Wasteland 3

I have never played any Wasteland games, but I have played every Fallout including the older ones. As such, here is a newcomer to Wasteland's impressions rather than someone who had been anticipating the game. I didn't even realize it was coming out so soon and bought it on a whim.
This game is everything I had hoped for so far in terms of feeling like how Fallout used to feel. I will update if it disappoints, but it's extraordinarily well written. Its writing consistently hits the mark whether the mark is sad and shocking or tongue-in-cheek and sardonic. The combat is satisfying and the skill tree is great. The world feels alive and detailed, every nook and cranny is crafted with care with great environments. Major Tom is a cute cat and I was so scared of him dying I had to drop him off in my base. My choices feel like they matter, and I'm compelled to think every dialogue option a few times over or wonder if I did the right thing. The various factions are so far well-written, morally grey, and intriguing to explore. I can't wait to see more of what it all means and how it comes together.
And yeah, I understand the Wasteland series roots and know why it "feels" like Fallout, as it's basically the original Fallout game, but as I said: it's just pretty much what I had hoped Fallout 4 would be and wasn't. To me, it feels like a spiritual sequel to Fallout: New Vegas which was the last one I genuinely loved. It just drags you in immediately from the intro and so far hasn't let go.
In a word, Wasteland 3 is delightful.
UPDATE AFTER 20 HOURS: I've encountered a lot of bugs, but I still highly suggest this game. It gets better and better, it's dozens of hours of fun. I love it so much. Just turn off auto save and check your save every 30-60 minutes.

If you are like me, middle aged dad with some down time between watching the world end and helping your kids with pandemic caused on/off home schooling, a job that is slowly sucking the life out of you, and loved playing old school RPGs like Forgotten Realms games, Fallout 2, Baldurs gate, Planscape Torment, etc. This escape into a world that feels like it could be reality any day now, gives you the fantasy that you have any chance of surviving such an end. Plus it has references and jokes about the world you grew up in before your baby boomer parents set it on a path to the hellish landscape it is today. And you get to fix toasters for cool prizes.

I kickstarted (Well, figged? That's such an odd platform name..) Wasteland 3 back in 2016, waiting four long years only for it to be released on Games Pass at the same time. My tears were salty, but I got over it. Then I got abused by a parrot, creeped out by a clone and propositioned by a whole host of strange (and very occasionally, sexy) characters. I'm not sure how I feel about that... let's not even talk about the goat.
The Gameplay
Wasteland 3 is an RPG party management game which has been much streamlined from it's predecessors. Everything is fairly intuitive and easy to use. Wasteland 1 and 2 were clunky; but 3 is a more modern iteration for the gamer who wants deep skill choices and heavy party balance but without too much faff. One of my favourite upgrades from the previous is if you have your party selected and your selected main character doesn't have the skill you're looking for, whether that's diffusing a bomb, opening a safe, or repairing a toaster, the game will automatically switch to the character needed and complete that action. Hallelujah! No more endlessly switching trying to figure out which character I need for which action. Smooth and easy. Maybe I'm easily pleased.
Talking of smooth, inventory and combat are also simplified, without taking away any of the thought involved. A shared inventory between the party makes equipment a breeze, but there are a few niggles for me in weapon choices, a few things that seem underpowered and some that seem OP. It's okay though, it's easy enough to switch things around, and if you decide you don't like a party member full stop, you can easily switch them out either for a pre-made creation, a completely custom character, or a flavour-personality.
Combat is solid and familiar. There's a respectable array of weapons, some quite unique. There are pets and assistants, some with a whole host of flavour and lore to them. The environment is great; full of detail and things to pay attention to, like cryo barrels to freeze your opponents, or fire to warm up your team. Wait, maybe I did the fire bit wrong... according to achievements at the time, 4% of other people have killed their own party with fire so at least it's not just me.
In short, the gameplay is great. A solid improvement without taking anything away. Not innovative, but an example of the genre done well. Accessible enough for someone who's never played a party RPG before, but with plenty of depth (and difficulty options) for hardened or sadistic souls.
There's also an online co-op mode. I don't have friends willing to play games like this with me, so I can't comment on that, but I love that it's an option.
