Wasteland 3 - Honest Review

I was finished Wasteland 2 when I searched the Playstation store and found out that they had a sequel to Wasteland 3. Excited for it, I brought it without thinking twice. 

First thing I had noticed is that the graphic is superb compared to Wasteland 2, which felt like a 2D game. You move on World map and on the combat field in actual 3D space, with a good perception of depth, distance and size of the characters. The characters (both playable and NPCs) are well-designed and in good details. The game effects are well created and showcased smooth and well. So graphically, it is an amazing improvement over Wasteland 2.

The plot is simple as well. You are Team November - a group of Arizona Rangers who were sent to Colorado to aid a local Warlord named the Patriarch who is having problem with his kids (I kid you not). 

The goal is to capture the three brats (his direct orders is not to harm his kids) and he will award you by sending supplies to Arizona which was suffering due to the ending of the previous game (Wasteland 2 - I don't want to give you any spoilers). But instead of running around the World map like before, this time around, you could have a large tank/mobile vehicle which seconds as one of the party member in most battles (which takes outdoor). 

The companion system is still there, where you can go around recruiting people BUT it seems to have been tuned down quite a bit. In the beginning of the story itself (as soon as you reach Colorado Spring and given the new Headquarters), you can select your new team. You can choose two from the selection menu and the story will dump two more characters onto you (Lucia and Kwan). Don't get me wrong, they are quite good characters to use. Then from here, you continue the story with the team you already have and they could be good enough.

The story itself will allow you to collect about five more. Easiest being Scotsmo who will find you at the cafeteria once you manage to develop your headquarters to a certain extend. The Spanish guy (called The Provost) is found underground Coloroda Spring and easily missed out if you choose to ignore Angela Deth's request to go and look for another recruitable guy (Ironclad Cordite). You can find the She-Hulk (Pivepi) at Aspen (a main game event later in the game) and a cannibal (Fishlips) who is also recruitable in the World map when you get a message from someone named MorningStar who request your assistance (you need Radiation protection level 2 though). 

However, when I play the game, I choose to ignore Ironclad and Fishlips as I did not like their methods of dealing with their problems (too much violence). Pivepi and Scotsmo are good enough back-up additions though. 

According to this site I had went to (Source : https://wasteland.fandom.com/wiki/Wasteland_3_companions ), there are also a few recruitable companions (Party Pal, Brave Little Toaster, a Soviet Robot, Young Man Vinters, Di and Night Terror) which you can recruit but the game does not mention their existence or throw you hints where to find them. I had reach the end of the game without recruiting any of them.

How different is the battles in Wasteland 3 compared to Wasteland 2? I find battles in Wasteland 2 to be easier to manage and quick to adapt. Battles in Wasteland 3 still follows the same principle, and has a better graphics than Wasteland 2. Overall, I could say that the battles in Wasteland 3 is an improvement over its predecessor. 

The battle are smooth and less messier than it was in Wasteland 2 (even so I did not find much to complain about here either). As a person who learning to use Unity game engine, this game provides an excellent insight into the game engine's capability to handle the high-end graphics, animations and battles. 

The battlefield is widely spread with ample space for you to move your characters around, and you can see the enemy, their Health Points (HP), what sort of weapons they have and so forth in detail. However, the game seems to have made the battles easier than before by adding a tank (on your side) which you can use as your "tank" character, and with the right upgrade, your tank could able to one-shot kill most of the enemies on the map without much problem. Any damage it could sustain, could be "healed" using mechanic skillset. The game also removed some restrictions like using AP to reload the weapons during battles as well.

However, I do not like the way the game kept throwing in America's national anthem (The Star-Spangled Banner) in there as a background music during some of the battles. It is loud, annoying, seemingly out-of-place and felt like something you could play when you could be masturbating instead of fighting off enemies. 

Sometimes I wondered if the game developers were merely using that anthem because they didn't get enough money to get more music for their games or that they mocking America at the same time. One of the time this anthem played was when you fight the Godfishers together with the Gippers and I was wondering whether the game developers was mocking America via the portrayal of the Gippers who were worshiping Ronald Reagen (I kid you not)) as a god by playing the anthem in the background during the battle.

