toblix

Wasteland 2

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Is this a bug or just me not understanding what I'm supposed to do?

 

I entered a house in Highpool and Jess-Belle asked me to get rid of the guys trying to break into her safe. So I went in there and in the dialog, I used hard-ass to make one of them run away. The other two just stand there and do nothing unless I attack them. I tried going back to Jess-Belle and she just continued asking for help, so I went back and killed them, then went back to her again, and she was still saying the same thing. I also tried reloading my save and letting the guys get into the safe, then taking its contents and going back to her, but whatever the case, she just keeps acting like the guys are still in there trying to open the safe. Is there some other condition I have to satisfy that I'm missing?

 

Edit: After some more experimentation, it seems like the only way to make it work is to kill all three guys; if one of them runs away, she thinks they're still in there. That kind of sucks; I wanted to use my hard-ass. :(

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Also, does this game have any concept of sneaking? I keep wanting to get all my dudes spread out into advantageous positions and then instigate combat by taking the first shot, but I don't have a good sense of how close I can get before the enemies notice me.

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Also, does this game have any concept of sneaking? I keep wanting to get all my dudes spread out into advantageous positions and then instigate combat by taking the first shot, but I don't have a good sense of how close I can get before the enemies notice me.

 

When animals are facing away from me, I have been able to walk up to them and use my Animal Whisperer skill successfully before they begin combat.  Maybe that's the extent of stealth in this game?

 

For human enemies, I position my characters with long-range weapons first, but it's pretty useless to try and position my characters with shotguns, etc.

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The combat turned around for me when I dumped a ton of skill points into sniper rifles for a recruited NPC. The lack of sneaking is odd but I'm having fun initiating combat with a usually-lethal sniper shot. I've returned to the prison after exploring the world, spoiler for those stuck there:

 

I blew up Red's turrets and kicked down the door and he got over it very quickly. I am guessing that there is no working Preferred Customer Access Code. Once you talk to him, he sends you back to Ranger Citadel! I found rad suits there. Vargas initially said that the citadel would be open once I put two repeater units on two towers, but I was let in after just putting up the one.

 

My party is seven strong and armed to the teeth. Ammo is not an issue. I tried for a good while to find a way to talk or sneak my way into the prison but its denizens might as well be killer robots. I've decided that the game doesn't punish you for massacring jerks, in fact it awards you, so the genocidal campaign against Redd Skorpionz Managment Incorporated LTD *R has begun. In a universe like this there is the opportunity to show bad the guys as nuanced or useful or manipulable, but unfortunately they are just rabid animals that need to be put down. The combat is a lot of fun so I will oblige.

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Also, does this game have any concept of sneaking? I keep wanting to get all my dudes spread out into advantageous positions and then instigate combat by taking the first shot, but I don't have a good sense of how close I can get before the enemies notice me.

 

Not direct sneaking, no.  I have found one side quest where there was a non-combat route through a building that required me to have fairly high levels in 4 skills, but that's about it. 

 

My goat is still alive.

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The combat turned around for me when I dumped a ton of skill points into sniper rifles for a recruited NPC. The lack of sneaking is odd but I'm having fun initiating combat with a usually-lethal sniper shot. I've returned to the prison after exploring the world, spoiler for those stuck there:

I blew up Red's turrets and kicked down the door and he got over it very quickly. I am guessing that there is no working Preferred Customer Access Code. Once you talk to him, he sends you back to Ranger Citadel! I found rad suits there. Vargas initially said that the citadel would be open once I put two repeater units on two towers, but I was let in after just putting up the one.

 

It's "rosebud." The only way you know it is if you remember it from the previous game. The fact that the game makes you think there's an internal solution to the quest when it's really only possible with external (and somewhat obscure) knowledge sums up my grips with a game I am otherwise enjoying a lot. For instance, I think the whole "toaster repair" thing is dumb and I don't like that you get access to all this crazy and interesting content only by dumping points in a joke skill.

