''Wasteland 2'' is a
post-apocalyptic
Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; ast ...
role-playing video game
A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...
developed by
inXile Entertainment
inXile Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and a studio of Xbox Game Studios based in Tustin, California. Specializing in role-playing video games, inXile was founded in 2002 by Interplay co-founder Brian Fargo. The studi ...
and published by
Deep Silver
Deep Silver is an Austrian video game publisher and a Division (business), division of Plaion. Eugenio Vitale serves as the director of games development for Deep Silver.
History
Deep Silver was announced in November 2002, with their first r ...
. It is the sequel to 1988's ''
Wasteland
Wasteland or waste land may refer to:
* Desert or barren area
* an uncultivated area of land, whether wooded or not, whether common land or not
Art, entertainment, and media Comics
* ''Wasteland'' (DC Comics), 1987–1989 anthology-style horror/ ...
'', and was successfully
crowdfunded
Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...
through
Kickstarter
Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
. After the postponement of the original release date from October 2013, it was released for
Microsoft Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...
,
OS X
macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and la ...
, and
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, whi ...
in September 2014. An enhanced version of the game, named ''Wasteland 2: Director's Cut'', was released in October 2015, including versions for
PlayStation 4
The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 i ...
,
Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
, and
Nintendo Switch
The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...
.
Gameplay
''Wasteland 2'' features a semi-overhead view with a rotatable camera.
It is a
turn-based
In video and other games, the passage of time must be handled in a way that players find fair and easy to understand. This is usually done in one of the two ways: real-time and turn-based.
Real-time
Real-time games have game time progress cont ...
and
party-based role-playing game with
tactical combat
Military tactics encompasses the art of organizing and employing fighting forces on or near the battlefield. They involve the application of four battlefield functions which are closely related – kinetic or firepower, mobility, protection or se ...
. The player's party has room for seven characters, including the four player-designed characters and up to three
non-player character
A non-player character (NPC), or non-playable character, is any character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster o ...
s (NPCs). The player characters are highly customizable and the player's choice of statistics, skills, and appearance gives them an individualized personality. The non-player characters in the party each have their own personality, motivations, opinions, and agendas.
Plot
The game is set in an
alternate history
Alternate history (also alternative history, althist, AH) is a genre of speculative fiction of stories in which one or more historical events occur and are resolved differently than in real life. As conjecture based upon historical fact, altern ...
timeline, in which a
nuclear war
Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a theoretical military conflict or prepared political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conventional warfare, nuclear w ...
between the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
and
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
took place in 1998 in relation to an
impact event
An impact event is a collision between astronomical objects causing measurable effects. Impact events have physical consequences and have been found to regularly occur in planetary systems, though the most frequent involve asteroids, comets or me ...
involving a cluster of meteors that sparked a global nuclear war. On the day of the cataclysm, a company of
U.S. Army Engineers were in the desolate
southwestern
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
desert constructing bridges in an area with a number of small
survivalist communities and a newly constructed federal
death row
Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting Capital punishment, execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of ...
prison with light industrial facilities. The soldiers sought shelter in the prison, expelled the inmates, and invited nearby survivalists to join them shortly thereafter. Years later, together they formed "the Desert Rangers, in the great tradition of the
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
and
Arizona Rangers
The Arizona Rangers is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, noncommissioned civilian auxiliary that supports law enforcement in the US, state of Arizona.
In 2002, the modern-day Arizona Rangers were officially recognized by the State of Arizona when the Le ...
", to help other survivors in the desert and beyond it.
The game begins in 2102, fifteen years after the events of the original Wasteland, with the Rangers now occupying the former Guardian Citadel, which had formerly housed deranged technology-worshipping monks (the Guardians), but is now fully under Ranger control after the monks had been wiped out by the Rangers. The experienced ranger Ace is found dead by locals with signs of violence on his body. This greatly troubles General Vargas, the leader of the Desert Rangers. General Vargas, just a few days prior, sent Ace out to investigate a strange radio signal that speaks of "man and machine becoming one" while threatening to attack and wipe out the Desert Rangers. Controlling a squad of newly recruited rangers, the player is tasked with finding out who killed Ace and why they did it, and try to complete Ace's original mission.
