Wasteland 3's first expansion is a Fallout factory revolt

Wasteland 3's first narrative expansion, The Battle Of Steeltown, is raising hell on the factory floor later this summer.

Announced earlier today, Wasteland 3's first expansion sees your band of Rangers sent off to sort out a worker uprising for The Patriarch (the ostensible ruler of California). Deliveries have gone cold, bandit raids are rife, and the factory boss seems increasingly incompetent, so you've been sent in to sort things out.

Now, I don't know about you, but crushing a worker's strike in the name of some sinister leader seems like real cop shit. But the trailer suggests that maybe you don't have to play the job entirely straight—there are many ways this situation could play out, and maybe it's better to let the whole place burn down.

Steeltown introduces new quests, and baddies sporting new combat mechanics like non-lethal weapons and devastating telegraphed attacks. This is probably also the most "Fallout" Wasteland has ever looked, with big vault doors and hulking power armour suits strolling around corrugated iron factories. Fitting, considering the original Wasteland's role as Fallout's predecessor. I'm half expecting a super mutant to round the corner any second now.

The expansion's new mechanics will also transfer back into the base game, along with all its new weapons, armour, and some brand new encounters. The Battle Of Steeltown arrives on Steam and GOG this June 3rd.

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.