Wasteland 3 has only been up on crowdfunding site Fig for a few days now, but it’s already smashed its $2.75 million goal, with just under 25 days left to go at the time of writing. Of course though there are stretch goals in places, ones that will take Wasteland 3 from the best Wasteland game the developers have ever made, to one that’s even better than that.
The Wasteland series is one of the longest running in gaming history, despite this only being the third game in the set. The original was released way back in 1988 and helped pioneer the now-much-more-commonplace post-apocalyptic world scenario in gaming. It was perhaps the biggest influence on the Fallout franchise, which has of course done incredibly well over the past two decades.
When Wasteland 2 was released following a successful Kickstarter in 2014, it too was well received, so here we are two years later with another sequel in a post-apocalyptic world. Clearly people want it too, because they’ve handed over close to $3 million in just a few days.
Much like previous Wasteland games, Wasteland 3 will be a party-based role-playing experiences, with a real emphasis on deep narrative and strategic combat. As it stands the game is very early in development — currently entering the preproduction phase — and isn’t likely to be ready before the end of 2019, so fans have quite a wait.
Additional features that no doubt helped fans put down their money so early in the game’s life cycle include synchronous or asynchronous multiplayer, a ranger base that must be managed along with your characters, a new dialogue system to make for more nuanced and exciting conversations, and the introduction of vehicles.
Speaking of which, you get an AI-controlled car companion in the game.
The campaign is still live of course, so while you might have missed the $25 early bird copies, of which 3,000 were claimed in short order, you can still order the game for $33, net yourself a few digital extras for a few dollars more, pay around the $1,000 mark to design items or characters for the game, and even pledge as much as $5,000 to design a unique encounter.
Some of the options are limited, so if you’re a Wasteland fan, better to stop by sooner rather than later.
