Wild Bastards Review (PS5) – Alphabetti Spaghetti Western

With enough genre mash-ups to make it an Alphabetti spaghetti Western, Wild Bastards has enough descriptors to challenge everyone’s SEO to a duel. Part roguelite, part FPS, part strategy game and all out on developer Blue Manchu’s signature style, which we first saw in Void Bastards; players can only expect a spiritual successor with their latest title. There’s certainly an attitude alongside some sharp writing for people to make comparisons between the two. However, this entry is an entirely different bastard altogether.

Swapping out the claustrophobic corridors of a space station for the swinging doors of a cybernetic saloon, Wild Bastards is a galaxy-wide shooter that offers thirteen playable Outlaws to choose from, as you go from rags to riches whilst on the run. The game offers a lot of varying mechanics that are overwhelming to get to grips with initially, but as the building blocks slowly progress during your play time, it actually starts to feel like a Full House of ideas. But is Wild Bastards out of this world or lost in space? Let’s get into it.

From Beyond The Graverobbing

The game opens with the last two surviving members of a gang of outlaws, tails tucked between their legs. The two were run out of the solar system by the Chaste family – known for their affluence and maniacal siblings. Determined to bring their gang back to life, Spider Rosa and Casino venture into the now-Chaste-operated galaxy to revive their fellow outlaws and make money in the process.

It’s a story that makes more mechanical sense rather than narratively, but also a good excuse as to why you start with nothing; making your gameplay progress unlock (revive) new playable outlaws. It’s not plot heavy and by the end, feels like a complete afterthought. Although Blue Manchu’s writing has never resonated with the overarching story but rather the sharp and witty dialogue.

Drawls, draws and darn tootin’s percolate the banter this time around like a Blazin’ Saddles in space. You feel the sense that the band of 13 outlaws have been long-term ride or dies, warts and all. And whilst there isn’t a linear path to the conversations you become privy to, the randomised nature makes it closer to naturally hanging with the gang.

This also becomes one of the many mechanics you’ll have to manage, as the team can feud or be friendly at random, depending on what one character says to another. This can make for some awkward trips and characters not working together unless you settle it over a tin of beans – I really mean that, but more on that later.

A Shootout, Is A Shootout

I wasn’t kidding when I said there’s a hodge podge of genres in Wild Bastards, so I’ll try to explain it as concisely as possible. The moment-to-moment action you’ll be playing a lot of is the bite-size shootouts. Think of these as first-person high noon moments where you clash with a predetermined number of enemies in an arena. These start off easy enough, a couple of enemies in an open space and a few places for cover.

You have your ‘R2’ to shoot, ‘L2’ to zoom your reticle in a tad more, but it’s not like an ADS. You can also crouch, jump, interact with ladders and use pick-ups you’ll find lying around. It’s simple, snappy and a clear strength for Wild Bastards. As you progress, arenas become more intricate with deadlier enemy types and way more of them. From small rickety towns, to swamps with vast amounts of foliage, to whole multi-leveled encampments that become dizzying to navigate, all of them are visually interesting but don’t really change up the flow of your encounters.

Thankfully, the outlaws you play as all feature distinct aspects of their play style. Whether that’s from their weapon of choice or the abilities they come with, all differ on how you execute the mini-shootouts. One of the first outlaws, Casino, has a double-barrel shotgun that’s devastating up close with its widespread scattershot. Meanwhile, The Judge has a rifle to click those pesky robotic heads from afar.

This makes for some interesting combinations when you set out on runs, as your gang will always ride in twos. Whilst bullets are flinging from every which way, you can switch between the two with the tap of ‘R1’, instantly switching up your approach, with the characters only becoming more varied and nuanced as you continue.

Like A Western

The gunplay requires a mix of fast reaction times, adapting to the cover out in the area and a good sense of where the enemies are. Shooting is satisfying and the movement is quick and responsive but the enemies feel a little wonky. I found myself getting shot by enemies I physically couldn’t see due to distance or foliage that didn’t even hint at an enemy being inside.

