Wasteland 2: Game of the Year Edition Free for All Owners

inXile has announced through its latest Kickstarter update for Wasteland 2 that the Game of the Year Edition of the title, which promises to bring updated graphics, rebalanced skills and more combat and character progression options, will be released for free to all owners of the title. In other words, if you bought or backed Wasteland 2 for PC, Mac or Linux, your game will be updated to the Game of the Year Edition for free.

Furthermore, the developers elaborated on the sort of gameplay enhancements they’re working on for it:

We’re very happy to announce that the Game of the Year Edition will be coming as a FREE UPDATE to all owners of Wasteland 2 on Windows, Mac or Linux. Whether an original backer, a late backer or someone who purchased the game later on, we will be providing Wasteland 2 Game of the Year Edition as an upgrade to your PC version of the game, available to you when it launches in late summer of this year!

Wasteland 2 Game of the Year Edition will include a huge set of improvements on the original game. Wasteland 2 will be making the jump to Unity 5, the latest version of the Unity game engine, and benefits from updated environment textures, completely redone character models, and Physically Based Rendering for more impressive lighting. We’ve added a ton of new voice-over to enrich the game’s cast of characters, including your trusted companions.

The Game of the Year Edition also provides major updates to gameplay.

One feature we’re very proud of is our new Perks & Quirks system, which we’ve teased a little bit previously with Eurogamer. In the GOTY Edition, you’ll be able to customize your squad of Desert Rangers with over 80 Perks & 20 Quirks, which let you fine-tune your characters throughout the game with unique bonuses and trade-offs. For instance, with Way of the Squeezins you’ll become a little bit dependent on that special sauce, but gain some short-lived combat bonuses; Raised in the Circus will make you more nimble in combat, but you can bet there’s a downside or two to looking like a clown.

Our fans have also pointed out that one feature they loved in previous RPGs is the ability to do more finely targeted attacks. Well, we’ve been hard at work on that too. Our new Precision Strike system lets Rangers target individual body parts on enemies to gain the edge in combat.

Wasteland 2’s Precision strikes will tend towards less random and more reliable. With Precision Strikes, you’ll be able to inflict debilitating status effects on your enemies to turn the tactical tide. For example, aiming for an enemy’s torso will reduce their armor value, letting you hit them harder with your other squadmates, and firing on their head (or CPU, as the case may be) has a chance to stun or even send them into a psychotic state where they won’t be able to tell friend from foe. With Precision Strikes the battlefield becomes much more dynamic and chaotic.