Download Wasteland

Wasteland is a post-apocalyptic RPG made in 1988 by EA Games. It is a really good game in it's own right and is also the game that Fallout was modelled after. It contains much of the same story, the battle system of a Final Fantasy game, and a whole different skill-based system not seen in any other game. In the skill system, the players earn EXP. points, but these skills they learn are needed to get past obstacles in the game safely.

In the story, you control a band of desert rangers, which you can make yourself, through a desert wasteland after the nuclear holocaust called World War 3. The land has become barren, and there are many evil mutants and humanoids running about who would like nothing more than to destory you. There is the unique possibility of being able to hire one of the enemies during a conversation or battle. You wander from town to town, eventually uncovering a conspiracy that threatens the remnants of the human civilization.

In the battle system, you come across a mutant or other creature of some sort, from mutants to evil little sleeping creatures, that want to kill and rob you. Nice concept, huh. So let's teach these little buggers a lesson. The picture of the enemy will pop up in a window next to the list of fighting commands. Under these commands is a window showing your party's health and names. You have a choice of battle commands that include: Run, Attack, Recruit, Evade, Load/Unclip, and Use. The Use command pops up another window showing the commands: Heal, Skills, and Attributes. The skill screen shows different skills that can be used. Once one is selected, you go back to the map, where you must choose the direction to use the skill. Heal heals a player, and attributes shows each party members attributes. After something is selected for each player, the screen that shows the commands turns into a scrolling message, telling you how the fight is coming. Once a fight is won, you gain EXP. and gold to spend.

The graphics in the game are not great, but are good for the time the game was made. The player's movement screen, or map, shows where the player moves from town to town. It is strange looking though, as the player seems to be larger than the mountains and houses on it. When a location or dungeon is entered, a popup comes up asking if you want to enter this location. Then the map becomes a bit more realistic as far as size, and you can walk around easier. In dungeons, some puzzles require that you have certain skills for each player. The same goes for the map. For instance, if you don't have a swimming skill, wading through a river will take forever and cost your team health. The music in this game is pretty bad, but I can't really blame the creators, as there wasn't really good music to be made back then.

I enjoyed this game a lot, just like I enjoyed the third game in the Wasteland series: Fallout. I think that this is an awesome game, and the terrible graphics do not take away from the gameplay at all for me. I will give this game a straight 5, because for back then, this was awesome. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I have.