Wow, its a nice game. But as a huge fan of Fallout 1 and 2, this is one of the most disappointing games I've ever played
My 16 year old lvl 1 dude managed with ease to kill off the vault guards in the beginning. He got something they called a "pip-boy", but it looked nothing at all like the pip-boy we all have come to love in the earlier series.
The inventory, skillset, and general complexity was dumbed down, again, like bethesda seem to think is a good idea in every game based on other games.
This game is in first person now (or third). This makes this game officially a "first person shooter". This game does that genre really badly, as you have to play a fps like you are playing a turn-based rpg. Now they did create the vats, but it has sooo many limitations and annoyances. Like, how many times do you REALLY want to watch an entire firefight in slowmotion? And where is the tactical portion to this mode, other than choosing the highest percentage (or funniest bodypart) to attempt to hit?
Don't get me wrong, I kind of liked this game. I was really hyped, and enjoyed playing a good portion of it. But I never got that fallout feeling, and was increasingly annoyed by the lack of fallout-ness in this game. I found myself reinstalling Fallout 2 again, because I was in the mood to play a FALLOUT-game.
Now a few good things:
This game has a huge environement which looks good, and DOES have a creepy atmosphere to it. It was actually rewarding at times to just walk around in the wilderness and search ruins for goodies. I liked the new pip-boy features, even though it was a contradiction to previous games in the series. The settlements had a nice spirit and feel to them, but still lacked a sense of immersiveness.
I only wish that bethesda would leave this pearl of a game-concept alone, and leave it to someone else to recreate in a more true fallout-spirit. Enough with making all games for the xbox. Enough with the constantly dumbing down games to the point of "click this to advance".
In conclusion, Bethesda made a great game, but had completely made me lose my faith in the fallout series. Thanks for reading, and now I'm off to play Dwarf Fortress, Morrowind and Fallout 2, while waiting for Interplay to restart the VanBuren-project.