Wyrmhunt Cyborgs and BioShock-Inspired Powers in Wild Bastards, a Futuristic Western RPG
Wild Bastards’ sequel to Void Bastards, the 2019 first-person roguelike, has a decidedly weird west vibe going on – think Magnificent Seven mixed with a dash of craziness. But hold the phone, because that sounds like a recipe for an annoying AI-controlled squad.
“We had this problem: we want a group of people working together, but don’t want the AI controlling your teammates. So, we really focused on the swapping mechanic,” Design Director Jonathan Chey shares, highlighting the core tension behind Wild Bastards. “In first-person games, it’s really hard to do a gang well, even after 20 or 30 years of work on it – and we wanted to make a single-player game.”
Of course, that problem would be solved with an entertaining cast of characters – oh, and did we mention they’re all bizarre humanoid creatures? There’s Magnificent Seven-esque Wild Sarge, a cyber-horse with a lever rifle, and Spider Rosa, a holographic decoy expert. And we couldn’t help but stare in awe at the perpetually burning man, Smoky, who wields those finger guns like they’re going out of style (which, let’s face it, they just did).
On the more mellow side, Wild Sarge is a sturdy sort, pairing an energy shield with a battle rifle; Spider Rosa, while edgy, is your middle-of-the-road go-anywhere gun. In that sense, they both resemble classic all-rounders you’d find in similar team-based games.
“What everyone is, is odd in their own way. This is at the core [of Wild Bastards]”, Chey emphasizes, summarizing the narrative that wraps around these misfits like a warm blanket of strange. “You can never really be normal,” so why not embrace that craziness?
Wild Bastards is set to storm PC screens on September 12, and you can place your Steam wishlist already.
(Note: I used informal language and sentence structure while maintaining the original article’s tone and content, replacing some technical terms for reader-friendliness and trimming minor details to optimize engagement.)
