
“When paired with Wasteland 3's humor and personality, the changes help keep the combat interesting, and that's a good thing because there's a lot of game here. When I needed an extra health boost in combat, the new shared inventory made it easier to find one. It's also relatively easy to revive downed team members, so total wipeouts weren't as common as I expected them to be when I was first learning the ropes of combat. Cool weapons spice it up, too, such as the Frozen Ferret Launcher (which is exactly what it sounds like). It rewards careful thinking, though, such as making you find terminals that shut down deadly weapons or remember to bring along a few deployable turrets of your own for extra protection.

Wasteland 3 is as tough as its Rangers, and it's overly fond of tossing you into overwhelming situations with little easy access to cover. It's especially satisfying to unleash precision attack abilities by building the strike meter after a few rounds of normal attacks, as these can turn the tide in seemingly hopeless battles.And there are many such battles. There's also a greater emphasis on environmental interaction this time around, ranging from simply blowing up explosive barrels to firing the big gun mounted on top of the Kodiak.
WASTELAND 3 FREE
This can be brutally punishing if you didn't get your squad members set behind cover before the fight begins and the entire enemy team gets a free shot, but it also means you can use your heavy hitters when you absolutely need them most. Within a team, though, you're free to choose which order your characters fire in, even to the point of hopping back to a specific character after you've spent all the action points for another. For one thing, the key change is that enemies and friendlies take turns as an entire team. A few changes, though, make it a heck of a lot more satisfying this time around. “Superficially, Wasteland 3's turn-based combat looks a lot like Wasteland 2's (or XCOM's, for that matter), and its emphasis on action points and flanking doesn't differ much from familiar tactical RPGs. (And even if it didn't, the ridiculously long load times even on my SSD made me think thrice before going back to a previous save.) It makes "gaming" the various factions essentially impossible. Some don't even become apparent until the later hours and Wasteland 3's wide assortment of endings. Adding a kicker to that, I like that I rarely saw the effects of my choices quickly, and usually not until I was well past whatever pivotal save file I'd made for backtracking. They're written well enough that they left me puzzling over which degree and brand of assholery I could live with, and it's remarkably hard to avoid being corrupted by the sketchy business unfolding around you. These often aren't easy choices, either, as everyone you meet in Colorado is kind of an asshole. The power armor gave a nice reputation boost, but not without making me regret my decision a bit by hearing one of the Marshals say “these refugees aren't going to punch themselves.” I chose the power armor, but I ended up wandering through the gutted remains of the family's home for a reminder that decisions have consequences.

“Later, Wasteland 3 forced me to decide between saving a family being attacked and saving a convoy of lawkeepers transporting some power armor for the Marshals faction. You play as the only two characters who survive, and you need to fulfill your mission with a severe disadvantage. The Rangers head to Colorado after a leader there offers Arizona vital aid in exchange for some help on his own turf, but the mission goes south when almost the entire Ranger company gets wiped out in an ambush. Here you play as a duo from Arizona's Desert Rangers, an Old-West-meets-sci-fi lawkeeping outfit whose base was destroyed at the end of Wasteland 2. It's a distinctively bold setting for this lengthy and often challenging isometric RPG, and it improves on Wasteland 2 in almost every way.If you prefer your post-apocalyptic landscapes filled with snow rather than sand, no worries: You don't need to play the hot and dusty Wasteland 2 to understand what's going on now. A cult that worships Ronald Reagan controls Colorado's oil supply. Radiation oozes through mountain valleys. It certainly looks like it in Wasteland 3: Colorado Springs was spared the nuclear holocaust at the heart of Wasteland lore, but an unrelenting nuclear winter holds the entire Centennial State in its grip.

It's the early years of the 22nd century, and Hell has frozen over - at least, that is, if Colorado happens to be your idea of Hell.
