Wasteland

Wasteland is an extended RPG game from 1988, which was created under the responsibility of Interplay Productions studio. Prepared first for Apple II, and then converted to PCs and Commodore 64, the product allows you to take control of a team of daredevils and visit the southwestern part of the United States, a country terribly destroyed during World War III.

Wasteland takes us to an extremely gloomy reality. The action of the game begins in 2087, nearly ninety years after the conflict, which changed the fate of humanity forever. The United States no longer resembles a great superpower - the country covered with atomic bombs now covers numerous wildernesses, and there are mutant and bloodthirsty beasts circulating in the irradiated areas. The main characters in this story are members of the paramilitary organization Desert Rangers, which includes former soldiers of the American army. During a long adventure, lasting at least several dozen hours, warriors who do not know the fear will visit a huge area of the virtual state of Nevada. While initially the aim of the struggle is simply to survive in such inhospitable conditions, then the main task will be to stop the powerful enemies trying to change the balance of power in the postapocalyptic world.

In Wasteland we observe the action from the bird's eye view. The player can freely travel through a huge area, visit caves, human settlements and other interesting locations. In case of encountering enemies, the image of a rival appears on the screen, and a set of various commands is made available to the user, allowing to perform various actions. The fight is divided into rounds, during which each member of the team (there can be up to seven of them) receives a separate order. During the clashes, it turns out to be essential to use equipment, especially weapons found in the wilderness or bought from traffickers scattered here and there.

The work of Interplay places great emphasis on freedom. Many problems in Wasteland can be solved in many different ways, for example, a closed gate can be opened in a blast, balanced with a crowbar, jumped over or even broken down with explosives, provided that they are in the team's equipment. The skills of individual team members also influence the contact with NPCs, e.g. charismatic characters are able to take more out of conversations. Like many other eruptions, Wasteland allows you to create your dream daredevils before the start of the actual game, but only four. The remaining three will be explored during the adventure.

Wasteland does not captivate with its audiovisual setting, the graphics are conventional and the sound is residual. The key role here is played by the text, including the text in the handbook that comes with the kit. The game repeatedly refers to instructions, thus broadening our knowledge about the locations visited and the NPCs we meet. This solution also plays the role of anti-piracy protection. Interplay's original product also refers to dialogues, forcing the player to manually insert topics of interest to him.

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Last updated on August 14, 2015