Fallout 3 represents one of the most ridiculously packed gaming experiences you're going to find.
The stigma of calling Fallout 3 "Oblivion with guns" has taunted Fallout 3 ever since screens started to immerge from the Fallout camp. This statement is over-hyped and needs to be put to rest because it is not true. If you are a casual observer who hasn't played either game then you might think that statement has merit from a quick glance, but once you have spent time in each game you will realize both games are uniquely different while sharing a similar game structure. That was only the tip of the ice-berg of criticism that has been flooding the internet after Fallout 3 was announced. In the defense of Fallout fanboys, the original two Fallout games are cult-classics that have been done wrong in the past, so I can see why the Fallout community was nervous with a "next-gen" return to Fallout. At least Fallout 3 has finally been released after years of development and the worrying has been silenced as Fallout 3 proves itself worthy of their own vault-tech.
Fallout 3 takes place in the year 2277, 30 years after the events in Fallout 2. In a post-apocalyptic version of the Washington D.C. you will travel across the wasteland investigating the remains of humanity that cling to life on a day-to-day basis. This holocaust holiday starts in Vault 101 in one of most unlikely of places, your birth. Starting from your mother's womb you will live you life in a scattered series of game selections at ages 1, 10, 16 and 19 until a series events arise casting you from the vault in search for your fugitive father. In the wastelands for the first time, Bethesda lays the world out giving you total freedom to explore your surroundings. What you do and how you play the game is up to you. The main object is to find your father, but as you can suspect things are a lot more complicated then a simple rescue plot. Fallout 3 has many layers and a hundred things to do besides the main quest.
If you get easily sidetracked Fallout 3 can be a mess of a game to get sorted. The main quest always directs you in locations that will spawn alternative quests if you start nosing around and before you know it you have a list of missions to complete. For those who only want to participate in the main portion of the game and don't like adventuring too much your going to have to ignore the needy begging from the wasteland hopeless and work towards finding your dad through the rummage of Washington. On the other side of the coin, if you enjoy getting the most out of your game and exploring every nook and cranny then you are looking at a good 100hr adventure that will put you through a number of entertaining side-quests along side the main mission. From Mutated Vampires to Russian Pimps, Fallout 3 will open your eyes to all sorts of strange characters and interesting backdrops.
Gamers familiar with Oblivion will instantly recognize the bits of the 'Elder Scrolls' that have slipped into Fallout 3. For the most part Fallout 3 adds even more content than Oblivion did, minus the spell creation. Fallout 3 digs deeper into character customization and resource management then Oblivion with an dark and morbid sense of humour. Fallout 3 should feel familiar and yet different for those who have fought against the Daedra armies. The largest difference in Fallout 3 is the combat, and yes, Fallout has guns... and big ones at that. The system running the show uses a similar real-time statistics based combat system that is has been enhanced with special targeting system called V.A.T.S. (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System). When VATS is triggered a green overlay will fill the screen with the targeted figure highlighted and divided by body parts and the percentage to hit. This is used for targeting certain aspects of a human, or creature looking to strategically wear them down or a simple critical hit.
Using vats is combined with action points like the old Fallout games that replenish in time. A lot of variables come in to play when using VATS which makes it interesting and astonishingly never grows old. When you use your weapon in VATS the action plays out in slow motion and speeds up to real-time. This is how you get those bloody dismembering slow motion shots you might have seen in clips from the game. VATS is the best way to blow someone's head into little chunks and it's for the faint at heart. When you are not using VATS standard FPS gameplay applies to everything but the hit percentage, remember you stats always play a role in your ability to hit a target.
Including fixing your weapons, you can create your own gadgets to help you stay alive longer out in the nuclear wasteland. Ones man junk is another mans treasure in Fallout 3 as you will come across countless random parts that can be pieced together to make some interesting inventions. First step is finding the blue prints to a new invention; secondary is finding the components and then finally building the unit. Making new inventions isn't a major part of the game and some inventions can be simply found, but it's a nice touch that makes exploration a little more fun when you are collecting more than human fingers.
Leveling up in Fallout 3 is done through killing and using abilities and quests not by in game actions like pointless shooting or running up hills. As you level up you will be able to spend your experience points on different attributes that can help you in battle, or in the more traditional use of skills. The main statistics are special, well spell out special from the first letter of each statistic, "S"peed, "P"erception, "E"ndurance, "C"harisma, "I"ntellegence, "A"gility, and "L"uck. You also get to pick from a list of perks when you level up that grant you a special ability. After your normal numerical statistics you have a number of skills you can invest in like Lock picking, Science, Barter, Big Guns, Melee Weapons and more.
Frosting your character are the Perks, the last and most interesting one aspect of your character. Each level you gain you will get to pick a new perk which adds up until you hit the level 20 cap. Aside from the normal perks that can be picked every level you can gain new ones like "Rad Regeneration" when you complete quests. The list is too long to go into all of them so here is a little insight into a few of my chosen perks. "Scoundrel" - extra wily charms to influence people, "Pyromaniac" +50% damage with fire-based weapons and "Gunslinger" - V.A.T.S. accuracy increased with pistols... I think you get the point. When you add all these aspects together, Fallout 3 is indeed a diverse role-playing game that be approach and replayed in several different ways depending on your actions and your characters skills.
Dialog is handled similar to Oblivion with a number of dialog trees you can select with each NPC you encounter. Your character doesn't have an actual voice besides the text that you highlight so conversations will be played out in an answer and respond system. The way you treat people in physical actions and conversations has an impact on your karma and how you are treated in the world. This approach is getting a little stale after putting up with it for hours on end in Oblivion and now transferred over to Fallout. It's a hard area to address and even though a lot of developers are struggling with interaction in role-playing games it seems like we have hit the wall on this one. I can't see another route Fallout 3 could have taken, so take this criticism with a grain of salt. With the amount of content we are dealing with, we should really be satisfied with more than one or two opens in each conversation.
