I missed out on Void Bastards the first time around so I was excited to get a chance to take an early look at the spiritual successor coming this fall, Wild Bastards. Wild Bastards is described as a roguelike strategy shooter and I wasn’t sure that combination would work but was pleasantly surprised with the results. The preview wasn’t super in-depth but what I did gather made me very interested in the official release. Emboldening that interest, even more, was how well it ran on the Steam Deck and how good it felt to put down/pick up for a quick session, elements I think are crucial to a roguelike game. Another element I didn’t expect was to fall prey to the early narrative hooks and the fun story that’s befallen these bastards.
The preview for Wild Bastards starts with the characters Spider Rosa and Doc Casino evading an unknown assailant. As they beam down to a planet, Casino gets scattered and Rosa blasts the planet lock allowing them to escape. We learn they’re running from Prince Chaste and Rosa can’t leave without Casino. Looking like a bit of a board game, there are various paths to take with roadblocks blocking each one. There’s a little skull with a number below it, indicating difficulty I assume. Getting to the roadblock, I’m able to enter into first-person mode and start a Showdown, which just pits me against various enemies.
The enemy variety is pretty good too. Critters are the bane of my existence, with some looking like the Houndeye from Half-Life, shooting green beams at you. However, the one that got me every time was the snake, called Rattler’s, that shoots poison at you. I was always extra careful fighting them because poison just ended me. On the more humanoid side, they seem to primarily be robotic cowboys. However, one set of enemies you end up facing are these big, evil, old-school sci-fi lookin’ robots with a bunch of armor, these guys are called Ironclad. Those guys were pretty tough and even getting the jump on them didn’t ensure victory like some of the other baddies.
You’ll jump from planet to planet, sector to sector, looking for the other bastards. In the preview they had us unlock Smoky, a permanently on-fire skeleton man, and Judge who I didn’t get to play. As you unlock them you’ll be able to beam down with them onto new planets but you’ll only be able to beam down with two bastards. I found myself primarily sticking with Smoky and Casino for a few reasons but there were several times when they got merked and I had to rely on old Rosa. Truth be told, I think I did the best as Rosa and her playstyle is fun. She’s just a spider with revolvers but because she has multiple hands she’s able to reload one gun while firing the other.
Killing baddies gives you infamy, a currency that automatically gets exchanged for rewards when you hit the next planet. You’ll be given mods, primarily, that are just equipment pieces for each character. That can also be a deciding factor on who to take onto the planet as not everyone can use the same mods. Some mods also had extra buffs or debuffs if you equipped them to the wrong person. I threw a jacket on Casino because it gave +100 hit points but because it wasn’t on Judge, it gave -1 speed. Along with mods, some aces are more permanent upgrades, and some aces are also significantly more powerful and those are called core aces. The customization allowed for each bastard was a nice touch and seemed like it could fundamentally change the way I was playing the characters.
Navigating the planet, there’s a decent variety of stops. Aside from roadblocks, which are just battles, there are shops, character data, teleporters, chests, and satellites. The satellites allowed you to pick a roadblock and perform an action on it. Sometimes, you’d be able to outright destroy the roadblock. Other times, you’d be able to spawn some critter allies or reduce the skull number, making the battle a little easier. After a full day (two turns for the day, two turns for the night usually,) posses start dropping from the sky. These are more difficult enemies that chase you down until you leave the planet. The nice thing is, they have an abundance of juice in the battle arena.
Each bastard has a special ability that can be activated when you have juicy. My favorite was Casino, who would just outright eliminate an enemy from the battlefield. With enough juice, you can easily even the odds from inside a building or behind a log. Rosa tosses out a decoy version of herself that draws enemies, though I don’t think the range is particularly large. Smoky creates a circle of fire, setting all enemies within that radius on fire. Finding juice was always a very welcome and very enjoyable addition to the already fun battle.
I had a lot of fun playing Wild Bastards over the weekend and I can only imagine how much more excited fans of Void Bastards must be with Wild Bastards on the horizon. The blend of genres works really well and despite being a roguelike, hooked me narratively, which is becoming more common. I’m really looking forward to playing more Wild Bastards this fall.
