In May 2019, developer Blue Manchu released a roguelike first-person shooter called Damn the Void, an evocative title for an evocative game. Void Bastards was met with much love from critics and fans alike upon its 2019 debut, and five years later, Blue Manchu returns with another vibrant roguelike adventure. But while You wild bastards features the same style and tone as its spiritual predecessor, there are some big differences when it comes to gameplay.
In short, You wild bastards is a roguelike first person shooter just like Void Bastardsbut it has an extra layer of turn-based strategy that its predecessor didn't have. This gives You wild bastards a very different sense of pacing, and while this might turn some fans off, there's still plenty worth checking out. Although, not all You wild bastardselements have a satisfying impact.
Wild Bastards has an engaging sci-fi narrative
After a very short prologue, You wild bastardsThe basic premise is revealed and it's a pretty gripping, classic sci-fi/western narrative. Aboard the mysterious sentient ship The Drifter, players must travel across the galaxy and collect the souls of their former dead crew members, all in hopes of finally reaching the promised land, a haven for robots, mutants and xenos.
You wild bastardsthe story is simple but effective and gives the player a strong incentive to continue traversing the galaxy. There's also a lot of fun little in-universe sci-fi explanations for the game's mechanics, like The Drifter's feel being the reason behind the game's roguelike loop. You wild bastardsThe main campaign took about 9 hours to beat on normal difficulty.
You wild bastards it also has a procedural campaign mode, a challenge mode, and an Iron Man mode if players want an even tougher challenge. These additional mods are a nice addition that helps the game feel like a complete package, but their modifiers won't change the core loop much.
Wild Bastard's gameplay loop bites off more than it can chew
You wild bastards he throws players in the deep end and isn't afraid to let them squirm a little. from the beginning, You wild bastards they offer players quite a few overlapping systems and are often left to figure it out for themselves in the opening hour of the game. This makes an intimidating first impression.
But after a round or two, You wild bastardsthe initial obstacle begins to disappear and an addictive gameplay loop emerges. Players will soon be warping to a new sector in search of a new Outlaw to unlock and begin the long rescue process. Once in the new sector, players must plan their route through the stars, with each planet offering a key upgrade along the way. Once above a planet, players surface there as well You wild bastards' new elements of strategy come into play one at a time.
With a party of 1–4 outlaws, players arrive on a planet that is represented as a board game, with key points of interest dotted along linear paths. Players have a certain number of moves per turn, and the overall goal is to get as much loot, upgrades, mods, and valuable resources as possible before a powerful boss comes to hunt them down and force them off the planet with their bare hands empty
In addition to upgrades, resources, and useful tiles that restore the player's movement or health, You wild bastardsBoard game-like planet maps are filled with combat encounters such as roadblocks and enemy patrols. Reaching one of these battle encounters forces players into a challenging first-person Showdown where they are required to take down each enemy in order to progress.
This basic loop repeats for You wild bastards' totality, but remains quite addictive thanks to the many overlapping progression systems and evolving game mechanics. In each sector, players will encounter at least one new gameplay mechanic. These can be permanent upgrades such as Aces, Tonics which give the player a way to heal team members and the Pal/Feud system which sees the player's gang of outlaws fall or befriend each other at random intervals. These mechanics that are drip-fed to the player throughout the game fuel a sense of rewarding progression that is key to a roguelike, but it's not quite perfect.
A major problem with You wild bastardsThe gameplay loop is that while unlocking these mechanics feels immediately satisfying, some don't have that much of an impact on gameplay. The Pal/Feud system is probably the best example of this. Initially, this system seems very in-depth, with players being presented with a large diagram explaining who's feuding with who and who's friends with whom, all shown by different lines connecting the Outlaws icons.
At the start of the game, it matters which characters are fighting, as they cannot stream together. But once the player has unlocked six or more outlaws, this system can be largely forgotten, as they'll likely always have a duo they're happy with, regardless of who they're fighting. This means that the Beans resource is almost redundant, as the player will rarely need them to heal spells. This criticism extends to quite a few of the You wild bastardsgameplay mechanics, many feeling enjoyable to unlock, but ultimately lacking the depth necessary to keep them engaged for the duration of the game.
Unfortunately, with this lack of depth, You wild bastardsThe game loop can start to feel quite repetitive after a few hours. This is especially true if players don't enjoy the turn-based nature of the game's planet map, which takes up a large portion of the game.
The wild villain outlaws are a mix of likable rogues
As the name suggests, much of the You wild bastardsthe story and gameplay are based on his cast from Outlaws. Throughout the game's main campaign, players will unlock a total of 13 playable outlaws. Like its spiritual predecessor, You wild bastardsThe distinct, comic-like art style does a good job of making each of the game's 13 outlaws stand out, and the game's voice performances do a lot to flesh out the characters' personalities.
Gameplay-wise, each outlaw has a unique weapon and special ability. In theory, this means that You wild bastards offers 13 different play styles. But again, things aren't quite as good as they seem on the surface. in reality, You wild bastards' 13 Outlaws is a mixed bag, at least gameplay-wise. while You wild bastards hosts a lot of useful characters that have powerful, versatile weapons and special abilities that feel very satisfying to use, it also hosts a few good ones that just aren't worth taking into battle.
While opinions of some outlaws will vary depending on the player's preferred playstyle in first-person shooters, there are some outlaws that are objectively weaker than the rest. Smoky's flame-breathing finger gun looks cool, but it's incredibly weak and the reload time is too long, for example. In a standard FPS, these traits wouldn't be a major problem, but You wild bastards it's a tough game where every shot counts. There is simply no place in the group for weak outlaws, because weak outlaws mean a quick death, and death means the abrupt end of a run, the need to restart, and a strong sense of frustration that quickly darkens the entire experience.
Unfortunately, this leads to You wild bastardsthe list feels a bit unbalanced, and about halfway through, players will find their favorite set of four outlaws and likely ignore a good portion of the list. That said, things pick up with the game's Ace upgrade system, which gives Outlaws powerful stat boosts and new abilities. These aces make the list's weakest outlaws much more bearable, but they still won't convince players to change their top four.
The Wild Bastards land more hits than they miss, but it's a close call
You wild bastards it's a very vibrant, very ambitious game that goes out of its way to add new game mechanics and playable characters. But while this effort is certainly commendable, there's no denying that many of these elements just don't hit as hard as they should. There is still plenty of room for fans to have fun with You wild bastardsbut that time will not be without moments of confusion, frustration and a little boredom.
You wild bastards is available now on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Game Rant received a PS5 code for this review.
