Wasteland 2 goes live for backers, on Steam Early Access this Friday

The Beta for inXile’s long-awaited Wasteland follow-up is live for Kickstarter backers and will post to Steam’s Early Access program this coming Friday.

Wasteland 2 has been a long time coming indeed. The original title was released way back in 1993 and is widely credited with spawning the uber-popular Fallout series. One look at the game and you can se why that is as Wasteland takes place in a post-apocalyptic, uh, wasteland and has a very similar sense of humor to that other RPG (turned FPS) series. For it’s part, inXile has kept W2 true to it’s roots though and the game remains a turn-based, isometric RPG in style. As for everything else in the game, it all looks to be blissfully 21st century in form.

The beta, which is either available right now or will be out on Friday depending on whether or not you backed the game on Kickstarter, takes place over “the first four major areas of the game world”. You’ll get a nice taste of the world that the developer has crafted for the sequel as you’ll get to travel through the harsh world of Wasteland, create your own character and have a go at some combat, so it’s a pretty full experience.

Oh, and no worries if you’ve never played Wasteland before as the sequel picks up some 15 years after the original ended and doesn’t require any fore-knowledge of that game or the happenings within. To find out more about Wasteland 2, click here to go to the official inXile page for the game.