The Story
The Wasteland series has always had a great mix of gritty realism and slapstick sillyness, with witty on point writing, grizzly scenarios and random oddities. Wasteland 3 is no exception and really captures the surreal apocalypse vibe. In fact, I'd say the writing is the best of the series. The characters have personality, the quests have depth and intrigue and everything was interesting to me. I love it when I want to do every quest in the game, not for loot of exp, but genuinely, to find out what happened. Choices feel important in most quests, although it's hard to say how important they really are without multiple playthroughs. The choices are hard; often pulling on your morality and you never know if 40 hours later something you barely gave a thought is going to come back and bite you in the butt. Save refugees or get power armor? Enslave a girl or get secret vault codes? Ahhh, I don't want to be the bad guy. But I do like secret vault codes...
Disco Elysium still wins my "Best written game of the decade" award; but Wasteland 3 is definitely in my top 10. An improvement would be more unique characters that you can recruit; as your base ends up being staffed by a lot of forgettable faces and I think they missed a chance to improve base management in general.
The Downside? Get your fly swatter out
It's buggy, buggy, buggy.
That's what holds Wasteland 3 back from greatness really. If you get annoyed by bugs then this game will frustrate at some point or other. I have several quests in my quest log that appear uncompleteable, have had to roll back time an hour at one point, and have experienced many bugs and glitches like shooting through walls, characters losing health instead of gaining it and at one point an invisible enemy shooting me from inside a wall, which seemed particularly unfair. There are patches going out so this might be fixed in the future, but only you can decide if this would be a dealbreaker for you right now. It's always a shame to see a game held back by bugs.
Would I recommend it?
Yeah, absolutely. I had an intimate and memorable experience from this satisfyingly solid RPG. I'd give it a solid 8/10.
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Quick summary: Every year I take a vacation around the end of August/Beginning of September. This year I spent 70+ hours of that vacation playing Wasteland 3. I consider this time well spent.
The following is from the perspective of a 40+ gamer.
Pros:
+The game has an engaging story and branching choices which encourage replay for different endings.
+The difficulty settings are well tuned to allow for the most casual to hardcore play.
+Truly a mature story. The game does not pander to the audience nor shy away from dark and downright gruesome situations.
+There are few black and white choices. Choices have consequences, some which you may not anticipate.
+Major Tomcat.
Cons:
-Character creation and cosmetics for your squad are not as in depth as other games. At some points this game shows that it is made in Unity.
-The game could use a bit more polish. There are some bugs on all platforms, however the devs have acknowledged and are working to correct them.
-The price point is a bit higher than I would like but as a caveat it is their game and they can sell it for whatever the market will bare.
-Dismissed, Unique, tamed animals will disappear if you leave the area. This is a nitpick but might matter to someone.
-There is no La Cucaracha horn for the Kodiak.
-The weapon modding system needs some polish, you can attach but not detach weapon mods leading to some regrettable choices.
Overall: This is a good entry point in to the mythos and playstyle of the Wasteland series and Tactical RPGs in general.
5 out of 5 bear paws

Let me start by saying Wasteland 2 was my favorite game since Dragon Age: Origins. So I've been waiting for this game patiently. Two and a half days after release and I've put in 33 hours so far, which for someone who doesn't game as much as he used to, should speak volumes for how much I've enjoyed it so far.
I'll list the pros and cons as of this time.
Pros:
Voice acting is great. The characters are very unique, and their pauses and mannerisms really immerse me. It's one of the few games that I actually listen to their whole dialog instead of reading it while they speak and clicking through it.
Twisted post-apoc events are disturbingly brutal, which really sets the mood for this chaotic world.
The morally grey plot decisions leave me with the decision to run the Rangers how I feel, and I think this increases the replayability as I'm tempted to play it again and roleplay a completely different set of morals. I also second guess each decision I make, and wonder if I made the right choice. You have to base your decisions off the gossip of others, and at the early stages of the game, it's impossible to know who is telling the truth. That is, there's no clear good and evil. Everyone seems corrupt on some level, leaving you the decision of who to support and who to condemn.
Combat is similar to Wasteland 2, and it is fun and engaging if you enjoy turn based tactical combat.
The different factions and their belief systems are great. It's hard to elaborate without spoilers. God-President Ronald Reagan had me in stitches
The music during key combat sequences is different from other games in the genre, and it really seems to work.
Cons:
The load times are very long between zones.
There are some bugs I've encountered. One quest in the warrens seemingly is not able to be complete in my game. Quarex's Hellacious Journey
I've seen enemies throw heal darts through walls into other rooms.
