The Fallout series has originated on the PC, but now, it has come to
the consoles. While hardcore fans wanted the same crazy Fallout game
world, this game is more console orientated, it's more casual. That's
not necessarily a bad thing you may say, and it isn't always but there
are times when you wish you had the same crazy world from the original
PC games. That's of course if you even played it. And if you haven't
you won't care much. But for those who did play Fallout 1 and 2 on the
PC, this game doesn't resemble the original formula at all.
The first games were just crazy, crazy stories, crazy quest, an overall
crazy experience. In Fallout 3 there isn't that much craziness. The
game isn't shallow ,but sometimes you just wish it had more to it. The
developer, Bethesda, also made a RPG in 2006,Oblivion.Most of you may
be familiar with this game, and so, will also be familiar with Fallout
3,as it's basically the same game, with some small differences, which
aren't necessarily improvements.
The game is set in post apocalyptic wasteland, surrounding Washington
D.C, in a wasteland full of bio-hazardous radiations and heavily
mutated humans and animals. It all begins with you being born in a
vault, Vault 101,where people live and die so they won't be infected by
the radiations from outside the vault. As soon as you come out of your
mother's belly, you're asked to choose a gender and customize your
appearance. It's the same thing as in Oblivion, you have almost the
same haircuts and facial customizations, with some small Fallout
specific aspects, like crazy hairstyles or weird looking beards. After
the whole customization, and one year later, you see yourself as a baby
discovering the basic controls in the game. As your mother died at
birth, you are being raised by your father, voiced by the Academy Award
Nominee for Schindler's List, Liam Neeson, which you may also know as
Qui Gon Jinn from Star Wars Episode I. Anyway, you go through your
childhood pretty briefly, setting your stats and skills which will
determine your type of character. While in Oblivion you could create
your own class, or choose one from a variety of classes available ,in
Fallout 3 they are completely nonexistent. You will just choose some
major skills which will then lead to your minor skills, if I may call
them the same way as in Oblivion, which will influence the way you play.
The story goes on with your father running away from the vault, and you
trying to find him by leaving the vault. So far the game isn't that
impressing, until you leave the vault. After first seeing the
wasteland, you will just be amazed, by the grandness of everything and
the scale at which is all realized. Also, another huge factor is the
view distance, which is phenomenal. You can see miles and miles of
virtual wasteland. The game-world is huge and you'll discover very
soon, when following your father's footsteps along the huge map. The
story continues with your quest of looking for your father by going
from one city to another, in a liniar way, and finding more and more
clues, which will finally bring you in the end, at, well, the end of
the game.
The side quests are enough to make the casual player happy, but for
those who played Oblivion before they won't be enough to satisfy. They
are a little more diverse than in Oblivion but the fact that there are
just not enough of them makes you feel that too much attention has been
put into the main quest while the side quests were just put there to be
there. The whole reason they feel more diverse than in Oblivion is
because with so few of them, it's easier to think they are more
diverse, while in Oblivion, the sheer number of them is impressive, and
the only reason to believe they are similar is because of the huge
number of them.
The best part of the game is the atmosphere. Beginning with the huge
wasteland and the cities destroyed by nukes and radiations to the
population living in the major cities around the wasteland. The
wasteland is huge and beautiful. You may find a higher cliff from which
you can see very far away and just me stunned by the whole scale of the
game. The presentation is pretty well done, until you come close to
things. The game uses the same engine as Oblivion. Oblivion was one of
the best looking games of it's time, but by today's standards it's
pretty old. From far away Fallout 3 looks great, but when you come
close to cliffs, trees, buildings bridges, everything looks washed out.
For a 2008 game, Fallout 3 looks pretty bad. Basically the whole
terrain is low resolution. There are a few high resolution spots,
insides of some buildings and the roads sometimes look really good, but
mostly, if you played other games from 2008 you'll realize that the
graphics in this game are outdated. Also, it looks just like Oblivion.
Not the art design ,but it feels like Oblivion, the way buildings look
like, the way people look like and even the water effects, even if the
water in this game is a lot muddier. The whole Oblivion feel is just to
much for someone who has played Oblivion before. It just seems old.
