When comparing The Journey Down vs Wasteland 2, the Slant community recommends The Journey Down for most people. In the question“What are the best games on Steam with a rich story?” The Journey Down is ranked 67th while Wasteland 2 is ranked 73rd. The most important reason people chose The Journey Down is:
Self described as an "afro-caribbean" vibe. With character faces that resemble tribal masks as well as the main characters sporting Caribbean accents there is no doubt the game was designed with black culture in mind.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Unique Style
Self described as an "afro-caribbean" vibe. With character faces that resemble tribal masks as well as the main characters sporting Caribbean accents there is no doubt the game was designed with black culture in mind.
Pro Quality presentation
The characters are 3D rendered on top of beautiful hand painted backgrounds with it all blending nicely to a very neatly finished look.
Pro Satisfying puzzles
The Journey Down offers challenging puzzles that give the user quite a bit of satisfaction when solved. Not that they are too difficult but just not that the game hands the answers to the player on a platter either.
Pro Successful heir to the original game
Though not the prettiest game to look at, the art style and direction make for a game that resembles the original quite successfully. More modern looks could have easily detracted from the game and its terroir.
Pro Combat is fun
This is a very subjective thing but the combat is well done and it doesn't get old or tedious after so many hours of play. It's reminiscent of XCOM gameplay.
Pro Worldbuilding
Even if the post-apocalyptic world is nothing new, there are ways to go about it and Wastelands present a consistent and believable version of it (for the most part).
Pro Large party size
The game starts out with four user created or pre-made characters that then allows 3 more to be added later in the game for a total of seven. The large party size allows for plenty of player choice and customization of their team, in order to fit anyones play style or particular play scenarios.
Cons
Con Chapters are extremely short
Even though the game is broken up into separately purchasable chapters, each chapter is pretty short, even when considering all chapters combined the game in full will still be short.
Con Giant ridiculous difficulty spike half way through
Con Gameplay feels a bit rigid
While there are a few points where a player can choose to use unintended actions, more often than not a set skill has to be used on set items in order to interact with them. Sadly this leaves little room for experimental gameplay or use of imagination to try for unintended circumstances.