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/