Wasteland 2 (2014)

Lore & Background

Fifteen years after the bombs fell, the American Southwest is a patchwork of desperate settlements clinging to life around whatever water sources remain. The Desert Rangers, once a disciplined military force tasked with protecting civilians in the immediate aftermath, have been reduced to a scattered, underfunded remnant. The Mojave region—once a vast expanse of open desert and small towns—is now a contested territory where warlords, cults, and scavenger bands fight over the last clean aquifers and canned goods. The player character is a Desert Ranger who was left for dead during a raid, presumed lost to the same entropy that swallowed so many others. Waking in a stranger's care with a squad of misfit survivors attached to them, this Ranger must choose whether the old Ranger code—protect the innocent, hold the line—still means anything in a world that has outgrown it. The story threads through the ambitions of local power-holders who see the Rangers as either a useful tool or an obstacle, and through the quiet desperation of civilians who have simply learned to survive one day at a time. The campaign's moral architecture is built on the premise that there is no clean answer. Water can be shared or hoarded. Factions can be allied with or destroyed. The Ranger's squad members carry their own histories and expectations, and the player's choices ripple outward in ways that reshape who survives the final act and what, if anything, is saved.

In Their Own Story

The dust tasted like copper and old blood. The Deadstalker sat on the cracked lip of a dry well, watching the sun bleed out over the ridge, and listened to the squad argue about the last canteen. None of them looked at the Deadstalker. None of them had to. In this stretch of the Mojave, a dead man who walked was worse than a ghost—he was a question nobody wanted to answer. The radio crackled with a voice claiming the water table had shifted south, that the settlement at the crossroads was opening its gates to anyone who could prove they were Rangers. The Deadstalker pulled the old patch from the dead Ranger's jacket and held it up to the dying light. The thread was fraying. So was everything else. They stood, shouldered the rifle, and said, "South, then. We walk at first light." Behind them, the well swallowed the last of the sun, and the desert held its breath.

Reader's Guide

The campaign opens with the Deadstalker recovering from a fatal wound and assembling a small squad of survivors in the Mojave. The narrative then unfolds as a series of region-based encounters where the player must secure water, negotiate with or confront local factions, and decide the fate of civilian settlements. Key decisions include whether to share or hoard scarce water resources, which rival factions to ally with or destroy, and how to treat the squad members whose personal quests intersect with the main thread. Choosing to aid one settlement may cut off another from critical supplies; sparing a hostile leader can open a future alliance or invite a later betrayal. Squad composition and the Deadstalker's moral leanings (ranger code vs. pragmatic survival) shape available dialogue options and which companions remain loyal. Cross-referenced elements: The Deadstalker (player), the Desert Rangers faction, the Mojave region and its settlements, and the rival groups who control remaining water infrastructure. [MAJOR REVEAL FLAGGED: The true nature and fate of a key Ranger figure is withheld until late in the campaign and depends on prior choices.]

Did You Know?

• Wasteland 2 was one of the earliest high-profile video game projects funded through Kickstarter, helping to establish the platform as a viable path for independent RPG development.
• The game's isometric, turn-based combat system was designed to feel like a tactical tabletop session, with each squad member acting in a fixed order during each round.
• The player character's backstory—that they were left for dead by or during a Ranger operation—serves as the narrative engine for the entire campaign, forcing the player to re-earn the trust of a fractured organization.
• The game's moral framework deliberately avoids a simple 'good vs. evil' axis; several of the most sympathetic characters make choices the player must decide whether to forgive or punish.