Wasteland 3 test: brave hacker nothing is impossible

A logical – and expected – sequel to Wasteland 2, the third installment in the franchise is now available in all good dairies. A post-apocalyptic role-playing game that still suffers from a few minor faults, but which sets the bar very high without bringing any sensational innovations. Classic, yes, but good!

Wasteland 3 test: brave hacker nothing is impossible See priceRead conclusionWasteland 3

Countless choices left to the player's discretion
A rich, quirky universe
Humor and reference, without going to the overdose
Interesting fights thanks to the variety of approaches

Frequent loading and a little too long
Inventory not always very practical (filters?)
Dated realization... but much less than Wasteland 2
No Spanish dubbing

Wasteland first of the name is a game that dates back to 1988. It was therefore a bit surprising to see inXile offering a sequel almost a quarter of a century later. The reason is very simple: the ancestor is one of those "cult" games, those titles that have marked the minds of many players and influenced many developers. Success has also been there for this sequel and everything suggests that Wasteland 3 will experience the same success after a successful crowdfunding campaign on fig.co.

Post-Apocalypse Now

As its name could not be clearer – finally for English speakers – Wasteland 3 is a post-apocalyptic title. It depicts an alternative world to ours in which a nuclear war broke out in 1988 between the United States and the Soviet Union. In addition to the annihilation of a majority of the world's population, the disaster led to an upheaval in environmental conditions. In Wasteland 2, we were "visiting" Arizona. In this third opus, head to Colorado, a Colorado under perpetual snow and extreme climatic rigors; so much so that the death sentence is made there "simply" via a pillory exposed in the open air.

This modification of the geographical setting aside, the basic concept of Wasteland 3 hardly changes from that of its predecessor. It's still about controlling a group of Rangers in a tortured world where tensions between factions are growing. An introductory cinematic takes care of reminding us of all this before opening the way to the selection / creation of our characters.

inXile leaves the choice here between a few pairs of complementary heroes or the ex-nihilo creation of our proteges. Nothing rocket science at this level, we distribute a few points on skills and attributes so as to end up with warriors, hackers or hucksters for example.

In total, Wasteland 3 has 7 attributes (strength, charisma, intelligence…) and, above all, 22 skills. We haven't checked, but these pretty much mirror the Wasteland 2 listing. They're divided into broad categories that will organize your choices: combat or exploration, social or general skills. Thus, to handle an assault rifle, it is essential to have unlocked the automatic weapons skill and the more points you assign to them, the better the weapons you can use. The same goes for all the other weapons, but also for healing equipment or the use of “technical” objects.

Finally, inXile completes the character sheet with what the studio calls “benefits”. As a hero progresses on a skill, he can unlock more and more powerful advantages, but of course it is not possible to unlock all available advantages: choices must be made. Without revolutionizing the RPG in the least, Wasteland 3 offers a very solid evolution of its characters with complementary skills, an interesting specialization of the heroes and choices having a real impact on the future of our protected. inXile has the will to involve the player in its decisions… and not only in the evolution of the characters.

Wouldn't he be a bit of an idiot Dorsey?

Thus, the entire Wasteland 3 adventure, its scenario, revolves around the decisions made by the player, but before getting to that, it is necessary to clarify a little the circumstances of our arrival in Colorado. Wasteland 3 begins some time after the second opus. The Arizona Rangers have made a kind of agreement with the Patriarch, the autocratic leader of Colorado. Problem, barely landed in the corner, the Rangers are badly massacred. Only the two heroes we previously created remain. They manage despite everything to eliminate the enemies – “Dorseys”, we will come back to this – and to join their future base.

Logically, the first part of the adventure is devoted to establishing said base. It is necessary to put it back on its feet and, since almost all of the Rangers squad has been eliminated, to recruit people to occupy it. These first missions are an opportunity to discover the places, to understand what are the threats faced by the Patriarch and the city of Colorado Springs, a sort of capital adjacent to the Rangers' base. Army of Monsters, Gippers, refugees from the Wasteland… the factions are numerous. Some are hostile to the Patriarch, wishing for his elimination while others simply go about their business.

At first, the player knows only a few factions and is offered missions to improve the reputation of the Rangers with each other. This is where you often have to choose: some missions involve taking sides, but the player always has the last word. In reality, in the role of the Rangers, we decide the future of Colorado and, of course, all these decisions taken have more or less long-term consequences: do you have affinities with the Robot Community? So you'll probably have to put the majority of Gippers to the sword and too bad if that makes you lose some advantages in passing.

Along the same lines, slaughtering the Dorsey Raiders is a good thing to raise the esteem of the Colorado Springs Sheriff Daisy Marshalls, but allowing the refugees to settle in the town is not well seen. This choice system is nothing new and Wasteland 2 already offered something similar, but its sequel is more accomplished, better built. In this lackluster world, there are characters that we identify as "good" or "bad", but it's not the majority and in most cases, it's all a matter of point of view. By avoiding a ridiculous Manichaeism, inXile allows itself above all situations that are often very well found.