Arizona
The story starts at the funeral of Ace, one of the Desert Rangers featured in the original game. General Vargas, leader of the Rangers, sends the four player-created Rangers, a newly comprised Ranger team Echo-One, out to investigate Ace's murder; they also have the option of taking along Angela Deth, Ace's lover and a highly experienced Ranger. Their initial investigation requires them to go to a radio tower in the desert where Ace was attacked and killed. There they find the body of a "synth", or AI-equipped
synthetic human, that attacked him, and later disturbances at the antenna will reveal a squad of murderous robots - albeit relatively low-tech ones without proper artificial intelligence.
General Vargas is disturbed to learn of the existence of the synth, recalling the
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...
monsters (Finster, a deranged android, and Cochise, a malevolent AI) that he and his fellow Rangers fought years before in the original ''Wasteland''. He tells the recruits that they must take on Ace's original mission of installing repeater units in three radio towers in order to triangulate the location of a suspicious radio message. The first repeater is already installed; they must go to towers in Highpool (a community based around a local dam that provides the area with water) and the Ag Center (a science commune that grows genetically modified vegetables).
Things quickly get complicated as the Rangers are forced to choose between saving Highpool from raiders or the Ag Center from a lab experiment gone wrong; their choice wins them allies and acclaim from those they save, but means terrible losses for the other location (they can also fail to save both locations). The Rangers install the repeater unit in one of the two sites, and Vargas says that one last repeater needs to be installed in a town called Damonta, which is tucked away behind a wall of very high radiation and past a valley occupied by suicidal, nuke-worshipping monks.
The Rangers are able to find the mangled body of Hell Razor, another missing Ranger from Vargas' original team, in Rail Nomad's camp - he too was killed by the synths after trying to investigate them.
Ranger team Echo-One manage to find and make their way to Damonta, acquiring new allies, finding new communities and solving (or accidentally creating) crises along the way. There, instead of the bustling hub of activity they were expecting, they find Damonta torn apart by rampaging robots, with handfuls of survivors holed up in buildings. In the process of rescuing the survivors, the Rangers find a synth named Tinker installing a mechanical heart in a young girl. They kill it, and in doing so learn that it was working for another synth that plans to 'upgrade' humanity into robot bodies - whether they agree to the modifications or not.
With the repeater unit installed in Damonta, General Vargas traces the signal to Los Angeles, and sends out a helicopter with a team of crack Rangers, including Angela Deth. The player characters listen from the Ranger base as Angela and the team follow the signal to a military base, where they are attacked and their helicopter shot down. With the signal lost, Vargas sends the player's team to Los Angeles in the hope of finding out what happened.
Los Angeles
On the way, the players are forced to navigate a storm and run out of fuel, crash-landing in a crumbling factory compound in Santa Fe Springs. With the help of Lt Woodson, who survived the previous attack, they secure the compound and turn it into a Ranger outpost. Their goals are fourfold: acquire enough
zeolite
Zeolites are microporous, crystalline aluminosilicate materials commonly used as commercial adsorbents and catalysts. They mainly consist of silicon, aluminium, oxygen, and have the general formula ・y where is either a metal ion or H+. These pos ...
and cat litter to upgrade their radiation suits, allowing them passage across all of
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
; fit out more radio towers with repeaters to boost the signal back to Arizona and tell Vargas that they have survived; help out the locals with their problems to promote the Ranger name; and track down the source of the suspicious signal.
The Rangers discover that the area is occupied by a number of factions of varying degrees of hostility: there are the Mannerites, who enforce politeness with excessive violence; the Robbinsons, who believe in the triumph of the powerful over the weak; God's Militia, a group of murderously pious priests and nuns; the Children of the Citadel, a group who are encouraging people to upgrade their bodies with technological augmentations, much as Tinker did, and follow a figure named Matthias; and a band of murderous robots controlled by an AI named Dugan.
The Rangers deal with the various arguments and fights in the LA wasteland while trying to stop an unknown adversary that is trying to besmirch their good name by framing them for a series of massacres.
Ultimately the team manage to acquire the upgraded radiation suits and report back in with Vargas, who sends them on to Seal Beach, the base of the Children of the Citadel, where Angela's team crashed. There, they find the downed chopper but no sign of Angela or anyone else. Infiltrating the base - and doing battle with groups of partly upgraded cyborgs in the process - the Rangers encounter Dugan, who had previously seemed to be an enemy of Matthias. In fact, he is in league with Matthias, and was merely providing a further incentive for the citizens of Los Angeles to join the church and voluntarily allow themselves to be upgraded.
