I was going to give it 4 stars but the final song that served as the slideshow was so fucking good and so full of charm I just needed to give it five stars.
A labor of love, this game must be the most well made CRPG I have played. Almost everything I found boring or weird about Wasteland 2 is gone, replaced with pure charm and well tought mechanics. Not once did I think "that doesn't make sense" or "that quest is so boring". The story might not have blown my mind but it's incredibly well tought with lots and lots of layers of complexity and freedom of choice. A must play for CRPG lovers, if you ask me.
A labor of love, this game must be the most well made CRPG I have played. Almost everything I found boring or weird about Wasteland 2 is gone, replaced with pure charm and well tought mechanics. Not once did I think "that doesn't make sense" or "that quest is so boring". The story might not have blown my mind but it's incredibly well tought with lots and lots of layers of complexity and freedom of choice. A must play for CRPG lovers, if you ask me.
FUCK RONALD REAGAN
The best post-apocalyptic RPG ever made. Whether you've played the other games in the series or not, you'll enjoy this game if you're a fan of party-based RPGs.
There are many different ways to approach situations in Wasteland 3, both in and out of combat. Skill checks, reputation, companions and past choices all contribute to how things will play out. And when I say choices matter, they really, really matter. A simple decision you made hours ago can come back around to bite you, or help you, later on. There's almost never a purely 'good' outcome, and moral decisions are a lot greyer than in other RPGs.
As someone who's not really a fan of turn-based Action Point combat, I still really enjoyed the combat in this game. With complete flexibility in how you set up your squad, you can approach combat however you want. Hack or disable robots and turrets to give you an edge, use the environment to your advantage, or just brute force your way through it all. The choice is yours.
The game's presentation is also excellent. Fantastic sound design, voice acting and music with great visuals. Quests are mostly well constructed, and it's clear the focus was on quality rather than quantity since there's not too many side quests, but they're all substantial and fleshed out.
All in all, a brilliant game for fans of tactical RPGs, or anyone who's looking for a good post-apocalyptic game with a great story, characters and combat.
There are many different ways to approach situations in Wasteland 3, both in and out of combat. Skill checks, reputation, companions and past choices all contribute to how things will play out. And when I say choices matter, they really, really matter. A simple decision you made hours ago can come back around to bite you, or help you, later on. There's almost never a purely 'good' outcome, and moral decisions are a lot greyer than in other RPGs.
As someone who's not really a fan of turn-based Action Point combat, I still really enjoyed the combat in this game. With complete flexibility in how you set up your squad, you can approach combat however you want. Hack or disable robots and turrets to give you an edge, use the environment to your advantage, or just brute force your way through it all. The choice is yours.
The game's presentation is also excellent. Fantastic sound design, voice acting and music with great visuals. Quests are mostly well constructed, and it's clear the focus was on quality rather than quantity since there's not too many side quests, but they're all substantial and fleshed out.
All in all, a brilliant game for fans of tactical RPGs, or anyone who's looking for a good post-apocalyptic game with a great story, characters and combat.
as i went down to the valley to pray
Wasteland 3 is fine, basically. You can have some decent tactical battles in a world that is modestly interesting. But in a dozen hours the game didn't give me too much of an idea of who the characters I was controlling were, and I encountered a fair amount of jank and bugs along the way. I don't hate it, but I'm not playing it anymore.
There's a talking car that begs you to kill it so it has a chance to see Ronald Reagan in the afterlife... this game is rad! and you better believe I jumped at the chance to kill the AI Ronald Reagan and all his followers.
The world/lore is interesting, the characters are fun and distinct, the dialogue and voice acting are superior to most games, and the story is compelling and frequently funny. This is how you make a fucking sequel; improves the already good bits of Wasteland 2 and streamlines most of the BS that held it back.
This would be 4.5 stars if not for a couple of significant gameplay and performance issues. While it is nowhere near as buggy as its predecessor, it does feel decidedly unpolished in certain technical areas. The game is prone to crashing, and there is one particularly annoying bug that will cause the game to crash anytime you attempt to load into a new area if you have too much in your inventory.
Many of the combat maps feel a little unfinished, like 90% of the way there. There are random unmapped tiles that you cannot move to for no reason and objects/architecture pieces that are clearly intended to function as cover but don't. Most combat zones have these same issues.
Some lines of dialogue (especially on the world map) will display strings of code instead of the intended text. I don't know how that was never patched even two years later. There are also some bugs regarding the game tracking which characters are in your party. For example, I had Lucia Wesson in my squad while rescuing her father, but she was silent during the dialogue exchange between the rest of the squad and her father, and when her father asks if I have any idea where her daughter Lucia is, the only dialogue options I'm presented with are "don't know, don't care" or "haven't seen her in a long time, she's probably back home."
Targeting with throwables is flat-out broken. Just straight up doesn't work, target an area within your throwing range with a clear line of sight and you inexplicably won't be able to throw it at least half the time.
The only other seriously frustrating issue is some of the difficulty balancing. There are some fights, including story fights, where the enemies can completely squad-wipe you on the first move before you have even have a chance to put your units in cover. It is often the best move to position your team in advance and make sure you strike first to hopefully gain the initiative advantage, but this isn't an option for many of the story combat encounters (and being far above the suggested level doesn't alleviate this issue). There is also no indication of an enemy's level or danger before engaging them, so there's always a chance you may be walking into a battle where your characters do approximately 0% damage while the enemy is able to one-shot you. Frequent quick-saving is pretty much a necessity.
The world/lore is interesting, the characters are fun and distinct, the dialogue and voice acting are superior to most games, and the story is compelling and frequently funny. This is how you make a fucking sequel; improves the already good bits of Wasteland 2 and streamlines most of the BS that held it back.
