Wasteland 3

 Xbox One
Metascore
84

Generally favorable reviews - based on 18 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 18
  3. Negative: 0 out of 18
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  1. GameMAG
    Sep 15, 2020
    70
    Wasteland 3 is in no way a bad or a mediocre game. You can clearly see the passion that went into it's development. You will spend hours upon hours with dozens of well thought out non-linear quests, while interacting with easy to use and well made role-playing systems, all of which gives you true old-school gaming experience. But at the same time Wasteland 3 just can't offer anything we haven't seen before, and myriad of countless technical hiccups is definitely not something we expected to see.

Awards & Rankings

12
#12 Best Xbox One Game of 2020
17
#17 Most Discussed Xbox One Game of 2020

User Reviews

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User Score
7.6

Generally favorable reviews- based on 152 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 107 out of 152
  2. Mixed: 19 out of 152
  3. Negative: 26 out of 152
  1. Xbox_Alive
    Sep 14, 2020
    9
    Wasteland 3 is an isometric post-apocalyptic RPG drops players right in the middle of a gunfight against a number of marauders. Before you canWasteland 3 is an isometric post-apocalyptic RPG drops players right in the middle of a gunfight against a number of marauders. Before you can get back to the thick of it though, you’re tasked with creating a characters or simply choose one of the pre-made character duos to take on your way. In the early stages of Wasteland 3, the narrative and gameplay primarily focus the player’s efforts on building the Ranger Base. This is your main hub in the world and it’s your job to build it up by employing and acquiring the help of strangers throughout the wasteland. Sometimes it’s quite obvious that someone will join you, but I’ve also found that you can be rewarded for going out of your way to help someone. It’s an engaging plot device that weaves both gameplay and narrative together in a way that rewards your engagement. The character customization is deep in Wasteland 3, with each playable character having the ability to specialize across a number of different play styles. Who come with a mix of close quarters melee and ranged attacks. That’s just one character type though and there are plenty of ways to build a team to fit your play style. With my finalized characters I was introduced to the heart of Wasteland 3’s gameplay- the combat of course. If you’ve ever played the previous entries in the series, you’ll know mostly what to expect. For the uninitiated Wasteland 3 plays similarly to the amazing XCOM series. Fights take place across a gridded map, with movement, actions and attacks using the limited amount of AP each character has. Each fight is a balance between aggression, defense and balancing those ability points so you don’t end up leaving a character in a compromised position. Truthfully, it’s a whole lot of fun. It’s not quite as hard as something like XCOM, but I like it a lot for that reason. I found that Wasteland 3 only typically punished me when I made silly mistakes, like running into a battle without considering positioning or standing a little too close to the explosive barrels that litter battlefields. With some clever thinking and a little foresight, you can really give yourself a tactical advantage on the battlefield. At one point I found myself defending a family from a murderous gang (who I’d angered by killing the leader’s brother). By making the decision to gain higher ground with my sniper, I was able to effectively take their gang down with relative ease. It’s in these moments that Wasteland 3 truly shines, providing some of the best turn-based combat I’ve seen so far this year. The stellar combat is only narrowly outshone by the game’s brilliant narrative system. Wasteland 3 uses your decisions to shape the wasteland around you, and this pays off in ways that are both big and small.. There are around ten different endings that you can reach, with some decisions having massive effects on certain portions of the game. Even after half a dozen hours you can already start to see the results of some of your decisions playing out, and you continue to see that impact throughout the game. Dialogue and narrative have always been a core focus of the Wasteland series, but the introduction of voiced dialogue in Wasteland 3 is by far one of the best improvements the game could make. Voiced dialogue adds a new layer of believability, which in turn further immerses you in the world that inXile have created. The solid voice performance mixed with some great writing has made me laugh out loud on more than a few occasions through the game. Moral choices are fairly common in gaming now, but Wasteland 3 distinguishes itself in how it uses them to great effect. It generally presents you with situations and choices that fall within a morally grey area. There are certainly times when it’s obvious who the evil character is, but there are also moments in which you can empathise with all parties involved, ultimately making the decisions so much more difficult. There’s a particularly tough one early on that resulted in me killing an entire group of people due to the actions of their leader, while a later decisions had me choosing between the lives of innocents and my mission to protect a special set of armour to curry favour with the local ruler. Not the greatest moral quandary, but a touch decision nonetheless. I really enjoy the little touches in Wasteland 3. Whether it’s a certain dialogue tree, a random encounter or one of the many side-quests, everything feels completely fleshed out. There’s so much to do and see, and the fact that your presence shapes as much as it does sets a new bar for RPG titles of this nature. Wasteland 3 also features co-op gameplay, to take on the story together, or branch off and forge your own paths through the world. However you play Wastelands 3 is a must have Xbox title.… Full Review »
  2. tukistaja
    Aug 30, 2020
    4
    Good game but released in an unfinished state. Constant crashing. Do not buy before bugs and Hard crashing is fixed if you do not want to pullGood game but released in an unfinished state. Constant crashing. Do not buy before bugs and Hard crashing is fixed if you do not want to pull your hair out every 30 minutes. Cannot give higher score to an unworking product unfortunately.… Full Review »
  3. TessJ96815
    Aug 30, 2020
    4
    The actual game is great, but people might want to wait (this is for the Xbox version, not sure how PC/PS4 impacted) to play this as the gameThe actual game is great, but people might want to wait (this is for the Xbox version, not sure how PC/PS4 impacted) to play this as the game is often unplayable due to numerous and unpredictable crashes. You can put Autosave for every five minutes to remedy this situation a little, but it's still unacceptable that a developer would release a game without play testing enough to clearly see this would be an issue. It's clear they lazily - or perhaps did no real testing - tested Xbox plays to have this level of instability with a release or simply didn't care and wanted it out by the release date even if broken. It's not Fallout 76 bad because the issues aren't as severe, and the game is pretty good in my play so far, but this is very unacceptable having these issues.… Full Review »
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