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Review

Sep 12, 2024

Wild Bastards Review

Lights Off
3 Okay
Retails for: $39.99
We Recommend: $23.99
  • Developer: Blue Manchu
  • Publisher: Maximum Entertainment
  • Genre: Action, Indie, Strategy
  • Released: Sep 12, 2024
  • Platform: Windows, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Switch
  • Reviewed: Windows

Space pirates are so 2019, but in 2024 it’s all about space outlaws. Developer Blue Manchu made adjustments for Wild Bastards to shift towards more bite-sized encounters and developing crew relationships that has everything feeling more intimate. Void Bastards was one of my favorite games from 2019, and it just hit at the right time, offering everything I was looking for that nailed the setting in space and roguelite formula while incorporating an immersive sim flavor. While this is still set in space, this unfortunately isn’t Void Bastards in the wild west, and in fact, Wild Bastards pales in comparison.

WildBastards review1

With the use of “Bastards” in the title, Wild Bastards is a disappointing follow-up to Void Bastards, and that never reaches the heights of its predecessor. I miss sending enemies out of airlocks after tricking them into investigating a sound. While it was a roguelite, there was a progression in its campaign that included immersive sim elements. These are the things that made Void Bastards so good. With Wild Bastards, you are beaming down to planets, exploring in a tabletop map view, and engaging in small shootouts with enemies until the area is clear – it’s a vastly different game, and not one for the better. Though it’s not all bad, Wild Bastards has a really fun set of characters, weapons, and modifiers that does make the encounters really fun.

The gameplay loop has you traveling from system to system, planet to planet to fight and collect resources. Beaming down to planets will see you often needing to fight enemies that block your path. In these scenarios you’ll have showdowns, which can occur in the day or at night, each offering differing visibility. Along the way you’ll resurrect outlaws, and add them to your team. From there you’ll progress to being able to take out the larger posses. Upon the completion of the campaign, a new challenge mode unlocks that offers increasingly difficult levels with gameplay modifiers to keep things fresh.

WildBastards review2

You’ll spend a lot of time on The Drifter, your interstellar ship that takes you from place to place. A chosen sector determines your path through the system. At a planet, you can see what enemies you’ll encounter before you beam down, allowing you to determine which of our outlaws are best for the job. It’s entirely possible, that due to atmospherics, your crew will get scattered upon beaming down and have to find each other planet side. If things become too intense, you can surrender from a showdown, or use a beacon to beam back to your ship in an emergency.

The flow of navigating the planet is done via a board game or tabletop view. There are specific points and pathways, some are open, most of the time, and in later areas you’ll find them blocked by enemies that you’ll have to fight past. You have a number of moves you can make on the board before needing to take a turn, and each turn cycles the time between day or night. Some points will offer things like money, ace cards to improve your crew, bounty hunters who can go after enemy blockades, or even orbital bombardments to wipe out some enemies entirely. There are many shops on the planet to purchase upgrades, health, and mods. Planets often feature different biomes, like swamps, ice, and deserts, not only changing the look but the feel, too. If you spend too much time on the planet, an enemy who cannot be defeated will start chasing you until you can repel him, or you beam back up to your ship.

There are thirteen characters to unlock in total, such as: Spider Rosa, Casino, Smoky, many more. A neat device is the fact that characters may be in a feud with one another, which will interfere with who can beam down to a planet. So while you may have four slots, feuds can make it so only three of them will beam down as one refuses to participate. Characters will level up the more you use them, unlocking new abilities and perks. If a character becomes incapacitated during a showdown, they get an “injured” status and cannot be used until you’ve departed the current system for them to recuperate.

Because each character is unique, each of them has their own weapons they use like dual pistols, shotguns, their own flaming hand, and so on. Engaging in combat feels pretty good, where some weapons have bullet drop over others. I find the feedback of reloading weapons to be rather weak, but this similarly problematic in the last game as well. Aces are cards that you can equip onto characters that may provide buffs to core abilities or have you dealing out more damage. Getting to know these characters and what they offer becomes paramount in future skirmishes.

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There aren’t a whole lot of options in Wild Bastards. The minimal settings menu leaves a lot to be desired, but ultrawide monitors are supported, there’s an overall quality slider for the game’s visual quality, and a welcome field of view (FOV) slider. It’s a game that runs really well, and is verified on Steam Deck and runs with no issues.

My PC Specs:

– Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
– Intel Core i9 13900K @ 5.8GHz
– ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 360 ARGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
– G.SKILL TRIDENT Z5 6000MHZ 64GB (32×2) DDR5 RAM
– ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 16GB GDDR6X
– WD_BLACK SN850X M.2 (4 TB)
– LG UltraGear 34GP950B-G (21:9 Ultrawide @ 3440×1440)

My Steam Deck (OLED) Specs

– SteamOS 3 (Arch-based)
– Zen 2 4c/8t, 2.4-3.5GHz (up to 448 GFlops FP32)
– 16 GB LPDDR5 on-board RAM (6400 MT/s quad 32-bit channels)
– 8 RDNA 2 CUs, 1.6GHz (1.6 TFlops FP32)
– Steam Deck 1TB NVMe SSD
– HDR OLED (16:9 @ 1280 x 800)

WildBastards review5

Wild Bastards feels scaled back and lacks the immersion that its predecessor excelled at. Being a “spiritual successor to the award-winning game Void Bastards” sounds great, but tends to feel like an out-of-body experience. Thankfully, the new mechanics and systems are great to interact with, and assembling a varied and diverse crew of thirteen outlaws gives you a lot of wiggle room for experimentation. Add in the personality layer, and needing to manage relationships is a welcome addition. Wild Bastards is about strategizing and optimizing your not-so-merry band of outlaws for a tactical first-person experience that’s more style over substance.

A Steam code was provided in advance by the publisher for review purposes