This would be 4.5 stars if not for a couple of significant gameplay and performance issues. While it is nowhere near as buggy as its predecessor, it does feel decidedly unpolished in certain technical areas. The game is prone to crashing, and there is one particularly annoying bug that will cause the game to crash anytime you attempt to load into a new area if you have too much in your inventory.
Many of the combat maps feel a little unfinished, like 90% of the way there. There are random unmapped tiles that you cannot move to for no reason and objects/architecture pieces that are clearly intended to function as cover but don't. Most combat zones have these same issues.
Some lines of dialogue (especially on the world map) will display strings of code instead of the intended text. I don't know how that was never patched even two years later. There are also some bugs regarding the game tracking which characters are in your party. For example, I had Lucia Wesson in my squad while rescuing her father, but she was silent during the dialogue exchange between the rest of the squad and her father, and when her father asks if I have any idea where her daughter Lucia is, the only dialogue options I'm presented with are "don't know, don't care" or "haven't seen her in a long time, she's probably back home."
Targeting with throwables is flat-out broken. Just straight up doesn't work, target an area within your throwing range with a clear line of sight and you inexplicably won't be able to throw it at least half the time.
The only other seriously frustrating issue is some of the difficulty balancing. There are some fights, including story fights, where the enemies can completely squad-wipe you on the first move before you have even have a chance to put your units in cover. It is often the best move to position your team in advance and make sure you strike first to hopefully gain the initiative advantage, but this isn't an option for many of the story combat encounters (and being far above the suggested level doesn't alleviate this issue). There is also no indication of an enemy's level or danger before engaging them, so there's always a chance you may be walking into a battle where your characters do approximately 0% damage while the enemy is able to one-shot you. Frequent quick-saving is pretty much a necessity.
Sem duvidas o melhor jogo do gamepass que ja joguei
Having not played a Wasteland game (or even a Fallout) before, I thought the setting and humor wouldn't grab me but I was completely wrong.
Wasteland 3 is an amazing CRPG with very engaging, satisfying turn-based combat, excellent presentation (the soundtrack, the switch to fully animated NPCs in first-person for important dialogues, the voice acting, the sound effects...) and great writing. The main story is perfectly decent but the best stuff is in the margins — you'll find genuinely hilarious bits in side quests and overall world building. Loved exploring every single location, reading loot descriptions, talking to weird quest givers and absolute psychopaths. It's also a very reactive RPG, with plenty of decisions and a lot of skill checks (in and outside dialogue) that matter.
From a game design perspective, everything feels tight and polished, like a studio that knows what it wants and knows it can deliver it.
The only downside are the technical issues. Playing it in 2022, I still encountered constant Unity crashes, which could happen every five minutes (even during the final credits). Rebooting my PC usually helped, though. I also had a couple quest bugs that I could fix reloading and doing things in a specific order, and then some frame rate issues in Ranger HQ that required to restart the game.
Overall, a fantastic experience. Played 47h in two weeks, and I want more (will look into the two expansions). I also think it's a great first CRPG for players that are looking to get into the genre. Do it!
crpg fans really ought to add this game to their list of games to play bc it's got it all — a killer soundtrack, satisfyingly difficult and in depth combat, an intriguing world, and fantastic dialogue.
I wasn't sure if this game was going to click for me (especially since I betrayed my rule of playing all previous games in a series before playing the Newest and Hottest game) but man, when Blood of the Lamb kicked in during the final combat of the intro sequence? Holy shit. I was hooked. The ambience of that fight — the hymn paired with the whistling winds of the nuclear winter punctuated by gunfire — was just so fucking good.
The world of Wasteland 3 is bleak, no doubt about it. You'll meet the worst that humanity has to offer on your journey through Colorado. The effects of the nuclear war have not been kind to humanity, and yet in spite of the cynicism and depravity that is rampant in the world, you can still be the person who makes the world a little less shitty to be in.
Or not.
And that's the beauty of this game!
On combat, there's nothing quite as satisfying as setting up your sniper in overwatch mode and one shotting enemy after enemy after enemy because of that one perk that gives you resets on a kill. Insane.
Also, it's crazy how my favourite cover of Everybody Have Fun Tonight by Wang Chum plays as background music at a cannibal camp. What other game lets you experience that?
Play this game.
I wasn't sure if this game was going to click for me (especially since I betrayed my rule of playing all previous games in a series before playing the Newest and Hottest game) but man, when Blood of the Lamb kicked in during the final combat of the intro sequence? Holy shit. I was hooked. The ambience of that fight — the hymn paired with the whistling winds of the nuclear winter punctuated by gunfire — was just so fucking good.
The world of Wasteland 3 is bleak, no doubt about it. You'll meet the worst that humanity has to offer on your journey through Colorado. The effects of the nuclear war have not been kind to humanity, and yet in spite of the cynicism and depravity that is rampant in the world, you can still be the person who makes the world a little less shitty to be in.
Or not.
And that's the beauty of this game!
On combat, there's nothing quite as satisfying as setting up your sniper in overwatch mode and one shotting enemy after enemy after enemy because of that one perk that gives you resets on a kill. Insane.
Also, it's crazy how my favourite cover of Everybody Have Fun Tonight by Wang Chum plays as background music at a cannibal camp. What other game lets you experience that?
Play this game.
A solid CRPG that I wish had some better party members. That being said the Denver area in this game is one of the most inspired areas I've played in a while
WASTELAND 3 is one of the greatest games I have ever played. It worked for me personally on many different levels:
The gameplay: I'm a big fan of XCOM-style strategy games, and this is a good one. I especially enjoy how both ranged and melee are viable options, and you just specialize characters however you want to.
