Written on August 30th, 2020:
INTRO.
These last few years, numerous games have game out, revitalizing and/or modernizing the old-school party-based CRPG that ruled the PC in the late 1990's & early 2000's. Back in the day, there were numerous CRPG's of this type. The CRPG's that I am referring to, these are click-and-point type of party-based and/or party-controlling strategic-style CRPG's like Baldur's Gate 1 & 2; Neverwinter Nights 1 & 2; Dragon Age: Origins; Planescape: Torment; Arcanum; Fallout 1 & 2.
For a long while, these CRPG's felt like they had gone away, as games became more action-orientated & offering up more direct-control over the player's movements, and things of that sort, as more games like Gothic, Risen, Elder Scrolls, and things of that sort were coming out.
In recent years, thankfully, the CRPG has returned. We've had no shortage of the return of the old-school CRPG. With the likes of Shadowrun Returns, Shadowrun: Dragonfall; Divinity: Original Sin 1 & 2; Torment: Tides of Numenera; Pillars of Eternity 1 & 2; and the long-awaited Wasteland 2 - the CRPG felt like it was finally alive again.
Enter Wasteland 3.
I'm at least some 7 hours into this or so into this, on Xbox for PC Game Pass. And so far, it's great.
STORY.
So, the game takes place in Colorado Springs. You're on a mission to make contact there and help their leader out, in return for some supplies your team of Rangers (lawmen) for your crew in Arizona. Well, everything goes pretty much south; you get ambushed; friends and Rangers get injured or killed; and you're here to find out who ambushed your crew...and decide how to take care of them. If that isn't enough, you also have to take on the mission to help Colorado Springs out, as The Patriarch (their leader) is missing his 3 children and you are to (try to, if you can) find them & return them to him (and if you even want to).
So far, the story, writing, plot, dialogue, and everything here is really good. Conversations can also be descriptive too, similar to games like Shadowrun Returns Trilogy. If this wasn't enough, this game is also fully voice-acted here and the voice-acting's really good. Also, if you were looking for that really dark & twisted humor and referential humor that the old-school Fallout games were known for from the Black Isle days (i.e. Fallout 1 & 2), then you're really going to feel at home here, as this game's full of that...and lots of personality.
For big moments & key moments in the game, the game might try and be cinematic, get close-up to a NPC when they talk to you or get involved with you...and that's often when you know a quest's really important and/or stuff might be about to go down (or not, if you can avert the crisis somehow...by maybe talking them out of a situation).
STRATEGY, COMBAT & TACTICS.
Combat here feels like Firaxis' XCOM meets Fallout 1 & 2, more or less...but much more modernized. Everything's team-based for turns, as a team attacks together: one team gets a turn; the other team gets a turn; repeat cycle...until someone wins. You can also see in some instances (Depending on your character's skill & stats), an enemy's range of sight before they spot you, before combat starts. So, if you're in distance & don't get caught within their line of sight and its grid - you can get the drop on enemies and attack first, if you're in range to attack (depending on what guns or weapons are equipped). If they spot you, well...could be the other way around; they attack first.
Combat's turn-based, action point based (as you can perform a number of actions per round per team-mate and they all use up a certain amount of points) & also very strategic, as you'll need to utilize tactics to get through battles & shootouts here. You will want to put your guys behind cover often, to try to catch enemies when they're not in cover (to get advantages, for causing more damage & better accuracy). You will want to shoot out explosive barrels, barrels of acid, and/or any other things that are environmental hazards to enemies (and even yourself, if you're too close to them) to help turn the tides of battle. You might not always want to play aggressive here, as you might need to stay back in cover, move to cover, or not move at all from spot. Don't do these things and even on the default Wastelander difficulty, you're likely not going to do well; speaking from experience here.
Since you also have extra options in your final moments of a turn for each team members part here - if you have say at least 2 Action Points, you can carry over 2 action points (AP) to the next round; or you can hunker down in a spot if you haven't used all your Action Points. This is a good spin on AP, as you don't feel like you have left over AP for some characters and in some rounds, meaning you can carry a few points into the next round to tack the leftovers right on top.
IT'S A PARTY.
If you've ever wondered where the party's at, it's right here. At character creation time (i.e. the beginning), you create two characters to start the game. These are your two main characters. You can use pre-made characters (that ship w/ the game) or create your own two leads from scratch. I literally took about an hour, just to create my two lead characters, name them, set their background, set their skills, decide their looks, etc etc.
If this isn't enough having two leads characters to start the game with, once the game gets going and you get your HQ Base - you can also add two more characters to the party (that were pre-made by the game dev's and/or which you can create from scratch, as it's all up to you); and then also have two special party members that are actually fleshed-out (from the game itself...which can have personality, their own missions, their own stuff, banter, talk with, and things of that sort). So, for a total, you can have six members in your party. Those six also doesn't include friendly NPC's, neutral NPC's, or other NPC's that you can't control, that also might be involved in a certain quest, area, shootout/battle, or whatever.
QUESTS & MAPS.
So, this game feels a lot like Fallout 1 & 2, in this regard. You can just go around the game-world and maps, run into NPC's, and do quests. Often, you have moral decisions to make - whether they are good, bad, neutral, shades of gray, special decision for the quest, or whatever the case. You also have a reputation system, too - as you'll need to try to keep groups/factions and your NPC's in your party happy, too...or else things might not remain so well for you.
I have not got out of Colorado Springs' main hub and its side missions; main missions; parts to this hub and maps tied to it yet, so...I have not experienced what it's like to walk or drive (you do get a big Jeep early on - which you can also call on in combat, BTW) around the game-world, its maps, if there's any overland maps (like Fallout 1 & 2), or any of that stuff yet.
PERFORMANCE.
So, for some reason...this game didn't want to run in Fullscreen. I had to run it in Borderless Fullscreen Windowed, to get it running right. So, at 1080p on High, I had issues with performance. Running between 35-60fps, it wasn't running so hot at times...as it could sutter, get unstable for a moment, and then get back to normal 60fps. So, with MSI Afterburner, locked it down to 40fps & smoothed that out.
OUTRO.
If there's any complaint I have with this game so far, it's that performance right now isn't so hot. But, honestly - so far, that's really about it. I luckily haven't ran into any bugs or weird issues, thankfully...and hopefully, I don't run into any later either. I'm not sure if this is a AA title (i.e. this is a old-school style CRPG) or a AAA title (i.e. this is fully voice-acted and has Microsoft's backing here, since Microsoft owns InXile)...of somewhere b/t the two (i.e. AA 1/2, I guess)? But regardless, whatever it is - so far, so great. Hope it stays this great because I'm really enjoying this game, so far.
So, yeah - so far, so great.