Several times I've hit "No" to travel to a new zone and it takes me there anyway, forcing me to endure two lengthy load times.
The movement grid for AP is not always true. I've moved into blue squares, only to be too low on AP to perform an attack. I've since learned to count the AP and not rely on the color coding.
Inventory sorting could be improved. Why is there no tab for utility items? A checkbox for usable items would be nice too, rather than seeing all my armor and weapons for each character.
Compare item only compares to the main weapon, and not the secondary, which just makes me swap weapons to compare each one.
If any of my comments are due to my incompetence and not game flaws, please leave a comment and correct me.
I definitely recommend this game if you enjoyed the last one.

7/10
Its gruesome, its gory, its morally ambiguous, and its fun. If you know you like this genre, you can't go wrong with this game; however I would not try to introduce a new player to this genre with this game.
Overall, I thought this game was enjoyable. The story provides the player with difficult moral choices and clear immediate consequences to their actions. You begin the game as a squad of Arizona Rangers travelling to Colorado to help The Patriarch, its ruler, secure his territory in exchange for vital supplies for the rangers back home. Immediately the game starts off really strong with the combat and the story, even featuring original music for a very cinematic fight, and subtly introduces you to the idea that your choices have immediate and devastating consequences. It quickly becomes apparent however, that a lot of these choices are locked behind persuasion and intimidation skill levels. This means that if you are not leveling your characters a specific way, you are funneled into the more undesirable choices and forced into combat. I understand that this is used to add value to these skills, but tying major plot points into your characters skills without the option to respec your characters punishes sub-optimal builds by forcing the player into a set story path. Another issue with being locked into your character choices is that you are required to use a majority (4 out of 6) non-player created characters in your party. Because of this, you have to gather new companions as you travel. These companions however have their own preset skills which can seriously mess up you party's skill levels if you do not build specifically for these characters. All in all, the story is interesting and does allow for moral considerations, however being railroaded into optimal skill distribution really hampers the players freedom. A quick note on side missions: except for a few noteworthy exceptions, a majority of the side missions are fetch quests. These noteworthy missions however do allow for some interesting changes to the game world, and really add to the overall experience.
To balance out the negatives, I have to say that overall I enjoyed the story and struggled to decide which path to take. This game truly shines in its factions and its locations. From cannibalistic clowns to a faction worshiping god president Reagan, this game takes its fallout style apocalypse and brings its craziness up to 11. There is really nothing else like it.
As for combat, there are aspects which are far from perfect. Combat is where 90% of the bugs happen. For example, multiple times throughout the game the enemies turn would not end and I would have to restart my game which cost me all of my progress in that fight if not more, because you cannot save mid fight. Another combat issue is that the terrain hazards, for example burning oil or the radiation cloud from a nuke, did not show which squares it covered, so it was extremely easy to move your units into unnecessary harm. This issue combined with the terrible pathing led to serious issues within the combat. Another issue with the combat is that every character preforms actions at the same time. If you accidentally start combat (because the sneaking is straight up impossible) the entire enemy force gets to take free shots at your team. This usually results in a unwinnable fight, and I had to reload saves many times because my squad got nearly wiped in the first turn because of a misstep with the god awful pathing.
As for the positives of combat, it did have its moments. There are lots of weapon choices and some interesting perks characters can take to specialize their weapon options, and there is usually a way around combat (or at least to give yourself an advantage) if you have the necessary skills. This allows the player to customize their party to use specific types of weapons (for example level up automatic weapons and take perks for submachine guns) and lets each character have a niche. There are lots of difficult combat scenarios that require strategy, and near impossible fights if you decide to wage war on a faction. Loot is also picked up all at once, so there is no need to scour the battlefield for each body. If you can make it past the bugs, this combat is engaging, challenging, and seriously fun.
The graphics are good, especially for an isometric game. There were a couple minor issues for me, such as status effects (like burning ground) not showing up properly and the camera being a little bit difficult to work with in smaller rooms. Overall, the graphics were good and helped to bring the crazy wasteland atmosphere to life
Overall, I think this is a good game for fans isometric RPGS or turn based combat games. Its not the best, this game does not hold a candle to Divinity Original Sin 2, but it is still good in its own right. It also features 2 player co-op, which is a nice addition to this kind of game. I did not try it, so I cannot comment on how well it works, but I have a sneaking suspicion that is has its fair share of bugs. If you are looking for a coop game like this to introduce someone to turn based combat or isometric RPGS I would highly recomend DOS 2 instead of this game, however if you know this is your thing then I say go for it.