The world: I enjoyed the setting of post-apocalypse Colorado, especially with all the bizarre characters they filled it with. It's basically another Fallout game, but I actually like the setting of it. And, add to that, the ending plays a song that captures all of your most important moments, changing lyrics to reflect your actions? Incredible. In all seriousness, it did feel like there were some actual consequences to my actions.
The humor: I'll admit, it's definitely weird, but the strong character moments combine with just enough (generally dark) comedy to make this game noticeably funny. I wouldn't call it a comedy, but it is the funniest game I've played. I laughed many more times than I thought I would, sometimes just out of bewildered amusement.
The soundtrack: I'm religious, and it was very surprising to me to hear a select few old hymns incorporated into the music of the game, but it worked wonders. They're really good renditions, firstly, but they also just fit. It's a bizarre experience to be watching a cutscene, see someone's head explode all over the screen in a gory mess, and then fight a battle listening to "Are You Washed In the Blood of the Lamb?" That just worked for me.
Negatives?
1. During the long fights--which, some fights can take upwards of 50 minutes--the music track loops. For the aforementioned hymns & ballads, it can get a bit repetitive.
2. You need to quicksave all the time. Some fights are incredibly stacked against you, and you'll pop into them without warning. Or, technical issues may strike (explained below)... Either way, it's easy to play for 2 hours without saving and lose all of that progress due to a lack of autosave and randomly difficult fights that you weren't warned of.
3. Technical issues: in my 50-ish hours, the game probably crashed ~15 times. And, despite playing on Xbox Series S, whenever I put my console to sleep, the game would face a critical error and cease running. I have no idea why this port is so ill-made, but that was primarily a minor annoyance.
Overall: this game is great. There's a ton of profanity and some very violent stuff, if you're worried about that, but the game itself is incredible. I look forward to replaying it in a few years, when the experience isn't quite so fresh.
The gameplay: I'm a big fan of XCOM-style strategy games, and this is a good one. I especially enjoy how both ranged and melee are viable options, and you just specialize characters however you want to.
The world: I enjoyed the setting of post-apocalypse Colorado, especially with all the bizarre characters they filled it with. It's basically another Fallout game, but I actually like the setting of it. And, add to that, the ending plays a song that captures all of your most important moments, changing lyrics to reflect your actions? Incredible. In all seriousness, it did feel like there were some actual consequences to my actions.
The humor: I'll admit, it's definitely weird, but the strong character moments combine with just enough (generally dark) comedy to make this game noticeably funny. I wouldn't call it a comedy, but it is the funniest game I've played. I laughed many more times than I thought I would, sometimes just out of bewildered amusement.
The soundtrack: I'm religious, and it was very surprising to me to hear a select few old hymns incorporated into the music of the game, but it worked wonders. They're really good renditions, firstly, but they also just fit. It's a bizarre experience to be watching a cutscene, see someone's head explode all over the screen in a gory mess, and then fight a battle listening to "Are You Washed In the Blood of the Lamb?" That just worked for me.
Negatives?
1. During the long fights--which, some fights can take upwards of 50 minutes--the music track loops. For the aforementioned hymns & ballads, it can get a bit repetitive.
2. You need to quicksave all the time. Some fights are incredibly stacked against you, and you'll pop into them without warning. Or, technical issues may strike (explained below)... Either way, it's easy to play for 2 hours without saving and lose all of that progress due to a lack of autosave and randomly difficult fights that you weren't warned of.
3. Technical issues: in my 50-ish hours, the game probably crashed ~15 times. And, despite playing on Xbox Series S, whenever I put my console to sleep, the game would face a critical error and cease running. I have no idea why this port is so ill-made, but that was primarily a minor annoyance.
Overall: this game is great. There's a ton of profanity and some very violent stuff, if you're worried about that, but the game itself is incredible. I look forward to replaying it in a few years, when the experience isn't quite so fresh.
I don't really play these kind of games but the fact i enjoyed the combat even 60 hours in really shows how much it stands out to me.
Also the music is awesome
Play it
Also the music is awesome
Play it
Una clara mejora respecto al anterior, un RPG muy sólido y divertido en el que la mayoría de costuras se le notan por falta de presupuesto (A ver si Microsoft les infla a dineros). Pero hay algún problema de estructura que se siente tramposa
The real Fallout 3
Queria ter curtido mais, joguei umas 40horas+ dele, mas depois não me senti tão preso aquele mundo etc e ai dropei, um dia dou uma segunda chance.
If you’re willing to look past it’s irritating rough edges, you’ll be rewarded with one of the most thorough RPG experiences to come out in years. Such an incredibly open ended amount of options when it comes to party composition and individual build diversity, a turn based combat model with the depth of a tactics games, a world reactive to your decisions in ways that floored me, really making me want to go back and reassess how I judge other RPGs, and writing so smart, so thoughtful, factions are fleshed out to the point where I spent the last couple hours of the game struggling to decide who I was going to side with. And man, the Reagan cult, this game understands the American myth like few others.
I tend to have mixed taste in turn based RPGs but this one hooked me completely. Really helped fill the void left by Fallout.
I tend to have mixed taste in turn based RPGs but this one hooked me completely. Really helped fill the void left by Fallout.
Playtime: 86 Hours
Score: 8/10
Definitely my game of the year so far! One of my favorite video game franchises is Fallout, because I just love the setting and the mix of sci fi and post apocalyptic elements. Lately that series has gone to the toilet, and games like Obsidian's The Outer Worlds filled that void for me. And now Inxile's Wasteland 3 is doing the same! Never played a Wasteland game before but I know its what the Fallout series spun out of, and like Obsidian, Inxile is made up of people who worked on the original Fallout games!
