Wasteland 2: Directors Cut

The tactics are calculated, the world is callous, and the humor is bone-dry. All of that only makes it feel even more like a wasteland.

Wasteland 2 has aged poorly so this recommendation is a qualified one. The story is great, the setting is great, but the mechanics are clunky, unintuitive and unforgiving.
Did you play the first Wasteland way back when? Then you'll enjoy this.
Did you recently play and enjoy Wasteland Remastered? Then you'll enjoy this, it definitely won't feel as archaic as the systems in that game.
Did you love Wasteland 3 and want more? Then this is worth trying, but you may find it hard going. The systems are much more primitive in this game. Wasteland 3 is much more polished by comparison.
If the answer to all of those is no, only give this one a try if you're willing to put up with game mechanics that are distinctly less than modern.

Having played Wasteland 3, Wasteland 2 feels rough to me. Aside from being generally dated, it lacks so many QoL features. Nevertheless, it has many things I want from a CRPG game. Varied ways to solve an issue, some narrative choices and many endings. However, I don't really feel invested towards the character/story, partly due I have played some CRPGs with more immersive story.
P.S. I don't know why Steam shows my playtime for regular edition, but I have about 33 hours for director cut edition.

Wasteland 2 is a deliberate return to the roots of classic CRPG design, a game that wears its old-school philosophy proudly while infusing it with enough modern sensibility to feel both nostalgic and new. Developed and published by inXile Entertainment as a long-awaited successor to the original Wasteland, it thrusts players into a post-apocalyptic American Southwest scarred by radiation, tribal warfare, malfunctioning technology, and the desperate struggle for survival. You begin as a squad of rookie Desert Rangers attending the funeral of a fallen comrade, and what starts as a simple investigation into his death slowly widens into a sprawling crisis involving rogue broadcasts, machine uprisings, hazardous ecosystems, and competing factions each clinging to their own vision of the future. The narrative is shaped heavily by player choice, and its strongest appeal lies in how reactive, unpredictable, and morally gray its world becomes as you push deeper into its irradiated wastelands.
Character creation sets the tone for the entire experience. Wasteland 2 offers an exceptional amount of freedom, allowing you to craft a squad of four Rangers whose skills, backgrounds, and attributes dictate not only how they fight but how they interact with the world. Skills like Lockpicking, Demolitions, Animal Whisperer, Leadership, Survival, and various weapon proficiencies aren’t mere flavor — they change how events unfold, what paths open or close, and how effectively you handle crises. The addition of recruitable NPC companions further broadens party identity, as these characters bring distinct personalities, goals, and occasional unpredictability to your team. Every decision you make during character creation has consequences hours later, making the game feel like a massive interconnected puzzle where experimentation and planning are equally important.
Exploration is harsh, deliberate, and always tinged with threat. The wasteland is a dangerous place, and Wasteland 2 emphasizes that through its resource management and encounter design. Water, ammunition, first-aid supplies, and even safe travel routes matter deeply; a poorly planned trip across the desert can bleed your party dry before you ever reach the next settlement. When combat erupts, the game shifts to a turn-based system that rewards tactical positioning, use of cover, and thoughtful resource allocation. Battles feel gritty and grounded — enemies don’t fall easily, and a single misstep can leave one of your Rangers bleeding on the ground or permanently dead. Firefights take place in varied arenas, from cramped interiors rigged with traps to open wastelands filled with unpredictable hazards. Every encounter reinforces the necessity of caution, scouting, and preparation.
One of Wasteland 2’s most compelling strengths is its reactivity. The world responds to your actions with a depth rarely seen in modern RPGs. Saving one settlement may doom another. Supporting one faction may lead to hostility from others who interpret your choices as betrayal or favoritism. A single skill check might prevent a disaster, while failure or neglect can cause irreversible damage, from town massacres to faction collapses. The game encourages experimentation, but it also forces players to live with the consequences of their decisions. There is no perfect route, no ideal moral path — only hard choices shaped by imperfect information, desperation, and the harsh logic of survival. This dynamic approach gives every playthrough its own unique texture.
The writing embraces a blend of bleakness, dry humor, and absurdity that feels authentic to the wasteland setting. Conversations range from heartfelt pleas for help to bizarre cult ramblings and dark comedic encounters with malfunctioning AI or mutated wildlife. The tone shifts seamlessly between tragic and outrageous, creating a wasteland that feels both lived-in and strangely human. Characters are flawed, frightened, hopeful, or broken, and the stories within each settlement — whether involving religious fanatics, environmental extremists, corrupt sheriffs, or renegade robots — add layers of depth to the wider narrative.
Yet Wasteland 2 is not without its rough edges. Visually, the game can appear dated, with environments that are functional rather than visually striking. The interface can feel cluttered or unwieldy, especially during inventory management or complex encounters that require juggling multiple skills. Combat balance can occasionally feel uneven, with some early fights feeling brutally punishing while certain late-game builds become overwhelmingly strong. Despite these issues, none of them fundamentally undermine the game’s identity; instead, they reflect its commitment to an older, more demanding style of RPG design that prioritizes depth, consequence, and player agency over streamlined convenience.
Ultimately, Wasteland 2 stands out as a rich, challenging RPG that rewards patience, planning, and thoughtful decision-making. It is a harsh journey through a world where survival is earned rather than given, where every town has its own tangled problems, and where your squad’s personality and skills shape the unfolding story in meaningful ways. For players who appreciate tactical combat, reactive storytelling, and the unmistakable charm of classic CRPG mechanics, Wasteland 2 offers a deeply satisfying and immersive experience — one that captures the spirit of its predecessor while carving out its own identity in the wasteland of modern role-playing games.
Rating: 8/10

Q: How good is Wasteland 2?
A: Somewhere between mediocre and good.
The Bad:
-The creation process of your 4 man team is horrendous. You can choose attributes and skills, but you can't see which perks are being unlocked and what they provide for your character.
If you want coherent characters, you have to build a team, start the game, read which attributes, skills and perks work well together, write down the combinations, start a new game and create a new team.
-The created team and most of the characters in the game are bland and soulless (except for Angela Death and Rose).
-The camera position in the game is to steep for my liking.
-The UI is halfbaked, sometimes you right click on an object and it shows you all options you can do with the object, e.g. you click on a crate and it shows you that you can smash it open, picklock it and defuse it, so you defuse the trap that is attached to the crate and open it either via smashing it open or lockpicking it, on the next crate it shows you that you only can smash it open, but this crate has also a trap attached to it and it also can be lockpicked, but you can only use those skills on the crate if you select them manually from the menu of the char that can use the skill.
-The game is around 10-20% to long, it's stretched in some parts, just for the sake of it.
-The overland travel is slow, you have to watch your team cross the map like snails.
-The sheer amount of eastereggs build into the game is grating and not endeering.
-Some developments in the world come out of nowhere and can not be acted upon without prior knowledge.
The Good:
-The game is all in all fun and the story saves many of the shortcomings.
I give this game a 7/10, a solid RPG with many shortcomings.

A very nice Xcom-like game. Amazing graphics for how old it is (after character creation). Didn't feel the need to even try to play Wasteland 1; so far story makes perfect sense without it.

Excelent game, even after 12 years.
There are so many ways to solve the challenges in the game that it feels immersive and like an actual world you can use your creativity for problem solving, with not much hand holding and yellow paint.
The percentages are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ btw but it's fine you get used to it.