''Wasteland 3'' is a

role-playing video game A role-playing video game (commonly referred to as simply a role-playing game or RPG, as well as a computer role-playing game or CRPG) is a video game genre where the player controls the actions of a character (or several party members) immers ...

developed by

inXile Entertainment inXile Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and a studio of Xbox Game Studios based in Tustin, California. Specializing in role-playing video games, inXile was founded in 2002 by Interplay co-founder Brian Fargo. The studio ...

and published by

Deep Silver Deep Silver is an Austrian video game publisher and a division of Plaion. Eugenio Vitale serves as the director of games development for Deep Silver. History Deep Silver was announced in November 2002, with their first release to be '' Anarc ...

. It is a sequel to ''

Wasteland 2 ''Wasteland 2'' is a post-apocalyptic role-playing video game developed by inXile Entertainment and published by Deep Silver. It is the sequel to 1988's ''Wasteland'', and was successfully crowdfunded through Kickstarter. After the postponement o ...

'' (2014) and was released for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

and

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third base console in the Xbox series of video game consoles. It was first released in North America, parts of ...

on August 28, 2020. It was ported to

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

and

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

on December 17, 2020.

Gameplay

''Wasteland 3'' is a squad-based

featuring

turn-based In video and other games, the passage of time must be handled in a way that players find fair and easy to understand. This is usually done in one of the two ways: real-time and turn-based. Real-time Real-time games have game time progress cont ...

combat. Played from an

isometric perspective Isometric video game graphics are graphics employed in video games and pixel art that use a parallel projection, but which angle the viewpoint to reveal facets of the environment that would otherwise not be visible from a top-down perspective o ...

, the game features synchronous and asynchronous multiplayer. In the game, players need to make various choices, which have different impacts on the game's world and the story. The game introduces a vehicle that the players can use to traverse the world and store supplies. The main campaign can be played

cooperatively Cooperation (written as co-operation in British English) is the process of groups of organisms working or acting together for common, mutual, or some underlying benefit, as opposed to working in competition for selfish benefit. Many animal a ...

with another player.

Plot

''Wasteland 3'' is set in the frozen wastelands of a

post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astro ...

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. The player takes control of two members from Arizona Ranger Team November, who survived after their unit was ambushed while on a mission in Colorado. The two survivors are subsequently forced to work with the local ruler, known as the "Patriarch", in order to earn his support for the Arizona Rangers - after the last game, and the choice between Highpool and Ag Center, the Rangers are struggling to keep order in the face of increasingly severe shortages of food and water. Once arrived and settled, the rangers are informed by the Patriarch that they are to hunt down and rein in his three heirs, who have gone wild and begun fighting each other to succeed him, as well as fight to preserve his rule over the many settlements and scattered populations that make up Colorado. However, as the story unfolds, the rangers discover the extent of the Patriarch's brutality, and are contacted by Angela Deth (a returning NPC from previous ''Wasteland'' games) who asks for their help in sparking a rebellion against the Patriarch. Player must then decide whether to uphold the original bargain or work to free Colorado and potentially endanger the future of Arizona.

Development

''Wasteland 3'' was announced by inXile Entertainment in September 2016. ''Wasteland 3'' was developed using the

Unity Unity may refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England * Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; a h ...

game engine. The development team is composed of people who worked on '' Torment: Tides of Numenera'' (2017). As with ''

'', inXile chose to

crowdfund Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

the development of the game. Unlike their previous

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

projects, inXile chose to use

equity crowdfunding Equity crowdfunding is the online offering of private company securities to a group of people for investment and therefore it is a part of the capital markets. Because equity crowdfunding involves investment into a commercial enterprise, it ...

service

Fig The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world ...

. The crowdfunding campaign launched in October 2016, and concluded a month later with over $3 million raised. The game was scheduled to launch on

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

and

in Q4 2019. After

Xbox Game Studios Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher and part of the Microsoft Gaming division based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, ...

acquired the company, inXile hired more staff for the game's development and delayed its release date to early 2020. The game's budget was three times more than ''Wasteland 2''. The additional budget was mostly spent on implementing conversational scenes and hiring voice actors. It was delayed again due to inXile's remote working conditions from the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, while the Mac and Linux versions were postponed to an undisclosed date due to developer's "decision to focus Wasteland 3's initial release on Windows 10, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4". The game was eventually ported to Linux and macOS in December 2020. Further expansion of the story is planned through downloadable content. Two expansions, titled ''Battle of Steeltown'' and ''Cult of the Holy Detonation'', were released on June 3, 2021, and October 5, 2021.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack received special attention from inXile's

Brian Fargo Frank Brian Fargo (born December 15, 1962) is an American video game designer, producer, programmer and executive, and founder of Interplay Entertainment, inXile Entertainment and Robot Cache. Biography Early life A descendant of the family t ...

when he hired Mary Ramos, known for her work as

Quentin Tarantino Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, writer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by stylized violence, extended dialogue, profanity, Black comedy, dark humor, Nonlinear narrative, non-lin ...

's music supervisor to create music for Wasteland 3. Inspired by the idea of future civilizations not having context for the meaning or intent of a piece of music or lyrics they might find, the soundtrack includes post-apocalyptic versions of the '' Welcome Back (Kotter)'' and ''

Green Acres ''Green Acres'' is an American television sitcom starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a country farm. Produced by Filmways as a sister show to ''Petticoat Junction'', the series was first broadcast on ...

'' theme songs, Wang Chung's "

Everybody Have Fun Tonight "Everybody Have Fun Tonight" is a song by English new wave band Wang Chung, released as a single from their studio album ''Mosaic'' in 1986. Collaboratively written by Jack Hues, Nick Feldman, and Peter Wolf, it reached no. 2 on the US ''Bi ...

", as well as American anthems and bible hymns. Mark Morgan (''

Fallout Nuclear fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and the shock wave has passed. It commonly refers to the radioac ...

Fallout 2 ''Fallout 2: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game'' is a 1998 role-playing video game developed by Black Isle Studios and published by Interplay Productions. It is a sequel to ''Fallout (video game), Fallout'' (1997), featuring similar graphics and ...

'') returned to add his unique take on an atmospheric score for the post-apocalypse.

Reception

The game received generally positive reviews upon release, getting a score of 85/100 from critics on

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. By December 2021, the game had attracted more than 2 million players. It was nominated for the category of Best Role Playing at

The Game Awards 2020 The Game Awards 2020 was an award show that honored the best video games of 2020. It was produced and hosted by Geoff Keighley, and took place on December 10, 2020. The preshow ceremony was hosted by Sydnee Goodman. Unlike previous Game Awards, ...

, but lost to ''

Final Fantasy VII Remake is a 2020 action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix. It is the first in a planned trilogy of games remaking the 1997 PlayStation game '' Final Fantasy VII''. Set in the dystopian cyberpunk metropolis of Midgar, playe ...

''.

References

External links

* {{inXile Crowdfunded video games Deep Silver games InXile Entertainment games Linux games MacOS games Multiplayer and single-player video games PlayStation 4 games Post-apocalyptic video games Role-playing video games 2020 video games Video game sequels Video games developed in the United States Video games postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic Video games scored by Mark Morgan Video games set in Colorado Wasteland (series) Windows games Xbox Cloud Gaming games Xbox One games