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[Wasteland 2] 14 major areas to explore. One to press your balls against.

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  • MegaMan001MegaMan001 CRNA Rochester, MNRegistered User regular
    Are you kidding me? I thought it was an entire different installation or something. Okay I don't think I need the digital novellas unless anyone here wants to vouch for them?

    I am in the business of saving lives.
  • WotanAnubisWotanAnubis Registered User regular
    According to my Steam list, there is indeed a separate installation for Wasteland 1. I haven't tried it (or even installed it), though, so I can't say anything about how it runs.

  • AstharielAsthariel The Book Eater Registered User regular
    I want to to second playthrough of Wasteland 3 eventually, but I will probably wait until second DLC is also released.

  • StollsStolls Brave Corporate Logo Chicago, ILRegistered User regular
    Got a chance recently to playthrough the Battle of Steeltown, which clocked in at about six hours over two nights of streaming. As mentioned earlier, it fits the typical New Fallout mold of being sandwiched in the existing game rather than doing anything postgame. Still, there's quite a bit to talk about, and while some of its execution is a bit wonky, overall I quite liked what it had to offer. Some light spoilers under the cut:
    Steeltown functions like another mission area and is probably best tackled after Denver, or at least the Bizarre; later skillchecks hit 8 or even 9 a couple times. As the Patriarch's main industrial hub, the town pumps out all manner of amenities and weaponry, from vehicles and ammunition to gas heaters and cleaning supplies. Lately, however, shipments have been showing up damaged, mislabeled, or outright useless. When you arrive, you quickly find out why: a combination of systemic malfunctions and a labor dispute-turned-firefight have all but paralyzed the facility, and it falls to your team to sort out the mess.

    Like with Denver, there's more going on than meets the eye, but the initial conflict requires you to separate hostile factions while limiting casualties as best you can. The game introduces non-lethal weapons that induce stacking effects, and a full stack will incapacitate anyone equipped with special cybernetics (meaning current, or former, employees of Steeltown). Even if you're wholly sympathetic to the workers (and it is very obvious they are being abused) some will still shoot first and ask questions later, not unreasonably seeing you as just another heavy-handed authority.

    The system works decently, with NLWs for all weapon categories, but it alters the pacing of fights and requires some tactical adjustments. Disabling status effects become more useful than direct damage, and pets or AI companions, which deal lethal damage, can become liabilities; the game explicitly recommends parking your pets at the patch-released kennel back home, though that's not an option for followers like the Provost or your clone. Certain enemies have elemental shielding tools, requiring hits from fire, ice, or energy weapons to erase the shield, yet the NLWs aren't elementally coded. You can stun them through such protection, but it takes a lot longer, and fights can run long as you try to pin down individual targets.

    I found a fair few other nitpicks here and there, from sidequests with insufficient signposting to fights that can be difficult to prepare for. One particular boss fight dragged out for a while, thanks partly to poor equipment choices on my part, and partly because the boss has both high HP and a lot of self-healing items. There also continues to be jank with the sound mixing; one cutscene parked the camera right over a loud bit of machinery during a tense confrontation, and deploying a lot of stun traps at once can quickly clog the field with electrical noise.

    Still, it's mostly well written and presented, with some memorable characters, sharp dialogue, and nuanced dilemmas. Diligent players can peel back the curtain earlier, uncovering hints that someone, or something, has engineered the strike intentionally. Corporate satire abounds, but the DLC also doesn't belabor the point in a way that, say, Outer Worlds tended to. Though it invokes an old enemy, its conflicts are forward-thinking, asking what kind of society we should strive for versus what is necessary to survive. And yet, unambiguous good endings are still possible, on both sides of a binary choice towards the end - you just need to be ready to work for them.

    Many situations can be defused with a speech build, to the point where there's an achievement for going through without killing a single person. A couple quests offer interesting callbacks to the base game, such as how you dealt with La Perla and the old prisoner at HQ. You have more reputation opportunities with existing factions, including a solid boost for the Marshals (making it easier to get the well-hidden November Reigns ending). There's also good use of fight music, with a fitting cover of "Power in the Union" for a climactic moment. And of course there's plenty of sillier moments to go around, from talking appliances (one of whom you can recruit for HQ) to probably the first, extremely Canadian robot in fiction.

    Overall, $14 USD seems a fair price point for what they add here, but YMMV on whether that's worth a replay. Me, I had to see how both ends of the aforementioned plot branch turned out, and I'm still working towards the ending so I'm curious what each side's ending slides turn out to be. It's ultimately more Wasteland 3, and its changes are more additive than anything, but what it adds is good, and the overall campaign is better for having it.

    TL;DR: Those less inclined to overlook the game's shortcomings, or looking for something to do post-credits, probably won't be swayed by Steeltown. Nonetheless, it's a solid and surprisingly dense bit of content that integrates neatly with the existing game. If you're inclined to give Wasteland 3 a replay then it becomes a lot easier to recommend, and it's nice to see extensive post-release support for something outside the AAA sphere. :+1:

    kstolls on Twitch, streaming weekends at 9pm CST!
    Now playing: Teardown and Baldur's Gate 3 (co-op)
    Sunday Spotlight: Horror Tales: The Wine
  • McHogerMcHoger Registered User regular
    Some thoughts on a second playthrough I did with both the DLCs.

    They've added a character respect that also works for companions, so they're a lot more viable to run with.

    There's also a new crafting system that works okay for being added post-release. You can most craft ammo and consumables. There's a whole section of gag items you can make with the weirder junk. You can also upgrade weapons/armor mods but it doesn't really make them any more useful.

    I used melee for the first time. It had an odd progression where it was pretty weak early game and pretty strong mid game. Late game it struggled because my ranged users could wipe out the enemies faster than the melee could get in to fight.

    "Welcome to Steeltown" was pretty cathartic due to what's going on in my real life.

    "Cult of the Holy Detonation" was a bit more interesting mechanically. There are a few set-piece fights where enemies every round while you perform an alternate task. It sounds annoying on paper but actual worked pretty well in practice. This is mostly due to how powerful you can be late game. I don't think it would have worked as well earlier in the game.

    I still had some minor bugs, mostly sound and camera problems, but nothing game breaking.

    All in all, I still really like this game and I'd recommend the DLCs for anyone who liked the existing game.




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