A little while ago I was lucky enough to interview Jon Chey about his new project. The co-founder of Irrational Games is running Blue Manchu these days, and their latest game is the spiritual successor to the survival title Void Bastards, which came out back in 2019. However, Wild Bastards is a different beast.
This time we have a roguelike FPS on our hands, where the aim of the game is to travel across the galaxy and assemble a rag-tag group of thirteen outlaws who are all wonderfully weird in their own way. Infact, the Wild Bastards were once feared across the cosmos until Jebediah Chaste picked them off one by one. With just two members left looking to flee to their “Homestead”, they decide to try and resurrect their partners in crime along the way.
At first, it’s only the narrative campaign which is available to play in Wild Bastards. This tasks you with travelling to various planetary systems to track down and retrieve a dearly departed member of your posse in order to be brought back to life. Each network of planets, their layout, and the environments themselves are procedurally-generated, meaning no two playthroughs are quite the same.
Drifter, your trusty sentient spacecraft, will transport you from planet to planet, until you reach the site where the helix can be retrieved to resurrect the Wild Bastard themselves. You will need to choose your crew before beaming down to each planet, and there is a chance members will be scattered in the process. Once you make planetfall, a maze of connected roads, loot, environmental triggers and enemies await.
You can choose to engage enemies (in what are called showdowns), or sometimes avoid them, and these are procedurally-populated encounters. Roadblocks will need to be cleared (there are different ways to do this) before you can pass them. If you enter a showdown, this is where Wild Bastards transitions to an FPS.
You take control of your outlaw, tasked with eliminating all enemies in the area. Each is armed with a different main weapon, ranging from the typical options such as a shotgun or a pair of revolvers, to the more unorthodox like the ability to throw pure fire. These alter the combat and are supported with a special move which can be activated by finding a “juice” pickup. The specials (or stunts) are an awful lot of fun to use in battle. One of my favourites is Roswell’s blast off move that sees him launch high into the air, before crashing down to do serious damage, and then bouncing back up again to repeat several times. It’s deliberately daft and downright delightful.
Your compass comes in handy, marking enemy locations based on the sound they make. You can also look out for telltale signs of where your opponents are hiding as they, rather helpfully, provide a running commentary on their movements during the shootout. They’ll even goad you accurately depending on who you are playing as, which is a neat touch.
It’s not only the Wild Bastards themselves that create the opportunity to experiment with different combinations either. The outlaws can pick up numerous buffs as you explore each planetary system that provide various welcome boosts such as increased health and helpful bots which will accompany you in showdowns. Other key items such as beacons to make quick escapes, tonics to heal injured Bastards and mods to further increase abilities deepen the action further. Upon leaving each system, all resources will be destroyed and Wild Bastards will be healed and stripped of buffs, although core aces will carry through the campaign.
The Wild Bastards are grouped into “bunches”, and you can play around with the combinations to find your preferred team. You have a limited number of moves during each turn to travel around the planet to grab what you can. Before long however, Jebediah’s henchmen will track you down and pursue you until you reach the escape stairs and beam back up to drifter. These are showdowns you are best to avoid, but aren’t impossible to emerge victorious from.
This is where the tactical element comes into play. You can risk trying to grab all the goodies on a planet and find yourself cornered into a showdown, or make a run for it before the going gets really tough. There are certain locations on each planet that will help, such as roadblock modifiers that reduce enemy health, as an example, or powerful allies who can pick off a mobile patrol from a safe distance, without triggering a showdown. There are loads of possibilities to play with.
Wild Bastards sports a neon coloured, cel-shaded palette that very much suits the tone of the game. It’s a stylish choice which really pays off, but doesn’t detract from the diversity of the planets you visit. There are a range of open and enclosed battlegrounds, battered by different elements such as snow and electrical storms that will affect how you play.
The visual style also allows for some funky character designs when it comes to the gang members themselves, each being individually brilliant and distinct (Billy the Squid is a highlight). I thought I would settle in to having regular favourites, but I genuinely enjoyed playing with pretty much every Wild Bastard going. Although Hopalong didn’t see much action, that’s because I couldn’t get on with his lasso weapon. It never really clicked for me.
Anyway, the voice acting is also brilliant and really helps the group come to life, each with their own personality. Conversations feel natural, well worked and reactive to the combinations of characters you play as. The feud system mixes things up too, as some of the gang will fall out and refuse to beam down together, but they can also bond over a can of beans and become pals, offering bonuses and assists to each other during combat. It’s a simple but well worked system which makes a difference, and throws yet another variable into the mix.
If there’s anywhere that Wild Bastards may fall down, it’s in the showdowns. There are a lot of them and they may grow repetitive for some. However, thanks to the procedurally-generated worlds, numerous character combos and an extensive range of loadouts, it never became an issue for me. There are also challenges which are unlocked after you clear the main campaign if you want to put your skills to the test. These introduce custom modifiers that radically alter the experience, such as only very specific equipment being available for example.
The aim has clearly been introducing variety to each component of this game to the point that Wild Bastards is a lot of fun to play, but doesn’t feel over engineered. There’s so much more to discover and try out than I can cover in this review, and the beauty is each player will have a slightly different experience. A winning combination if there ever was one.
Wild Bastards is a brilliant example of an experience which is more than the sum of its parts. This roguelike FPS hits the mark, and its irresistible charm will leave a lasting impression.
The Wild Bastards Are Loose on Xbox, PlayStation and PC – https://www.thexboxhub.com/the-wild-bastards-are-loose-on-xbox-playstation-and-pc/
Buy Wild Bastards on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/wild-bastards/9NCVCS3CWNH1
