[I know I’m a little late in the game here as far as reviews go, since anyone who is anyone has already posted theirs, but I feel as though my thoughts on the game have to go somewhere, and this is my place for musings on games. After finishing a conversation with my friend Josh on Fallout 3, as I had just finished and he was just about to begin, I began to think a lot about the game, and this is where I get the opportunity to spin those thoughts into written words.]
The latest from the minds at Bethesta Softworks, creators of 2006’s Game of the Year The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is a continuation of the Fallout franchise, formerly by Black Isle Studios. Fallout 3 places you in the role of the Lone Wanderer from Vault 101. After your father escapes the Vault, a sudden string of events occurs which leads you out into the wastelands formerly surrounding Washington D.C. in search of him, and some answers.
I was ready to hate Fallout 3. The expansiveness of the world just overwhelmed me. At least in Grand Theft Auto IV, another one of this year’s hits promising a world open for exploration, parts of the world were locked to me, and I was limited in what I could explore and what I could do. The burden of an open world wore heavy on my back, and I was about to break under pressure. However, I did not. Instead, I gave the game another shot and let myself venture forth into the Capital Wasteland and never looked back.
I’ve never played another Fallout game, so the experience for me was something really new. Although the game was rooted in the Gamebryo engine from Oblivion, I would not pull out the “Oblivion with guns” comparison right from the start. Aside from the glitches that the engine has brought about, which could be a whole post unto themselves, you’ll find that the implementation of the engine works well for post-apocalyptia.
The world of Fallout 3 is not the world of Oblivion, nor is it the world of the America we know today. This is an entirely different world, with an entirely new set of problems. Problems from the raiders, to vampires, to ghouls, and men in powerful armored suits. You, as the Lone Wanderer, shape this world. By your hands will cities prosper or fade; will life flourish or die out; will those around you respect you or abhor you. Fallout 3 is very much greater than the sum of its parts. The game goes to great lengths to make sure that these old facets of the Fallout world do not feel forced in, and instead that they are all an extension of this universe created by Black Isle Studios. You will trek the world of Fallout 3 with your dog or companion, and your gun, using it to carve yourself a place in the annals of American history.
You can play it from a first- or third-person perspective, but these are usually simply for traversing the world, as your dialogue will always put you in a first-person view where you observe the person you are talking to standing in front of you as a mannequin as you dig through the sometimes-overly-textualized dialogue trees. You are also in first-person mode to view your Pip-Boy, the wrist computer that acts as your menu system. The method of navigating the Pip-Boy is more awkward at times than it needs to be, and I often found myself pressing the trigger when I wanted the d-pad. Outside of these instances, however, you can run and gun your way through the D.C. area in the viewpoint of your choice.
However, worth noting here that this game is not, by any means, a shooter in any sense of the word. It is primarily an RPG after all, and this is when the game actually becomes “Oblivion with guns”, except add to that the Vault Assisted Targeting System, or V.A.T.S., a pseudo-bullet-time system that allows you to aim your shots at specific body parts, as the primary method of combat. Free aiming in this game is relatively pointless next to V.A.T.S., as your skill with a gun is still based on numbers, and as a result, you’ll often find yourself angry that a direct shot did not affect your enemy. In fact, free aiming is near useless anywhere other than point-blank range when you’re pointing at their chest. However, V.A.T.S. is not perfect, as often times, an enemy will run towards you, past the end of the barrel of your gun, and your shots will not have that 95% accuracy they claimed to have moments ago.
The story in Fallout 3 is an interesting one once the ball gets rolling, as your quest to find your father leads you all across the Capital Wasteland, meeting all sorts of interesting people. is an incredibly huge investment as far as gaming goes. Judging by the number of story missions, additional missions, unique items, and sidequests that can be taken on by the player, one can expect to clock anywhere from 25 to 100 hours in the game. Some of the missions are interesting while others amount to simple fetch quests, but that is an inherent design flaw for the role-playing genre, so it is hard to hold it against a single game. For the most part, Fallout 3 does a good job of managing the quests and making sure you’re not doing the same uninteresting things too often.
Overall, Fallout 3 is a highly enjoyable game that fans of role-playing games are bound to enjoy. You’re bound to run into a glitch here or there, so saving often is very wise. Having a story with enough twists and turns to stay interesting, and enough missions and activities off the main path to keep the adventure going even longer, it’s hard to say you’re not going to get the most bang for your buck in this one. With achievements and trophies that reward you for playing as good, neutral or bad, there’s more than enough reason to go through the game more than once. The recently announced downloadable content for 2009 give the game even more of a chance to shine over time. In the current state of the economy, it is hard to say no to a game with so much potential for endless hours of entertainment.
Fallout 3 is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
[Fallout 3 was played on the Xbox 360 for 70+ hours, completing all missions. Ratings subject to personal impressions and experiences and are not to be taken as an objective statement. Ratings scale consists of (1) Not recommended, (2) Mediocre, (3) Alright, (4) Good, (5) Highly Recommended]