Wasteland 3 is a Role Playing Game featuring turn based combat, where the player controls a party of characters known as the Desert Rangers, who have travelled to Colorado’s snowy wasteland on a mission to secure aid for their home in Arizona.
Gameplay
If you’ve played the previous Wasteland, or other turn based games similar to Xcom, the combat will feel immediately familiar. The battlefield is divided into a square grid, and your characters have action points to spend on moving, attacking, using healing items and grenades, or going on overwatch. Some unused action points can be carried forward to the next turn if you want to move further or get an extra attack.
As you hover the cursor over each square, the UI shows clearly which enemies will be in line of sight, and the hit chance percentage with the currently equipped weapon, before you commit to moving to that position. You can also see which objects will provide half or full cover, to protect your characters from enemy attacks.
There are lots of weapon types, including assault rifle, SMG, pistol, shotgun, sniper rifle, rocket launcher, flamethrower, blunt and bladed melee weapons. Many weapons have energy variants which do extra damage to robot enemies and turrets. Some might apply status effects such as bleed, stun or poison.
Successful attacks charge up a meter which allows you to perform a special attack. This is almost guaranteed to hit and lets you target a specific body part, which has a chance of a special effect such as destroying the enemy’s armour, confusing a turret causing it to attack your enemies, or hitting a weak point (for example a flamethrower tank) for an instant kill. This can work on bosses too – I was able to one shot a massive Waste Worm Queen which had over 4000 HP.
Your party will include six characters. Two can be created and customised at the start of the game, you can recruit Rangers from your base who don’t have any dialogue or quests, and there are a few traditional NPCs who do have their own personalities and are connected to the various factions which are important to the story.
You can also be joined by followers who aren’t directly under your control, but they’ll assist you during combat. I found a cat wearing a cowboy hat who scratches enemies, a dude with a handgun, and a disco robot who shoots healing darts at my guys.
During some outdoor battles against lots of enemies, you’ll be able to use your squad’s vehicle to even the odds. You can find or buy upgrades for the vehicle’s weapon and armour. I found a cannon that fires a multicoloured stream of lasers while playing a few notes of the American national anthem.
Combat starts tough, in particular I struggled in early fights where some enemies can charge long distances and explode on the same turn, potentially knocking out multiple friendlies. But it gets easier as you level up, find better weapons and armour, and acquire special perks such as attacking twice with a melee weapon triggers a bonus third attack, move several squares with an SMG and get a free attack, and getting a kill with an assault rifle restores some action points.
Non combat skills can unlock extra dialogue options and alternate routes through the level by allowing you to hack computers, pick locks, disarm traps, and repair or disable machines.
Story
The story is well written and the voice acting is mostly good. It takes place after the events of Wasteland 2, but its a new story so you don’t need to have played the previous game to understand what is happening. (although Wasteland 2 is a really good game which I still recommend playing).
There are lots of factions, from civilians and law enforcement, to killer clowns, a cult who worship a former American president as a god, cannibal cowboys, and a sentient AI. Some quests let you choose to support different factions, and as there are almost no obvious “good guys”, it can be tough to decide who to work with as you try to complete the mission. The main quest has multiple endings depending on your choices.
Technical
Even though the game originally released 4 months ago and has received several patches, I’ve still noticed quite a few bugs. The worst bugs were related to two side quests. On both occasions I needed to kill some bandits/animals to protect friendly NPCs, but after the fight the NPCs’ dialogue wouldn’t recognise that I’d done it, so I couldn’t complete the quest. Fortunately I had recent saves that I could reload and try again without losing much progress.
The other bugs are relatively minor. Sometimes when I move a character, their legs animation doesn’t play properly so they just slide across the ground. In my base, the fog of war conceals NPC character models, but their weapons are still visible floating in mid air. And one time the camera zoomed extremely close to the ground and wouldn’t zoom out. I saved and reloaded, and this reset the camera to the normal distance.
It took me 43 hours to complete the main story and every side quest that I found along the way. Combat music is great, including the songs which play during some important battles.
Recommendation
Wasteland 3 is a great game, and its a must buy if you like RPGs and turn based combat. The price is fine for the amount of content, you might want to wait for a couple more patches, although those bugs didn’t really spoil my enjoyment of the game. If you do play now, remember to save often on multiple save files just in case.