Wasteland 3 Beta -- Hot thoughts

Downloaded and been playing the W3 beta for about two hours. Here's some random thoughts --

- Mentions W2's story but does not seek to continue it. Instead, it focuses on rebulding Arizona following the destruction of Cochise and establishing a supply line through AZ from Colorado. It does continue some elements from W2 that were cliffhangers, like Angela Deth's fate,
- Character building, skills and all are pretty much like W2. I made a Sniper and an Assault Rifleer and it's been going very, very well indeed. You can create up to four rangers and have two companion followers.
- Starts faster than W2. You are dropped right in the middle of action for the tutorial part and learn on the fly if you've never played W1 or W2.
- Camera system is similar. I do not mind it but can be an annoyance to some.
- Game looks gorgeous and runs silky smooth. Playing on a GTX1050 and an octo-core Core i5-9300H

In short -- so far, a worthy successor to W2. Anyone who enjoyed W2 should wishlist it.

Thanks, I have it wishlisted already. I'm not a fan of the military theme but my real concern is how unbalanced the stat system was in Wasteland 2.

It is annoying when you have useless stats in a game and there is a balance to be found between having dump stats and making them all even.

I'm not saying that's easy (even Fallout 1 didn't do this right) but that's one thing that Wasteland 2 did wrong IMO.

How is the combat? Do we get more options this time around?

Combat seems so far pretty similar but through the prologue there were some environmental objects I got to use to my advantage lik barrels of oil to explode who do a burn effect. There is also the addition of special "Precision shots" unlocked after a number of successfull hits. It's like a targeted strike where you get to pick a body part with various effects on combat.

As far as stats go remember this will change as this is a beta but they do seem to make a difference this time. One of my guys is a melee guy with 7 strength and he hits like a brick wall on top of having pretty good endurance.

This sounds really good to me. Thanks for the detailed information.

I hope fighting styles will be more balanced and viable throughout the game.

I forgot to mention the perk tree, Carabas. I didn't yet get points.

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Interesting. Thanks for the screens. It's hard to tell if there are more options but it looks a lot more streamlined than the list of perks in Wasteland 2.

It is, in a good way. InXile took the feedback of 2 to heart and they are still listening for W3. The loading screen clearly says to expect bugs and head to the forums to give feedback about the game. It was streamlined but not dumbed down. I got three snipers on this party with automatic rifles, shotguns and melee for backup and it's a pretty effective combo.

I am going to try sinking in a few more hours to progress in the story and see what happens.

Cool. Streamlined but not dumbed down is the way to go.

So apparently W3 is pushed back until August because of the virus crisis. I hope you're not too gutted BZ.

Blood Red Eagle wrote:

It was streamlined but not dumbed down.

That's a pretty accurate statement. I like that 3 doesn't come with useless stats like 2.

What I do find odd though is that premade characters get some stuff you don't have access to.

For instance Yuri gets a flat +5% to ranged damage which is not too shabby considering custom characters can get more but limited to certain foes. Plus he also gets a trinket that adds another 10% which is really good and can't be obtained any other way

There is also a guy that can be recruited at the HQ who comes with a special background "Academic" (+10% to experience gained) which is twice as good as "Bookworm" and can't be picked by custom characters. Plus that professor is armed with a laser pistol.

Considering that we can now respec attributes, skills and perks I'm going to make that premade character my skill guy/leader and turn Yuri into a sniper specialist (15% bonus to ranged damage without any drawback).

The only things that can't be modified are backgrounds, quirks (or lack thereof), names and soundsets.

My main team was two snipers, one with shotguns as backup and the other with assault rifles. Sniping And being preemptive can really tip the scales in your favour if you play smart.

How do you like it so far? Not crazy on the story, but I like the different setting.

Some of the over the top characters felt like they escaped from Borderlands but strangely enough I'm getting more of a Fallout vibe with this one than I did with 2.

I didn't progress much and I started over maybe 4 times already. Plus I realised that I missed a bunch of things by leaving the HQ area too soon but I'll leave that for my second run.

It's a bit nuts that the best stuff is locked away for some premade character. I mean getting a 10% bump on XP on your skill guy is a lot more than the regular 5% (not getting a quirk is not such a big deal IMO).

EDIT: just FYI there is a discount for the Expansion Pass on the Humble Store. Might be worth picking up if you ever consider revisiting the game.

I'll take a look. I played it on Fedora at work a few weeks ago and I enjoy it. No regrets backing it

Edit: Pulled the plug. 12$ for 2 DLC isn't bad plus I am not in a rush

I know the reviews for the DLC are somewhat mixed but getting more out of the game does sound good to me.

2 never really clicked for me but I'm getting some really cool Fallout vibes from 3 and I wished I had picked it up earlier.

I'm really happy about the gameplay changes by the way. 2 had too much fat and useless stuff that needed to be trimmed (like two different skills for healing and lockpicking).

Sure, we could make a case that Coordination is the most important attribute but no attribute is totally useless (hell this time around Charisma is really powerful).