What I love most about western role playing games, is the choices you can make and how the world reacts to your choices. This game definitely takes that philosophy to heart, as you can really dish out justice in Colorado in the ways you see fit. You can arrest or kill most key characters you fight, and like Fallout New Vegas, you have various faction reputation meters to keep an eye on. In addition you have overall Ranger fame meter, that will progress to either positive or negative side based on your actions. It's nice where in the beginning no one knows who you are, but later people will recognize you and either be inspired by or afraid of you.
Combat is also a ton of fun, as its basically XCOM's turn based combat system, except just a lot more forgiving and easier to get into I feel. Its fun to maneuver your squad mates in battle and to turn the tide in battle. While its not an original battle system, I think it works for the type of games this is, and for the squad gameplay.
The game is also just very cool to get into as all NPC characters are voiced, so you don't have to read a ton and the graphics are decent. While this only happens a few times in the campaign, there will be times where you get a first person perspective like in the Fallout games, when your about to have a very important conversation. Some of the areas are just really cool to explore, like the Denver area, that's run by a group of cultists who worship a long dead Ronald Reagan which definitely gave me some Enclave vibes! The devs themselves even said that this game is their Fallout 3, which I think is great, because when the main series you love isn't giving you anything good, these other games that come and fill the void are the best! Companions are also very cool, though I wish there some more loyalty missions tied to them, as only one companion in the game, has their own personal questline to complete which was a bit disappointing.
Aside from all that, the only real negatives I can say, is the bugs, which were numerous and did interrupt my enjoyment from time to time. This would include occasional slow down from time to time; one bug towards the end prevented me from making a manual or quick save. I was able to fix it by reloading my older save file, but I didn't lose that much progress, as I save regularly. There was also a bug where at one point when I wanted to boot up the game, towards the end, it wouldn't let me and said there was a "critical error I had to fix". I had to fix this by uninstalling and the reinstalling the game. However, I'm not sure if this is an issue with the game itself, or with gamepass on PC, as I have had issues like that before, with me not even being able to play Fallout 76. But none of these bugs were really game breaking as I was able to do a quick fix and carry on with my playthrough.
But otherwise, I had a really fun time with this game, and I can easily recommend it to those who are fans of the Fallout franchise or RPGs in general. I still am going to buy this game on steam, and I already went and bought Wasteland 2 to play at some point!
All Games I have Played and Reviewed Ranked - https://www.backloggd.com/u/JudgeDredd35/list/all-games-i-have-played-and-reviewed-ranked/
Score: 8/10
Definitely my game of the year so far! One of my favorite video game franchises is Fallout, because I just love the setting and the mix of sci fi and post apocalyptic elements. Lately that series has gone to the toilet, and games like Obsidian's The Outer Worlds filled that void for me. And now Inxile's Wasteland 3 is doing the same! Never played a Wasteland game before but I know its what the Fallout series spun out of, and like Obsidian, Inxile is made up of people who worked on the original Fallout games!
What I love most about western role playing games, is the choices you can make and how the world reacts to your choices. This game definitely takes that philosophy to heart, as you can really dish out justice in Colorado in the ways you see fit. You can arrest or kill most key characters you fight, and like Fallout New Vegas, you have various faction reputation meters to keep an eye on. In addition you have overall Ranger fame meter, that will progress to either positive or negative side based on your actions. It's nice where in the beginning no one knows who you are, but later people will recognize you and either be inspired by or afraid of you.
Combat is also a ton of fun, as its basically XCOM's turn based combat system, except just a lot more forgiving and easier to get into I feel. Its fun to maneuver your squad mates in battle and to turn the tide in battle. While its not an original battle system, I think it works for the type of games this is, and for the squad gameplay.
The game is also just very cool to get into as all NPC characters are voiced, so you don't have to read a ton and the graphics are decent. While this only happens a few times in the campaign, there will be times where you get a first person perspective like in the Fallout games, when your about to have a very important conversation. Some of the areas are just really cool to explore, like the Denver area, that's run by a group of cultists who worship a long dead Ronald Reagan which definitely gave me some Enclave vibes! The devs themselves even said that this game is their Fallout 3, which I think is great, because when the main series you love isn't giving you anything good, these other games that come and fill the void are the best! Companions are also very cool, though I wish there some more loyalty missions tied to them, as only one companion in the game, has their own personal questline to complete which was a bit disappointing.
Aside from all that, the only real negatives I can say, is the bugs, which were numerous and did interrupt my enjoyment from time to time. This would include occasional slow down from time to time; one bug towards the end prevented me from making a manual or quick save. I was able to fix it by reloading my older save file, but I didn't lose that much progress, as I save regularly. There was also a bug where at one point when I wanted to boot up the game, towards the end, it wouldn't let me and said there was a "critical error I had to fix". I had to fix this by uninstalling and the reinstalling the game. However, I'm not sure if this is an issue with the game itself, or with gamepass on PC, as I have had issues like that before, with me not even being able to play Fallout 76. But none of these bugs were really game breaking as I was able to do a quick fix and carry on with my playthrough.
But otherwise, I had a really fun time with this game, and I can easily recommend it to those who are fans of the Fallout franchise or RPGs in general. I still am going to buy this game on steam, and I already went and bought Wasteland 2 to play at some point!
All Games I have Played and Reviewed Ranked - https://www.backloggd.com/u/JudgeDredd35/list/all-games-i-have-played-and-reviewed-ranked/
This game actually was fun, but the multiplayer is a disgrace. The buggiest and most broken multiplayer I've ever experienced. It would crash, freeze, loss our progress, etc. Just remove the multiplayer if it's this broken at launch. It ruined a potentially good game for me.
