Wasteland 3 is happening, crowdfunding campaign set to begin next week

Wasteland 2 was a big success for inXile Entertainment. Fans of isometric, party-based post-apocalyptica threw nearly $3 million at it on Kickstarter, and were rewarded with an old-timey RPG that, while not perfect, left most of them pretty happy with the results. Today the studio announced that a follow-up, Wasteland 3, is in the works, and that a new crowdfunding campaign, this one on Fig (inXile boss Brian Fargo is on the Fig advisory board), will kick off on October 5.

Wasteland 3 will be set in the “savage lands of frozen Colorado,” and will once again confront players with difficult moral choices and sacrifices. It will expand upon its predecessor with vehicles, environmental dangers, a “revamped, more fluid action system,” and an upgradeable Ranger Base. It will also feature a new dialog tree system created by the writers of inXile's fantasy RPG Torment: Tides of Numenera.

“You start the game as the sole survivor of Team November, a Ranger squad dispatched to the icy Colorado wastes,” inXile said. “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.”

Probably the biggest change to Wasteland 3 in terms of gameplay is the addition of multiplayer support. InXile said “the core of Wasteland 3 will still be a rich single-player experience,” but players will also have the option of teaming up with a friend, each of them controlling their own squad of Rangers. Missions can be shared, or you can split up to cover more ground more quickly, and you'll also have the option to play solo when your friend is offline—which may not necessarily be good for all involved.

“By making the decision to include multiplayer early on in the process, we 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,” inXile said. “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.”

Also very interesting is that inXile has been working on the project with Nic and Chris Bischoff, the main guys at Stasis studio The Brotherhood, who created the "prototype screens" seen below. "We’re big fans of STASIS and we know the Brotherhood have a great talent for isometric games. It was a no-brainer to have our team collaborate with them for prototype content for Wasteland 3," Fargo explained. "We’ll continue to work with them as we move into full production, their artistic insights and inspirations have been helpful throughout this process."

The Wasteland 3 Fig campaign is seeking $2.75 million in backing, with equity investment (from accredited investors only) capped at $2.25 million.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.