It turns out that Matthias and Dugan are two survivor Guardians from the Guardian Citadel, having fled to Los Angeles from Arizona. For the past fifteen years they have been raising an army of cyborgs and modified humans in California and plotting to destroy the Rangers in revenge for wiping out their former faction, the Guardians. In addition, Matthias and Dugan plan to revive the Base Cochise Boss AI at the current Ranger Citadel (hidden in the computers beneath it, having copied itself there after the Base Cochise destruction). The two former Guardians believe that
uploading their minds to the AI will make them achieve technological transcendence and be present in every AI host in the world, making them 'gods' ruling the world with the Children of the Citadel and Dugan's army of AI bots. Matthias tells the Rangers that the dormant security defenses in the Ranger base are now active and turned against the Rangers and that their old friends will probably all be dead by now while Dugan prepares to finish the Echo-One team off personally.
After destroying several tons of deranged machines, including Dugan himself, the Rangers acquire a helicopter and immediately fly to the Ranger Citadel in a rescue attempt. The Citadel is on fire and swarming with dangerous robots, with scores of Rangers having been killed, including one of the original Ranger heroes Thrasher. With the aid of General Vargas and those members of the Arizona wasteland that they have helped, the Rangers kill their way down to a previously inaccessible AI core, and prepare to do battle with Matthias.
However, before the fight can begin, the Base Cochise Boss AI is revived and takes over the body of Matthias (actually erasing his mind completely), his synthetic bodyguard army, and any cyborg allies that the Rangers may have acquired during the course of the game. It turns out that the AI plans to directly and remotely control all cyborgs and machines in the wasteland, either converting humans into its drones or exterminating them all.
A massive fight ensues and the Rangers are able to destroy the Boss AI minions. The Rangers learn that the Cochise AI was actually the instigator of the nuclear war by provoking the Soviets into launching nuclear missiles resulting in a war that almost destroyed the entire world. With the spread of the AI to other computers worldwide imminent, the only way to kill it appears to be by completely destroying the Ranger Citadel with a crudely jury-rigged nuclear bomb prepared by a deceased Ranger demolitions expert. One of the Rangers or their surviving allies sacrifices themselves to give the others a chance to flee. As the escape chopper soars into the irradiated skies, the former Ranger Citadel is obliterated in a ball of nuclear fire. An epilogue sequence then explains how the Rangers' actions affected each of the communities they came into contact with, and what happened to some of their more prominent allies.
Development
In 2003,
inXile Entertainment
inXile Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and a studio of Xbox Game Studios based in Tustin, California. Specializing in role-playing video games, inXile was founded in 2002 by Interplay co-founder Brian Fargo. The studi ...
, founded by ''Wasteland''s producer and co-designer,
Brian Fargo
Frank Brian Fargo (born December 15, 1962) is an American video game designer, producer, programmer and executive, and founder of Interplay Entertainment, inXile Entertainment and Robot Cache.
Biography
Early life
A descendant of the family ...
, acquired the rights to ''Wasteland'' from Electronic Arts, which had let the rights lapse and handed them to Fargo after a discussion with him. In June 2007, Fargo stated: "I am indeed looking into bringing back the game that spawned the ''
Fallout
Nuclear fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave has passed. It commonly refers to the radioac ...
'' series. Stay tuned..."
In November 2007, ''Fallout'' fan website Duck and Cover reported on possible concept art images from ''Wasteland 2'' displayed in the main header of the inXile Entertainment website.
On February 16, 2012, inXile announced their plans to have a
crowd funded
Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...
production of a new ''Wasteland'' game, inspired by
Double Fine
Double Fine Productions, Inc. is an American first-party video game developer of Xbox Game Studios based in San Francisco, California. Founded in July 2000 by Tim Schafer shortly after his departure from LucasArts, Double Fine's first two game ...
's recent success of using
Kickstarter
Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...
to fund ''
Double Fine Adventure
''Broken Age'' is a point-and-click adventure video game developed and published by Double Fine. ''Broken Age'' was game director Tim Schafer's first return to the genre since 1998's ''Grim Fandango'', and was released for Microsoft Windows, macO ...
''; it was one of a number of games to be funded in the
video game crowdfunding boom that followed the success of ''Double Fine Adventure''. Project director Brian Fargo has reassembled key team members from the original ''Wasteland'': Alan Pavlish,
Michael A. Stackpole,
Ken St. Andre
Kenneth Eugene St. Andre (born April 28, 1947) is an American fantasy author and game designer, best known for his work with ''Tunnels & Trolls'' and ''Wasteland (video game), Wasteland''. He was born in Ogden, Utah, and has been an active member ...
and
Liz Danforth
Elizabeth T. Danforth is an illustrator, editor, writer, and scenario designer for role-playing games and video games. She has worked in the game industry continuously since the mid 1970s.
