Mini Review: Wild Bastards (Switch) - Void Bastards' Follow-Up Is A Bland Misfire

2019's Void Bastards certainly fulfilled its developer's goal of "unusual, original games that always have a strategic twist." In fact, it fulfilled it so well, and with such style and confidence, we just assumed that Blue Manchu's follow-up was going to be more of the very satisfying same, if not even better.

However, what we got with Wild Bastards is a game that attempts to outdo its predecessor by going bigger, rather than hammering down on the delightfully playful Bioshock versus Viz comic vibes which made Void Bastards so memorable. Seriously, if you haven't played Void Bastards, get that sorted.

In Wild Bastards, we assume the role of a bunch of kooky space outlaws who, rather than board ships to steal and murder everything in tense shootouts, simply beam down to various planets to engage very bland enemies in big empty spaces. If the shooting aspect of this game reminds us of anything, it's a rather average VR game like Firewall Ultra, where everything is very simplified and almost excruciatingly repetitive, but that's okay because you're playing it in VR so it's still kinda good. Here there's no VR factor for the added novelty.

Setting out on a run, you're presented with a map full of nodes that provide shops, health pickups, new outlaws to play as (the most exciting bit) and a bunch of other pickups that enable you to improve specific characters with gear and upgrade chips. The action revolves around taking your chances with your ragtag crew and risking death in first-person shootouts as you hit just one more node for extra treasure or crewmates, before escaping to the safety of your ship.

As you play, a timer counts down to the arrival of some Big Bads™ and their Wild West-style posses, which brought a little tension and initially got us a bit sweaty. This is good, we thought! But if you actually hang around and fight these boss battles, you'll find they are disappointingly easy - you need to put the game on hard mode just so they can soak up some more bullets. It's not great.

What's more, the shooting is just way too basic. Void Bastards was the same, but it excelled because it was clever with the tricks you could use and the level layouts. Here it's just very tedious, unrewarding shots of combat intermixed with a very average, seen-it-all-before upgrade and skill tree setup to keep you pushing onward.

It's a real shame because we can see the potential, but there's just not enough to the game, and it never becomes the sort of clever experience we expected as it progresses. As a result, we've come away unexpectedly disappointed with this one. Performance-wise on Switch, there's also a little stiffness and slowdown to movement here and there too, which doesn't help things.

Blue Manchu delivered the goods with Void Bastards, but this follow-up is a disappointing effort that can't match its predecessor's atmosphere, charm, originality or strategic smarts. Instead, Wild Bastards is a strangely bland affair, melding boring top-down decision-making and dull first-person sections. The game never really picks up the pace or gives you anything surprising to work with. In a genre packed full of bangers, this one is pretty difficult to recommend on any level.