Our Verdict
An appealing cartoon-style aesthetic and a tight, satisfying gameplay loop make Wild Bastards a worthwhile FPS roguelike, if you can stomach the jarringly chatty cast and often disappointing upgrades.
Roguelikes are dangerous. Booting up a good one for the first time guarantees an unhealthy takeout dinner, a pile of laundry left to fold, and a 2am bedtime spree just to play one more time. In 2019, developer Blue Manchu released the System Shock-inspired FPS roguelike Void Bastards. Set on a cramped ship, it received positive reviews, with praise for its comic book-like aesthetic and tight gameplay loop, but for me, it didn’t dominate my life in the same way that the genre’s greatest masterpieces have since arrived. And now its sequel is here. Wild Busters.
The game transposes the atmosphere of System Shock to a vibrant sci-fi Wild West setting, starring 13 outlaws with unique and killer skills. Wild Bastards’ chatty cast makes for a story-driven roguelike on the surface. All but two of the outlaws have been killed at the hands of the Chaste gang, but with the help of a magical ship called the Drifter, you can travel from system to system, resurrecting and recruiting your allies. However, Chaste is relentlessly pursuing you the whole time, doing everything in their power to bury the outlaws underground.
Though it’s a novel concept, Wild Bastards weaves a flimsy story – each outlaw is little more than an interesting accent and a unique kit, their quests feel thin over a 10-hour playthrough, and sadly, the endless bickering starts to get annoying long before the game is over.
Wild Bastards excels in terms of gameplay. Each system is made up of multiple planets, each with several positive and negative variables that allow you to power up your crew with collectible skills and items. You can choose which planets to visit on your way to the final planet in the system. Once on the ground, you move around a board game-like map, collect loot, and start arena battles called showdowns against 40 different enemy types.
Chaists will arrive soon and hunt you down, so you rush back to your ship with any loot you’ve managed to get and head to the next planet. Once you reach the edge of the system, a new outlaw will join your party and take over your newly acquired skills. There’s a real tension in rushing to gather skills for your favorite character as chasers beam down planetside. I make my way back to my ship, dodging chasers across the map and narrowly avoiding a fight I almost can’t win.
Dueling gunfights are where Wild Bastards really shines, bringing back a cartoony aesthetic with 2D enemy sprites making this one of the most visually appealing roguelikes out there. There isn’t a ton of variety in the levels, but there’s plenty to see across swamps, dusty cowboy planets, and low-gravity moons as you gun down wily dynamite-throwing bandits and prickly aliens.
The shooting itself is rudimentary. Each outlaw has their own weapon, powerful moves called stunts, and sometimes passive moves. Running and jumping are just that. You can’t have two outlaws facing off against each other at once, and you switch between them with the press of a button.
Each outlaw is useful in different situations, especially after unlocking certain skills. Smokey can breathe fire across the map to keep swarming creatures at bay; Preach’s Gatling Gun can mow down even giant robotic enemies, but it takes time to set up; Spike’s Stunt Hack attacks enemy turrets and pounces on his master; and Fletch’s bow tracks enemies, but more importantly, he can learn a skill that gives him a 25% chance of turning enemies into allies.
I often wished the Outlaws were more useful when paired together – having them waiting in reserve can help by periodically providing health regen and short periods of invulnerability, but don’t expect any special combo effects.
Most of the level-ups and items also feel rather uninspiring – fun highlights like explosive ammo are far fewer than the handful of lackluster damage reduction buffs – and combined with the length of time a single run takes, Wild Bastards never reaches the roguelike high point of lucking into a ridiculously powerful build.
While not life-sucking enough to take over, a second and third full playthrough was not something I could easily put down. Sure, I folded all my laundry and skipped a meal in order to play, and I’ll never touch the narrative mode again, but Wild Bastards is a solid roguelike with a satisfying enough gameplay loop that I’ll want to play it again and again.
