I purchased Wasteland 2 last year and put around 12 hours or so into it. For some reason it did not grab me like I thought it would and I just stopped playing. I think I had a more enjoyable time creating my characters than I did playing the game LOL. Now that the director's cut is coming out as a free upgrade with what sounds like significant changes, I'm wondering if I should give it another shot.

Now I know no one has a way of knowing whether or not the changes will make the game that much different, but for those who have finished the game and have read up on the changes that are going to happen what are your opinions?

Here is a short synopsis of upcoming changes according to the games website:

Wasteland 2: Director's Cut is an updated and expanded version of the game for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. With a massive number of new additions and improvements, the Director's Cut is the ultimate edition of Wasteland 2.

Complete graphics overhaul. Upgraded to the newest version of the Unity 5 game engine, featuring totally redone environment art and character models, and physically-based rendering for more natural light and shadowing.

Quirks. This new set of personality traits and characteristics for your squad have both positive and negative qualities, giving you gameplay modifiers for a more unique experience and more replayability.

Perks. New bonuses you to pick for your Ranger squad as they level up. Perks provide benefits depending on your character's' skills, and can offer new abilities, better combat effectiveness, or mastery in overcoming challenges.

Precision Strikes. This combat technique allows you to you target enemy body parts to inflict debilitating effects and injuries. Shoot an enemy in the leg to knock them over, fire on their arm to blow their weapon to bits, tear up their armor to leave them defenseless, or aim for the head to inflict critical damage.

Expanded voice over. The Wasteland is full of unique characters, and with over 8,000 new recorded lines of voiced dialog, the Director's Cut is more immersive and engaging than ever.

Quite a few reviewers said that the game drags during the first leg, and really picks up if you manage to get to a certain point.

I'm really going to have to check this game out when it drops in price a bit. Looks awesome but the depth slightly scares me lol.

Do I need to finish WL1 to get WL2? I tried WL1 and the lack of an alt-tab is really irritating.

To be frank, having to had played the original would be a seriously stupid move by the developers. Sure, the game's a classic, but sadly it's just way too old and expired to be interesting to most modern gamers. Thus, some characters make a reappearance from the first game but that is pretty much it. I played WL2 when it first came out, had only briefly tried WL1, and I fared well.

Actually, if you have WL1 here on GOG, all you really need to do is read the enclosed survival guide and change some of the names in there to the "real" names of the original party. (Although I can't remember off the top of my head which is which, and google doesn't help anymore since there is a fallout item with the same name.) Hell Razor, Angela Deth, Thrasher, and Snake Vargas.

That will give you the basics of the entire story and prepare you very well for WL2, and won't take long to read.

Thanks for the tips, I played it for about three hours for awhile back, but put it off because I didn't feel like doing a learning curve. I'll mention that I really do want to finish it.

Is there any way around the alt-tab?

There were novels that kinds retold the original Wasteland from a bit different perspective (as part of the WL2 hype machine) that would serve the purpose of showing the original story quite well, I think.

Was any date announced for this?

I'm kind of intimidated by the character screen itself, max I made it to was that town with plant thingies where it got too difficult for me. If I recall correctly I was playing on Easiest difficulty, it could have been Normal as well it has been some time.

Didn't work.

Try the other town instead of the plant town, finishing either locks off the other. :P

No effect. Also tried logging out and logging back in. My version is KS one if that matters. Oh and to be clear, it only affects original WL2 Digital Deluxe and WL2DC. Other download pages load instantly.