Wasteland 3 - Review @ RPG Codex

The RPG Codex reviewed Wasteland 3:

RPG Codex Review: Wasteland 3

Wasteland 3 is inXile's latest addition to the turn- and party-based post-apocalyptic series. The setting has moved from the deserts of Arizona and the overgrown cities of California to the snowy mountains of Colorado. The Rangers have agreed to work for the man who brought some measure of stability to the area in exchange for supplies to be delivered back home. Released in late 2020, it was deemed good enough to become RPG Codex's Game of the Year. Since then, inXile has improved it further, releasing nearly a dozen patches in total that added new features and quality of life improvements in addition to bug fixes and balance changes. The version I played, 1.6.9.420 (this is the kind of lowbrow humor you can expect to see frequently in the game), appears to be the final one.

Under the Hood

The first difference you'll notice from Wasteland 2 is that it takes a page from Divinity: Original Sin and requires you to make or take just two rangers at the start. There's a greater focus on accessibility and the ability to immediately jump in and start playing: there are five groups of pre-made rangers, and they all come with unique background bonuses and utility items that no custom-made ranger can acquire to compensate for their non-powergamed attribute and skill allocation. In addition to this, they also have a few unique voiced banters with each other, though you'll hear them all in the early areas. Once you're past the tutorial, you can make or take two more rangers from a different and larger pool and/or fill up your roster with companions for a total of six; however, you must always have at least two rangers in the party and can have no more than four. Some purists may balk, but I was grateful I could start playing immediately and learn how I wanted to build my future characters through experiencing the game's content as opposed to making decisions for four different characters at the start with no context other than my previous experience with RPGs.

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Conclusion

If "reactivity and choice" was the mantra for Wasteland 2, then Wasteland 3 adds "transparency and accessibility" as another design pillar. inXile pulled off a heavily-reactive turn-based, party-based RPG that looks and sounds slick and is largely frustration-free when it comes to starting and playing. They re-examined their systems and modified them without throwing out the baby with the bathwater, in contrast to other studios who have tried to do the same in the past. Sure, it's not the second coming of Jagged Alliance 2, and no, it's not a party-based Fallout, but it's my favorite Wasteland game. Its status as the 2020 RPG Codex Game of the Year is well-deserved.