Wasteland 3 is a classic CRPG fan's dream, but be warned, it's brutal. The post-apocalyptic Colorado setting is awesome, and the turn-based combat will test your tactical skills. There's a ton of dialogue and choices that actually matter, but damn, the writing can be cringe-worthy at times. Plus, it's got its share of bugs and the UI is pretty clunky. But if you miss old-school Fallout vibes and want a meaty RPG to sink your teeth into, Wasteland 3 scratches that wasteland itch.
Wasteland 3 makes a few improvements to the gameplay of the previous title. There is better skill and weapon balance, attributes are now balanced so any character without a high intelligence score is no longer worthless, and the traits that you can choose at character creation are no longer as overpowered or useless as they were in the directors cut version of Wasteland 2. They removed some of the more Tabletop style RPG features like percentage failures for doing things like lockpicking or different attribute ratings coming together to effect stats but it wasn't really handled in an interesting way in the previous game and just simplifying it was for the best. There are combat abilities that characters can learn that can chain together well, some skills might do bonus damage to bleeding, stunned, or otherwise status effect characters.
Although, even with those skills, there are no real interesting character builds like you might find in Pathfinder Kingmaker/Pillars of Eternity/etc, just things you should know in advance to set a character up well (knowing toaster repair is an important skill if you want your character to use a flamethrower, that the nerd stuff skill that allows you to hack robots might not be a good skill for your sniper that wants to stay away from the frontline, if you are going to want weird science to use armor or weapons that you will find later, how much AP you are likely to want from coordination before focusing on other attributes, give your sniper the stealth skill, knowing that the initiative and detection stats are basically completely worthless, etc).
The characters that can join your party have been limited to two this time around instead of three, giving you a total of four created rangers and two NPCs that you can have join you. The number of recruitable characters is much smaller but they tend to be more talkative this time around and some have a lot more to do with the overall plot and characters that you meet.
The plot, level of violence, and some dialogue can be a bit juvenile and the game is never one for subtlety. It's not a narrative you will play to reflect on what is going on like you would Planescape or Disco Elysium, the commentary of Fallout, and not one where you are likely to build much of a connection with the characters, groups, or world like in Divinity or Pillars of Eternity. Narratively often doing little more than an attempt to amuse with the absurdity of situations and characters, never giving any quests or options that end up even being as memorable as some of the ones found in Wasteland 2.
The animal whisperer skill and random robots/animals/followers you can obtain still allows you to amass an army of followers for your party, at one point in addition to my six party members I also had three robots, seven animals, and a guy following me around and joining us in combat. You can pet all of your animals (or attempt to) and it is probably one of the more amusing elements of the game. Getting to destroy a cult and AI supercar dedicated to Ronald Reagan was also a high point. The close up shots they use with some of the more important character models when you meet them are fun to watch, extremely expressive without being overly cartoon like.
The ending is a rushed mess that not only hurts the end of the game but makes a lot of your decisions prior to it pointless as well. Your choices so far made regarding the main story end up meaning nothing when it comes to how you have followed the order of the ruler of Colorado, your choices regarding how you have been following another character mean nothing (and one of the main things she wants you to do doesn't even make sense or fit her character and seems to happen as an ending slide to one of your characters even if your actions should have prevented it), only your reputation with one of the game's factions (the Hundred Families) really matters and that requires you to be at the loved the rank, your skills suddenly become useless as you have no way to talk sense into characters with some of them even assigning nonsensical values and actions to your characters that might be the direct opposite of what you have been doing, you have essentially been the leader of the rangers in Colorado and are at no point able to make any logical decisions to prevent negative things from happening, one of the factions trying to take over Colorado at the game's end is completely ridiculous and should be impossible without following through with other quest options (going with Wasteland 2 and 3's terrible and annoying usual stance of everyone in the world is completely useless except for your party), there is a machine faction that is given almost no role in the game and could logically step in to fill the role of another faction if you destroyed them but you aren't even given the option to bring this possibility up with them. Any choices just leads to a laughable boss fight before you make your final decisions with some of them being just as poorly thought out. You can make a less than maximum speech check to just casually have the rangers abandon Arizona and the people there to die after sections of not being able to convince people of anything. If you aren't loved by the rich families one ending might have them going back to their roots as guerrilla fighters living off the land fighting a war against you to regain power, as if the pampered bunch of losers you have met throughout the game are anything like the families were 50+ years ago when they were taking over Colorado.
I thought some of the ending parts of Wasteland 2 were a little, dumb, but the ending and ending sections of Wasteland 3 are massive hits against the game's quality. From the small amount of forces and low stakes ending areas to just completely removing any point of the main story choices and your RPG abilities to use your skills or find solutions to the end game problems.
I finished the game on hard which basically made both armor and health almost useless. Even my characters with the best armor in the game, maxed out strength for the most health, and one of them having a quirk from character creation giving them even more health would still see themselves getting downed by a single enemy that at times may have done around twice their total HP value in damage. This lead to an odd type of game where we would start a fight, kill most enemies, have the remaining enemies down a few characters but with all the doctors and medical equipment to heal afterwards it just never really mattering, and then killing them with our followers or on our next turn or two.
A bit buggy, though I never ran into anything game breaking or that couldn't be fixed with a reload or some thought, and it can have some fairly long load times that can be made worse when you need to quickly travel through multiple separate areas to get where you are going.
With some patches and if found at a lower price point it can be a decent purchase with some funny moments and decent mechanics but the combat and plot don't come close to meeting the better games in the genre and the terrible ending sections and taking so little interest in what you have done or what your skills and allies should allow for really hurt the game.
