Wasteland

Wasteland was created in 1988 at Interplay Productions under Brian Fargo, with Ken St. Andre and Michael Stackpole shaping its design and writing. Released for the Apple II, Commodore 64 and PC, it was one of the first RPGs set in a nuclear wasteland: players led a squad of Desert Rangers from a top-down view, resolved encounters through skills rather than fixed classes, and could tackle many situations in more than one way, including blowing up the scenery. Because contemporary computers had so little memory, the game pointed players to long passages of text printed in an accompanying book, an unusual but memorable way of telling its story at the time. That openness and its dark, ironic tone made it the direct spiritual ancestor of Fallout, whose creators later openly named Wasteland as their chief influence, inheriting not just the setting but a number of nods and characters.

A true sequel took a long time to arrive. Electronic Arts owned the Wasteland trademark, and in 1990 it released Fountain of Dreams, a game that played somewhat similarly but shared little beyond the name and had no involvement from Brian Fargo, Ken St. Andre or Michael Stackpole; neither players nor critics treated it as a real continuation. The series effectively went quiet for years, while Fallout went on to define the post-apocalyptic RPG genre in its place.

Brian Fargo returned to Wasteland decades later with inXile Entertainment, the studio he founded after eventually regaining the rights. The Kickstarter-funded Wasteland 2 (2014) brought back the isometric view and tactical, skill-driven combat of the original, paired with a modern dialogue system and branching consequences for the choices players made. For many fans of classic RPGs it proved the genre still had plenty to say, and helped pave the way for other revivals in a similar vein.

Wasteland 3 (2020) moved the story to a snowbound Colorado, added two-player co-op, and further refined combat, vehicle customization, and the writing of characters and factions players had to choose between as allies. For many players and critics it stands as the high point of the revival, confirming that alongside Fallout, post-apocalyptic RPGs have another founding series that was never truly forgotten.