Early life and education
She received her BA in Anthrop ...
, as well as the early ''Fallout'' games' designer
Jason Anderson (Anderson, however, left the company in December 2010). The composer
Mark Morgan, who created the soundtracks for ''
Fallout
Nuclear fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave has passed. It commonly refers to the radioac ...
'' and ''
Fallout 2
''Fallout 2: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game'' is a 1998 role-playing video game developed by Black Isle Studios and published by Interplay Productions. It is a sequel to ''Fallout (video game), Fallout'' (1997), featuring similar graphics and ...
'', was also hired to compose music for the game.
On March 13, 2012, the Kickstarter page for the production of ''Wasteland 2'' went live. A minimum budget of $1,000,000 was set for the project, but Fargo agreed to cover up to $100,000 if need be, should the project fall short, and the campaign's goal was set at $900,000, the largest target for any Kickstarter project at that point. Within 24 hours, the contributions totaled nearly $600,000, and the original goal was reached in under 43 hours. The "tremendous" success of the campaign made ranked number four on the ''
Complex
Complex commonly refers to:
* Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe
** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...
'' list of the biggest video game wins and fails on Kickstarter in 2012. Much of the money raised for ''Wasteland 2'' came from first-time backers of ''Double Fine Adventure''. On March 30, it was announced that, should the funded amount reach $2.1 million or more, the game's development would include
Chris Avellone
Chris Avellone is an American video game designer and comic book writer. He worked for Interplay and Obsidian Entertainment before working as a freelancer. He is best known for his work on role-playing video games such as '' Planescape: Tormen ...
. The ''Wasteland 2'' Kickstarter ended on the April 17, raising a total of $2,933,252, with an additional $107,152 in
PayPal
PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...
pledges. On April 24, it was confirmed that Obsidian developers would be working on the project.
Brian Fargo originally stated that the team aimed to ship ''Wasteland 2'' around October 2013, and on July 10, 2012 it was announced that the original ''Wasteland'' would be bundled with it. There are no plans to support any consoles or handheld devices. In August 2012, ''
Planescape: Torment'' writer/designer
Colin McComb
Colin McComb (born May 1970) is an American writer and game designer, who is best known for his work designing the Planescape setting for the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game, and as the creative lead for the role-playing video game '' Torm ...
joined the development team as a writer.
Nathan Long signed up as a co-writer two months later. The first
trailer for ''Wasteland 2'' was released on February 9, 2013, showcasing some of the story, art and gameplay, with an audio commentary from the producer Chris Keenan.
Fargo announced in July 2013 that the game was being delayed. The producer stated an intent to begin beta testing a "feature complete" version of the game at that time, with a final release date to be determined during the beta.
Release
On December 13, 2013, ''Wasteland 2'' became available as an early access beta on the
Steam
Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...
store. In May 2014, inXile announced that the release date would be at the end of August 2014.
The game was subsequently delayed to September 2014, so as to be able to fulfill physical reward and game disk requirements. In August 2014, it was announced that the game will be released on September 19, 2014.
The standard edition contains a free copy of ''Wasteland 1 - The Original Classic'', the game soundtrack and the game manual. A ''Digital Deluxe Edition'' was released on video game distribution services and contained a free copy of ''
The Bard's Tale
''The Bard's Tale'' is a fantasy role-playing video game franchise created by Michael Cranford and developed by Brian Fargo's Interplay Productions (1985–1992) and inXile Entertainment (2004–present).
The initial title of the series was ''T ...
'' and three digital novellas set in the universe of the game. In addition,
Deep Silver
Deep Silver is an Austrian video game publisher and a Division (business), division of Plaion. Eugenio Vitale serves as the director of games development for Deep Silver.
History
Deep Silver was announced in November 2002, with their first r ...
released a limited ''Ranger Edition'' available in Europe that included a collector's box, soundtrack, game manual, collector cards, a printed map of the game world, a download code for ''Wasteland 1 - The Original Classic'', and a double sided poster.
''Director's Cut''
In February 2015, the developers announced that the game would be receiving a visual upgrade with the game engine being moved to Unity 5 from Unity 4.5, as well as new gameplay features and modding tools.