The Karma system in Fallout 3 will have you on your best or worst behaviour. In Fallout 3 you will can fluctuate between good, neutral and evil. Depending on how you handle certain situations you can receive a hefty dosage of Karma in either direction. Fallout 3 rewards players for staying in any alignment through the game and some special NPCs and areas can only accessed depending on your Karma. It's easy to be the good guy in Fallout which is a change from most games, if you are evil you'll need to dig deep and do some down right disturbing things. One of the first major alignment tests is deciding weather to detonate an atomic bomb that sits in the middle of a thriving town, leave it alone, or deactivate it. Depending on your actions in handling this lethal choice, you immediately start playing "the karma game" in Fallout 3.
Navigation in Fallout 3 is fairly standard with the idealism that whatever you see you can get to in the game. While this isn't entirely true the game world is huge and open for your enjoyment. At times you might be a little taken back by the amount of choice and then you might be perplexed when you can't climb over a simple pile of rubble. Fallout 3 is on the massive side, however I still felt a bit directed down city paths and unable to go and do whatever I pleased. A fast travel system is also implemented for locations you have already been to in the game. Fast traveling picks up the pace of the game and does away with a lot of random wandering. However if you want to level up your character and find new alluring spots on the map exploration is encouraged.
In the graphics department Fallout 3 uses a version of the Gamebyro engine which is the same engine used to power Oblivion. This makes both games comparable to Oblivion even though each game has a distinct atmosphere. Fallout 3 is rich in detail, however this is best seen from afar. When you get close to objects they loose their sharpness and can be awfully bland. On the bad side of Oblivion, Fallout 3 also carries over the stale expressionless look from the NPCs along with poor animations in the inhabitants of the Fallout world. Luckily, Fallout 3 has a lot more to offer than graphics. Compared to another sandbox games like Far Cry 2, GTAIV or Fable II, Fallout 3 simply can't compare. This doesn't mean Fallout 3 is ugly, or bad, it's just not advanced past the non-flashy style that inhabited Cyrodiil.
For the good, and there is a lots of that, Fallout 3 load times are brisk and kept to minimal pop up, usually happens when you go through certain doors. The draw distance is also impressive showcasing some great optimization to get the eerie level of detail processed through quickly in the game. The creativity of the game remains close to Black Isles original look and feel. Important characters like the mutants and Brotherhood of Steel resemble their old counterparts. The biggest nod towards Bethesda's work is the creation of the atmosphere and scale of the world. When Bethesda starts working on their next project, hopefully they can spice it up a bit making another leap like they did from Morrowind to Oblivion.In the graphics department Fallout 3 uses a version of the Gamebyro engine which is the same engine used to power Oblivion. This makes both games comparable to Oblivion even though each game has a distinct atmosphere. Fallout 3 is rich in detail, however this is best seen from afar. When you get close to objects they loose their sharpness and can be awfully bland. On the bad side of Oblivion, Fallout 3 also carries over the stale expressionless look from the NPCs along with poor animations in the inhabitants of the Fallout world. Luckily, Fallout 3 has a lot more to offer than graphics. Compared to another sandbox games like Far Cry 2, GTAIV or Fable II, Fallout 3 simply can't compare. This doesn't mean Fallout 3 is ugly, or bad, it's just not advanced past the non-flashy style that inhabited Cyrodiil.
For the good, and there is a lots of that, Fallout 3 load times are brisk and kept to minimal pop up, usually happens when you go through certain doors. The draw distance is also impressive showcasing some great optimization to get the eerie level of detail processed through quickly in the game. The creativity of the game remains close to Black Isles original look and feel. Important characters like the mutants and Brotherhood of Steel resemble their old counterparts. The biggest nod towards Bethesda's work is the creation of the atmosphere and scale of the world. When Bethesda starts working on their next project, hopefully they can spice it up a bit making another leap like they did from Morrowind to Oblivion.
The sound in Fallout 3 achieves our high standards that we had for this title. Besides the celebrity voice work from Liam Neeson and Ron Perlman, Fallout 3 has a rich cast of characters that you will meet and hear in your wasteland travels. In terms of quality balanced with quantity Bethesda does an excellent job delivering on both sides. The new additions of the radio stations can get repetitive, although the quality of the music (mainly 1930s-40s Jazz) is priceless. Without your Pipboy music player on you will mainly be listing to the blank space of emptiness. Less is more, this defiantly applies to Fallout 3.
Fallout 3 couldn't have been achieved with a modern touch and I was more than happy to see Bethesda fully involved with keeping the art and sound of close to the original. The dilapidated 1950s science-fiction vibe that balances finds its harmony in between campy humour and brain splattering realism. Fallout 3 has a lot of personality that is scattered through every inch of this fictional wasteland. The original Fallout was a very instrumental game in PC development and I think Fallout 3 has done an keeps the tradition alive with an admirable job returning to the Vault.
This holocaust holiday into the wasteland of Fallout 3 is a brutal take on a post-apocalyptic action. Fallout is back and dare I say, better than ever. Fallout 3 has the ability to draw in both audiences who enjoy role-playing games, and the others who like a good shooter. Bethesda provides all the tools leaving it up to you to shape and enjoy your incredible journey in Fallout 3. Fallout 3 is one of the best games to be released this year and I'm glad Bethesda took their time making Fallout 3 the best it could be. The Fallout legacy continues....