Before Wasteland 3 begins, the developers at inXile Entertainment present the player with a message. “Wasteland 3 is a work of fiction,” we’re told. “Ideas, dialogue, and stories we created early in development have in some cases been mirrored by our current reality. Our goal is to present a game of fictional entertainment, and any correlation to real-world events is purely coincidental.”
Wasteland 3 reviewDeveloper: inXile EntertainmentPublisher: Deep SilverPlatform: Reviewed on PCAvailability: Out August 28th on PC, Xbox One and PS4
It reads like a warning. What you’re about to see, inXile is saying, may seem like the dreaded “politics in our video games” thing, but it’s not, because we came up with this nightmarish vision of America before America became the nightmarish vision it is today.
As I ploughed my way through post-apocalyptic Colorado – and ploughed really is the word, given you spend a lot of time driving a hulk of a car through the snow to get from settlement to settlement – inXile’s statement became more and more irrelevant. It is impossible to disassociate Wasteland 3 from the context of the now. At times, the allegory is almost too on the nose. And rather than find inXile’s message annoying in that context, I spent my 55 hours and counting with Wasteland 3 revelling in its politics. I chose to read this hilarious and depressing, disgusting and dastardly old-school role-playing game exactly how it should be: as a devilish satire of modern America. And I have come to fuck it up.
In fact, you begin the game getting fucked up. Your Ranger convoy is ambushed on its way to Colorado Springs, and only you and one other Ranger you’ve either created or selected from a handful of pre-built options survive. Colorado is a cold, harsh place, battered and bruised from the nuclear winter. The snow keeps on falling and the people keep on freezing. But you’re a Ranger. You’re from the desert, and you’re determined.
Wasteland 3 – Patriarch of Colorado Gamescom Gameplay Trailer Watch on YouTube
It’s not long before you’re in front of the Patriarch, a man who rules Colorado with a toxic mixture of propaganda and violence. You have come to ask for help. The Rangers back home are in dire straits and they have sent you to work for the Patriarch in exchange for the resources they need to survive. This work turns out to be solving the Patriarch’s family squabble. His kids are playing up, and he needs someone to bring them in.