Wasteland 3 sees the Arizona Rangers leave their home behind on a desperate mission into the nuclear winter of Colorado, where right from the get-go, players are thrust into a game filled with important decisions, fights for survival, and a variety of tactical scenarios. With a strong backing from its Kickstarter, inXile Entertainment manages to deliver perhaps the best game in the franchise.
The overarching structure of the game is straightforward: in order to get help for Arizona, players are tasked with working with a questionable authoritarian figure in capturing his three children. These three big goals are the driving force behind much of Wasteland 3, but it’s what fills the world that gives it a unique charm.
Players have the option of choosing from a pair of pre-designed Rangers at the start, or designing their own with a variety of quirks, skills, attributes, and perks that immediately draw the player in. These systems are nothing new for RPGs, but with quirks like Bop Bag, Mime, and Serial Killer, and skills like Toaster Repair, Weird Science, and Nerd Stuff, it’s hard not to get lost in the possibilities. This translates well to Wasteland 3‘s gameplay too, where players are allowed to use charisma-based skills to basically say whatever they want, or brute force to extort or kill the most innocent characters.
Several decisions throughout the game are based on how Wasteland 3 players spec their characters, and having certain skills can be a huge boon. The best part is how much freedom there is, with many of the dialogue options calling to mind the absurdity found in Fallout: New Vegas, as well as the grit of previous titles. Indeed, those who enjoyed the dialogue options and role-playing opportunities in similar RPGs will find that they can go into Wasteland 3 as anything from a deranged lunatic to an upstanding peacekeeper.
In Wasteland 3, players can have a squad of 6, including their original pair, more custom characters, and/or companions. For the most part, the Wasteland 3 companions are interesting, and there’s a solid variety that include everything from Lawkeepers to Warlords. The group can also recruit random friendly NPCs who will follow the party into battle but act of their own accord.
Throughout the story and various side quests, players will encounter a variety of enemy types including cybernetically-enhanced raiders, insane clowns, “martian robots,” a communist machine commune, pagan Sky-worshipers, God-President Reagan, a vehicle AI that wants to die, and far, far more.
Breaking up the tactical turn-based combat is Wasteland 3‘s overworld map. The gating mechanism of improving the truck with armor to resist radiation can be, at times, a nuisance, but traveling across the overworld map emphasizes the need-to-survive nature of the game. There are random events, fights players may want to avoid, and more that make traveling from location to location extremely dangerous; there’s nothing more thrilling, yet worrying than trying to make it back to base with low HP and encountering enemies. Choices spill into the overworld map as well, with players sometimes needing to prioritize one event over another, with varying results.
With so many options and encounters, Wasteland 3 has a high level of replayability. Players can approach the big story beats in a multitude of ways and encounter things never seen before (although some repetition does occur on the overworld map) from one playthrough to the next. Further, Wasteland 3 has multiple endings that are influenced by the decisions made during the story. Group composition and choices influence how specific events unfold, so RPG lovers can easily sink hundreds of hours into this game without having identical playthroughs.
There are a ton of good things that can be said about Wasteland 3, but it’s not perfect. In particular, Wasteland 3‘s co-op has severe game-breaking bugs, while the main campaign itself is subject to a litany of smaller, less severe bugs. Players will also spend a good chunk of time in loading screens when moving from place to place, as well as diving through menus given the sheer size of their party. At the end of the day, though, there is far more to love in Wasteland 3 than first meets the eye.
Overall, Wasteland 3 is an easy recommendation for RPG fans. It’s a wild ride from start to finish – one that is well worth every hour and playthrough spent on it. Prior to launch, one developer stated that Wasteland 3 was “epic in size”, but experiencing it first-hand proves that this is an understatement, that the game has much more to offer players than first glance, and that the game is worth playing, time and again.
Wasteland 3 is out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Game Rant was provided a Steam code for the purposes of this review.
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