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!

Reviewed on Oct 20, 2023


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