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It's "rosebud." The only way you know it is if you remember it from the previous game. The fact that the game makes you think there's an internal solution to the quest when it's really only possible with external (and somewhat obscure) knowledge sums up my grips with a game I am otherwise enjoying a lot. For instance, I think the whole "toaster repair" thing is dumb and I don't like that you get access to all this crazy and interesting content only by dumping points in a joke skill.

 

I figured when 3 people all told me wrong passwords there's an alternate route. You can go in the caves with a few packs of max 3 honey badgers to get to him. You also get to charm around 5 goats before meeting him.

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Bouncing off this so hard. I started a new game, built a new team and stopped playing again when another of my characters died of friendly fire. Does the writing get better later? So far I haven't encountered anything that was interesting or pleasurable in the writing. Just run of the mill cliched post-apocalyptic writing and sand. I don't get what part of this game should be pulling me to continue playing it.

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Does the writing get better later? So far I haven't encountered anything that was interesting or pleasurable in the writing.

 

Um, one of the recruitable NPCs keeps shouting "Come and get it, candy-ass!" in combat.  Is that pleasurable?

 

The writing improves marginally; once I got into the Citadel it was obvious that they put a lot of though into the Rangers and their personalities.  But I don't know how far that will get with you.

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I'm actually really enjoying the writing and story, particularly compared to most other video games. Sure, it is pretty stock post-apocalyptic stuff.  But compared to something like Bethesda's Fallout 3 (or Skyrim), it's great.  Of course I find those games to alternate mostly between forgettable and grating.

 

I'm a bit frustrated with combat, but that's mostly from feeling overly reliant on my one Assault Rifle character (according to the stats, she's done as much damage as all my other characters combined).   The damage, range and AP use of the ARs I've seen just really outshine almost all the other weapons. 

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Assault rifles and Snipers seem to be pretty much the best and only necessary firearms in the game. Shotguns are next to useless since to get in range to be effective you're almost close enough to just use melee weapons anyway, which seem to be balanced pretty fairly against firearms.

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Yeah, my shotgun character is by far my biggest disappointment.  She's occasionally useful when she can hit 2-3 enemies in a shot, but that's not consistent and the damage still lags behind the ARs.  Plus there are rounds she can't fire due to friendly fire.  I do have a pistol user I'm pretty happy with.  I ended up switching the NPC Rose over to ARs, since I already had one pistol user and saw no reason to have a second. 

 

My sniper is my non-combat character, max Int and Cha with almost all points focused in non-com skills (except for a single point in Sniper).  He also has TERRIBLE initiative, so he goes once for every 2-3 times my other characters go. So I can't say I have a good feel for how good snipers are.

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I haven't tried melee yet but shotguns are good for hitting multiple targets when they line up. They'd probably be better if the character had another weapon available but even the cone size difference between a coach(?) gun and some wider shotgun make a big difference in how you can use them. 

 

Are you guys using the free aim mode for shotguns? It's the red crosshair in the upper left of the weapon frame or if you hold down control. Also crouching helps when you got a few melee opponents that aren't going to move for a few turns, it's bound to ; or ' by default.

 

I got more interested in the storyline/world after I got to into the citadel, the ag center really wasn't at all interesting. 

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I got more interested in the storyline/world after I got to into the citadel, the ag center really wasn't at all interesting. 

 

As I understand it, Highpool is even more barren. Beyond the rolling battle to break the siege, which was fun enough, there was barely anything to do in the town. A couple of good deeds to make, but barely any conversation, and no reason ever to return.

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As I understand it, Highpool is even more barren. Beyond the rolling battle to break the siege, which was fun enough, there was barely anything to do in the town. A couple of good deeds to make, but barely any conversation, and no reason ever to return.

 

That sounds very similar to the Highpool I got to after Ag Center. I shot a few lizards and traffic sign raiders and found a broken radio tower.

 

edit: The 1st radio tower where Ace was killed is ok but the whole Ag center felt like a combat/environment tutorial area with those annoying frag grenade mutant tomato pods. 

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Are you guys using the free aim mode for shotguns? It's the red crosshair in the upper left of the weapon frame or if you hold down control. Also crouching helps when you got a few melee opponents that aren't going to move for a few turns, it's bound to ; or ' by default.

