I faced a refreshed version of the game older than me - Wasteland: Remastered on Xbox and PC

War never changes, but video games - and yes. Still, I decided to give Wasteland: Remastered a refreshed version of Fallout's protoplast from 1988.

Wasteland is the title of the first post-apocalyptic RPG computer game in history. Players roam the ruins of it burned with nuclear fire in America, and a group of brave rangers is handed over to them, who must face bandits, mutants and many other threats for a hundred years after the outbreak of the Great War.

This iconic production from the already closed studio Interplay, which became the inspiration for the creators of the first installment of the Fallout series, was originally distributed by Electronic Arts on floppy disks. The game first hit Apple II computers. It wasn't until later that it had two ports for Commodore 64 and MS-DOS.

The debut of this first version of Wastelend took place in January 1988.

Although I love post-apocalyptic RPGs, I didn't beat Wasteland for the premiere because ... I was born only 11 months after it. I had my first contact with the genre at the turn of the millennium, when Fallout was added to CD-Action. For months I sat in front of the computer with a dictionary in my hand to find more shelters and that damn waterchip .

Since then, the Fallout brand has become close to my heart and this is still true, but I only knew Wasteland by hearing. Over the years, however, I had several approaches to this title. The first took place in 2013, that is, right after the release on personal computers with Linux, Windows and macOS reissue called Wasteland - The Original Classic.

It was also the year before the premiere of the sequel created by inXile Entertainment studio.

I bounced back from the archaic interface. However, because I don't like to start the series from the inside - be it games, movies or books - I decided to go back to the first part of this cycle, when Wasteland 2 went to November 2017 in my game library without additional fees obtained through PlayStation Plus subscription . Also without success.

I recently learned that inXile Entertainment is planning to release another continuation of this series and now, a few months before the premiere of Wasteland 3 - which in May I will be able to play without additional fees as part of an Xbox Game Pass subscription - I decided to give Wasteland and Wasteland 2 one more chances. There has never been a better opportunity.

As part of the Xbox Game Pass subscription, Wasteland: Remastered is now available.

Apart from the fact that I wanted to make up the first two parts of the Wasteland series for years, I was extremely interested in what the production from 32 years ago in the Remastered edition will look like on a modern game console. Now I know that controlling with a pad is quite tedious, and probably the title Wasteland: Retro Remake would probably be more suitable for production.

It also turns out that in practice inXile Entertainment gave us something between the classic remaster that Age of Empires II has recently seen and the typical remake that Final Fantasy VII fans are now waiting for. If I had to compare the new Wasteland edition to another game released last year, it would be The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

What has changed in the new version of Wasteland?

I immediately reassure all purists that both the plot and the gameplay mechanics remained in place. Players still either choose predefined characters or create a team by throwing virtual dice and randomizing parameters such as Strength, Intelligence or Charisma. The gameplay is constantly based on navigating the conventional map and ... reading the walls of the text.

The team led by the player moves around the map and visits subsequent settlements, gets promotions and gets further points to improve statistics and skills. Along the way, he meets various NPCs for whom he performs various tasks. In the meantime, rangeers must receive enemy attacks, take care of health points and make various decisions.

We are dealing with a classic game of imagination .

Wasteland requires creativity. After reading the description of the new location, the player must come up with to use, for example, his intelligence, standing at the table, thanks to which he learns what the mysterious vials of chemicals are for. Other times, the player must activate the Perception ability himself so that his character sees something in the corner. For this, you need to enter keywords manually in conversations.

Unfortunately, the 1988 interface aged very badly and is terrible ... especially after running Wasteland: Remastered on Xbox One. It has not been properly adapted to use the pad (the mentioned writing is a torment) and causes a problem during the fight. Each time to attack, you have to press the arrow five times or move the left knob down.

And no, you can't just hold your finger on a button or analog.

What is a big inconvenience on the battle screen, elsewhere makes you fall asleep from boredom - like in the glossary, where there are dozens of items on the list. It is true that clicking is more convenient than browsing through paper instructions, as it was three decades ago, but why, oh why doesn't the analog scroll the list much faster than the arrows?

On a PC with a mouse and keyboard it was not and still is a problem, but on the console such shortcomings effectively discourage fun. Still, because I love post-apocalyptic climates, I tried to give the new version of Wasteland the Xbox One version a chance, since I got access to it as part of the Xbox GamePass subscription.

The refreshed graphics and music of Wasteland: Remastered encouraged it.

The way of presenting the world by describing it with the help of text walls has obviously not changed, but the environment and character models on the two-dimensional map viewed from above have been rendered anew. Similarly, the images of heroes and opponents were drawn again. Added to this are completely new cutscenes, and it's all in such a la retro style.

One of the most interesting additions in Wasteland: Remastered is also ... the sound of the game. In the original version due to the small capacity of floppy disks there was no question of any audio track, and here many spoken issues were recorded. Added to this are music and sound effects that improve immersion, no matter what, a well presented world presented.

However, I decided that instead of playing alone in Wasteland: Remastered, I would watch walkthourgh on YouTube.

Perhaps the fans of the original who played it 32 years ago will have fun with the new inXile Entertainment game, but I ... I fit. Fortunately, the game is part of the Xbox Game Pass subscription and I didn't pay the full price for it, otherwise I would be terribly disappointed. In the long run, I can't cope with the archaic interface, whose service is on the pad.

I love post-apocalyptic atmospheres and I was happy to wander around the burned-out US fire, and even created a few characters, but ... I have too many AAA games bought on the virtual shelf. Several dozen hours, which would probably take me Wasteland, I prefer to devote to one of the many other games from my virtual pile of shame.

However, I decided that before I reach for Wasteland 2, I would like to know the plot of the first part.

Although at first I thought that I would just catch up this story somewhere in the form of a summary, e.g. on Wikipedia, but I looked at YouTube first. It is true that I did not find a movie where someone would go through the new version of the game and not put me to sleep with their comments, but I also came across a rather unusual video recording of the gameplay from the first version of Wasteland.

The author of this clip made something like an audiobook out of his movie. He played the role of a lector and reads everything the game gives him. To this he also adds an original commentary, which further enriches the narrative. I got into these movies, I'm already halfway through, and probably for the first time in my life I'm having a better time watching someone play a game than ... playing it myself.

In the first impulse, however, I wanted to turn this film off.

All the time I have a feeling that I'm losing a lot, getting to know this world in such a way. However, I realized that if I did not catch the bug after the third attempt, I will never return to this game. In addition, considering the fact that a retro-style remaster has just appeared, for a full Wasteland remake to match that Square Enix is ​​preparing for Final Fantasy VII, there is nothing to count on.

I have a deja vu with it, because just a few weeks ago I accepted the fact that I will never pass the first Baldur's Gate alone again - but who knows, maybe I will catch up on this series on YouTube before the premiere of the already announced third part of this series? From what I can see, the author of this walkthrough Wasteland, which I liked so much, Baldur's Gate also took on wallpaper.

I faced a refreshed version of the game older than me - Wasteland: Remastered on Xbox and PC