Fallout 3 - Review

Added November 4th, 2008 by Artie Augustyn

It’s not an easy endeavor creating a sequel to one of the most beloved games in history. Despite this ponderous task Bethesda has decided to take a risk and develop a new Fallout game, appropriately named Fallout 3. Bethesda’s take on post-apocalypse America may not please diehard fans of the series, but that doesn’t mean that Fallout 3 is by any means a bad game. If you’re expecting “another Fallout game” you’ll be sadly disappointed.  Bethesda has put together a fully realized world;  as soon as you depart from Vault 101 and enter The Wasteland, you’ll never want to leave.

Before you’re born into the world, you should set your expectation accordingly. Fallout 3 is not a sequel to Fallout 2. Aside from a few scarce references and the inclusion of franchise classics such as the Brotherhood of Steel and Vault Boy, you’d have a hard time identifying this game from some other apocalypse simulator. The game would’ve been better off titled “Trashland” and didn’t worry about rabid fans screaming blasphemy whenever arcane specifics were fiddled around with. As someone who played Fallout 2 for the first time four months ago, I didn’t mind the fact that the game strayed so far away from its source material, but anyway:

Fallout 3 takes place in Washington DC hundreds of years after a nuclear holocaust has taken place. Luckily America saw the apocalypse coming and designed several “Vaults” for people to live in until the radiation subsided. This is where your story begins. You’re born into the vault (literally) and everything from that point forward is up to you. Character creation is decided through eugenics machines at birth, while what attributes your character posses is dictated through an exam that’s required when you turn sixteen.

The early years of your life take place within Vault 101, including your tenth birthday

All of the introductions and tutorials take place within the Vault you’re born in. When you turn nineteen your father mysteriously leaves the vault with no explanation other than a cryptic message. His departure leaves the vault in a state of panic, forcing you to go outside and chase after him, whether or not you decide to continue this pursuit is up to you. Seconds after you leave your shelter and enter harsh reality, that’s where the game begins.

Fallout 3 has dozens of mechanics to go over. The V.A.T.S. system, managing inventory, how bartering with stores works, morality meter and title, different weapons and classes, housing, buddies, radiation meter, and the list just keeps going. This entire review could be pages on each individual system, but that’s not necessary. All I can say without spending too much of everyone’s time is “Everything works.” I have yet to find a single mechanic in the game that I found to be tedious, boring, or unhelpful. There’s a reason to invest time in every part of the game. You’ll never find yourself upgrading a skill such as “science” and then discover that it does absolutely nothing. Everything is well rounded and has equal importance.

Part of the reason why every skill trait works is due to the phenomenal quest design. Similar to Bethesda’s previous game “The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion” the majority of Fallout 3’s content lies in the side quests. Oblivion received much criticism for having many of the quests be class specific. Quests would often ask your character to perform an action they’re not very good at, such as lockpicking, and provide no alternative. Those problems never occur in Fallout 3. Each quest has a variety of ways to be solved.

For example, I ran into a quest where I was required to rescue a guy from a cult he joined. I decided to infiltrate the cult, use my “Lady Killer” perk, which allowed me to persuade a member of the opposite sex into giving me the password to the cult’s security computer. I then used this computer to unlock the door where the guy was held captive, and convinced him to come home.

However, I could’ve killed everyone in the cult, then hacked the computer and forced him to accompany me. Or sneak past everyone and pick the lock manually. Or I could just shoot the person who assigned me this quest in the face, and never give it a second thought. Fallout 3 excels at providing multiple experiences. Each player is very likely to have a different strategy to solving the same quest.

Try to identify each part of the human skull in this picture. I count two eyeballs and a jaw

In the event you decide that violence is the answer to every problem you come across, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Fallout’s combat combines real time first person shooter action with periodic pausing for aimed shots. The majority of the action takes place in real time, controlling like Half Life, or Halo, or any other first person shooter. At any time during a fight the player can choose to press the “V.A.T.S.” button. This pauses the world, and allows the player to accurately aim for one part of an enemy’s body.

From here they can choose to go for a quick headshot, an easy torso blow, or attempt damaging a limb in hopes that it will cripple the opponent. Combat doesn’t usually last long enough to warrant the effort of crippling an opponent, so you’ll tend to run as close as possible, whip out a shotgun, and blow someone’s brains out.  Close combat with a shotgun is sort of a joke since headshots are so lethal, but that doesn’t stop the game from being fun, even if battle becomes relatively easy early on.

The physical world of Fallout 3 is also exceptionally well-done. The Wasteland looks and feels like a barren wasteland. Buildings are torn down and scavenged through, leaving only burnt books and tin cans, while the downtown area of DC is filled with rubble and hostile raiders. The sense of desolation exudes from every aspect of the game. Most of the weapons’ conditions range from “crappy” to “not as crappy.” The majority of the game you’ll find yourself barley having enough ammo and health to limp through life. Towns are few and far between, so when you finally stumble upon that sanctuary of salvation you can physically feel the relief.

Megaton is one of the more populated settlements

The downside to this massive world is that it never forces you to go everywhere. You can complete the entire game without seeing an entire quadrant of the map. Fallout does have some trouble directing the player where to go. Early in the main storyline, you’re tasked to visit a radio station in the middle of downtown. From my personal experience, this was damn near impossible. The compass proved to be unreliable since every path suggested was blocked with rubble, and in general I felt like I was going in circles. I ended up accidentally skipping over this quest all together, which robbed me of some story and an achievement. Luckily this was an isolated incident and I never had a similar problem after that point, but it’s something worth mentioning.

When you finish the main quest, the game is over. Unfortunately you’re not allowed to return to the world you’ve invested so much time in, but that’s hardly something to fret over. The climax of the game is handled very well. Fallout 3 is a morality driven game, often asking you to choose between good and evil. This isn’t a very unique concept, and it’s been done before in games like Fable and Mass Effect. However these games conveyed the morality choices in a very sub-par manner. Despite whatever actions you did throughout the game, the ending you received ultimately relied on one major decision at the very end.

You can choose to ask followers to join you, but if your morale status doesn’t match theirs, they’ll refuse

Fallout 3 ends with a black and white montage of every action you’ve performed, while a narrator explains the importance of these events. For example, if you’re a jerk the entire game and for some reason decide to save the world at the end of the game, the narrator explains that your actions didn’t really fit your character. Alternatively he could say that you decided near the end of your life that there are better things to do in life than to be mean all the time.

I spent a few hours experimenting with different key events towards the end of the game and I’ve been able to get four or five different endings. The divergences are very minor, but it’s enough to give you the impression that the game is tailoring directly to your character and not just a broad generalization of “good” and “evil.”

Bethesda has done an excellent job at creating a living and wheezing post apocalypse world. Combining RPG elements and gory action orientated combat flawlessly. Fallout 3 is definitely one of the better bargains you’ll come across for years to come. A single playthrough can take anywhere between 25 to 100 hours to complete and in addition to that you can always go through everything again and double that time. It may not be the best sequel to Fallout 2, but it’s no doubt an amazing game. Don’t complain.