Fallout 3 Has Garnered The Attention Of Gamers Worldwide, But Falls Short Progressively Throughout The Game
Gameplay
I Enjoyed the Gameplay of Fallout 3, it immersed you in the setting and felt like every action had its consequence, which it usually did. From exploring the vast lands of the Capital Wastelands, to Historic Museums and Abandoned Towns, you'll be captivated to keep going to learn more of why, what, who, where and when. While your exploring its not all about the sightseeing, monsters are scattered across the game, all with different attributes, from a knife wielding bandit to a fire breathing mutant, the constant barrage of enemies will keep you entertained. While confronted with the enemies, you can approach the enemies anyway you think necessary, for example, the stealthy approach, or maybe just leave a mine in the enemies path. Its up to you, but one thing i cant discredit is the VATs system, also known as the "Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System" which basically does exactly what it says, the system lets you choose from each limb of the body aswell as the head, but you have a limited amount of VATs usage. This uses Action Points, which means you can't constantly use VATs, although it does respawn the Action Points, you can't use it multiple times in one battle without Action Points.
With the battle system and the sight seeing, you'd think that would be enough, but the best is yet to come. The customisation of the character, gives you that complete individual feel which may help you take a certain route through the story, by taking advantage of certain plot points by talking your way out of doing something, by getting your talking skills up for example may give you the oppurtunity to gain entrance into places that were inaccessible. Although the talking skill isn't the only skill to gain, its one of many skills which i couldnt explain all individually because of the sheer amount.
Sound
The sound was as great as the gameplay, the old fashioned tone help set the atmosphere and gave it that whole war stricken setting with songs like "I don't want to set the world on fire" and "Butcher Pete". The Voice acting was pretty much movie standard, but i'd expect the voice acting to be that good with the amount of detail put into the game. The effects of walking through desolate barren lands to cultivated survivalist colonies already has you drawn in, but hearing people doing their own thing, really helps you become immersed, with people walking up to you thanking you for your efforts and giving you gifts (Useless ones, never the less give them a break, their etiquette consists of a gun in either hand and a fistfull of discrimination down to their own political fear mongering) With kids swearing to warcrys of a unforgiving veteran, each little details really grabs you by the Gonads and doesn't let go until those credits role..
Story
Now, This is why i decided to write this review. Being an rpg player, im a huge enthusiast for a well written story to get that heart racing. Fallout 3, as i mentioned before has amazing technical aspects for anyone with 2 thumbs and a set of eyes. But, where the game falls short lies in the storyline. While it is there, your player is given motives from quest givers to get the job done. Finding his father is priority one^^ to unravel the mysteries of the vault he emerged from on that faithful day. While an interesting concept, it just seemed like an excuse for you to enjoy what fallout 3 has to offer, the immersion of the gameplay. Getting you from one point to another was interesting because of how well designed it was, the reasons for me being in a certain area and doing my quests seemed completely irrelevant for my enjoyment of the game. It gave me the oppurtunity to fight more, customise more and see more of the world, thats where my interests lay. Also the the lifeless doll models in the AI really didnt help much with the life of the story. Although the face and voice was brilliant, seeing the some turn at exactly 90 degrees, stop, process a bullet going through their head, then pull out their gun really doesnt give you the feel that these certain enemies dont really have any meaning to them but mindless EXP. And with an ending like that, the final fight isn't even your fight, aside those three soldiers, i won't say names for spoiler reasons, but come on, all that landscape and epic fight scenes for a fight i probably could have done after leaving the vault!
Anyway, thats my review of Fallout 3, i enjoyed the game, everything about it aside the storyline.... ^^