Rummage in the "directing version" Wasteland 2: mechanics and interfaces

In my opinion, the most “fallout” fallout after the second is Wasteland 2 in the full version, which is Director's Cut. In the era of mirror remakes of games and films, this thing is very pleased with the old spirit and new solutions. Therefore, I propose to delve a little under her hood in terms of GameDev mechanic.

Let's start with the most important thing - this game follows the good old formula "World, game, players." Modern high-budget projects aim to ensure that the player decides what is happening in the world and does not miss any important actions. Maximum content in one run so that nothing is left overs. This is the path of a good movie. The path of a good game is a realistic world living in an ecosystem that can be swayed by the forces of one person only with very great difficulty.
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So, the world Wasteland 2 do not care about you . There are no happy last minute arrivals to save everyone, no NPCs waiting for anything. Real time. For example, when you enter Highpool, a house is burning there. Do not have time to put out - well, it stupidly burned. The second important aspect is a steep constantly moving plot, rather, characteristic of its turns for the BioShock series. Exciting from the first minute, without a long buildup. And this plot is really high resolution. Constantly offering a harsh choice between morality, order and law.

And these are three different choices.

World, game, players

Let's start with the first and foremost. The world is more important than the game, and the game is more important than the players. This means that we see a certain global picture of events, and really feel ourselves not as an omnipotent hero, but as a team that works with what is. A sign of a good adult game. The difference is very simple, and is easily demonstrated using the example of UFO: Enemy Unknown (old under DOS) and XCOM: Enemy Unknown (new 3D). In the first game you play ecology - the aliens do not care about your plans and dates, they just figare planet. In the second all triggers rest on your achievements. The base of the alien appears strictly after the chain of capture of prisoners. If you do not take a prisoner, you can develop for a very long time before its appearance. Then the observant ship appears supposedly after the launch of the hyper-wave decoder, but it does not start until you have the ship you need to intercept - and so on.

In the second place after the world should be the game. If the players are more important than the game, then the game begins to cheat in their favor. Most often this is done for casuals, so that they do not fear complexity and do not leave. In the same Fallout 3 NV, it is rather difficult to find something after the first third of the game that can effectively kill the main character (this is generally characteristic of all the Morrowind series). In general, the superiority of the game over the players is most easily determined by irreversible elections. For example, this is the loss of fighters in the Jagged Alliance, the closure of certain Fallout endings as actions in cities, problems with food and wounds in This War of Mine, in general, the ability to somehow nakosyachit and spoil almost everything. Remember the same Far Cry series - there it is very difficult to fiddle with something so as not to go along the plot rails. Or the same Dragon Age, where these rails are generally nailed to the head of the main character. One more symptom - roughly speaking, you cannot go and meet an exp, which is an order of magnitude stronger than you. And here - quite real.

And in Wasteland, the plot is short, the world is conditionally closed, but at the same time, we are left with so many excellent chances to shoot ourselves in the foot, that this all more than replaces the full openness of the world and the variety of the plot. In this game, you survive, live, and do not watch the movie.

And yes, the game “swings” quite well in terms of strange actions of players. For example, in Shadowrun: Dragonfall you cannot mow in cities, but here you are welcome. Only inside the game there is also a special mechanic for such a case - General Snake Vargas will send you a special squad of stripping. With which, by the way, you are introduced at the end of training as an example of an unattainable ideal.

High resolution plot

Your first task is to survive. Everything in the first part is devoted to this. Your world is a small area of ​​wasteland, surrounded on all sides by clouds of radiation. It is hardly possible to get food in the experimental agricultural center, and water - with no less difficulty - in Haipule. Add to this a rather small speed of movement (on foot), the connection of walkie-talkies and the mass of hungry raiders. This is a world where everything is dangerous around, and you can not have time to come to the rescue. A vivid example of how you can not have time, is given at the very beginning with the simultaneous attack of two settlements.

In terms of the presentation of the plot, the game does two very big things, defining the ability to give "book" detail. First, in it, as in the good old text quests, by and large, you can play without graphics.

This is a game of two screens - render and text . If you play tactics - yes, here is the screen in front of you, everything is as it should. But if you play hardcore RPG, there is something more cool. At the bottom of the screen there is a log screen, where radio interception is displayed, the thoughts of the characters and what they see.

This text feed describes everything directly with megabytes of text. You go, and there with a quiet buzz and a snag appears a text describing what is happening around. In battle, the same battlefield log, familiar to us in the second Fallout.

