Game Title - Fallout 3
Developer - Bethesda
Genre - Post-Apocalyptic Role Playing
Rating - M
Release Date - October 28th, 2008.
Platforms - Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC
Game overview : The year is 2277, set 200 years after the nuclear holocaust that ravaged America, turning it into a derelict wasteland of death. After exiting a dark tunnel and opening your eyes for the first time, the game cuts to key points of your childhood. Your first steps. Your 10th birthday in which you receive your Pip Boy 3000 and learn to shoot a BB gun. The G.O.A.T exam in which all 16 year old vault dwellers must take to figure out their role in the Vault. And 19, when your childhood friend Amata awakes you from a dream telling you that your dad has left the Vault, and that the Overseers men have been ordered to kill you on sight. And with that, you set out on your journey to find your dad, and ultimately, save, or destroy, the Wasteland.
Before getting into the review, I want to go off on a tangent for a moment. I've noticed that in a lot of games, your characters is a middle aged man, but just now being taught to move, jump, look around and use weapons. Fallout 3 does something utterly brilliant and uses growing up as a method of a tutorial. How to move, how to jump, equip items using your Pip Boy 3000, use a BB gun. It all blends perfectly together as one of the best opening bits to a game you could find, and without arguement, the best tutorial.
Once you finally escape from the Vault, with your friend Amata closing it behind you. And you step out into the hot sun of the Wasteland, there is one thing on your mind.
"What do I do now?"
And it's a difficult question to answer. You're given a quest to go to the nearby town, but do you want to go there? There are some houses nearby, should you explore them first? A large school can be seen, maybe someone could be in there? In the world of Fallout 3, everything and anything is up to you. How you interact with people, how you asses situations, and how the world responds to your actions, is up to you. Do you want to live a smooth talking do-gooder, helping people but only if they can forfeit the caps? Or will you be a no nonsense murderer, even if killing them was a business decission only? The character you play is your choice. Killing main quest characters does not break the game, nor does it destroy your chance of completing the main quest. It simply, makes it harder. Nice touch. Happened to my sister, she had to talk to a man in a bar in Megaton about where her dad was. But before she did that, she took up the quest to blow up Megaton. And did. The person she needed to talk to was dead, and she had no leads on who to talk to. Well, time to explore the wastes and find someone who does.
The level system of Fallout 3 revolves around your main S.P.E.C.I.A.L stats. Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck. Put more points into Strength, and you'll swing melee weapons like a big league hitter. Or put more into Charisma and you can charm people into giving you more money, and information. Put them into Intelligence and you'll be able to hack computers and pick locks like a pro. Beyond that, you have your Sub Classes. I.E, Small weapons, Speech, Unarmed, Repair, Medicine, etc etc. These govern how well you operate within a certain action. If your Speech is high enough, you'll have a better percentage to get what you want out of a person without harming them. Or put more points into Medicine and healing items and drugs do twice, or triple the amount they normally would. And beyond THAT, are the Perks.
Now the Perks are your, "helpers" They'll either do passive stat increases or other things. For example, if you're a male, you can get the Lady Killer perk, which gives you unique conversation options and 10% more damage to females in combat. The Nerd Rage perk gives you plus 10 points to Strength and phsyical damage. And, my favourite, Bloody Mess, which causes enemies to bleed more, and have their limbs fall apart with ease. Overall, the stat system works great, feels great, and is a much needed departure from Bethesda's last game.
The combat has been a bit controversial as of late, especially with the new VATS system. The Vault-Tec Automated Targeting System. And, don't worry, it works perfectly fine.
Hitting the right bumper, or R1..or the space bar, opens up VATS. When you're in it, the enemies body parts, when highlighted, will show a percentage of the chance of hitting that limb. But you can't always use it. You have Action Points, or AP's that deplete by using weapons. The bigger the gun, the more AP that it drains. Fair trade. You can fight in real time, both in third and first person. But I found myself falling back on VATS in tight situations. There are a lot of complaints that the third person combat is broken, but I use it a lot, mostly with a shotgun though. Also, the third person perspective has been fixed to an actual third person perspective, not a character model in a first person camera. The controls are just like Oblivion. A is action, B is your inventory menus, X draws and reloads firearms, hold it to holster. Y jumps, RT is attack, RB vats, Left trigger zoom.
LB is to toggle first and third person perspectives. (Xbox 360 version, change according to console)
A small, but nice touch, is the scavenging for supplies and food. All the food and water has been irradiated by the nuclear fallout, so although it may heal you, it will raise your radiation level and cause serious effects on your stats, and eventually kill you. Thankfully, there are some drugs that you can take that can boost your resistence, or deplete your raditation entirely. But be warned, you can become addicted to the drugs if you take too many. The scavenging aspects comes in the form of custom tailored weapons. If you get a schematic of a weapon, you can find the parts and build it at a workbench. The weapons are very creative and usually, very effective.
The audio is Fallout 3 is outstanding. The voice actor count has been raised from 3, to 5 now! (Oh Oblivion, how I love you). The Wasteland music isn't dark and gloomy, but yet, ambient and mysterious. It sets the tone that there is a whole world out there, even if it's not a very happy world. On your journeys you can find radio stations like the Enclaves propaganda station, or Galaxy News Radio. GNR is a underground radio station that plays old, 1950's era music. And let me tell you, killing super mutants with a sawn off shotgun, only to have their head explode into a gooey paste while listening to I Don't Want To Set The World On Fire, is hilariously funny. GNR also reports on current news, rumours, and your (yes, you) endevours in the wasteland, whether it be good, or evil.
Overall, I think this is one of the best games to come out this year and, this generation. I know, I haven't touched on much of this game. But the fact is, there is too much to cover. The level of detail put into the game astounds me. When I first saw the Jefferson Memorial I was excited, telling family to come in and look what I found. I could just be biased by saying this is a gaming experiance that needs to be played, and not seen or read. Fallout 3 is
the RPG that games wish they could be.
Because in the end, war never changes.
Audio: 9/10. The music is perfect, setting the tone for the game. Only made better by GNR's song list. The downside, being the small songlist.
Graphics: 9/10 There could have been more detail upon close examination, but this game is truly a stunner. The draw distances it can pull off is fucking incredible. Held black by slight tearing and graphic glitches.
Controls: 10/10. Very comfortable, and for the PC, you can button map.
Content: 9/10 There is so much to see and do, but eventually, the game ends.
Replayability: 10/10 Achievements/Tropheys to unlock. Along with wanting to play again as a different character, and an entirely different perspective. Plus, Bethesda promised over 500 endings. So see how many you can get.
Story: 8/10 You feel much more involved in the story, with the ability to even say "I'm not helping you" at the end of the game. Sadly, the story is not flushed out enough, even with it's climactic ending.
Innovation: 9/10 This is
NOT Oblivion with guns.
Getting into it: 6/10 The opening bit may hook you, but the gameplay can often be slow and times where you are just wandering the wastes without firing a bullet. But, even if you didn't like Oblivion, don't draw ties to it, and enjoy Fallout 3 for what it is.
Game Length: 9/10 My main character, before he was saved over, had over 27 hours worth of gametime. And I was still finding stuff to do. But, the main quests end, and you can't continue. So no mater how long you take to get there, the game will end.
Spice: 7/10 The game is riddled with dark humour and nods to the previous games. (Nuka-Cola, anyone?) You'll either love it or hate it, with very little gray area.
Kroen