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An optional aiming system, but adapted to tactical combat © Nerces for Clubic

Dolls that touch your heart

Without revealing too much, one of the examples that we cannot help mentioning is this cult dedicated to the “divinity” Reagan. Yes, named after the 40th President of the United States. It is one of the funniest situations in all of Wasteland 3, but the game offers plenty of references or jokes on the same level: Patouf dolls, a big bad guy called Faran Brygo whose anagram we'll leave to you to decipher simple to decipher, but we have already said too much. Just know that Wasteland 3 features interesting writing in more ways than one. We talked about humor, references or the absence of Manichaeism, that's not all.

We still have to mention the endearing progression of the scenario and its multiple branches or the secondary missions which are not limited to simple postman quests as is too often the case. Of course, not all the little stories are exciting and some are less successful than others, but overall we don't spend our time skipping the dialogue, proof that the writing is effective. Note also that the dubbing (of good quality) is in English, but that all the writings are in Spanish. There are still some typos, mistakes and missing words, but overall it's a good translation.

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In absolute terms, the angle is interesting but beware of friendly fire © Nerces for Clubic

Of course, Wasteland 3 wouldn't be a worthy successor to the franchise without its share of more or less violent fights and altercations. Yes, it is still possible to avoid certain confrontations – even against “bosses” – by having the right skills (“asslicker” can be of great service) and by making the right dialogue choices. The fact remains that the fight is widely represented and that it takes up the classic turn-based tactical of Wasteland 2, but also of XCOM 2 to cite one of the references in this area. Depending on our initiative and how we approach the fight, it's up to our squad to play or to the enemies.

At this level, Wasteland 3 is perhaps a little disappointing, insofar as there is absolutely no find. We have a few action points for each character and we must spend them as best we can to move, use skills, manipulate a few objects or fire with weapons in hand. Fortunately, the variety of profiles of our characters and enemies makes it possible to approach things in a very different way. Use of long-range shots, cover, charge, hacking robots / turrets, various grenades… Note also the presence of a very targeted attack system like Fallout's VATS.

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Worship to God Reagan! © Nerces for Clubic

Miss Daisy and her Patriarch

The idea is for example to destroy the carrying arm of a weapon of such a machine or to target an unprotected area of an enemy in armor. The system is quite simple, but works quite well. More generally, we actually have only one criticism to make of the fights in Wasteland 3: the lack of readability of the maps when there are several levels. The verticality is obviously interesting, but the camera can quickly get lost and the angles are not always well chosen. Unsurprisingly, the level of difficulty of the game mainly affects the complexity of the clashes and it will for example be possible to deactivate friendly fire for more peace of mind.

Since we are talking about friendly fire, it is good to note that the artificial intelligence does not seem to care too much about it, regularly injuring its own forces. In the same vein, some enemies happily cross the effects of areas (fire ...) while they do not have adequate protection. But, after all, they were low-ceilinged looters! Interesting and varied, the fights can be a bit numerous during the phases of exploration of the map aboard the Kodia, the machine used to rally the areas of Colorado. There, inXile could perhaps have insisted on the importance of the "survival" skill to avoid somewhat tedious encounters.

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A little boorish, the quest log does the job © Nerces for Clubic

A little more annoying, Wasteland 3 suffers from a few annoying bugs such as these slowdowns in certain areas – which disappear on reloading – or these “enemy turns” in the middle of combat which do not trigger until you press on a key on the keyboard. The developers could also have found a way to speed up certain movements in order to avoid loading – far too long – of areas that we only cross. However, we are looking for the little beast here, the one that makes it possible to distinguish the very good games like this Wasteland 3, from the most memorable titles. Hopefully a patch will fix this.

A patch that could also integrate an ironman mode to make the death of our characters irremediable. Such an option exists in some other games, but given the length and richness of Wasteland 3, it will appeal to the craziest of gamers. Each area of Colorado is an opportunity for multiple side quests and even without focusing too much on these secondary objectives, it takes several dozen hours of play to overcome the main scenario. In total, we can estimate the lifespan at more or less 50 hours, knowing that it obviously depends on the difficulty chosen. Finally, note that it is still possible to play cooperatively: then we better understand the reason for the creation of two main characters at the beginning of the adventure.

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Wasteland 3 : l'avis de Clubic

By taking inventory of what Wasteland 3 offers, we can be a tad disappointed. inXile Entertainment seems to have taken Wasteland 2's specifications to the letter. In reality, if the outline of this sequel is identical to that of its predecessor, the studio has considerably lengthened the sauce. Wasteland 3 is larger, richer, more complete, better written, funnier, smarter... Do I need to add more?

Technically speaking, we should have no illusions, we are still far from Divinity Original Sin 2 for example. The fact remains that in this area also the progress is real and while Wasteland 2 was quite archaic, Wasteland 3 is more modern with a cleaner and more ergonomic user interface, even if the inventory can be improved.

If it innovates on very few points, Wasteland 3 is in a way the quintessence of the old school RPG that all fans of the series have been waiting for. A real success even if it does not flatter the retina.

Test carried out using code provided by the publisher.

Wasteland 3

If it does not ultimately bring much new to the genre, Wasteland 3 is a solid CRPG. Its old school side will delight old-timers while newcomers will discover a well-written title, with solid humor and multiple references. Intelligent and varied, the fights are not outdone while we have plenty to have fun with the choices of evolution of our characters. Classic that has it all.