Wasteland 2 Interview

EDGE has published a new article-style interview with Brian Fargo on Wasteland 2, in which they discuss the latest build of the title and the underlying philosophy of the project. Here’s a snippet:

Wasteland 2’s beta contains less than a third of the final game, which will encompass Arizona and a second area set in Los Angeles. Even so, it is a firm statement of intent your actions have consequences, and those consequences are detailed.

When starting the game, the conversation that sets you off changes depending on the characters you’ve selected for your starting party. Your party is able to respond to keywords in NPC dialogue and to particular pieces of information. As you investigate the world opening boxes, fighting or talking to raiders, and investigating corpses a printout in the bottom corner displays reams of descriptions, relating environmental details and jokes. At plot-critical moments, your radio croaks to life with voice-acted narration and your next mission. These are all old-fashioned methods of conveying information in videogames, but each is executed superbly.

Although the beta is short to complete, you’ll quickly realise how much you’re missing out on with every decision you make. InXile is building an almost absurd amount of content that only a few people will ever see.

(We’re perfectly fine with you not seeing a huge part of the content, because if you don’t have that as a variable, you’re not getting choice and consequence,) Fargo says. (We have to build it in and build it in and build it in. Whether it’s gags, one-offs, items, quests, NPCs, you name it, it’s just chock full of stuff you’re not going to see.) That last line could be the marketing department’s poster quote.