(There has been updates since I played it that may have improved on certain things)
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1308599051747647491
Although, even with those skills, there are no real interesting character builds like you might find in Pathfinder Kingmaker/Pillars of Eternity/etc, just things you should know in advance to set a character up well (knowing toaster repair is an important skill if you want your character to use a flamethrower, that the nerd stuff skill that allows you to hack robots might not be a good skill for your sniper that wants to stay away from the frontline, if you are going to want weird science to use armor or weapons that you will find later, how much AP you are likely to want from coordination before focusing on other attributes, give your sniper the stealth skill, knowing that the initiative and detection stats are basically completely worthless, etc).
The characters that can join your party have been limited to two this time around instead of three, giving you a total of four created rangers and two NPCs that you can have join you. The number of recruitable characters is much smaller but they tend to be more talkative this time around and some have a lot more to do with the overall plot and characters that you meet.
The plot, level of violence, and some dialogue can be a bit juvenile and the game is never one for subtlety. It's not a narrative you will play to reflect on what is going on like you would Planescape or Disco Elysium, the commentary of Fallout, and not one where you are likely to build much of a connection with the characters, groups, or world like in Divinity or Pillars of Eternity. Narratively often doing little more than an attempt to amuse with the absurdity of situations and characters, never giving any quests or options that end up even being as memorable as some of the ones found in Wasteland 2.
The animal whisperer skill and random robots/animals/followers you can obtain still allows you to amass an army of followers for your party, at one point in addition to my six party members I also had three robots, seven animals, and a guy following me around and joining us in combat. You can pet all of your animals (or attempt to) and it is probably one of the more amusing elements of the game. Getting to destroy a cult and AI supercar dedicated to Ronald Reagan was also a high point. The close up shots they use with some of the more important character models when you meet them are fun to watch, extremely expressive without being overly cartoon like.
The ending is a rushed mess that not only hurts the end of the game but makes a lot of your decisions prior to it pointless as well. Your choices so far made regarding the main story end up meaning nothing when it comes to how you have followed the order of the ruler of Colorado, your choices regarding how you have been following another character mean nothing (and one of the main things she wants you to do doesn't even make sense or fit her character and seems to happen as an ending slide to one of your characters even if your actions should have prevented it), only your reputation with one of the game's factions (the Hundred Families) really matters and that requires you to be at the loved the rank, your skills suddenly become useless as you have no way to talk sense into characters with some of them even assigning nonsensical values and actions to your characters that might be the direct opposite of what you have been doing, you have essentially been the leader of the rangers in Colorado and are at no point able to make any logical decisions to prevent negative things from happening, one of the factions trying to take over Colorado at the game's end is completely ridiculous and should be impossible without following through with other quest options (going with Wasteland 2 and 3's terrible and annoying usual stance of everyone in the world is completely useless except for your party), there is a machine faction that is given almost no role in the game and could logically step in to fill the role of another faction if you destroyed them but you aren't even given the option to bring this possibility up with them. Any choices just leads to a laughable boss fight before you make your final decisions with some of them being just as poorly thought out. You can make a less than maximum speech check to just casually have the rangers abandon Arizona and the people there to die after sections of not being able to convince people of anything. If you aren't loved by the rich families one ending might have them going back to their roots as guerrilla fighters living off the land fighting a war against you to regain power, as if the pampered bunch of losers you have met throughout the game are anything like the families were 50+ years ago when they were taking over Colorado.
I thought some of the ending parts of Wasteland 2 were a little, dumb, but the ending and ending sections of Wasteland 3 are massive hits against the game's quality. From the small amount of forces and low stakes ending areas to just completely removing any point of the main story choices and your RPG abilities to use your skills or find solutions to the end game problems.
I finished the game on hard which basically made both armor and health almost useless. Even my characters with the best armor in the game, maxed out strength for the most health, and one of them having a quirk from character creation giving them even more health would still see themselves getting downed by a single enemy that at times may have done around twice their total HP value in damage. This lead to an odd type of game where we would start a fight, kill most enemies, have the remaining enemies down a few characters but with all the doctors and medical equipment to heal afterwards it just never really mattering, and then killing them with our followers or on our next turn or two.
A bit buggy, though I never ran into anything game breaking or that couldn't be fixed with a reload or some thought, and it can have some fairly long load times that can be made worse when you need to quickly travel through multiple separate areas to get where you are going.
With some patches and if found at a lower price point it can be a decent purchase with some funny moments and decent mechanics but the combat and plot don't come close to meeting the better games in the genre and the terrible ending sections and taking so little interest in what you have done or what your skills and allies should allow for really hurt the game.
(There has been updates since I played it that may have improved on certain things)
Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1308599051747647491
I booted this game up with low expectations, needless to say i am incredibly pleasantly surprised , I remember having tried wasteland 2 early in its life and bouncing off of it.
Wasteland 3 Really does just a fantastic job of balancing the serious themes of the story with the more wacky and outsider humor. In this way i would describe this game as "Lutheran Fallout" It rejects the modern action oriented first person RPG design by giving a nuts to butts classic CRPG experience instead, the game takes place in an isometric perspective, with very xcom inspired combat, cover system, hit chances, etc.
What the game is really good at though is giving interesting permutations of the story and meaningfully different paths that the player's choices throughout meaningfully affect. These choices often lead to unique battles not seen if taking a different path. This is so refreshing as there are very few instances of being forced through the same situation with slightly different dialogue.
