Wasteland 2 was just released via Steam Early Access last Friday. and after installing it many gamers were distraught to see that right there on the main menu was an advertisement to download DLC.
"Red Boots DLC Only $49.95!" it proclaims in the bottom corner, and some people took to the internet to express their ire right away. Click on it, however, and you see that it's all just a clever joke by inXile Entertainment.
"Just kidding!" the prompt comes up. "You didn't really think we'd have downloadable content, did you?"
You have to click a box that says "Of course not." to continue.
Well played, inXile, well played. You definitely made our hearts stop for a second there. After all, the game isn't even done yet!
Check the video below to see what it looks like.
Have to love it. As for the Beta itself, even in its current unfinished Beta form it's damn entertaining, a perfect return to form for the series and a must-play for any post-apocalyptic aficionados. Fallout fans lamenting over that Fallout 4 hoax need look no further to get their fix- after all, if there wasn't a Wasteland there wouldn't be a Fallout in the first place.
Wasteland 2 starts off with you creating a team of four rookie Desert Rangers. You can choose to customize each one or pick from a slew of pregenerated characters, and once you do you jump right into the game. A Ranger has been killed in the middle of an important mission and it's up to you to help pick up where he left off.
The problem is that you're green as can be, not even true Desert Rangers. This mission will be the final test in your training and if you complete it you can finally make the Ranger's Citadel your own. In this post-apocalyptic waste of a world it seems like a good gig, one of the safest places you can be. The Rangers are just as much a gang as everyone else in the Wasteland- there is no American government anymore, after all, but they like to portray themselves as the good guys. After a discussion with your boss you set off on your journey with the minimum of equipment, your stats woefully low and untested. You head off to find the source of a mysterious radio signal with a radio to keep in contact with the home base.
Right from the start Wasteland 2 pays tribute to the original classic while showing that this is going to be a serious, thinking person's game. The dialogue is incredible, the game not hesitating to give you verbose, literary descriptions of what your characters are seeing. The combat is turn-based and the enemies what you'd expect from the property (raiders and mutated freaks), although there's only a little bit of fighting to find in this early stage. But there are hard decisions to make right off the bat. This is supposed to be a bleak existence and your actions will make people live or die.
The Wasteland 2 Beta is priced at $60 on Steam, which is a hard pill to swallow for an unfinished game but don't forget that it's going to be constantly updated and improved based on your experiences with it.
