Wild Bastards Review: Is It Worth a Play?
Discover if Wild Bastards lives up to the hype in our review, exploring its gameplay, characters, and overall experience.
In May 2019, developer Blue Manchu released the roguelike first-person shooter Void Bastards which was well-received by both critics and fans. Now, five years later, they’ve returned with another colorful roguelike adventure called Wild Bastards. While it keeps the same style and tone as Void Bastards, there are key differences in gameplay.
Wild Bastards still features the roguelike FPS mechanics but adds layer of turn-based strategy making it feel slower-paced. This change might not appeal to everyone but there are still many interesting aspects to explore though not all of them hit the mark.
Wild Bastards Has an Engaging Sci-Fi Narrative
After a short prologue, Wild Bastards introduces a classic Sci-Fi/Western story. Players travel the galaxy aboard the sentient ship The Drifter, collecting the souls of dead ex-crew members to eventually reach a safe haven for bots, mutants, and aliens. The simple yet engaging narrative gives players a strong motivation to keep exploring.
The game also cleverly ties its roguelike mechanics to the story, explaining the roguelike loop through The Drifter’s sentience. The main campaign takes about 9 hours to complete on normal difficulty.
For those seeking more challenges, Wild Bastards offers extra modes, including a procedural campaign, challenge mode, and Iron Man mode. While these modes add variety, they don’t change the core gameplay much but do enhance the overall experience.
Wild Bastards’ Gameplay Loop Tries to Do Too Much
Wild Bastards throws players into the action right away, giving them many overlapping systems to juggle. Because you have to fend for yourself in first hour of game, this may make it feel daunting. Its complexity may make a first impression seem frightening.
However, after playing for a bit game starts to become more enjoyable. You’ll get into a rhythm, warping to new sectors in search of Outlaws to rescue. Each new sector requires careful planning, as planets offer important upgrades. Once you reach a planet, you beam down to the surface, and this is where the new turn-based strategy elements kick in.
You control a team of 1-4 Outlaws, and the planet’s layout is similar to a board game. Key points of interest are scattered along linear pathways, and you only have a limited number of movements per turn. Goal is to collect loot, upgrades and resources before a powerful boss arrives to chase you off the planet.
Along the way, you’ll face combat encounters that feel like roadblocks, forcing you into first-person Showdowns. These battles can be tough as you must defeat all enemies to continue. While this system adds depth, sheer number of elements in Wild Bastards may feel like too much at times making it hard to stay focused on any one aspect of the game.
Though it can take some time to get into the rhythm of managing resources, improving your crew, and completing tasks on each planet, the gaming loop eventually becomes gratifying.
In Wild Bastards, the core gameplay loop repeats throughout the game, but it stays engaging due to the many progression systems and new mechanics that are introduced as you advance. In each sector, players encounter something new, like permanent upgrades, healing abilities and a relationship system where Outlaws can either become friends or feud with each other. These mechanics add a sense of progression which is important for a roguelike game, but they aren’t always as impactful as they seem.
One issue is that while these new mechanics feel rewarding at first, some don’t have a significant effect on the overall gameplay. For example, the Pal/Feud system starts off as a key element, as Outlaws who are feuding can’t work together. But once you unlock more characters, this system becomes less important because you always have other Outlaws to choose from. As a result, certain resources, like those used to heal feuds, become unnecessary.
This problem extends to other mechanics in the game as well. While they are fun to unlock, many of them don’t add enough depth to keep things interesting for the entire game. After a few hours, the gameplay loop can start to feel repetitive, especially if you’re not enjoying the turn-based strategy on the planet map, which takes up a lot of time.
Wild Bastards’ Outlaws: Some Hit, Some Miss
In Wild Bastards, Outlaws are central to both story & gameplay. Players can unlock 13 Outlaws throughout the campaign each with a unique weapon and special ability. The game’s comic-like art style helps these characters stand out, and strong voice acting adds personality.
Though these Outlaws should provide 13 distinct playstyles, not all of them work as well as others. While some characters are impressive and worth utilizing in difficult battles, others have weak weapons and skills that are frustrating to use. As an illustration, Smoky’s flame gun appears awesome, but it is too weak and sluggish to reload, which makes it less effective in the difficult combat in the game.
This imbalance means that players will likely find a favorite group of four Outlaws by the midpoint of the game, ignoring the weaker ones. The Ace upgrade system helps improve the weaker characters, but not enough to make them as desirable as the stronger ones.
Wild Bastards Pros and Cons
| 🟢Pros | 🔴Cons |
|---|---|
| 🖌️ Cool visuals and great voice acting | 🚫 Some Outlaws are not useful |
| 🚀 Interesting Sci-Fi story | 🔍 Many mechanics feel shallow |
| 🌟 Upgrade system helps weaker characters | 🔄 Gameplay can get repetitive |
A Fun but Flawed Experience
Wild Bastards is a bold and vibrant game that introduces many new mechanics and characters, but not everything works as well as it should. While fans can still have fun, the game has moments of confusion, frustration, and even boredom. Overall, it’s a fun experience, but it doesn’t fully hit the mark.