See, here's the text part about the bar:



Here's what's on the main screen at this time:



Or like this in the dialogue:



Most of the semi-sensitive and subtle quests are related to reading these descriptions here. And there is so much useful that you just feel how cool it affects the game.

The second cool thing in the presentation of the plot - this is a very competent work with the radio. Perhaps it is the coolest here, much cooler than in the same Stalker (which was a model of a radio game for me before). The same radio is woven into the interface like a native and eliminates heaps of unnecessary RPG elements. For example, the level increase is made incredibly cool - you need to call the control and report that the detachment is alive, the status of such and such. Fighters can assign the next and extraordinary titles - these are the levels. By the way, when the character is from the control series, the same can be done right in the dialogue with him: the radio is not needed.

On the radio, important negotiations are constantly going on, calls for help come to it, an open air is heard in it, sometimes very interesting interceptions such as dialogue on the “unknown Slavic” are heard - “Cheburashka, this is Shapoklyak, we are ready to go through the mountains”. And in the second part, the radio is also a way of knowing the world - only the Manerist show is worth it.

These same radios are a part of the world, all security is generally based on them. Therefore, one of the main tasks of the Rangers in the first and second parts is to maintain the towers and install their own repeaters.


^{And here is the local Ostankino television tower.}

High resolution of the plot is when there are a lot of details, but each of them is thought out and is not taken from nowhere. This gives a good study of the world. Here are a couple of examples of such exact work:


<sup>See that guy in hand? Machete from sharpened mark. Very suitable for the savage in the post-apocalyptic world.


Every character is well developed, everyone has a bright personality and memorable character.


A chance meeting, a 20-second episode that does not affect anything - and what a beauty in terms of roaming!


Crazy Interiors


Ancient temples


Magic items. In addition to this book, there is also a jar of cucumbers that cannot be opened, the pre-war Ferbey, with whom Pizepi Yorren never part, and other wild things.


Read with great pleasure</sup>

In general, you can enjoy every detail - more text is written for the game than for a couple of books, and the “ears” of rapid development do not stick anywhere. I must say that thanks to Kickstarter, the game received a budget even before the start of work, therefore Brian Fargo was made not as a piece for earnings, but as a work of art. Where everything is as it should.

And sometimes there will be surprises like the first meeting with a mortar nuclear projectile. See for yourself the achivka.

Interfaces

Interfaces are incredibly cool to convey the spirit of the old school, hardcore. The same dialogue, in fact, boils down to the good old choice of branches and answers from 1-20 options. But it can also be conducted using a text field - do not choose words, but simply ask NPC questions.





Of course, the finished versions cover 95% of the branches, but sometimes there are interesting. Plus, a cunning player who read all the texts in the lower screen can make a deductive conclusion and ask the right question before the game decides that it should appear in the dialogue.

Ban Anzhey Sapkowski in “No Gold in the Gray Mountains” once said that a good fantasy book can be distinguished on the map. So it’s with tactical game interfaces: the most important thing is the map. Here is the local one:



Notice how it exactly in spirit and light corresponds to the place itself:


^{By the way, this figovina on the left is the only metaphor - the exit to the world map.}

And global:



Tactical appearance:



Another good old hardcore thing is that when you want to do something not directly in the forehead of the obvious, you must take and apply the appropriate skill to the corresponding subject. As in the quest - you first need to guess that one approaches the other, and then do it. The interface is like in F2 - choose a skill, poke into what you want to touch. The game makes clues only on quite obvious things, sort of like a computer with a password - hacking, a locked lock - breaking and so on.

Cruelty and realism

The formula “world, game, players” gives the game an incredible realism. And at the same time - determines its cruelty. For example, there are many situations where you can simply observe, but cannot help.



For games of survival in general is characterized by some cynicism and cruelty. Here she turns into a special sort - you begin to understand why survival often requires keeping the enemies alive.



