Remasters? Directors Cut? o.O

Even though I've made a few (eight, I think) purchases in the current Steam Sale, I found myself replaying Wasteland 2.  My Steam library had recently sprouted a few extra games in the form of several free "directors cut" versions of games.  Firstly, let's emphasize the "free."  I didn't pay for these upgrades, they just miraculously appeared in my library.  Free is great!  But then the question remains...do these "directors cut" and "remastered" versions really offer anything new or better?  That's firmly up for debate.

Check your Steam/GoG library for this free upgrade!

It had been awhile since I had played the Kickstarter remake of the 1980's classic RPG Wasteland.  I didn't back it on Kicktarter, but picked it up a few months after it was initially released on Steam (2014?).  I remembered that I had enjoyed playing it but that it had been somewhat challenging (mostly due to my poor character design) and that it was a bit of a buggy mess.  I decided that I would give the directors cut a spin.  The description in my library made it sound like it would be a vast improvement on the base game.  Hmmm...kind of.

The main difference that I noticed between the base game and the directors cut was the addition of voice acting.  I remember very little spoken dialogue in the base game.  The main questline seemed to have a little bit of voice acting but that's really it.  The directors cut features much more voice acting and now most of the key characters have actual spoken dialogue.  The addition of this spoken dialogue does add something to the game.  It's fun to hear Scotchmo remark on the state of his pants or to hear Rose disparaging your current situation.  The voice acting is actually pretty good too.

I also felt like there was a much wider range or companions than there had been in the base game (but, this could be due to my total ignorance of the fact that if you told someone "no" that they couldn't join your party that they were then completely unavailable for recruitment).  From the very beginning of the game I picked up Angela Deth as a companion.  She's a higher level companion and can give a starting team a big boost.  Unfortunately she's a temporary team member (this fact completely screwed up my first effort to re-play the game...I had to start over when she left my party).  Angela has lots of unique dialogue as does every other NPC you pick up and plug into your squad.

Character design has also been much improved in the directors cut.  When you initially design your character you can pick from a long list of "quirks."  These quirks can grant your character a very strange set set of benefits that seem to also be accompanied by drawbacks.  You can take a quirk that grants you additional skill points on every even level but takes away skill points on every odd level (huh?).  Another addition to the talent system are "perks" (a nod to Fallout?) which you get every 3-5 levels.  These perks are directly related to the skills your character has and can greatly benefit your party.  For example, a character with enough skill points in mechanical repair can take a perk that prevents any critical failures.  I fully took advantage of the "perks" but chose not to take any "quirks."  I'm a wuss who just didn't want to risk the negative drawbacks.

The first time I played through Wasteland 2 it had numerous bugs that greatly altered chunks of the storyline.  The directors cut appears to have mostly weeded out the most annoying bugs (this is semi-spoilers but in the original version you couldn't make peace between Hollywood and the Bastion unless you followed the questline in a very specific order--it's completely possible and easily doable in the DC).  There are still a few--don't try to leave Damonta with Bart the cowboy in toe...he gets confused and you can't rescue the cows.  It made the experience much less frustrating...but it's still a bit of a letdown that there are still a few pesky bugs floating around.

So I guess my verdict on remasters and directors cuts is that they do add something to games that you might have already finished.  I wouldn't expect a vastly different experience, but it's nice for when you feel like replaying something that you haven't touched for awhile.  If developers are willing to offer them for free to those who have already purchased the game...cool!  If not, I probably won't do it.  (Be on the lookout for upcoming remasters for the Bioshock games, rumor has it that they are going to be free to those who already own the games.)