should be more situations when need too ran and good scouts to avoid too dangerous enemies. Thats why not played Wasteland 3 until these days. Luckily Wasteland 3 many ways is better game and addictive, even if with some old weak points. (Unity every game is ugly, a specially wrong edges model connection lightning and detail/fps rate is so low)… Expand
  12. PenetratorGod
    Aug 20, 2023
    5
    Gameplay is very difficult and boring. It's not a game for everyone. Finding bullets for guns becomes a problem too quickly, and in battles too difficult to play. Story intrigues me a bit, but I don't think it's worth that much effort once I start playing.

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
87

Generally favorable reviews - based on 5 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. CD-Action
    Jan 12, 2016
    90
    This is how the only true heir to the old Fallout games should have looked from day one! [13/2015, p.70]
  2. COGconnected
    Oct 25, 2015
    85
    In the end, Wasteland 2 is good, it’s fun, and there is a ton of content. But it’s not that different, or newly ‘cut’, than it was a year ago.
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  3. Digital Chumps
    Oct 15, 2015
    90
    Director's Cut is the right term for this release; Fargo and the crew at InXile have combed through both the finer details and the high-level ones of Wasteland 2, fixing, tweaking, and adding to take it from great to excellent.
    Read full review
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