Wasteland 3

First two Wasteland games had their share of jokes and comedic relief but this time InExile completely failed to balance it so we have game with real identity crisis. On one hand they tried to create serious, gritty world full of violence and children mass graves. And then they mixed it with "bandits" dressed as clowns going "honk honk" and two of most "why the hell would anyone even consider joining those people" factions I've ever seen lately in video game - The Gippers and Godfishers. First one believe Ronald Reagan to be a god and second one make kites out of people corpses "just because". Level of writing and quality of dialogues was so amazingly low that it made me completely not care for anyone in Colorado because those people are obviously way too stupid to survive so it made it easy for me to just follow my orders and help dude who was obviously full of shit from the second you met him. But hey, this whole place seems like theme park so why would I even care. Fortunately InExile did something most developers don't like to do in games - they gave you full control of choices you make so you are never forced to help anyone. It takes a lot of balls to do that because most devs really like to force you to their prefered story arch. Even tho writing and story is absolute crap, good news is that gameplay is fine. Combat is fun, and upgrading your Rangers and their equipment will provide fun for most of 30 or so hours it takes to finish this game. One way to summarize this game would probably be to say that it's, like it's predecessor, Fallout Tactics done right. Unfortunately this time done a bit worse than in Wasteland 2.

While this is a decent game (barring the bugs that are still in the process of being fixed), it makes me long to replay Wasteland 2. It's about half the length of Wasteland 2. The developers seemed to be more concerned with including a co-op system, making this available on multiple platforms, and adding a fistful of close-up animated dialogues (which are mildly cool, but not worth cutting content for). Weapon modding has actually become more frustrating in Wasteland 3, with the inability to remove them from weapons so you can apply them to a different one. You end up hoarding the rare high-end mods until the end of the game so you can add them to the best weapons. They did fix the issue with long load times, which improved the enjoyment of the game immensely. Personally, I would have been happier if they'd kept similar graphics quality from Wasteland 2 and just made a sequel that was a longer game with a more involved story and sense of having an effect on the game world.

It looks like there is a huge amount of cut content, sadly. Most of the game is combat and the quality of the combat is not as high as I wold like. The progression in gear feels a bit too quick, and there are many balance issues between different weapon types and even within the same weapon type. Too often weapons that have special damage types are just outright better than the rest due to extra scaling with skills. Some weapons and abilities, on the other hand, are quite useless. It would be nice if there were more significant differences between weapon types, especially in range. Combat ranges are artificially compressed to make melee viable, just like Wasteland 2. Overall there is little to no innovation on top of Wasteland 2 combat mechanics. There are some simplifications in the skills which I think is good, but that's about it. Making the turns squad-based is a cool idea, but it can end up in a mess when the combat is swayed too much to the firepower side. If player starts first, most fights are quite easy. If enemies start first, you can die before getting a shot off. Too many bugs, but mostly UI-related and technical. I did not notice any quest-breaking bugs and the game hasn't crashed once. Loading times are extremely long. There's lots of potential for replayability, but with the combat not being that great I think I'll take some time before I go for a 2nd run. In the meantime maybe they'll fix some of the bugs.

"Happy" Fig backer. The characteristics description is messed up, i.e. wanted to make an INT build with +1 skill point for each 2 in INT, so made a strong and dumb brawler and smart/charming (btw, what's the link between charisma and exp points?!) sniper just to find out at level up that it impacts nothing, every char got 3 skill points. I will get back to it after all re-balance is done. And I cannot even say that this is the last time I pledge the inXlie game as the don't care anymore since they are under MS now, but it is definitely one more reason not to buy the full price. Don't want to do the developer's job of beta testing and pay double for it. More on the topic: Characters are running through the fire because HEY, YOLO! Some fake highlight on the screen not only the interactive objects. Shared inventory with 0 weight, after 10 minutes my team of 2 was carying a truck load of weapons and other junk. My nice lady suddenly started growling when stepped in the trap. And this didn't sound like planned, just used the man's voice over. Precision shot is now charged ability A tone of other things that I need to get used to comparing to WL2. I know that my expectations are my problem, but so far i was disappointed to the level i rage-quit the game after 1st lvl up. Dunno if ever come back, but if i do - only after a number of patches.

I played WL about 30 years ago and WL2 about 5 years ago. I really liked them. I played WL3 main game latest GOG version 1.6.9.420.309496 to the end and without DLCs. WL3 is also quite good, although I liked WL2 better. Pros: • Story: Good, especially the different crazy factions you meet throughout the game. Like WL and WL2. Although I like the stories of previous WLs better. • Radio on world map: Really nice. After a longer time they are repeated, but then I just ignored them. • Music: Good. In some situation really great! • Choices and (social) skills: As in WL2 (social) skills make a difference and choices matter. This is shown directly in the first conversations. The RPG gives you the impression to be free in your decisions (exception: first fight is railroaded) and be able to make reasonable choices. Even if you brake the main story line completely, you get a special ending for this. • Crafting: Crafting really matters! Cons: • Bugs: Not so many bugs as stated in the early reviews: For the whole playthrough I remember two bugs; both without big impact. Only the bugs in some perks really suck, although they also do not prevent to play the story as intended: Barter perk "Appraiser" and Sniper rifle perk "Ambush" do not work and Nerd stuff perk "Target Override" is not needed, since its effect often occurs also without choosing this perk. • AI: "Stupid is as stupid does…". The two examples, I found: Use of smoke grenades and sometimes path finding. • Crafting: Main Con: more detailed sorting of recipes would increase clarity much Other Cons: o Armors cannot be stripped for parts o Most important weapon mod (range extension) doesn't drop during looting (random stuff) or weapon field stripping (= only spawns in stores). o You can't take a mod from one weapon to put it onto another. • Character menu and creation: GUI is made pretty at the expense of usability. • Video quality auto detection: It says "Low", but no problems at all even at "High" setting.