Money is a very hectic resource to come by in this game. While you can find most of the weapons and armor you need from looting and scavenging off your enemies (just like in Wasteland 2), the idea that just about everything in this game was so damn expensive and the chance for you to make money in battles or through quests are limited, is something I do not like too much. 

One tip I did come from playing this game when concerning money is that YOU SHOULD NEVER SELL SCRAPS. ALSO NEVER SELL ANYTHING.

You will get tonnes of scrap in this game - and sometimes you can also get more scraps by dismantling weapons you do not need. Scraps are very important resources because as you can create new things (especially healing items) from scraps and that could save you tonnes of money buying it off the traders. So, always have scraps on you, especially to create healing items.

Skills

Combat Skills :

Automatic Weapons - Assault Rifle and Submachine Guns (SMGs)

Big Guns - Heavy Machine Gun and Flamethrowers. (I don't like to use them).

Brawling - Same as in Wasteland 2.

Melee Combat - Blunt and Bladed Weapons. Same as in Wasteland 2 also.

Small Arms - Semi-Auto Pistol, Revolver, Pump Shotgun and Auto Shotgun (don't as me why shotgun is in this category). 

Sniper Rifles - duh!

General Skills (most of these skills are similar to Wasteland 2 game) :

Animal Whisperer 

Explosives

First Aid (comprises on both Field Medic and Surgeon skill).

Sneaky Shit - Disarm alarms, evade detection, spot hidden object and damage unaware enemies. 

Weird Science - Required to use Energy-based weapons and open options regarding Science and Technology related options. 

Exploration Skills : (Again, most are same as in Wasteland 2). Your characters should have some good gasps of these skills in order to survive better in Wasteland 3 Open World. 

Armor Modding - Allows you to modify armor with additional benefits. Quite useful. At least one character should have this skill.

Lockpicking - Open doors and such.

Nerd Stuff - Hack Computers and Machines.

Mechanic - repair vehicles, generators and other machines. 

Survival - Avoids danger in the open World.

Toaster Repair - Find and repair toasters. You can get a lot of good stuff from toasters.

Weapon Modding  - Same with Armor Modding but with weapons. At least one character should have this skill.

Social Skills :

Barter - Allow you to buy and sell better

Hard Ass - Intimidate others better

Kiss Ass - Sweet-talk some information from others and even open doors.

Leadership - Inspires nearby allies and grant you commands in the battlefield. 

There are some skills you need to survive and some you do not need. Barter skill for example are pretty useless if you ask me. This is because money is rare and so does weapons and armor to sell them. You are better off scrapping these equipment for scraps and then use the scraps to create useful things like healing items and even bullets. 

Leadership skill is a good skill, allowing your character with good leadership points to boost your characters when he or she heals them or revives them during combat. Hard Ass and Kiss Ass works the same way, so you can choose one character to have them. You should concentrate on Survival Skills as they are more important than anything else and as for combat skills, be specific to each character based on what type of weapons you want them to have. 

Overall, I can say that I did not enjoy Wasteland 3 as much as I had enjoyed Wasteland 2. There was nothing wrong with the game play or the battles. Technically, this game was an improvement over Wasteland 2 in most aspects. 

However, the things which I find it lacking was the presence of dry humor in Wasteland 3 when compared to a more relaxed, fun and humorful existence in Wasteland 2. In Wasteland 2, even so that the World had changed a lot and life is tough, they still had a showcase of hope, desire, humor and fun in the mix where you can find pockets of jokes every now and then, especially in the dialogues. That "pockets" are missing in Wasteland 3 where I did not find similar humor and funny scenes, even from characters like Scotsmo who was very funny in Wasteland 2. Wasteland 3 felt very dry compared to Wasteland 2 and that is my main reason why I did not enjoy this game compare to its predecessor.

So in my verdict, Wasteland 3 is an improvement in most parts when compared to Wasteland 2, but the game developers seems to have killed off most of the humor and fun out of this game to the point that you can actually feel the difference between the two games, which to me was a sad fact. But overall, it is a good game with solid plot.