It’s been nearly 20 years since the original Wasteland game was released. Thanks to Wasteland, we have the Fallout series, which it is widely considered to have influenced. Last year, we got a sequel in the form of Wasteland 2 which went against the usual trend of releasing a new sequel every year. Now, developer InXile Entertainment has released a Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut, sporting enhanced graphics and various gameplay modifications. We’ll be playing Fallout 4 in less than a month, but does Wasteland 2 sate our appetite for post-apocalyptic adventuring in the meantime?

Let’s start with how well the game has transitioned to a gamepad. I fully expected to struggle with the switch, as tactical-based gameplay tends to not translate very well to consoles, with XCOM: Enemy Unknown being the best-known exception, but the controls are sharp and intuitive. For example, pressing the right trigger activates combat-related skills, whereas pressing the left trigger activates skills such as lock-picking. It’s as easy as that. Navigating the inventory is even simpler, with the bumper buttons allowing you to switch between the different rangers under your command. Everything works so fluidly that, after a while, any initial problems are soon forgotten about.

One of my biggest problems with Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut on Xbox One is that the text is just too small, even after going through the settings menu to change the text size. On PC it’s absolutely fine, as the screen is right in front of you, but if you’re playing on a console you tend to sit further away from the action, meaning that you’ll likely be struggling to see any of the text on screen. Whilst playing, I constantly found myself leaning forward, and even then I could barely make out was being said. Considering how important a lot of the text is in this game, it’s a massive hindrance, and is an issue that should have been fixed before the game released.

The new “complete visual overhaul” makes for some interesting comparisons between the original Wasteland 2 and the new Director’s Cut. Side by side, it’s completely obvious that a lot changes have been made to the new release, such as previously bare areas now being more detailed and populated with small objects such as rocks and barrels. Unfortunately, these visual upgrades aren’t enough to make the game look great, and it still looks as though it released several years ago. The character models are blurry and do not feature much detail, meaning that it hasn’t achieved something that XCOM: Enemy Unknown managed to excel at on the previous console generation back in 2012. Usually, such a small thing wouldn’t really be worth mentioning, but the graphics were touted as being upgraded, and although undoubtedly improved, there’s just not quite enough of an improvement.

Another interesting addition in the Director’s Cut are the quirks and perks added to the character creator, giving you an ever broader scope of customisation than was featured in Wasteland 2. It adds all sorts of wonderfully weird modifiers to your Wasteland 2 experience, with my personal favourites being the ‘Asshole’ perk, which allows every Hard Ass dialogue option to automatically succeed, and the ‘Animal Husbandry’ perk, which gives you bonuses from animal followers, but also has a hilarious downside that I won’t spoil for you. It’s these little things that are the biggest improvement from Wasteland 2, and alter the game completely.

Although I’ve compared it to XCOM in this review, Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut is very different to any games released over the last decade or so. They just don’t make games like this anymore, and so it’s a breath of fresh air even if that air is a throwback from the late 1980’s. The gameplay might be a bit difficult for today’s gamers as there is plenty of opportunity for things to go wrong. And things will go wrong, believe me; on my first playthrough, my entire party was wiped out within the first hour of the game. However, Director’s Cut is made easier than last year’s release through the addition of ‘Precision Strikes’, which allow you to target an enemy’s specific body parts. This should be familiar to fans of the modern Fallout games, and somewhat mitigate the issue of weapon jams and missed shots.

One major question I asked myself is whether or not the changes are enough to justify a replay if you’ve already played through Wasteland 2. The answer to that? Not really. Although the Director’s Cut is definitely the version to play through if this is your first experience with the game. The new features vastly improve Wasteland 2, a game that was an excellent adventure in its previous form. Its classic RPG gameplay is relatively unique in comparison to today’s RPG genre, which has taken a more action-oriented style when it comes to gameplay, allowing it to stand on its own merit even when compared to next month’s Fallout 4.

Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut is a worthy update to one of the standout games of 2014, adding an array of new features and upgrades. A lot of the original’s issues remain, but they are balanced out by the new improvements. However, the myriad of changes may not be enough to tempt gamers back if they played through last year’s release. For those that haven’t, this is the best place to step into the Wasteland, and the best way to experience one of the most interesting games released in recent years.

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