 

Yeah, that does help a bunch, particularly when trying to avoid friendly fire.

 

I thought the Ag Center was cool.  Almost each area had an interesting NPC and it balanced the horror of reality with humor well for me.  It kind of sounds like this is just hitting the right notes for me, but bouncing off a bunch of other people. 

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Are you guys using the free aim mode for shotguns? It's the red crosshair in the upper left of the weapon frame or if you hold down control. Also crouching helps when you got a few melee opponents that aren't going to move for a few turns, it's bound to ; or ' by default.

 

Yeah, that does help a bunch, particularly when trying to avoid friendly fire.

 

I thought the Ag Center was cool.  Almost each area had an interesting NPC and it balanced the horror of reality with humor well for me.  It kind of sounds like this is just hitting the right notes for me, but bouncing off a bunch of other people. 

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I thought the Ag Center was cool.  Almost each area had an interesting NPC and it balanced the horror of reality with humor well for me.  It kind of sounds like this is just hitting the right notes for me, but bouncing off a bunch of other people. 

 

I assume the Ag Center is cool. Highpool is not. It feels a little spare on content, like they assumed everyone would choose the Ag Center, which I don't quite get, because I chose Highpool for it being closer. Maybe they expected people to know the Ag Center from the previews? Highpool, you just roll in, kill a dozen guys, fix three or four things, and you're done with the area.

 

And I just fell off the game last night for the first time since starting. I got to the Rail Nomads after getting as far as I could at the Prison, and man, what a huge, empty map full of nothing. There's maybe a dozen people to talk to in what is easily the largest area that I've been to yet, but they're hard to find with the busy art design and there are no real quests anyway, besides the big one. This is exactly what I was afraid of when I saw some of the previews. I feel like people should look to Shadowrun Returns for how a kickstarter can make a small RPG that feels big, because going with this more traditional model keeps bumming me out.

 

Sorry, I don't mean to be a downer. The Rail Nomads is the first place to make me feel like I'm playing something cheap and rushed, so I think I'm just in shock.

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The Ag Center is like 5 areas, each with combat and side quests and at least one or two interesting NPCs.  Going through Highpool first doesn't sound much different than going through it second, there's still just some stuff to murder, just nobody to talk to.

 

The Rail Nomads has so far been the most disappointing area to me.  It started great (with the opening emergency), but then it just kind of feels like a generic, RPG town that I have to explore.  It's too big.  I hate big towns in RPGs.  I tend to find them exhausting to get through.

 

And I'm only in the first area.  There's at least another area (maybe 2) I have to go through.

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At the rail nomads camp, I keep making the mistake of walking to a location more than three squares away.

 

Walking outside of camp, my team will step on landmine after landmine without stopping because I've made them walk too far.

 

Also, inside the sacred temple of whatever, I clicked on a dude to talk to him, then turned away from the screen for a moment.  When I came back I was in combat, being hacked and machine gunned to death.  Apparently the dude I wanted to talk to was too close to the sacred temple's sacred object, so the entire security force warned my party, warned them again, then attacked, but my party moved too fast for those warnings to make any difference.

 

I'm crossing a lot of invisible boundaries! 

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Do you have anyone with a high perception to spot the landmines at a distance?  You still have to stop and disarm them, or send someone through by themselves to explore (or one at a time if you need everyone on the other side), but it does speed the process up. 

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Do you have anyone with a high perception to spot the landmines at a distance?  You still have to stop and disarm them, or send someone through by themselves to explore (or one at a time if you need everyone on the other side), but it does speed the process up. 

 

I could swear that Fallout: Tactics had an "auto-disarm all mines spotted" button that you could toggle on and off for individual characters. Maybe it's too hard to code, or maybe they didn't play Fallout: Tactics for the bastardization of the original franchise that it represented.

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Do you have a high perception character with the perceive circle turned on? Anything outside the circle is mines.

 

I liked rail nomad. The walking back and forth took maybe 5 or 10 minutes too long but oh well.

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Sweet review from Super Bunnyhop.

 

"Wasteland 2 is a grower, not a shower."

 

:eyebrow:

 

:innocent:

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