The gameplay is good throughout, but you will have some moments of
frustrations from time to time. You can play either from a first person
perspective, or from a third person one. Just as Oblivion ,Fallout 3 is
meant to be played from the first person perspective, because the 3rd
person view looks creepy, and the character just slides over the
terrain, as if he were on ice. First person is the way to go. Combat is
essentially pretty easy. You will encounter plenty of enemies, starting
from humans, to zombies, mutated humans, mutated bugs, rats, dogs and
all sorts of mutated beeings from the radiations of the wasteland. The
combat is pretty simple. You have two options of playing the game. The
first one, is the one from Oblivion, only this time you have guns. You
have a button to attack or fire your weapon, and another one for
blocking, if you're not using a range weapon. The other option of
combat is VATS.VATS is probably the best thing in Fallout 3.It is a
combat mode, in which you are le to pause the game, select an enemy,
select a body part and spend some action points to attack the desired
body part. These action points are gained by engaging into combat
without the VATS system. After choosing the body part of your enemy,
you'll witness a gory and brutal attack. If you for example use a
shotgun, and choose the head as the enemy's body part, you will see how
likely it is for your character to hit the chosen body part. When using
VATS the camera changes into a cinematic one and let's you see the
carnage, that if you even hit your enemy, cause it does happen not to
hit him, at least at the beginning of the game, when your stats are
lower. The combat in Fallout 3 is very satisfying, but it's also very
rewarding. The multitude of weapons and objects to collect are just as
many as in Oblivion but they look better, and the weapons are also a
lot better realized. You will encounter tons of enemies across your
journey through the wasteland, and with great guns, the kill of every
enemy will be satisfying.
The game progresses in a real simple way. When you kill an enemy you
gain experience. When you finish a mission, you gain experience. It's
not like in Oblivion, where heavy use of a skill will result in gaining
more experience for that skill. The progression here is a lot more
simpler, and to be honest, just seems a little rushed. You can however
continue through the main quest despite you having a low level. This is
a more casual approach from Bethesda, also used in Oblivion. In older
and more serious RPGs you had to do many side quests to gain experience
and then be able to advance through the main quest, as you needed
higher skills level to be able to further the game. This approach is
very casual, and works well for the casual RPG fans, but for the hard
core and classic ones, it will just be annoying and without depth. The
best RPG element of the game is however, the choice making. You will be
able to choose from a pretty large variety of choices which will affect
the way you progress though the game. This is one aspect of the game
that is perfect. Even if it's obvious sometimes which choice is good
and which is bad, the choice is all yours and that is very well
implemented. As you make your way through the game, you'll gather
either good or bad karma depending on your actions.
The sound design is adequate throughout, with small good performances
like Neeson's , as the father or the DJ, Three Dog. In comparison to
other games, like Mass Effect and of course Oblivion, the voices are
pretty weak. There aren't many notable performances, and even if there
is a ton of voice in this game, the performance doesn't rise to the
level of other similar titles. The character animation is one of the
most disappointing aspects of the game. While the characters in
Oblivion seemed very real and full of expressions, in Fallout 3, beside
the fact they are all ugly, they also look the same and the animations
and facial expressions are almost not there. You will meet many notable
characters through the game, but unfortunately none to be remembered,
even if their importance is high, the bad voice acting will make them
look inappropiate with the scenery. A good thing though, is the in game
music. You have a couple of radio stations you'll be able to listen
while playing. They all contain old music, from the 30s and 40s
introduced by the local DJ's. The DJ's, most notably Three Dog, will
comment on your progress through the game, many times saying what
you've done or where you're headed, calling you most of the times "the
kid from vault 101" . The music is great and fits the game perfectly
and brings a lot of depth to the entire experience.
There is a lot to do in Fallout 3. Exploring is one of the few but
probably the most satisfying one. Just wondering through the huge
wasteland, killing mutants near the Washington Monument is just plain
fun. The side quests are enough to satisfy the casual player. The minor
faults can be overseen if you fall in love with this game, it doesn't
really matter in a game how good it is, most important than everything
is the fun you have with it. So even with it's many faults, Fallout 3
can be a lot of fun.
Fallout 3 is a hard game to recommend. But it all comes to two things.
If you've played Oblivion or not. If you have played Oblivion before,
you probably won't like this game, as it lacks the depth and the
beautiful story and is also the same game as far as gameplay goes for.
You'll just want something else from this game, a new experience,
something to suck you in like Oblivion did two years ago. If you
however haven't played Oblivion before, you won't know this is just a
copy of that game, and you won't care. You'll enjoy Fallout 3 a lot and
well, I would recommend it to someone who hasn't played Oblivion. But
with Oblivion in your collection, you'll most likely not like this game.
My Score 8.0
