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cover-Wasteland 3: Cult of the Holy Detonation

Tuesday, September 12, 2023 5:49:50 AM

Wasteland 3: Cult of the Holy Detonation Review (Fleshly Delight)

THERE'S WONDERFUL POWER IN THE BLOOD!
To start: I have genuinely no idea why this DLC is sitting at a Mostly Negative 35% at the time of writing this review.
After beating it with a friend, we found it to be not only interesting with its new (or some returning from Steeltown, the other DLC) gameplay mechanics (I'll get to that), but also with the characters, encounters, and items.
The only thing I can say is: skill issue.
As for the review, I'll do my best to keep this spoiler free...
GAMEPLAY MECHANICS
With the new DLC comes instances multiple times where you'll be experiencing things unlike the base WL3 campaign offers.

Stealth is ACTUALLY useful for something that isn't just 'shoot enemy for more damage' or 'disable single turret generator.' While it's not required it does make particular sections significantly easier and is a different kind of experience than you'd be used to in Wasteland 3's content before this.
If you want to shoot through them, you can, but it looks like it would be much harder to do so, but if you like combat, then go for it.
Objectives that require the user to put in effort and take the time to THINK about their actions and what consequences will occur once those actions complete. 90% of WL3's content with enemy encounters can be boiled down to 'shoot enemy until all enemy dead.' With the Cult of the Holy Detonation, you're going to need to prioritize focusing on objectives, avoiding terrain hazards (of which there are plenty,) and killing enemies in a quick fashion as to not be overrun.
Your inputs matter. Your preparation matters. Your understanding of the game's mechanics matters.
You will suffer if you think you can just move, shoot an enemy, and end your turn; many of the reviews are written from the perspective of someone that cannot comprehend more than this.
There is an entire new system involving the enemies being capable of buffing themselves—very often quite heavily—because you decided to kill them. You NEED to pick and choose your targets, use skills that can break armor, stun, or slow; and pay attention to the penetration your weapon is capable of doing. Precision Strikes and explosive rounds are KING for being capable of handling this with ease while Fire just says "lmao, perish."
If you have a guy that can do those often (you're hitting level 17+ by now, you better have a guy who can do that) you won't have to worry about this too much.
There is one major bit I see negative reviews talk about that shows just how inept they really are.
A bit spoiler-y, but it essentially involves an effect that happens once certain enemies die.
For a single turn, they are capable of being immune to fully dying for, again, ONE turn alongside gaining HUGE buffs for dealing damage, but debuffs to speed, hit chance, and AP.
So, what do you do about this?
Well, it's simple: Precision Strikes to lower hit chance/speed, Suppress to slow, Frozen to lower AP, Demoralize to lower hit chance and crit chance, Stunned to COMPLETELY make them USELESS with their -20 AP, etc.
There are so many ways to deal with this.
Those complaining about it makes me wonder if DarksydePhil is their idol with that level of missing brain cells.
A new type of debuff/buff has been added specifically to this DLC and ONLY in the areas taking place within it.
To explain this without some spoilers: it slowly builds up from 1 to 10 and is given by stepping into terrain hazards, being hit by certain enemies, and standing near certain objects that can be detonated (of which also leave behind some terrain hazard). You can also remove it quite easily as long as you do NOT spend your time walking directly into it, as that is the way you're mostly going to have that happen, or if you don't take notice of notes/characters that tell you "hey, be careful about this." The effect is actually a buff and debuff, but the debuff can be significantly worse on certain character classes. This buff/debuff also has more significance in some other parts of the DLC, but I'll leave you to see them for yourself.
The effect can be removed/reduced through certain items.
As for a bit more of a spoiler-y bit: The effect grants you a bonus to Con and Healing, but decreases your hit chance, speed, and crit chance; the buff and debuff both increase heavily with each point in it. On a melee tank, you can buff him with medipacks/darts before/during combat and make him a nightmare to deal with. Personally, I prefer none of it over some of it.

CHARACTERS AND CHOICES
From what we saw, many of the characters had very interesting things to not only say, but also to do.
While we went with the more... how you say... "Vic and Fish-Lips approach' for choices, we could see just how many ways you can choose what you want to do to affect the finale.
I'd say there's a good mix between "silly" and "serious."
There's even points where the game will bring up your past and heckle you for your choices.
We were doing an evil playthrough... yeah, we got taunted quite a bit.

ENCOUNTERS
There are A LOT of encounters that WILL take you a very long time to complete.
This can be very annoying to players, but we found it not only refreshing but also compelling.
Why?
Because those combats not only had bangers for music, but also consisted of fights that weren't 'shoot enemy, win fight;' you have objectives to complete if you want to win.
You have to think turns ahead, not just in the present.
Things like Deployables can make a huge difference when used correctly..
Most of the time in the base game, we just walked in, shot whoever disagreed with us, and moved on.
There are some returning features of Steeltown's gameplay mechanics and they work just fine here.
The ending of the DLC feels fantastic if you liked the features you meet before that.
It's engaging and pushes you to use everything you not only learned from earlier encounters, but also to use your own consumable buffs, deployables, and various items you most likely have been hoarding.
It's another "no, idiot, think smarter" situation.
ITEMS
While we didn't really use much of the weaponry (yet,) they are VERY strong if we decided to.
We simply have highly-upgraded guns already.
There is a new ammo type associated with the majority of these weapons.
Certain armor pieces can help mitigate the effects that'll be thrown at you, but can even do special actions that are disgustingly (pun intended) helpful and powerful.
By this point in the game, you'll most likely be using them.
CONCLUSION
The DLC is nowhere near a 35% and people are heavily overreacting and exaggerating the features they dislike.
If you like and understand WL3's mechanics, new content different than the old, and don't mind much longer combat, then buy this for the $7 or you can wait for a sale for less.
I'd give the DLC a good 8.5/10.