So somewhere in the middle of the game you can gladly find another sign of adulthood - there is no “dark” and “bright” side in it . Neither good nor bad, and everything is constantly changing. The sworn enemy becomes the best friend, often horrors behind a beautiful facade, real hell is happening in the most prosperous cities ... The game asks you every time how ready you are for it and how ready to accept someone else's point of view. Probably the best illustration of such an approach is the dialogue between Hiro and the “Avalanche” policeman:

- Well, yes, I was chasing Zutik. What did you think? What did I try to catch up with Raven?
- Something like that. I mean, he's a bad guy, right?
- Definitely. So if I were a cop and if it was my job to catch the bad guys, I would chase the Raven. But I am the Guardian of Order, and my job is to restore order. Therefore, I, like every Guardian of Order in the city, do everything in my power to protect the Crow. And if you are bent on trying to find the Crow yourself in order to avenge your colleague, whom he finished in, forget about it.
...
Hiro is offended by the very idea.
“That's why everyone tells me: do not mess with Raven?” Afraid the devil that I will attack him?
The violin indicates with a glance at the swords:
- You have something to do with it.
“Why would anyone protect Raven?”
- Not the cleverest idea - to declare war on a nuclear power.
- I'm sorry, what?
“God,” says Violin shaking his head, “if I knew how little you know about what is happening here, I would never let you in my car.” I thought you were some serious agent for the special operations of the CRC. You want to say that you really know nothing about Crow?
- Yes, that is what I want to say.
- Okay. I will tell you - so that you do not get involved in anything and do not cause even more trouble. Instead of a cannon, Raven has a torpedo with a warhead that he stole from an old Soviet nuclear submarine. This is a torpedo designed to smash a group of combat aircraft carriers in one fell swoop. Nuclear torpedo. Have you seen a stupid pram attached to a Harley Raven? So, this is a hydrogen bomb, man. In alert and on edge. And the detonator is connected to electrodes implanted into his brain. If the raven dies, the bomb will explode. Therefore, when the Crow appears in the city, we are doing everything in our power to be given a warm welcome.
Hiro is only standing with his mouth open, and IV has to answer instead.
“Okay,” she says. - We will stay away from him, I say this and on behalf of my partner.

For example, one of the most important ills of the world begins with the fact that the guy sends out pigeons so that the world does not starve. And when you find out how to ensure safety in the local New Reno and who needs it, or rather, who is the only kind and honest person, you are also a little crazy. But I will not spoil the fun.

So, every time you choose what is more important - personal enrichment, morality, law or order. And common sense is often so distorted that it makes you feel right in the place of the hero.

Again, I repeat, there are no bad or wrong choices in the game - and sometimes an instant opening fire will be the best conversational option. When the game will not punish you for it, you will finally realize that you are really changing the world and influencing the future. And at some point the save function becomes superfluous. She insures only against the flights of the game, but you understand that she, in general, does not need a nafig. Because the world is alive and cool.

Atmosphere and small details

Of course, the game would be incomplete without flirting with the old version and a good bit of black humor. Here are a couple of examples:



This is a remake of the cover of the old Wasteland 90s - there it was all in pixels. Straight connection of generations. She suddenly turns to green in another part of the world. Yes, peace after nuclear war is not necessarily wasteland.

Role play slips in every aspect. Even in interface elections:



Of course, the good old reprise from Westerns with a visit to the cemetery:





Obligatory point of the program - meeting with geek:



Markers confirming that the game was made into the board by their guys. Because they remember what it is:



Comments of the NPC about what is happening around (oh, especially the monk who knows the world is happy - his sermons and moral torments are just insane):



In the plot, too, the completely Carroll-based logic of tasks — for example, one of the most important tasks of an elite military unit — is to find 7 bags of cat litter. Because these bags are the only excellent source of sorbent necessary for the manufacture of anti-radiation protection.



In general, the entire second part of the game is an extraordinary pleasure at the sight of the logic of various people. Here, for example, is an open prison; cameras are drawn on the ground:



Monty Python's humor goes on in many places. Here is a puppy, for example, cleared the shop from radtarakans:



Of course, this cocktail is incomplete without an excellent role-playing system, tons of cannons, numerous customization of everything and everyone - but at the same time, I repeat, there is nothing irreversible in the game. You did not download the necessary hacking skill - let's bang dynamite, business. Do not know how to repair nuclear warheads? Well, try to cut the red wire by removing the alarm. Sucks with diplomacy? No problem, let your most terrible hero intimidate the interlocutor. Eight screens of character parameters only, including skills skills.



By the way, inside the role-playing system, too, many things are wonderful in terms of sharpening the fact that everyone in the team is doing something different. There are only 4 diplomatic skills: the ability to convince with logic, flattery, intimidation and trade.


^{This is one of the few games where the optimal build is not needed.}

And of course, there is the most important thing for the role-playing game - the output credits, showing what happened to everyone and everyone, depending on your actions:



So I advise.

Other materials on the topic are digging into XCOM , digging in This War of Mine , database analysis, interface analysis, in-reality games , endorphin flow mechanics , plot-oriented games .