They also have an unreasonably decent aim that occasionally trumps human reaction speeds. On top of that, the AI also doesn’t feel aggressive on normal difficulty as they’ll oftentimes move to random locations, making it almost impossible to find the last one to finish the round.

Couple this with some characters not being nearly strong enough by default and you could have a rough early few hours playing. RNG plays a factor in that with what you unlock at the start of your run, but it does feel like a slog when you’re playing as your least favourite character who is also the last one alive.

Successful shootouts offer you a smattering of rewards, like tonics to heal your gang, aces (perks) to permanently upgrade a character – levelling them up (some aces are run-based that you’ll lose upon death), mods to equip, Cramm to spend at shops and Infamy to unlock rewards every time you enter a new run or area.

Ill Gotten Gains

It’s a lot to wrap your head around but Wild Bastards has a fairly substantial tutorial to at least give you the basics. Mods come in three forms, ammo, armour and tool. These all give your chosen outlaw a stat increase from health, damage, movement speed and resistance to enemy attack types. If every member of your gang dies, you’ll lose all your currencies and mods and you’ll warp back to the start of your planet excursion.

In the over world menu, your expeditions are laid out like a board game. You can see all your characters, roadblocks filled with enemies, patrols that will hunt for you and places of interest like shops, perk pick-ups etc. You only have a certain amount of moves between all these places before you can end your turn, forcing you to think about how you’re going to tackle the paths.

This part of Wild Bastards kind of took me out of the experience a little bit, I didn’t like the stop-and-start between gunfights, the sifting through loads of menus, stats and items to use whilst travelling along the board. With that said, it’s an interesting juxtaposition to the gunfighting and makes the adventure feel far bigger in scale because of it.

Wanted Dead Or Alive

If you stay in a certain area for too long, the Chaste family will begin to hunt you, following you on the board in a similar move-turning style until they catch up and it sends you into a boss fight shootout. It’s another tactic to get you making choices, should I go there and grab a codex entry that can help me find an enemy weakness, or should I go for a bit of extra cash? You can go both places but you’ll run the risk of some of the hardest fights in the game, presenting a risk and reward that’s exciting.

Zooming out from these board game-like trips, there’s a planetary map to choose which direction to go in, offering different types of rewards. These indicate what you can unlock when you enter them and what types of enemies you’ll be facing. It offers up a good opportunity to decide which outlaws you’ll take on your trips that suit the offence.

And then you have the friends and feuds system where every gang member has the RNG ability to interact in good or bad ways. You’ll hear these discussions in and outside of battle and what someone says can cause friction amongst other characters. This could prevent the two from working together, or on the inverse if they’re friends they will take a bullet for one another.

And the only thing to solve the quarrels is hashing it out over a tin of beans, another item you’ll find on your trips. It’s a neat little system that adds to the revolving door of different mechanics that build upon each other quite seamlessly. It’s an intimidating start that does get easier as you go along, but with ease and comfort comes stagnant gameplay.

One Foot In The Grave

Separately, it’s all interesting mechanics that formulate the structure that makes Wild Bastards. However, it never picks up from its smart and daunting opening as the gameplay stays more or less the exact same throughout. It’s a fun ride but a very same-y one the whole way through.

The additions of perks known as Aces don’t overcome the fact that the AI can often be frustrating but its gung-ho style still makes it fun. With all that said, Wild Bastards has an astonishing sense of style. Characters are inventively designed with a mixture of Western tropes, sci-fi and even Mike Mignola influences chucked in there. Aquatic humanoids, robots with slot machine faces and ghoulish undead make up the band of misfits you ride alongside, and they’re all just cool to spend time with.

Overall, Wild Bastards is stylish, funny and a blast to run and gun, if you’re not expecting it to offer much variety during your playtime. The systems all seamlessly fit whilst being wildly different from each other, offering a refreshing take on the varying genres it dabbles in.

Wild Bastards is available now on PlayStation 5 (review platform), Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam.

Developer: Blue Manchu
Publisher: Maximum Entertainment

Disclaimer: In order to complete this review, we were provided with a promotional copy of the game. For our full review policy, please go here.

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