If you fell in love with 2019’s Void Bastards, get ready to expand your horizons with our new first-person shooter, Wild Bastards. Wild Bastards continues Void Bastards’ great mix of strategy and shooting action, but adds more on almost every front.

In Void Bastards, you played as one of an endless series of prisoners, each with their own traits, but otherwise identical. In Wild Bastards, you choose from a gang of 13 unique outlaws, each of whom has their own voice, place in the gang, relationships with the others and, most importantly, embodies a very different playstyle.

Hopalong is a slithering lizard-man who wields a strangling lasso. He demands a stealthy, close range playstyle. While he’s very powerful against small numbers of tough enemies, he can quickly get overwhelmed by more numerous foes.

In contrast, Smoky is a chef who was consumed by his cooking fires. He’s now able to project flames from his fingertips, setting enemies and the environment afire. By creating walls of flame he’s easily able to manage swarming enemies like Kyotes, but he has trouble with enemies that can’t be funneled into kill-zones, like the teleporting Assassins or the burrowing Rattlers.

The outlaw you choose, the planet you choose to beam them down onto, and which outlaws you pair together before entering a showdown will play a huge role in your success. You will need to juggle outlaw fatigue, injuries, relationships and match-ups against the enemies you’re likely to face. Just as in Void Bastards, Wild Bastards demands strategic thinking as well as shooting skills. But now, you’ll need to reboot that thinking with a whole host of new concerns.

In Void Bastards, you piloted your tiny pod through a hostile nebula, choosing which derelict ship to enter and which to pass by. In Wild Bastards, your gang flies through the galaxy, choosing which planets to visit and which to avoid. Once on the planet, you’ll divide your outlaws into bunches and ride from location to location, gathering loot while making the best use of opportunities on the planet and avoiding the patrolling guards and critters where you can.

Each planet will present you with new challenges and opportunities. Sierra planets are mountainous with long sight lines but snowbanks can interfere with your movement both around the planet and within a showdown. Don’t get stuck in the snow when one of the Princes pursuing you arrives or you might find yourself tossed into a battle where the odds are really stacked against you!

On the other hand, Hostile worlds feature low gravity, which allows you to easily leap up onto terrain to get a height advantage. But watch out for Yellowbellies who can shoot right through the atmospheric domes that are common here.

Whatever the world, once you enter a first-person showdown, you’ll find the same intense shooter action that you did in Void Bastards, but amped up with a host of new features: more guns, more enemies, outlaw-specific special powers, per-pixel hit detection, a much greater range of enemy behaviors and animations, more enemy types, outdoor combat arenas, power-ups and much more.

We haven’t even mentioned mods that you can equip on your outlaws, aces that provide permanent buffs for each member of the gang, the procedural campaign or the custom challenges that unlock once you complete the campaign. Yes, there’s much more to do, strategize and manage in Wild Bastards!

Wild Bastards is a brand new strategy shooter that takes the Void Bastards formula in a wildly different direction, coming to Xbox Series X|S on September 12, 2024.

Wild Bastards

Maximum Entertainment

☆☆☆☆☆

★★★★★

$34.99 $29.74

Pre-order

From the veteran team behind Void Bastards and Card Hunter, Wild Bastards has you travel from planet to planet to recruit, manage and gun sling with a team of 13 outlaws, each of whom has their own weaponry, special power, and growth tree. On planets, you’ll wrangle loot and start showdowns that are then played out in intense, bite-sized shootouts. The Wild Bastards were the most deadly gang in the galaxy until a posse from the puritanical magnate Jebediah Chaste eliminated one outlaw after another. Faced with their own mortality, the two remaining members have teamed up with the Drifter, a mysterious sentient spacecraft, to find and resurrect the dead gang members as they flee to the mythical Homestead. Key Features Heart-Pounding Showdowns – Prove you’re the ultimate gunslinger by blasting an array of enemies in bullet-flying shootouts. Tactical FPS Combat – Use your wits to overcome crafty enemies that utilize cover, flank you, and employ a huge variety of special moves from teleportation to homing poisonous quills. Strategize for Victory – Evaluate each planet’s terrain, enemies, and traits before selecting which gang members you want to land there. Collect items, level up, and use special locations carefully to turn the odds in your favor! 13 Outlaws to Play – Rebuild a gang of 13 outlaws, each with their own unique weapon, stunt, personality, relationships, and ability tree. Build & Maintain Relationships – The gang know each other well, but that doesn’t mean they like each other. It’s your job to manage their dynamic relationships, but good luck getting feuding outlaws to ride together. Keep The Gang Thriving – Accumulate resources to heal injured gang members, level up characters, improve relationships, and more. An Ever-Changing, Lawless Galaxy – Roam the procedurally-generated galactic sectors and planets with varying parameters such as gravity, terrain features, weather, and more. Challenge Mode – After completing the main campaign, a challenge mode unlocks to offer a sequence of challenge sectors with increasingly difficult levels and mutators to modify the play experience.