Written by When you first start out you certainly realise that it’s just much much more than a pretty area with crap to do in it. It’s an actual WORLD out there, and that’s what I appreciate about it. Bethesda just makes an INCREDIBLE job of just immersing the player into this game and the harsh realities of doing things. But there’s no real emphasis on doing side quests and exploring for yourself, and instead there’s more Fable/Mass Effect instances where you can go somewhere specific in exploration if you want to, or out of necessity, and perchance pick up a quest. But, say, in Oblivion, when given the option of these side quests, that “Omg, there’s a side quest, and it’s actually remotely interesting.” feeling came over you. In Fallout 3, not so much so that you went off and did them, but you were more annoyed at the fact that you had to fetch something, or go to a certain place. Half of the main story line is doing a wild goose chase. The other half, is a search and seizure type.
The wild goose chase section though, takes you to some magnificent places. There’s happy, there’s scary, there’s light, there’s dark, and everything in between. I had more than a few moments laughing at something in game, and almost the same amount of moments going “HOLY JESUS EXCREMENT!!” in fear. The game engine itself is like a dirty version of Oblivion. Not that it’s worse in any way, but the art style is notably more dirty. Here in Fallout land, there is rarely a shiny thing but a lot of interesting stuff to find. The main story line itself is a very heartfelt one about what happens between a child and a father, and a quest to find said father and finish what he started. It was however, a really short story, lasting maybe a day or two’s worth of play if you didn’t do anything else. Albeit longer than the main oblivion story line, still, I can write adventures that will take longer than that to finish.
The other part of the game that I really didn’t like was that you can’t play the world after the game finishes. As far as the story goes, this is completely fine as it’s really hard to change the world after the end of the main story, however I would have liked to see at least a little bit of effort to try and make a compromise so after you finish, you can go out and do all the other mini stories a la Oblivion, do some exploration, etc.
The V.A.T.S control system I personally think is really cool, even if it is really, really, really, cheap if you work up the correct amount of skill points. By the time I finished the game, I could walk around with a .325 cal hunting rifle (or whatever the calibre was), and call out three shots to the head, and then kill the enemy without having to break a sweat. It got really cheap after a while, but I did enjoy the whole “I’m staying alive and conserving ammo!” part of it. So it’s really a tossup and a lot of personal opinion on what you use.
The voice acting is again incredible, and you’ll hear a lot of familiar voices from Oblivion. Granted that the people comprising the wasteland are basically the more human people from Oblivion used over again. Not exactly unexpected, but I would have liked to see a little bit of variation. The musical score was incredible. It never once got annoying, and it was always doing what it was supposed to at the right moments. The only thing I didn’t like about the sound was the radio. That was the only thing that repeated itself a lot, but you can turn off the radio so it pretty much balances out.
Overall the game play is really fun, following the story is really compulsive and easy to do. I will admit however, that going on a side quest to take care of something, only to be thrown another “Favour for a favour” trek is quite annoying. It’s like Bethesda took all the really interesting story hooks from Oblivion and whittled them down to a ghost of what they used to be. And like in Oblivion, the monsters level as you level, so it doesn’t get easier in general, just easier to do what you train in. This I didn’t mind so much as I trained my character in the art of killing, and it does keep things engaging as far as fighting enemies go. The big guys were really freaking big, the small guys were really freaking small, so it really kept even with itself all along the way. Though since I’ve only played it through once, I’ve yet to get higher than level 12. Though I’m sure if you took your time, did everything else BEFORE doing the main story you could easily get into the 50′s and 60′s I’m sure.
Overall, Fallout 3 is a good game. It has a compelling story, beautiful waste lands (ironic, I know), and some really interesting, albeit kinda sad, characters. This totally has the Coolhand2 seal of approval
(Disclaimer: The CSA (Coolhand2 Seal of Approval) does not take into account any language barriers or moral standards. Please follow the ESRB (or equivalent) ratings in your country and buy what you want to buy…)
