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Wasteland (1988)

Interplay Productions

Apple II · Commodore C64/128/MAX · DOS · Linux · Mac · PC (Microsoft Windows)

3.25 from 53 ratings

1373 members have it in their collection · 2 playing now · 1055 backlogged · 51 wish listed

How long? Main story 72h (from 1 logged playthrough)

The game mechanics were based directly on those used in the tabletop role-playing games Tunnels and Trolls and Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes created by Wasteland developers Ken St. Andre and Michael Stackpole. Characters in Wasteland consequently have various statistics (strength, intelligence and luck among others) that allow them to use different skills and weapons. Experience is gained through battle … Read more
The game mechanics were based directly on those used in the tabletop role-playing games Tunnels and Trolls and Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes created by Wasteland developers Ken St. Andre and Michael Stackpole. Characters in Wasteland consequently have various statistics (strength, intelligence and luck among others) that allow them to use different skills and weapons. Experience is gained through battle and through use of skills. The game would generally let players advance with a variety of tactics: to get through a locked gate, a player could use his picklock skill, his climb skill, or his strength attribute; or he could force the gate with a crowbar - or a LAW rocket. The initial band of Desert Rangers encountered a number of NPCs as the game progressed who could be recruited into the party of up to seven. Unlike those of other computer RPGs of the time, these NPCs might temporarily refuse to give up an item or perform an action if ordered to do so. The game was also noted for its high and unforgiving difficulty level and for such combat prose as "reduced to a thin red paste" and "explodes like a blood sausage", which prompted an unofficial PG-13 sticker on the game packaging in the United States. Wasteland was one of the first games featuring a persistent world, where changes to the game world were stored and kept. Returning to areas later in the game, one would find them in the state one left them in, instead of being reset to their original state, as was common for games of the time. Since hard drives were still rare in home computers in 1988, this meant the original game disk had to be copied first, as the manual instructed one to do. Read less
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Details

Developers
Interplay Productions
Publishers
Electronic Arts
Genres
Adventure, Indie, Role-playing (RPG), Turn-based strategy (TBS)
Themes
Science fiction, Survival
Series
Wasteland
Steam
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Release dates

  • Jan 02, 1988 (North_America) Apple II, Commodore C64/128/MAX, DOS
  • Nov 13, 2013 (Worldwide) Linux, Mac, PC (Microsoft Windows)

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Rating distribution

5 stars
10
4 stars
15
3 stars
13
2 stars
7
1 star
7
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Community All Reviews Statuses

GigaDeathNullGolem

Review GigaDeathNullGolem 5/5 · Mar 4, 2016

Not to be a hipster, but really well made

I came across this sometime before it was released by GOG, I finished half the game and stopped in middle of it and loaded up my save in the GOG frontend (basically emulator). I really reccomend the GOG version.

Wasteland plays a bit like final fantasy, for lack of things to compare it to. It is a top down turn …

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I came across this sometime before it was released by GOG, I finished half the game and stopped in middle of it and loaded up my save in the GOG frontend (basically emulator). I really reccomend the GOG version.

Wasteland plays a bit like final fantasy, for lack of things to compare it to. It is a top down turn based overworld explorer, combat is a turn based squad managed type strat. you assign skill points to your squad, and can recruit NPCs to join you. You can tweak your specialization for each. some of the puzzles are a bit tough, it helps to have a guide. The game has good moments, fun writing. Some parts of it were very creative too. One twist really impressed me the way it was thought out and done for the engine it was in....

The animated sprite art is distinct and quite memorable. Had I played this in 89 i would have been blown away.

It's playable has historical value. Wasteland 2 is so very simliar

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