Wasteland

Wasteland is a video game in the role-playing (rpg) genre developed by Interplay Productions, Inc. and published by Electronic Arts, Inc. originally released in 1989. It is currently playable on DOS.

Wasteland takes place in the future after the nuclear holocaust of World War III. The player guides a band of Desert Rangers from city to city, gradually uncovering a sinister plot that threatens what's left of humanity.

Much of the game plays out like most RPGs of its era: the player navigates his party through the world from top to bottom, fights enemies (who randomly appear in hostile areas) in turn-based combat screens represented by enemy images, acquires information, equipment and items from NPCs in the cities, and so on. The player can create a whole party of adventurers and/or recruit some of the characters that populate the game world.

However, Wasteland also introduced an original skill system that has had a major influence on the genre. The game makes use of the skill system along with traditional character attributes to achieve objectives and overcome obstacles. In addition to helping characters fight more efficiently, the main attributes sometimes have an impact on activities used outside of combat. For example, high strength can be applied to break a heavy object, charisma rating can influence how NPCs interact with the main character, etc.

Skills work in a similar way: some of them improve the characters' dexterity with different types of attacks and weapons, while others are necessary to solve and/or overcome certain situations during interaction with characters and objects in the game. These skills are quite diverse, ranging from physical abilities such as swimming to more complex actions (medic, lock-picking), or even psychological states (confidence). The learning and progression of skills depends on the IQ of the protagonist.

Wasteland is available at a reduced price on the following websites and is no longer abandonware.