Takes over from the orange box as the best value gaming package out there. Amazing atmosphere and gripping throughout!
The incredible immersion you feel in this game is due to many aspects:
--You feel drawn to the characters as a result of the excellent voice acting (Liam Neeson among others.)
--The features such as owning a home within the game are not pointless tack ons that you never actually need to use as they can be in many games, but they play an integral part in the game play and because of that you really feel as if you have been thrust into an alternate world and are eeking out an existence there. You can even buy infirmary kits for your home to save you money on doctors visits and med kits, or what about a juke box radio to keep your robot butler entertained while your out adventuring. There are lots of cool things you can add to your home that do really help, not to mention having lockers there for storage, an incredibly helpful addition you come to realise as you find your back pack quickly filling with things you dont need immediatly but want to keep hold of for later. And the home you end up living in depends on the kind of person you are in the game, much like alot of the rest of the games features.
--Aswell as being a shooter it combines the RPG and sandbox genres excellent so you really can go anywhere, do anything, and meet all different types of people. I played through a 2nd time when I got this game of the year addition and it was a totally different experience, I saw places and met people I had no idea existed the 1st time through.
--You never feel as though any aspect of the game is played for you, for instance; you can pick up almost anything and a majority of the items lying around have no relevance, so due to your limited carrying capacity you begin to learn the value of things within the waste land and all these little things add to the immersive feeling of 'actually being there.'
--And last but not least the atmosphere, its hard to describe but it gives you the same kind of feeling you get after watching an incredible movie. Its understated and never over the top but the sound effects, lighting and everything involved adds to the amazing atmosphere, especially the excellently fitting 1940's music via the radio stations you can tune in to.
The way the game handles the difficulty level and learning curve is brilliant. You arent given too much to take in at the start, it reveals everything it needs to gradually to ease you in so you don't feel overwhelmed but it also leaves a good amount for you to find out on your own, adding to the immersiveness and helping it to feel less like a game and more like a real experience. And you can change the combat difficulty any time in the pause menu, this doesnt affect your trophies but simply gives you less/more XP from each kill, but dont worry if you explore and take on plenty of side quests you will reach the level cap easily.
A great feature of the game is the karma meter. Alot of games these days impliment a similar feature, doing good or bad deeds effects the game. But there is more freedom here than with most games and seeing as the majority of missions are not story missions you can do almost anything you want when asked for a favor by someone, kill them if you like, theres very few places where you are restricted. And the karma meter determines what upgrades you can give yourself as you level up along with changing the way people react to you. You will find yourself really caring about each persons reactions to you and how your character effects them.
The graphics could be better and definatly could be smoother but when you look at the whole picture it looks just how you would want it to. The grittiness adds to the atmosphere and they do a good job of showing you enough from a distance to give it a feeling of depth although there will be some pop up as you head toward the horizon and maybe some occasional frame rate issues but tbh honest I didnt care in the slightest and the game itself almost wouldnt suit ultra smooth graphics, it wouldnt seem right.
Its a very gritty and occasionally dark game, gory and borderline disturbing as you enter some of the buildings taken over by the 'raiders' who clearly have no morals. You see, if you're not aware of the premise, the world has been destoyed by a nuclear war 200 years before and so law and order and moral values have largely gone out the door. And so you can live much like the savages or try and help out the few who are attempting to regain some vestige of civilisation. And ofcourse the after math of a nuclear war gives way for many challenging circumstances, the effects of nuclear waste, the animal life..well as you would expect.
The combat is recognisable as it is also a first person shooter but not in the average sense of the word. All weapons have different stats etc and can be repaired using parts from similar weapons you salvage. The shooting isnt about being acurate and fast so much as being strategic, and to aid with that is the new V.A.T.S system which allows you to pause the game and zoom in on an enemy targetting a particular body part. You are informed what the chance of hitting that body part is from the distance you are stood at and plan accordingly, crippling limbs or releasing fatal headshots etc (depending on the strength and health of the enemy.)
The levelling up brings all new aspects to the game without changing the way you play too much. You may choose to increase combat stats or scientific ones, giving you the option to take on harder lock picks or computer hacks, both involving nicely thought out and realistic feeling mini puzzles. Or you may choose more specific upgrades, such as having a mysterious ally appear while using the V.A.T.S system if you are having trouble, or one that makes animals fight for you when nearby. There are shed loads and the ones you choose (there arent enough levels to have all of them by the end) will personalise your style of play to your character, everyones game experience will be different.
I could go on and on about this game as it was a phenomena in my opinion and gave me months if not years of gaming pleasure but suffice to say it is thoroughly immerive, takes place in a huge and extremely atmospheric open world and tailors itself to you as you progress through the upgrades you choose and the way you decide to act and treat people. Make sure you explore and take on all the side quests you find because thats where the sustance is. The story isnt what gives the game length and without leveling up with side quests the story may be a bit difficult and you definatly wouldnt get the most from this vast game.
And this specifically being the game of the year edition it is simply the best value game package out there with 5 great DLC's for you to enjoy on top of the main game, some better than others but all giving a good deal extra game play on top of the 50+ hours the main game should take you. You can pick this up cheap now and so you simple must own it.
PS I will add that the GOTY edition does have some problems with freezing and crashing etc. It can be a major pain and many people have experienced problems but it is still an awesome game. If you easily get frustrated by slow down etc though then you may want to pick up the normal version as opposed to the GOTY as it runs alot smoother, I guess it was a little too much to fit on one PS3 disc.