Wasteland 3 finally has a solid release date to circle on our calendars. The game is slated to come to PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 on the 19th of May, 2020. Teaser trailers at both E3 2019 and XO19 hinted at what to expect. Wasteland 3 is uprooting our rangers out of the dry deserts of the first two games and placing them in the snowy wonderland of Colorado. Later a new story driven co-op mode was announced in the XO19 trailer.
Both trailers are wholly cinematic, not showing off any gameplay. The trailers do build the up the new atmosphere of the desolate, snowy wasteland marred with buildings reduced to rubble. It is unlikely that Wasteland 3’s gameplay will widely diverge from its predecessors as the current formula gels the deep RPG and party system of KoToR and Dragon Age with the turned based combat of Xcom almost seamlessly.
Wasteland 3’s narrative will be set directly after the events of Wasteland 2, with the rangers left with out a base of operations. The rangers received a call from the Patriarch of Colorado Springs asking for help in exchange for the ability to rebuild. The player squad is dispatched the assist. As with all things, the plan did not go as expected, and the player is thrown into a war between the factions vying for control of the region. The story revolves around the players choices with a reputation metric that can ascend or fall with each faction and of course, you get to side with you favourite faction and see them through to the end.
Wasteland 3 is developed by inXile Entertainment, who was purchased by Microsoft mid-development. Despite the purchase, Wasteland 3 will still be coming out to Steam and PlayStation 4, and the Steam backers will still be able to reap their perks. Being a Microsoft game, Wasteland 3 will be available to all Game pass subscribers.
Wasteland 3 is currently available for preorder on the Microsoft store, PlayStation store, Good Old Games, and Steam. It is not yet available on the Epic Game store nor with information about plans to add the game.