Wasteland 2 released in 2014, twenty-six years after the original Wasteland from 1988. Fortunately, fans only had to wait six years before playing the third entry in the legendary series, Wasteland 3, which came out on August 28th, 2020. InXile Entertainment’s recent release brings back the familiar CRPG feel while enacting some major changes to take the series several steps forward.
Avid Wasteland fans will find a lot to love, and newcomers will feel similarly welcome in the barren, snowy, and darkly comical post-apocalyptic waste. However, the game is far from perfect, and the ten entries below detail the game’s best aspects along with its worst.
10 Loved: Importance Of Choice
Player choice is a big component of the medium these days, to the point of many people complaining when a game does not include the feature or multiple endings. Wasteland had this decades before it was fashionable, and the third entry lives up to the series’ reputation. Upon the first playthrough, players may not even realize just how big an impact their choices have on the narrative and the way characters interact with the party.
9 Don’t Love: Graphics
Visuals are not everything, and graphical fidelity is not as important as a unique and striking art style. Wasteland 3 makes huge improvements over its predecessor, but it still will not wow with its graphics. One will not be fooled into thinking it is a triple-A title when glancing at the gameplay. However, the change in aesthetics from a desert to a snowy waste helps differentiate it from other post-apocalyptic media.
8 Loved: Combat
RPGs generally live and die by their combat. As important as world-building and stat management are, players spend most of their time on the battlefield.
Battles play like a cross between XCOM and Final Fantasy Tactics. Movement, cover, and environmental awareness are essential to victory. Like other turn-based strategy games, one wrong move or careless moment can mean devastating failure.
7 Don’t Love: Technical Issues
The developer is hard at work remedying most of these, but several technical issues plague the experience. None of them are game-breaking, but it will occasionally crash, setting back the player’s progress. Fortunately, players can save almost anywhere. Saving is impossible during a battle, however, making it frustrating if one is winning a tough bout only to have the game crash, making them replay the encounter over again.
6 Loved: Difficulty Options
CRPGs have a reputation for being extremely difficult and inaccessible. Wasteland 3 can be this type of game, but thankfully it comes with a variety of difficulty modes for any type of player. For those only interested in the story, the easiest difficulty will be enough for causal players. Normal definitely presents a challenge, while anything higher is for hardcore veterans who want to feel true pain in their gaming experiences. These options open the game for more players while taking nothing away from fans who want a more grueling Wasteland adventure.
5 Don’t Love: Inconvenient UI
Numerous systems are constantly at work and the player needs to pay attention to them at all times when managing the party. It is not just about finding the strongest gear and having the most strength. Sorting through this equipment is still a little inconvenient, something compounded by the sluggish menu navigation. Hopefully, future updates can make moving through menus smoother.
4 Loved: Cooperative Play
One rarely expects RPGs to include an in-depth multiplayer component. However, it has become more common in recent years, with Divinity: Original Sin executing the feature in fine fashion.
In Wasteland 3, two friends can go through the story together from start to finish, even taking on different quests at the same time or turning in the same quest two different people. What better way to solidify bonds than with a trek through a deadly, barren wasteland?
3 Don’t Love: Slow Start
RPGs generally take a while to get rolling, but even Wasteland 3 feels slow by the genre’s standards. It takes hours to go through the introductory moments and start diving deeper into the mechanics. To its credit, the opening is still filled with solid moments and does a good job preparing players for the adventure. Additionally, anybody familiar with the genre expects long introductions proportionately appropriate to the game’s grand scale.
2 Love: Gamepass Day One
The developer was recently bought by Microsoft, though fortunately, this did not affect the game’s release on other consoles, such as PlayStation 4. This partnership does mean, however, that Wasteland 3 came out on Gamepass on the same day it released on all other platforms. This opens up the game to new audiences who otherwise would never have purchased the epic RPG. Whether they stick with it is up in the air, but at least they get a taste.
1 Don’t Love: Skills And Stats Are Not Descriptive Enough
Fortunately, the game is not so grueling that a certain character build does not stand a chance, but those with little experience in the genre might be confused by the variety of options when crafting a party. Many of the descriptions for stats are not clear enough to let the player know exactly what effect they have on gameplay. Luckily, this becomes clearer as time goes on and the player still has plenty of levels to go through to upgrade their character with more thorough knowledge of what the stats actually do.
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