Fallout 3 – The latest entry into one of the most lauded RPG franchises for their brutal re-tellings of humanity’s attempt to survive the apocalypse. Bethesda Softworks, creators of the Elder Scroll’s chapters Morrowind and Oblivion have stepped up to take a swing at a series that many thought to be long-dead, this writer included. Having completed both Fallouts 1&2, I could easily draw many parallels between Fallout 3’s predecessors, however this is no sequel. It is as complete a re-telling as Fallout 2 was from Fallout.
How did Bethesda do? Find out after the jumpBeginning with one of the more unique intro cut-scenes that I’ve seen, I was immediately faced with a pretty standard character creation system. You select your name (which means no one ever calls you anything but some generic pronoun), sex, and creat your look. I did have quite a bit of trouble trying to make my character look like me and eventually gave up. Not really a failing of the system, but just another game that relies on a person’s memory of their own face to try and re-create it. I really wish that some game would find a way to extrapolate a starting place from photos taken at different angles or something similar. Then you enter a pseudo-tutorial. It really only covers basic movement, shooting, and the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (aka: V.A.T.S.). You are expected early on to spec your character with some pretty vague descriptions of your primary stats. Don’t worry about this too much, though – you have a chance to change them before the end of the “tutorial,” and when you do, the descriptions are better.
One thing that you will likely realize quickly is that Bethesda was trying to walk the line between an action-oriented FPS and the turn-based play of an RPG. What you end up with is an interesting hybrid called V.A.T.S. I truly am a lover of both Role Playing Games (RPG) and First Person Shooters (FPS), so this left me feeling satisfied on both levels, yet somewhat unsatisfied on both as well. Before you begin throwing stones, let me explain what I mean. When playing a pure FPS or RPG, you have a certain level of challenge that comes from the medium. First Person Shooters have a twitch type of play that requires pinpoint accuracy and speed to shoot first and best. An RPG, on the other hand, requires that you plan your attack and know your enemy so that you can defeat your opponent, maximizing effort and minimizing resource use. Fallout 3 combines these, however it takes away the challenge of both styles leaving most combat lacking what makes each genre’s combat style rewarding. When I faced my first Super Mutant, I certainly did feel good, however as an RPG player I felt wasteful of so many bullets, and as an FPS player I felt extremely inaccurate. The game wants you to use V.A.T.S. to full-effect and you really have to master it to survive. I do enjoy the combat for what it is, however I don’t really feel like I’m performing at the top of my game in either category. A small annoyance in comparison to the coolness of what Bethesda did with the V.A.T.S. system.
Graphically, it is as pretty as Oblivion and then some. Its not really even worth talking about graphics much due to the fact that telling you that it looks about as good as the 360 can push out really covers it. Without spoiling anything, take a trip in the elevator in the Washington memorial and tell me if its not at the same time one of the most horrific sites you could imagine, as well as one of the most beautiful.
The games’ story is very immersive. I spent well over ten hours doing side-quests before advancing the main story a single step. This is one aspect that I love in open-world RPG’s. You truly take it at your own pace. You can rush through the main story, but you’d be doing yourself a great disservice. The rest of the Fallout 3 experience lies in living in the world that Bethesda has re-created for you. I thoroughly enjoyed the Survival Guide quests because they injected some added difficulty to some otherwise mundane encounters and asked that I play a little differently than I normally would. On a very base level, the story is about a son’s search for his father who left the vault for a reason that isn’t fully known. I find this to be a very good premise, because its very relatable. There are times in people’s lives when people leave for little or no reason and whether it be a sense of love or duty, we follow them. I lost a little of that sense while completing the side-quests, but quickly got it back when progressing the main storyline. Delving too far into the story would endanger some for spoilers, but let me say that in addition to the main story you have more than enough to keep you interested in an engaging way for a long time.
Leveling up your character is straightforward with several perks that lend themselves to the type of character you’re playing. In the early levels I really recommend getting the XP bonus perks so that you level faster, and can get other abilities more quickly. Talking to a friend who played the game through already and never took those perks, I was about 2-3 levels higher than him early on, and maxed out well before he did. It was well worth suffering early. Using the items and quick-select system is nothing really new. The Pip-Boy 3000 is a neat inventory interface, categorizing items nicely. Overall, the mechanics are solid, but not really redefining the genre, except for V.A.T.S. as I already discussed above. The similar decision system and Karma system was present that governed most of Oblivions interactions was present, but mostly irrelevant. One interesting thing was that if you were too good (as I apparently was) contracts get taken out and you have to fight bounty hunters. By the time this was written, I hadn’t played through as a bad boy but I imagine you have similar situations with that as well. I was impressed by the effect that your decisions did have on a global scale. I’m still always surprised that some towns have heard of things I did in others, and there’s no mail system I’m aware of. Creepy weird
Lastly, covering sound… The score for Fallout 3 is what I would call the bare essentials. You have the hits when its scary, you have the silences when its awkward, etc. However most of a great story is told through its music. I think in the context of the game the music is acceptable but it does not approach what it could be. What could have taken this game to an ethereal, epic level would have been more attention to the musical details. When going into new areas or new parts of the story you have token sound effects and music that help to re-iterate what you are seeing visually. What I would have loved is more music that helped tell the story. I use John William’s music as a guide here – I know pretty much what is happening by the music. This is not so with Fallout 3’s music most of the time. When investigating some of the vaults, I got more annoyed with the sounds and wished there were something else going on and then BAM, something significant would happen and I felt sort of let-down because there was no build-up to it. Even if there is no build-up visually or story-wise, you can do it musically. Also, the radio system annoyed me because I felt like I was missing something if I didn’t listen to it, so I did until I started hearing the same crap over and over and then didn’t listen to it again. I would have to say that the sound did what it was supposed to, and that’s it. It didn’t really add too much more to the game than being present.
Overall, the game was extremely enjoyable. I enjoy talking with friends about it and the different decisions that I made and how it affected everything, including the story. At present, there are three DLC packs planned, extending the gameplay considerably, and, from what I have read, even change the ending in a way that twists what actually happened. Even without these, though – Fallout 3 was a very fulfilling game and stands on its own two feet.
Overall: A-
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