On March 3, 2015, at the
Game Developers Conference
The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival, and a variety of tutori ...
Microsoft announced that ''Wasteland 2'' was in development for
Xbox One
The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...
. The following day, ''Wasteland 2'' was announced for
PlayStation 4
The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 i ...
. The console version was to be a port of the enhanced PC version of the game, then described as ''Wasteland 2: Game of the Year Edition''.
In April 2015, the developers said that it would run at 1080p resolution on both consoles. The enhanced version would be available for free to all Kickstarter backers and anyone who bought the original game.
In June 2015, ''Wasteland 2: Game of the Year Edition'' was renamed to ''Wasteland 2: Director's Cut'' and a trailer showcasing the enhanced version was released on June 23, 2015.
The Director's Cut was released digitally on October 13, 2015, with retail editions released on the same day in North America and other territories on October 16.
In February 2017, inXile partnered with
IndieBox
IndieBox was a monthly independent video games (indie game) subscription box service. Working directly with the indie game developers, IndieBox designs and manufactures boxed collector’s edition physical releases of games that are typically only ...
, a monthly
subscription box
Subscription boxes are a recurring delivery of niche products as part of a marketing strategy and a method of product distribution. Subscription boxes are used by subscription-based ecommerce businesses, referred to as "subcom" for short, which fol ...
service, to release a physical version of ''Wasteland 2: Director's Cut''. This limited collector’s edition included a
DRM-free
Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures (TPM) such as access control technologies can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works. ...
game disc, the official soundtrack, an instruction manual,
Steam
Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...
key, and various custom-designed collectible items.
Besides the visual upgrade, the Director's Cut edition featured many other improvements and additions: expanded voice-overs (with over 8,000 new lines of pre-recorded dialogue), new perks and quirks, a "Precision Strike" system allowing the player to target individual body parts to cripple or stun enemies or shatter their armour, redesigned encounters, a redesigned user interface, and controller support.
Reception
''Wasteland 2'' received generally positive reviews from critics. The game holds an aggregate score of 80.70% on
GameRankings
GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...
based on 32 reviews and a score of 81/100 on
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
based on 54 reviews.
The game generated a revenue of $1.5 million in its first 4 days of release, and sold roughly 350,000 copies by May 2015. In September 2016, Fargo stated that inXile had earned $12 million from sales of the game.
Leif Johnson of
IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
praised its story writing and branching storyline impacted by the player's choices.
Daniel Starkey of
GameSpot
''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
lauded its environmental graphics and tactical gameplay.
Alasdair Duncan of
Destructoid
''Destructoid'' is a website that was founded as a video game-focused blog in March 2006 by Yanier Gonzalez, a Cuban-American cartoonist and author. Enthusiast Gaming acquired the website in 2017, and sold it to Gamurs Group in 2022.
History
' ...
wrote it "delivers exactly what was expected".
Richard Cobbett of
Eurogamer
''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 and owned by alongside formed company Gamer Network. Its editor-in-chief is Martin Robinson.
Since 2008, it is known for the formerly eponymous games trade fair EGX ...
stated "it's very clearly made with love to be true to the original game while still learning from the games that followed."
Daniel Tack of ''
Game Informer
''Game Informer'' (''GI'', most often stylized ''gameinformer'' from the 2010s onward) is an American monthly video game magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of video games and associated consoles. It debuted in August 1991 w ...
'' called it a "triumphant heir" to the original game and praising its re-playability and audio quality.
Earnest Cavalli of
Joystiq
''Joystiq'' was a video gaming blog founded in June 2004 as part of the Weblogs, Inc. family of weblogs, now owned by AOL. It was AOL's primary video game blog, with sister blogs dealing with MMORPG gaming in general and the popular MMORPG ''W ...
criticized the game for being buggy.
Cory Banks of ''
PC Gamer
''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games ma ...
'' praised its combat and writing.
It was later given the Game of the Year award for 2014 by ''
PC World
''PC World'' (stylized as PCWorld) is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. Since 2013, it has been an online only publication.
It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal tech ...
''.
Reviews
* ''
Casus Belli
A (; ) is an act or an event that either provokes or is used to justify a war. A ''casus belli'' involves direct offenses or threats against the nation declaring the war, whereas a ' involves offenses or threats against its ally—usually one b ...
'' (v4, Issue 12 - Nov/Dec 2014)
References
External links
*
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