In May 2019, developer Blue Manchu released a roguelike first-person shooter called You empty guys, A touching title for a touching game. The empty guys Debuting in 2019 and receiving much love from critics and fans alike, Blue Manchu is back five years later with another vibrant roguelike adventure. But Wild bastards It maintains the same style and atmosphere as its spiritual predecessor, but there are significant differences in terms of gameplay.
In simple terms, Wild bastards is a roguelike first-person shooter. The empty guysHowever, there is an additional layer of turn-based strategy that wasn't present in previous versions. This is Wild bastards There's a very different pacing and it might disappoint some fans, but there's still a lot to check out. But not everything. Wild bastards' The element has a satisfactory effect.
Wild Bastards has a compelling sci-fi narrative
After a very brief introduction, Wild bastards' The core premise is revealed, and it's a pretty compelling and classic sci-fi/western tale. Aboard the mysterious sentient ship The Drifter, players must travel the galaxy and collect the souls of fallen former crew members, in the hopes of eventually reaching the Promised Land, a haven for robots, mutants, and xenos.
Wild bastards' The story is simple but effective, giving players a strong incentive to keep racing through the galaxy. There are also a lot of fun little sci-fi in-universe explanations for the gameplay mechanics, such as the Drifter's sentience being the reason for the game's roguelike loop. Wild bastards' It took me about 9 hours to complete the main campaign on normal difficulty.
Wild bastards There is also a procedural campaign mode, a challenge mode, and an Iron Man mode if players want a more difficult challenge. These additional modes are nice additions that help the game feel like a complete package, but these modifiers don’t change the core loop all that much.
Wild Bastard's gameplay loop bites off more than it can chew.
Wild bastards Don't be afraid to throw players into the deep end and let them rock for a while. Right from the start, Wild bastards It presents the player with quite a few redundant systems, often requiring them to figure out on their own during the first hour of the game. This makes for an overwhelming first impression.
But after a round or two, Wild bastards' The initial obstacles begin to disappear, and a compelling gameplay loop emerges. The player soon gets into a rhythm of warping to new areas in search of new outlaws to unlock, and begins the long process of rescuing them. Once in a new area, the player must plot a path through the star, with each planet offering important upgrades along the way. Once on a planet, the player beams down to the surface, where it is Wild bastardsNew turn-based strategy elements are introduced.
With a party of 1 to 4 Outlaws, players arrive on a planet with a map structured like a board game. Key points of interest are dotted along a linear path. Players make a certain number of moves per turn, and the general goal is to collect as much loot, upgrades, mods, and valuable resources as possible before a powerful boss appears, forcing them to hunt them down and leave the planet empty-handed.
In addition to upgrades, resources, and useful tiles that help players move or restore health, Wild bastards' The board game-like planetary map is littered with combat encounters such as roadblocks and enemy patrols. Upon reaching one of these combat encounters, the player is forced into a challenging first-person showdown, where the player must gun down all enemies in order to progress.
This core loop repeats. Wild bastards' It's all over the place, but it's still quite engaging thanks to the game's multiple overlapping progression systems and evolving mechanics. In each sector, the player is introduced to at least one new gameplay mechanic. These include permanent upgrades like Aces, tonics that allow the player to heal their teammates, and the Pal/Feud system, where the player's gang of outlaws drop in at random intervals or befriend each other. These mechanics, which are introduced to the player little by little throughout the game, create a rewarding sense of progression that's important to roguelikes, but they're not perfect.
Key Issues Wild bastards' The gameplay loop is such that unlocking these mechanics feels immediately rewarding, but some of them don't have much of an impact on the gameplay. The Pal/Feud system is probably the best example of this. At first glance, this system seems very in-depth, with a large chart providing the player with a breakdown of who is feuding with whom and who is friends with whom, all displayed via different lines connecting the Outlaws' icons.
At the start of the game, it is important which characters are in discord, because they cannot beam down together. However, once the player has unlocked more than 6 Outlaws, this system can be almost forgotten, because it is very likely that no matter which character is in discord, there will always be a satisfactory duo. This means that the player will hardly need beans to heal the discord, so the bean resource is almost redundant. This criticism extends to many. Wild bastards' The gameplay mechanics are interesting, but lack the depth to keep you immersed for the entire duration of the game.
Unfortunately, this lack of depth Wild bastards' The gameplay loop can feel rather repetitive after a few hours, especially if the player does not enjoy the turn-based nature of the game's planetary map, which takes up a significant portion of the gameplay.
Wild Bastards' Outlaws are a mixed bag of likeable villains.
As the name suggests, Wild bastards' The story and gameplay revolve around a cast of Outlaws. Throughout the game's main campaign, players will unlock a total of 13 playable Outlaws. Like its spiritual predecessor, Wild bastards' The unique cartoonish art style does a good job of making each of the game's 13 outlaws look distinct, and the game's voice acting does a great job of establishing the characters' personalities.
In terms of gameplay, each Outlaw has their own unique weapon and special abilities. In theory, this means: Wild bastards It offers 13 different playstyles. But again, it's not as good as it looks on the surface. In reality, Wild bastards' 13 Outlaws is a mixed bag, at least gameplay-wise. Wild bastards There are a lot of useful characters with powerful and versatile weapons and special abilities that are very satisfying to use. However, there are also quite a few characters that are not worth fighting.
Opinions on some Outlaws vary depending on the player’s preferred playstyle in first-person shooters, but there are some Outlaws that are objectively weaker than the rest. Smokey’s flame-spraying finger gun looks incredibly cool, but it’s incredibly weak and has a long reload time, for example. In a standard FPS, these traits aren’t a big deal, but Wild bastards It's a tough game where every shot counts. There's no room for weak outlaws. Weak outlaws mean quick death, and death means an abrupt end to your run, the need to restart, and a strong sense of frustration that quickly clouds the entire experience.
Unfortunately, this leads to the following result: Wild bastards' The roster is a bit unbalanced, and by the midway point, players will have found their four favorite Outlaws and will likely be ignoring a significant portion of the roster. That said, things get better with the game's Ace upgrade system, which grants Outlaws powerful stat boosts and new abilities. These Aces go a long way toward making the weakest Outlaws on the roster a little more bearable, but they still won't convince players to swap their favorite four.
Wild Bastard, more shots than misses, but a close match
Wild bastards It's a very vibrant and ambitious game, and they're working hard to add new gameplay mechanics and playable characters. But while that effort is certainly commendable, there's no denying that many of those elements fall short of expectations. There's still plenty of room for fans to have a good time. Wild bastardsBut that time will not be free from confusion, frustration, and a little boredom.
Wild bastards It’s available now on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. Game Rant was provided with a PS5 code for the purpose of this review.