These battles rip the kitchen sink from the wall and brutalizes the player with it , on hard difficulty i was constantly being tasked to do the same; finding ways to exploit the games spiderweb of combat systems and mechanics to be able to overcome certain fights. Get deep enough into the weeds especially as a completionist there will be a vast toolbox of death dealing instruments to discover and upgrade. Spending the first half of the game scraping through encounters makes melting people in the mid game all the more satisfying
I also really enjoy how the game rewards the player for exploration; lots of neat unique weapons, armor, and gizmos to equip, customize, and discover. The best equipment is off the beaten path and the game has many paths that are very... Unbeaten
This game is not perfect however and the first set of issues arose from playing on series x,
The menu and ui is not made with controller in mind, by the hour mark i was realizing just how much faster the game would play out if i could just click on things, i won't exaggerate when i say that controller menuing added ~hours to the runtime vs the speed and precision of the mouse. Another console specific issue is how absolutely mercissley screwed up the targeting was at times, enjoy wrestling with the game to allow you to shoot the person you want to, oftentimes i'd have to reload a fight because of the game snapping to a target across the map when i had already been hitting another enemy spamming A to attack them, the game would send my targeting to the another mook 8 ap of movement away to attack because it decided in between my button presses to target a random enemy and screw the whole strategy.
Another issue with controller is any attack that arcs in a cone, you cannot move the camera when attempting to aim it, meaning that if its a long range weapon you will not be able to see your target on screen while trying to line it up or while the attack is being delivered, I really wish the camera centered on who was getting attacked because i would often not be able to see the results of my attacks. Denying the satisfaction of seeing the enemies blow up or vaporize while also denying critical information to make informed decisions about tactics.
The issues with the games controls really brings it down score and pacing wise ;75 hours could have been 60 (seriously)
there are also a few other nitpicks
-Hyper situational perks that have no use 95% of time (looking at you; pressure cooker, how many fucking cars did i even fight in this game? 3? Maybe ?)
-RNG based loot can play unintentional favorites leading to situations where certain party members embody a walking apocalypse, while the rest of the squad look like weeny hut jr. employees by comparison .
This game is awesome, do yourself a favor and play it with KBM. Controller is a straight up inferior experience
Wasteland 3 Really does just a fantastic job of balancing the serious themes of the story with the more wacky and outsider humor. In this way i would describe this game as "Lutheran Fallout" It rejects the modern action oriented first person RPG design by giving a nuts to butts classic CRPG experience instead, the game takes place in an isometric perspective, with very xcom inspired combat, cover system, hit chances, etc.
What the game is really good at though is giving interesting permutations of the story and meaningfully different paths that the player's choices throughout meaningfully affect. These choices often lead to unique battles not seen if taking a different path. This is so refreshing as there are very few instances of being forced through the same situation with slightly different dialogue.
These battles rip the kitchen sink from the wall and brutalizes the player with it , on hard difficulty i was constantly being tasked to do the same; finding ways to exploit the games spiderweb of combat systems and mechanics to be able to overcome certain fights. Get deep enough into the weeds especially as a completionist there will be a vast toolbox of death dealing instruments to discover and upgrade. Spending the first half of the game scraping through encounters makes melting people in the mid game all the more satisfying
I also really enjoy how the game rewards the player for exploration; lots of neat unique weapons, armor, and gizmos to equip, customize, and discover. The best equipment is off the beaten path and the game has many paths that are very... Unbeaten
This game is not perfect however and the first set of issues arose from playing on series x,
The menu and ui is not made with controller in mind, by the hour mark i was realizing just how much faster the game would play out if i could just click on things, i won't exaggerate when i say that controller menuing added ~hours to the runtime vs the speed and precision of the mouse. Another console specific issue is how absolutely mercissley screwed up the targeting was at times, enjoy wrestling with the game to allow you to shoot the person you want to, oftentimes i'd have to reload a fight because of the game snapping to a target across the map when i had already been hitting another enemy spamming A to attack them, the game would send my targeting to the another mook 8 ap of movement away to attack because it decided in between my button presses to target a random enemy and screw the whole strategy.
Another issue with controller is any attack that arcs in a cone, you cannot move the camera when attempting to aim it, meaning that if its a long range weapon you will not be able to see your target on screen while trying to line it up or while the attack is being delivered, I really wish the camera centered on who was getting attacked because i would often not be able to see the results of my attacks. Denying the satisfaction of seeing the enemies blow up or vaporize while also denying critical information to make informed decisions about tactics.
The issues with the games controls really brings it down score and pacing wise ;75 hours could have been 60 (seriously)
there are also a few other nitpicks
-Hyper situational perks that have no use 95% of time (looking at you; pressure cooker, how many fucking cars did i even fight in this game? 3? Maybe ?)
-RNG based loot can play unintentional favorites leading to situations where certain party members embody a walking apocalypse, while the rest of the squad look like weeny hut jr. employees by comparison .
This game is awesome, do yourself a favor and play it with KBM. Controller is a straight up inferior experience
Never clicked for me. The world doesn't take itself serious at all. The UI is pretty bad for a mouse+keyboard. Couldn't get into it.
Great game, highly reccomend.
I'm sorry lord but I just couldn't finish this game. I was genuinely intrigued by the story and I was enjoying the gameplay but I saw how much longer the game was going to take to beat and I just didn't have the strength. This is such a massive improvement on the other Wasteland games so I feel extra guilty lord but please forgive me, I know I have sinned but please, I will repent by purchasing three indie games on Steam without them being on sale.
This game is currently in the Humble Choice for December 2022, this is part of my coverage of the bundle. If you are interested in the game and it's before January 3th, 2023, consider picking up the game as part of the current monthly bundle.
One of the few true CRPGs still around.
Wasteland 3 reminds me a lot of what the original Fallout was. A large wasteland, where your skills and abilities define your experience. You may be able to sweet talk your way out of a conflict, fight enemies at range, or get in their faces and beat them down. You start with 2 main characters who are ambushed and have to fight their way out. The action and story are well told, as well as having some big set pieces early on.
