Wild Bastards is the spiritual successor to Void Bastards, and like its predecessor, this game blends many genres and mechanics into a somewhat unusual but very well-functioning final product. There are layers of a first-person shooter and layers of a turn-based strategy game, and as if that wasn’t enough, they also add roguelike elements, cowboy hats, a six-shooter, and a neon-lit alternate sci-fi version of a spaghetti western. Yes, there’s a lot going on here.
The Wild Bastards are, or were, the most dangerous gang of outlaws in the galaxy (courtesy of Star Wars Outlaws) until Jebediah Chaste and his band of outlaws took them down almost one by one. As the only remaining members of the gang, Spider Rosa and Casino now set out into the galaxy to find and resurrect the fallen members of their gang in order to regain their former glory and, of course, defeat Chaste once and for all for everyone.
The fallen members of your gang, of which there are eleven, are scattered across the galaxy, so you now travel from solar system to solar system, each made up of a series of planets. When you land on these planets, you use a tactical map to plan your route around the planet, and they contain everything from rival gangs and loads of loot to mods, power stores and shields, upgrades and more… and, Luckily, one of your missing gang members is somewhere too.
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All of your raid members are continually upgraded with permanent mods called Aces, and during a run you can earn additional mods that disappear when you die or when you move from one solar system to another. It’s important to experiment with both mods and Aces, as it doesn’t matter which mods you give to which gang members, and you’ll need them in the firefights you’ll inevitably get into.
In these gunfights, you’ll be let loose on short, compact FPS arena shooter segments that take place in this strange, very different, neon-lit sci-fi western world, as well as other thematically diverse locations. These fights can last anywhere from 15 seconds to several minutes, and if you’re not careful, you can wipe out most of your gang in a matter of minutes. These sections are actually a lot more tactical than you might think, because if you run forward with your guns at the ready, you won’t survive long.
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It’s all a bit of a game of cat and mouse, not just in the shooting sections but also when planning your route around the map. You don’t have unlimited time here, because after a predetermined amount of time, Jebediah Chaste’s younger and very eager henchman, Prince McNeil, and other baddies will arrive near Chaste, and if they catch you, you’ll be in not just trouble, but a very big problem. So it’s all about exploring the map as much as possible, grabbing as much loot as you can, freeing your gang member if there’s one on the map, and then charging in before they come after you wildly.
Blue Manchu has created 13 truly excellent gangsters who are very different to play as and all exude personality. The only negative thing to say here is that there are a few that don’t really work, but the vast majority are really excellent once you know their strengths and weaknesses. The different members of the gang all have their own unique weapons, for example Casino is equipped with a shotgun, The Judge with a futuristic sniper rifle, Spider Rosa has two six-shooters and Smoky can shoot fire from his hands.
Each raid member also comes equipped with a “stunt,” a sort of special ability that activates when you pick up a power-up. Casino can throw a casino chip that explodes a random enemy, the Judge can activate Judgement Time, which slows down time by 10 seconds so he can make more accurate shots, and Smoky can set ranged enemies ablaze.
With such a large group of outlaws, there’s no shortage of drama, so there’s a “feud” system in place where different band members can become “friends” or antagonize each other. When two raid members are friends, they help each other in fights, and when they’re feuding, they don’t travel together on the map, which can make assembling your raid members difficult when planning your career. If you pick up a can of baked beans along the way, two gang members can share a portion of these delicious treats.
Finally, it’s worth mentioning that this is a roguelike, but you can choose how roguelike you want it to be to some extent. This is done through Ironman Mode, a setting in the menu that can be set to three levels: Off, On, and Super. Depending on how it’s set up, you can choose how hard you want the game to be, and even if it’s ‘off’, it’s still a roguelike. If you choose the ‘super’ setting, you’ll need to be an expert in the roguelike genre if you want to enjoy it in any way.
Wild Bastards has a unique look and probably won’t be for everyone, but you can’t question whether or not the style is consistent, because it really is. From the menus to the tactical map to the FPS segments. The sound is excellent, with really good vocals and dialects like “Howdy pard’ner!” for your band members; however, the monologues enemies give during battles do get a bit monotonous, as not every type of enemy offers much variety.
There are no less than 41 different types of enemies for you to defeat throughout the game. Since many of these FPS shootouts take place in the same environments but different level designs, they tend to get a little monotonous, but that can suddenly change when you get an outlaw with a new weapon and new abilities and things start to get interesting.
With Wild Bastards, Blue Manchu has created a really excellent and different sequel to Void Bastards. Wild Bastards is balanced, really well made and a very well done roguelike with great characters, lots of exciting overlapping mechanics and more tactical depth than you would expect. At the same time, it is quite accessible, so if you are not an expert in strategy and roguelikes, Wild Bastards is a good place to start and one of the big positive surprises at the end of the summer.
