Meet the live-action Desert Rangers of Wasteland 2

It's not often that a developer opts for a live-action introductory cinematic these days, but this brand new clip from Wasteland 2 is appropriately gritty and sun-bleached.

For those who haven't been enjoying the game's Early Access incarnation, know that the first moments of Wasteland 2 see your character attending a funeral - the same funeral depicted in the final moments of the above video, making this cinematic something of an explanatory, immediate prequel to the events of Wasteland 2. More crucially though, this footage introduces the Desert Rangers, a hardened group of ragtag soldiers who patrol the wastes protecting innocent people. Most of the time, anyway. Wasteland 2 offers immense freedom of choice, so if you'd rather murder and loot everyone you see, that's a perfectly viable (if sociopathic) decision.

Now that you're roughly up to speed on the whys and hows of the fall of mankind, you only have a few months wait remaining before you can dig into the final, retail version of Wasteland 2. According to inXile, the game will make its official debut at some point in August.

[Image: inXile Entertainment]