Wild Bastards review

Our VerdictThe roguelike and FPS genres haven’t been spliced so successfully since Deathloop—and Wild Bastards deserves just as much acclaim.

Our Verdict

The roguelike and FPS genres haven’t been spliced so successfully since Deathloop—and Wild Bastards deserves just as much acclaim.

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Need to knowWhat is it?A hybrid mix of shooter and strategy with critters to spare.Expect to pay£27.79 / $29.74Release dateSeptember 12, 2024DeveloperBlue ManchuPublisherMaximum EntertainmentReviewed onWindows 10, AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU, 16GB RAM, Nvidia Geforce RTX 3060Steam DeckVerifiedLinkOfficial site

Need to know

What is it?A hybrid mix of shooter and strategy with critters to spare.Expect to pay£27.79 / $29.74Release dateSeptember 12, 2024DeveloperBlue ManchuPublisherMaximum EntertainmentReviewed onWindows 10, AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU, 16GB RAM, Nvidia Geforce RTX 3060Steam DeckVerifiedLinkOfficial site

What is it?A hybrid mix of shooter and strategy with critters to spare.

Expect to pay£27.79 / $29.74

Release dateSeptember 12, 2024

DeveloperBlue Manchu

PublisherMaximum Entertainment

Reviewed onWindows 10, AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Six Core CPU, 16GB RAM, Nvidia Geforce RTX 3060

Steam DeckVerified

LinkOfficial site

It’s dusk in a one-horse town, and that one horse is Sarge, a bipedal stallion carrying a lever rifle. As he scans the street for targets, a sniper wearing a monocle breaks the silence. “What precisely are you s’posed to be?”, he yells in a clipped English accent.

It’s the last thing the hunter ever says. The jibe gives away his location in the dark—behind the belltower, up on the church roof. Sarge closes the distance in seconds. Even on two legs, he gallops faster than any human. Seconds after that, the showdown is over. Up on the tactical map, Sarge is back on his own horse—best not to think too hard about that one—and riding off to his next encounter. This is the one-two punch of Wild Bastards—part FPS, part strategy game with the DNA of XCOM.

(Image credit: Blue Manchu)

Shooting a cowboy from above

Thankfully for the Bastards, a legendary and enigmatic starship named the Drifter swoops in to save them. Nestled in its metallic bosom, you set out across the stars to find and resurrect the rest of the gang. Every sector of space you enter is like a roguelike run, in which you navigate between nodes representing shipwrecks and celestial bodies, trying to make it to the end and rescue a friend. Should all your Bastards be injured, you’ll be returned to the start of that sector.

(Image credit: Blue Manchu)

Sneaking around under a purple sky

So far, so strategy game. But the battles of Wild Bastards aren’t resolved on a grid or with percentages. Rather, they’re lightning-fast FPS showdowns that play out in tight, arena-esque levels. This is a deeply satisfying and consistently surprising blaster in which it feels fantastic to blow away a gunhand with dual revolvers; in which the exploding collar of an unstable kyote can hurl you sideways across the craters of a low-gravity moon. Combat in Wild Bastards is always fair, though its interacting systems can combine in all sorts of creative ways. Knowledge is your best defence against the unexpected, so that you can draw a pack of kyotes into a poison lake, and not the other way round.

Rustling

Despite the pace and immediacy of its combat, Wild Bastards is also accomplished in stealth. Developer Blue Manchu is the second studio of Irrational Games co-founder Jon Chey, which means immersive sims are in its blood. Encounters kick off much as they do inArkane’s Deathloop, with enemies unaware of your position, and you unsure of theirs. Thankfully, these cowpokes have a habit of shouting to each other (“You okay, Jethro??"), and Wild Bastards dutifully marks their last-heard-location on your compass—making this a rare stealth-shooter you can enjoy without headphones. That is, at least, until you come across the snakes. The soft crash of disturbed earth is often the first hint you’ll have that a venom-belching beast has popped up somewhere over your shoulder. Learning the behaviours of your opponents is a significant factor in your success and at least as important as your trigger finger.

(Image credit: Blue Manchu)

Assaulting a fort

While you only control one Bastard at a time, you keep another in reserve during battle, as if they were a second weapon. That means you’re swapping not just from Casino’s shotgun to Judge’s rifle, but taking on all the traits of that character as well: their movement speed, health bar, and the various perks you’ve picked up for them on your journey through the sectors. More than a gimmick, this setup brings extraordinary depth to loadout management. Once you realise a wounded Bastard can ‘hide’ behind their fellow before popping out to grab a health pickup, you start to wonder at the ways you might combine their abilities more cleverly.

The Verdict91Read our review policyWild BastardsThe roguelike and FPS genres haven’t been spliced so successfully since Deathloop—and Wild Bastards deserves just as much acclaim.

The Verdict

91Read our review policyWild BastardsThe roguelike and FPS genres haven’t been spliced so successfully since Deathloop—and Wild Bastards deserves just as much acclaim.

91Read our review policy

Wild BastardsThe roguelike and FPS genres haven’t been spliced so successfully since Deathloop—and Wild Bastards deserves just as much acclaim.

Wild Bastards

The roguelike and FPS genres haven’t been spliced so successfully since Deathloop—and Wild Bastards deserves just as much acclaim.

More about wild bastardsPC Gamer’s highest review scores of 2024Wild Bastards is channeling its creators' previous work on BioShock with its powers and combos, and even its most normal, ‘all rounder’ character is a cyborg horse with a lever rifleLatestCruel is a frantic run-and-gun shooter where you boot cultists out of windows in a cursed apartment block that wants you deadSee more latest►

More about wild bastards

PC Gamer’s highest review scores of 2024Wild Bastards is channeling its creators' previous work on BioShock with its powers and combos, and even its most normal, ‘all rounder’ character is a cyborg horse with a lever rifle

Metaphor: ReFantazio

PC Gamer’s highest review scores of 2024

The crew in their cockpit

Wild Bastards is channeling its creators' previous work on BioShock with its powers and combos, and even its most normal, ‘all rounder’ character is a cyborg horse with a lever rifle

LatestCruel is a frantic run-and-gun shooter where you boot cultists out of windows in a cursed apartment block that wants you deadSee more latest►

Latest

Cruel is a frantic run-and-gun shooter where you boot cultists out of windows in a cursed apartment block that wants you dead

Cruel

Cruel is a frantic run-and-gun shooter where you boot cultists out of windows in a cursed apartment block that wants you dead

See more latest►

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Our Verdict#

Rustling#

Our Verdict

Rustling