Wasteland 2 To Be 50 Hours Long, LA To Be Green

Wasteland 2 might be in its "final stretch" of development, but that doesn't mean all systems are go just yet. inXile is still hard at work on ironing out kinks, smoothing rough edges, and even overhauling the entire inventory system. The mighty kicker of starters does, however, have an estimate of how long a single playthrough will last you: 50 hours. Exploring all locations and missions, however, will take "quite a bit longer." One such location? The entirety of Los Angeles (and outlying areas), which is not part of the ongoing beta. If you think Wasteland's been looking a little too, er, wasteland-y, this ought to make you gleeful as Aberforth, the goat Alec nearly murdered.

Los Angeles is as green and glowy as a pregnant Swamp Thing, and it looks to be quite a change of pace from Wasteland's desert dry early goings. inXile Xplained in a post on Xickstarter:

"Los Angeles is a separate world map from Arizona. A lot of Arizona has a feeling of familiarity for the Wasteland 1 fans, as it sees the return of quite a number of Wasteland 1 locations and factions. On the other hand, Los Angeles allows us to get back to some of the wildness the Wasteland setting allows, by opening up a fresh new area with weird possibilities. Nature has reclaimed much of the ruined landscape."

"In L.A., we decided to make many of its recognizable landmarks key locations, including the aforementioned LA Coliseum and Hollywood, but also such spots as the Watts Towers and the Griffith Observatory. Our design process started with, 'What would be the most bad-ass areas in L.A. for the player to visit?' We then sprinkled these areas with weird cults and weirder creatures."

LA will also be less initially hostile than Arizona, with many settlements beginning in what inXile describes as "equilibrium." As a result, you'll be given some time to explore places' features and cultures before they reveal their less civilized sides. Conflicts might present themselves as splinter groups within gangs or cults (which you could then help reconcile or pit against each other), or external threats who are maybe less open to talking things out.

All of which sounds rather formulaic, but apparently it'll be anything but. "Los Angeles shines in a strong variety of locations. That variety evincing itself not just in visuals and flavor of the location, but also in how open or guided an area is, how conflict or hub-oriented it is, etc. etc," wrote inXile.

Color me very, very intrigued. And also post-apocalyptic LA-green, my new favorite Crayola crayon color.