Wasteland 3 is the next installment in the post-apocalyptic role-playing franchise set in frozen Colorado, adding vehicles, online co-op, and a revamped action/dialogue system.

You start the game as the sole survivor of Team November, a Ranger squad dispatched to the icy Colorado wastes. This is a land of buried secrets, lost technology, fearsome lunatics, and deadly factions. No one here has ever heard of the Desert Rangers. Your reputation is yours to build from scratch, and your choices may save this land or doom it. With a renewed focus on macro-reactivity, you’ll be picking between warring factions, deciding whether locations are destroyed or saved, and other far reaching decisions that have a marked impact on the shape of your world.

For the first time in the history of the Wasteland franchise, you will be able to take a friend with you on your journey into the post-apocalyptic wastes! Wasteland 3 opens up the possibility to play through the campaign with a friend; both of you controlling your own squad of Rangers.

The core of Wasteland 3 will still be a rich single-player experience. If you play with a friend while both online together, you’ll be able to share many missions, and join up to hit key story beats, but you can also split up and cover more ground. Once a game is started, you can play Wasteland 3 while your friend is offline, and do a lot of missions without them. Be aware, however, that the actions you take while your friend is off-line are not without consequence!

By making the decision to include multiplayer early on in the process, InXile will be able to design a game that is true to the core principles of the Wasteland franchise and our studio. Wasteland 3 can be played as an offline, single-player game, and is built from the ground up with a focus on story and reactivity that makes no sacrifices to the multiplayer experience. At the same time, co-op players will enjoy working together to change Wasteland 3’s highly reactive world… or finding ways to destroy what their friend has worked to accomplish.

Next week the Fig crowdfunding campaign comes to an end. It’s been a great ride and I’ve been thrilled to see you guys knocking down stretch goals and social media missions alike. It’s a really wild time for inXile, with two studios running multiple projects. It is such a huge help to know we have your continued support, and that you believe in the games we want to make. Together, we’ll keep making these RPGs for many years to come!

When we make games based on real-world places, we like to visit them to get a feel for them, scope out their landmarks, and generally take them in so we can create a more authentic experience in the game. And Wasteland 3 won't be any exception - we're going to be sending team members out to Colorado in the near future to research the game.

However, while we are out there, we'll also be on a bit of a secret mission. We'll be burying a retro-80s time capsule for someone to find. It will be hidden underground, and filled with all sorts of nostalgic goodies. Where will it be? We're not telling you…at least not quite so directly.

Instead, what we will be doing is putting a mirror version of it directly into Wasteland 3. Find it in the game, and you'll also find a set of directions telling you where the time capsule is buried in real life.

Upon the game's release, the first person to find the time capsule in real life and prove it to us, will win a Wasteland Franchise Pack, including a signed Wasteland 1 Art Print, Signed Wasteland 2 Collector’s Edition and Signed Wasteland 3 Collector’s Edition!

Do you have some ideas on what this time capsule should contain? Post it here in the comments, or on our Facebook or forums. We can't wait to hear all your cool and crazy ideas.

Brian Fargo

Leader in Exile

Strategic turn-based combat is core to the Wasteland experience, as such Wasteland 2’s rangers could use cover, flank their enemies, and attack from rooftops with deadly precision and horrific status effects. Wasteland 3 will build and polish this existing system while adding a new feature: team-focused abilities. Your rangers will have an arsenal of combat skills with special tactical effects, usually focused around weakening the enemy while protecting their squads.

Another big change this time around will be the addition of vehicles. Your ranger will use your upgradeable vehicle for travel, storing essential goods, exploration, and survival. Gear up your vehicle well enough, and you’ll be able to use it for moveable cover in combat, or – if you’ve installed a turret – deal with fools crazy enough to tangle with the Desert Rangers.

Finally, the Ranger base is a key location in all the Wasteland games, and Wasteland 3 will be no different. This time the experience will be much more involved, as you are setting up and reinforcing a brand new Ranger base to survive and even thrive in the hostile snowscapes of Colorado. Rather than the base being primarily a place to pick up new missions and replacement squad mates, we’re expanding it so that it is a full base of operations, allowing you to gather materials, do research, reach out to factions over the radio, try to set up supply lines and trade routes, and more!

As part of the improved presentation, the way dialog is built and presented is being updating. Wasteland 3 will feature a complex dialogue based on the ideology behind Torment: Tides of Numenera’s branching system. Players will choose lines of dialogue that lead them through branching conversations. Choosing certain skills for your character may spell the different between success or catastrophe. And last but not least, in key conversations the camera will pan in to show a closer shot of person you’re talking to.

Concept artist Andrée Wallin, known for Wasteland 2 and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, will once again help the developers establish the look of this game, providing key art pieces that will be used for inspiration and reference throughout the game’s development.

Additionally, InXile have been working closely with Christopher and Nic Bischoff of Brotherhood Games, the team behind the STASIS and Cayne isometric adventure games.

Key Features:

• MULTI-PLAYER: Playable in single- and multiplayer experiences.
• COMBAT: Deep turn-based combat, evolving on Wasteland 2's strategic options and unique encounter design
• By including vehicles, environmental dangers, and a revamped, more fluid action system, Wasteland 3 evolves from Wasteland 2’s deep tactical turn-based combat and unique encounter design.
• GAMEPLAY: For the first time, players can play by themselves or with friends in a story-driven synchronous or asynchronous multiplayer experience. Choices open up mission opportunities, areas to explore, story arcs, and tons of other content.  
• RANGER BASE: Your Ranger Base is a core part of the experience. As you help the local people and establish a reputation in Colorado, quests and narrative will force you to make decisions on how to lead.
• ENVIRONMENT: The game will be set in the savage lands of frozen Colorado, where survival is difficult and a happy outcome is never guaranteed. Players will face difficult moral choices and make sacrifices that will change the game world.
• STORYLINE: Wasteland 3 will feature a deep and engaging story utilizing a newly-revamped dialog tree system from the celebrated writers of Torment: Tides of Numenera.