Greetings again everyone. I realize that I haven't been able to write for a few days, I'm sorry for that, things are really busy. It looks like it will get even busier in the coming days.
But recently I had the opportunity to sit in front of my computer again and play games. This time I wanted to try another game that I had downloaded before, and didn't have the opportunity to play, yet.
Wasteland 3. Let's get started
Wasteland 3 Game Review
What is this game about?
At the beginning of the game, you can choose pre-made characters or create your own.
The game is basically a post-apocalyptic game. Everything is frozen and you start in Colorado . The cause of course is a nuclear disaster. It's pretty standard stuff, but I wanted to give it a try because the game has turn based combat and the story is supposed to be good.
You have various abilities such as computer skills, combat skills or persuasion skills to talk to people. You choose your character based on these or you can customize your character.
The game takes place in a snowy region. You will see a lot of cold and its effect on people. Especially later in the game, when you're free to roam and explore the world, you'll see how people try to deal with the cold.
Everything from the way your characters dress to the way they speak, to the items you find being sci-fi and fantasy metal robots, everything is thought out. It is possible to walk around wearing punk armor if you want. Or you can show your dominance by wearing thick metal armors.
Navigating the Open World and the Decisions You Make
At the very beginning of the game you will see how full of blood and gore it is. You can't help but be surprised that some people are both crazy and brutal. But in a post-apocalyptic world, it is very possible to expect to see such people.
It's nice to be given freedom in an open world kind of way. There will be places you want to explore. And you will see some areas of interest on the map.
You can go to these places and try the mission you want. Keep in mind that many places have very powerful people or gangs that are out to kill you early in the game. To defeat these people, your characters need to level up and they need to be good at what they do.
Sometimes you will hear people's cries for help on your radio. If you don't help them and choose to squeeze another mission in between, those cries will probably end and something bad will happen to that person.
So I liked the fact that the decisions you make in the game have an impact on where you choose to go first.
People will act or die based on that decisions.
Combat
It's a turn-based combat. This gives you a good time to reflect and think about what you want to do. If you've played the following games, you'll quickly become familiar with it; XCom, Mutant Year Zero, Divinity Original Sin 2... etc.
In turn-based combat; you have a few action points and you have to think tactically when deciding how to spend them. One of the good thing is that you can see your armor when you hide, some games do not show that.
It's not possible to live too long without thinking and planning how to keep your characters using short ranged pistols/weapons or even melee characters alive. Of course, this also depends on the difficulty level. If you play on tourist difficulty, everyone you shoot will die in the first bullet or at most two-three.
You can do a lot of things like move, throw bombs, refill lives or throw the refill syringe to a friend. Of course, you can also shoot your enemy with a gun. I'm sure the action points system will be familiar to many readers. It's easy and fun.
Not everything in the game has to be solved by a fight.
You can also talk diplomatically and, if your character is "charismatic" enough, you can unlock some of the conversation options to progress through the missions. This makes a big difference. Those who must live, can die, those who must die, can live. A deal you didn't expect can come out of it. New missions can arise.
So make sure that at least 1 of your characters is good at these social skills so that you have a chance to protect the NPCs you want to keep alive, so some quests can be done in a different way.
Your Base, Your Decision
To have a base of your own in the game, is one of the early missions, you first need to clear it. After that, if you find talented and useful people in the world, you can bring them here, you can invite them. Once they're here, they can make new armor for your characters, new weapons, and so on.
To find these NPCs you need to progress through the game. You can add new characters to your base area both as you do side quests and as you progress through the main quest.
Early in the game, when you're traveling around the open world, your tank won't have radiation armor. So it's possible to feel a little bit limited to find useful NPC's for your base.
But even in places without radiation, there's a lot to explore. Not only that, you can be traveling down the road and suddenly bandits will attack you. You can be waiting for a few minutes to get from one place to another, and suddenly you hear someone screaming for help on the radio and you have to drive the tank there.
Then, when you're on your way to the mission at hand and bandits show up and you think they can kill you, you realize you've been playing for a few hours and you actually still want to do the same mission. It is not bad, sometimes it just takes more time than you planned.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, I had the opportunity to play this game for about 10+ hours so far and I can say that I like it for now. The aspects I liked the most were the following;
- The decisions I make have meaning.
- The stories of the side quests are simple, mostly short and enjoyable.
- It's nice when the people I save and the people I bring in, helps me in a really meaningful way. Mostly.
- It is very cool that the characters have their own and special/personalized stories.
- Seeing political tasks and experiencing people's views on politics is a different experience.
- It's fun to make tactical choices based on the characteristics of the weapons I use and the abilities of the characters.
- Seeing what the characters' talents are and making them really good at those things and trying to create a group of people who are good at everything. Like a band or gang.
If you like turn based combat and want to play a nice fun post-apocalyptic game where your characters slowly become professionals, I recommend this game. Please kindly note that I'm not pro game writer, I'm just a nerd sharing his ideas and experiences.
Thank you very much for reading.