The one thing that strikes me with Wasteland is how awful the character models look, especially when the camera is up close, which both the character creation and the first major encounter have. This looks bad to the point where I wonder why they didn’t fix the lighting or weaken the graphics to smooth it out. This only came out 2 years ago, and indie games can do better than this.
Pick this up if you’re a fan of tactical Role Playing Games. This feels like what I wanted Atom RPG Trudograd from a couple of months ago to be. You'll move around the grid to fight, but the combat here is strategic. The skill checks are important which means how you develop your character can matter. I’ve heard co-op is rough, but in single-player, this will entertain the right fans.
If you enjoyed this review or want to know what I think of other games in the bundle, check out the full review on or subscribe to my Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/EazjkOuE3A0
One of the few true CRPGs still around.
Wasteland 3 reminds me a lot of what the original Fallout was. A large wasteland, where your skills and abilities define your experience. You may be able to sweet talk your way out of a conflict, fight enemies at range, or get in their faces and beat them down. You start with 2 main characters who are ambushed and have to fight their way out. The action and story are well told, as well as having some big set pieces early on.
The one thing that strikes me with Wasteland is how awful the character models look, especially when the camera is up close, which both the character creation and the first major encounter have. This looks bad to the point where I wonder why they didn’t fix the lighting or weaken the graphics to smooth it out. This only came out 2 years ago, and indie games can do better than this.
Pick this up if you’re a fan of tactical Role Playing Games. This feels like what I wanted Atom RPG Trudograd from a couple of months ago to be. You'll move around the grid to fight, but the combat here is strategic. The skill checks are important which means how you develop your character can matter. I’ve heard co-op is rough, but in single-player, this will entertain the right fans.
If you enjoyed this review or want to know what I think of other games in the bundle, check out the full review on or subscribe to my Youtube channel: https://youtu.be/EazjkOuE3A0
A game that, at times, shows lack of resources and a massive ambition.
However, I still enjoyed it very much and would think of this game alongside Divinity OS2 when I think about greatest cRPGs.
However, I still enjoyed it very much and would think of this game alongside Divinity OS2 when I think about greatest cRPGs.
this shit was so bad that being choked while cutting yourself seems more pleasant, just play divinity
Fun tactics game, jokes are kind of weak but I got to kill God President Reagan so 👍👍
Underwhelming experience overall. The combat engagements are the highlight of the game for me and the cut content and inconsistent writing are the things that weigh the whole game down.
First off, let me say that Wasteland 3 is my first experience with the CRPG genre, but not with turn-based tactic games, so I understood how the gameplay worked. The story is set in post-apocalyptic Colorado, where your team of six Rangers is tasked with getting The Patriarch's three children back to him, and in return, you get aid for your people back in Arizona.
The story was pretty solid all around and made it harder to go along with certain decisions or be happy that I made the right one, or at least think I did. All the characters you meet along the way are pretty unique in their own way, which felt pretty refreshing, especially Ronald and Flab. When it comes to the soundtrack of the game, I was loving it every step of the way since the gospel/bluesy feel of the song matched the game theme perfectly (I now have a couple songs from it on my Spotify playlist). The world design looks like how you think it would, and people act like you think they would as well. How you explore Colorado is in the world map where you direct the Kodiak, a tank/truck hybrid that you can upgrade with new weapons', armor, and the Chasis that allows you to further explore the map and its radiation zones.
On the gameplay side of things, it was your average turn-based combat, and even with my limited experience, it seems the same in how it works but is fresh with the attributes, skills, and perks. Skills and perks are directly related since the higher the level of your skill that caps at 10, your perk tree for that skill allows for newer and better perks to be used for that character. Attributes, for the most part, are mainly focused on how they affect your character's abilities in combat. Awareness increases your likelihood of hitting your shots, while Charisma affects your leadship skill range and XP gain, and so on with the rest of the perks. That makes for a fun time figuring out a team comp that works for your style of gameplay.
Would I recommend this game? The answer is yes. For anyone who likes post-apocalyptic settings or CRPGS in general, this game probably has something you would enjoy, whether it's the funny moments or strenuous decisions you need to make that affect your people in Arizona, which is the Wasteland of Colorado. 8.5/10
The story was pretty solid all around and made it harder to go along with certain decisions or be happy that I made the right one, or at least think I did. All the characters you meet along the way are pretty unique in their own way, which felt pretty refreshing, especially Ronald and Flab. When it comes to the soundtrack of the game, I was loving it every step of the way since the gospel/bluesy feel of the song matched the game theme perfectly (I now have a couple songs from it on my Spotify playlist). The world design looks like how you think it would, and people act like you think they would as well. How you explore Colorado is in the world map where you direct the Kodiak, a tank/truck hybrid that you can upgrade with new weapons', armor, and the Chasis that allows you to further explore the map and its radiation zones.
On the gameplay side of things, it was your average turn-based combat, and even with my limited experience, it seems the same in how it works but is fresh with the attributes, skills, and perks. Skills and perks are directly related since the higher the level of your skill that caps at 10, your perk tree for that skill allows for newer and better perks to be used for that character. Attributes, for the most part, are mainly focused on how they affect your character's abilities in combat. Awareness increases your likelihood of hitting your shots, while Charisma affects your leadship skill range and XP gain, and so on with the rest of the perks. That makes for a fun time figuring out a team comp that works for your style of gameplay.
Would I recommend this game? The answer is yes. For anyone who likes post-apocalyptic settings or CRPGS in general, this game probably has something you would enjoy, whether it's the funny moments or strenuous decisions you need to make that affect your people in Arizona, which is the Wasteland of Colorado. 8.5/10