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WastelandInterplay, 1988DOS, Apple II, C64 and Windows**Wasteland wasre-released in2013 by InXile,featuring newsoundtrack,reworked art andnow incluidingall the text onthe game itself,with no need tocheck paragraphson the manualanymore.Equipping theGeiger Counteris a necessity forcareful desertnavigation.Ialmost passed on Wasteland on the shelf of EBGames way back when. Like, way way back when.I had tried almost every other CRPG in the store,from the big companies like Interplay, SSI, Origin –checked out their games from Wizard’s Crown, Bard’sTale, Ultima, Eternal Dagger, Might and Magic... untilWasteland was the only thing left in the store.Yet I didn’t want to get it. It looked weird. I likedpost-apocalypse, sure, but the player mechanics andthe layout of the maps in the screenshots seemed tobe an odd mix of Bard’s Tale and Ultima. Finally, twothings lured me in: the Bard’s Tale character layoutscreenshot on the back cover, and the Interplay name.I loved Bard’s Tale, I trusted Interplay, and I trustedBrian Fargo. And when I sat down and plugged in thisspiritual ancestor to Fallout into my Commodore 64,I could not stop exploring this unique, highly-imaginativeworld devastated by nuclear war.I fought giant garden pests, communed with adrunken hobo who saw the future in snake squeezin’s,upheld the Desert Ranger tradition of bringingjustice to the wastes and helping the downtrodden,cloned my party members (!), repaired toasters, firedhowitzers, got wasteland herpes from a three-leggedhooker, and fight a menagerie of enemies from killerrobots, leather jerks, to rad angels that glowed with alife of their own.At the end... and I didn’t want it to end (you canstill keep playing, too!)... I was floored. I didn’t realizeCRPGs could be this way. I still refer to Wasteland’smechanics today in game design, a brilliant blend ofarea design context and RPG systems used to createsome amazing scenarios.Wasteland has numerous strengths and weaknesses,but the strengths definitely overshadow theweaknesses. The area design, ambiance, the systemspread and applications, and the narrative itself weretop-notch, while the system balance, attribute use,healing and the rare applications of one of its pillars:the ability to divide your party, diminished the experiencesomewhat.The narrative shines through in the game contentitself, and also in the well-written (and amusinglyso) narrative book included in the game, filled withrichly described characters. The wasteland is simplyan amazing blend of raider-occupied towns, mutantagricultural centers, robot factories, Las Vegas... andeven the inside of an android’s brain, where I almostfeared the game had jumped the shark, it was soamazing. The quests and encounters there are innovativeand interesting, and although the overall questdoesn’t kick into full gear until over halfway throughthe game, there’s plenty to keep you going. The peopleof the world respond to your actions, even as soon asthe first area of the campaign, and remind you of theharsh world that you’ve found yourself in.Wasteland comes with a slight learning curve notpresent in other RPGs at the time, reflected first in its40