Fallout 3 Previews

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Written by BuckGB on October 2nd, 2008

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I'm under the shadow of a wrecked freeway overpass propped up by tilting concrete pylons. The road, maybe two stories up, comes to an abrupt halt. The husk of a ruined bus teeters on the edge. There's got to be something good up there, I think. Picking my way across the landscape, I eventually come to the spot where the ramp meets the earth. My suspicions were correct: The elevated stretch of freeway has been claimed by survivors. Barricades have been propped up along its length, transforming the interrupted roadway into a defensible position. There are a ton of obstacles between me and my goal, where imaginary treasure awaits.

Navigating around the burnt shells of cars, I come eye to eye with my first survivor -- a leather-clad villain straight out of "Mad Max." The Renegade comes at me swinging a pool cue. (Apparently the guy isn't happy to see me. His friend, somewhere off in the distance, drives the message home by taking pot shots at me with a sniper rifle.) It takes a little trial and error to effectively clean house. With judicious use of save files, I try to maximize my effectiveness as a killing machine. On one go, I use too many stimpacks to heal bullet wounds. Another time, I wander too close to a burning vehicle: The thing blows up in my face, leaving my lifeless body sprawled across the asphalt. And then there's the guy with the Flamer. It takes several attempts to snuff the guy before he gets within range. I kill them all, adding their sniper rifle and flamethrowers to my arsenal.

But enough with the preliminaries. The real question is, how does Fallout 3 play? That's the best news of all: controller in hand, Fallout 3 feels smooth, responsive, and highly intuitive, even for a jaded shooter veteran like myself. I played primarily from the first-person camera view, switching to the third-person view only in certain outdoor scenes. Though Fallout 3 is first and foremost an RPG, the gunplay-heavy combat quickly grabbed my attention. Using the standard first-person view, I blasted away at enemy mutants, cannibals, and squatters. The results were mixed - accuracy counts big when shooting - until I tried out the V.A.T.S. targeting system. With one button press, I stopped time and repeatedly targeted an enemy raider's head for maximum damage. The V.A.T.S. targeting allows you to cripple enemy limbs with surgical precision, a benefit that becomes apparent once you start fighting the mutated insects and beasts that plague Fallout 3's nuke-blasted wastelands.

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