*Old Review* Fallout 3

[|9.SS|Scha. Schwarz]

Fallout 3, I do want to set the world on fire

Many people have probably already made up their minds about Fallout 3, some die-hard fans began to hate the game from the very first teaser, others loved and adored it, and people like me stood on the outside and went wah? Well once again I must confess I am not a hard core fan of the series, but as I was told I would be reviewing Fallout 3 I decided I best brush myself up on some of the past morsels in the verse.

Simply put I am surprised I never played the first or second fallout as I find them quite enjoyable, unlike Fable because and in-spite of free will. Granted the first game had a time limit but it was still fun to be able to do whatever you damn well pleased. The tradition to this has not been lost, and although I decided to break the mold and play a good guy for once I must admit I enjoyed myself. Any who enough with this sappy stuff let’s get into the review.

First let’s talk about the story, which in this case can be drastically different for each person. How you interact with people and with the environment itself can determine if your father is a good man, you are a true saint that people follow, or you are a tyrannical Warlord that enslaves and destroys everything in their path. It should be noted that since I played the good side I was open to a lot of missions that anyone being an evil arrogant bastard wouldn’t be, and vice versa.

Alright to get started you play from birth, and I mean just pulled fresh from your mother’s womb birth. Here you meet a vague image, just vague enough so that you cannot tell any details about your father, as he will be dynamically generated based on your characters body, this is incredible and adds a huge depth to the game. I designed my avatar to be a slightly muscled, military-looking-man and my father came out to be a well-groomed, well kempt man, with a firm face, a bit of scruff and who’s eyes seemed to pierce everyone else with his intelligence. Honestly from the way my character was designed, and subsequently my father, it seemed he fit the profile of a true INTJ. He was never emotional, he thought with complete logic and had a one-track mind to accomplish his goals.

Ok enough about that, you are born into the mysterious Vault 101 with your father but you don’t seem to fit in. After spending a couple years in tutorial mode, and I mean you age until you are appropriately old enough to do your own work. However when you awake from another time continuum you find that your father is gone, the Overseer of the Vault has killed his best friend, and guards are coming to kill you, you make a rational decision to high tail it out of there. Here though rather then getting a girlfriend I made the choice to kill the Overseer to spare the remaining vault dwellers from suffering under him. Though I thought this was a great idea, everyone else seemed to hate me, damn they were easily brainwashed.

From here you are let out into the game world to do as you please although you are given your main mission of finding your father. The story then goes so wild from here that I can’t really say much about it, but from what I have seen it plays out exactly as you wish it which should be enjoyable for everyone. Also the city megaton, a little haven built atop a live undetonated atomic bomb, that is just awesome, I think I would have lived there, you know until I saw a shady businessman come into the town.

From here let’s talk about gameplay and combat. Most people may be surprised to learn that this is not a first person shooter, it is a true RPG. You may be firing from First person but if you are inefficient with a weapon it will have a huge spread, horrible recoil and will jam and malfunction more. If you feel a little overwhelmed switch over to VATS and pick your targets to skillfully take aim, but be warned this drains Action Points (AP) and they take time to recharge. It should also be noted the game is gorey, very gorey and peoples skulls will collapse after taking high caliber bullets.

Some of the weapons are ridiculous, and the Fat Man Launcher is one of them. Hey don’t get me wrong, when I have the weapon I love every second of it, but when an enemy has one and it almost kills you in one shot, cripples all your limbs, irradiates you, and plus they have infinite ammo, you can see how this would get old fast. Also make sure you fight your battles in a smart way, I never found a single partner throughout the game, other than scripted events, so I had to manage my ammo and supplies. I actually liked the fact I had a hard time finding weapons and ammo at times because after all, this is a wasteland not your local Guns-R-Us store.

This leads me perfectly into my next topic, atmosphere. The game excels at it, everything in the DC area has been repurposed for survival, the capital building lawn has trenches dug in it, the Washington monument is used as a radio tower for the whole city, and the Pentagon is a super fortress used by the Brotherhood of Steel. I even found it amazing that local super markets were repurposed into safe houses, and subways turned into secretive, albeit dangerous highways throughout the land.

Advertisements for Vaults, Nuka-Cola, and tours of the monuments dot the land, and in fact even if you never see them they  just add the next layer to the cake. The people in the world know they don’t live in a paradise and will actually group together, protect one another, and struggle together to survive. One shining moment is when I taught a town, ‘Bigtown’ to be exact, how to use pistols they thanked me and then banded together to defend themselves from a Super Mutant attack. I honestly can’t think of too much more to say about it. You simply have to see what I mean, it is stunning.

The game was surprisingly short for me. I expected it to last me for several days, but I couldn’t seem to keep myself away from the main story missions, they were just too damn addicting. I believe I played for 8 hours, considered a good length for any shooter but very short for an RPG, especially one of such magnitude. Also because of my goody two-shoes nature, I didn’t get to continue playing, damn self sacrifice for the good of assholes.

As for a recommendation, I say buy it, play it, love it. If you don’t like it return it, at this point I can’t see why anyone would have a problem with this game, then again I am not a hardcore fan. I truly believe this is one of the best games of 2008, and honestly I say it is, then again the gaming drought just ended and some other exciting titles are just around the bend.

Sometimes I don’t even know why I do reviews, if you are influenced by this then I guess I did my job, but most people have made up their mind one way or the other and what I say won’t make any difference. Ah hell with it, I am going to play some more Fallout 3.