Fallout 3 Reviews

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Written by BuckGB on October 28th, 2008

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It's rare that a game can hit the mark in so many different and often conflicting areas. Fallout 3 offers freedom without sacrificing a focused story. It delivers fantastic combat without forgoing a deep role-playing system. The characters you meet are engaging and oftentimes hilarious without feeling out of place in this harsh world. The game has a few flaws -- most of them technical -- but it's a case where the whole is greater than the sum. It's a fantastic game with incredible atmosphere that offers fun in so many different ways that you're almost sure to get hooked. This is one of the best games you'll play this year.

Although this is an RPG and that's an FPS, Bioshock ends up being the best comparison. Not so much because there seems some definite cross-pollination of ideas and style, but rather because it's the big Christmas action game with brains and choices, and with an interest in constructing a refreshingly different world from all those austere near-future manshoots that clog up the shelves. In many respects, it's a far better game than Bioshock, most of all because you get the endless choice that promised but didn't deliver. So it's tragic that the often awful production values make a fool of it so regularly. Whenever you're really settling into the game and thinking what a wonderful world it is, it goes and does something incredibly stupid and clumsy, and the whole illusion shatters. It's a truly fabulous RPG in so many ways, but we desperately wish Bethesda had saved the money they burned on unnecessarily hiring Liam Neeson and Malcom McDowell to voice a couple of key characters, and spent it instead on more actors, rehearsals, better script-writers and animators, another proof-reader. Clearly, it's one of the must-buy games of the year, and it'll prove impossible not to lose yourself to it for a good couple of dozen hours. If only Bethesda could escape their own bad habits and sloppiness though then it would have been one of the must-buy games of the decade.

Fallout 3 is one of the best games of recent years in a year that's certainly been blessed with some excellent releases. It's a game that stands on its own without prior knowledge of the series - though Bethesda has crafted an adventure that still aims firmly at fans before all others. It's not without some faults however, and the recipe isn't to everyone's tastes or pace. The third-person perspective remains as useless as it was in Oblivion, for example but if you can put in the time and commit to exploring this detailed and carefully designed wasteland, then Fallout 3 can't help but satisfy and engage you in ways that very few games ever have.

All told, Fallout 3 is a great game. Granted, I still have a lot left to explore, but the pace and scope of Wasteland is fabulous. It's not a platformer, so if you're expecting nonstop thrills, this might not be for you. You'll have sections where you're zigzagging across the landscape and minutes between combat, but there's a depth to this trek. You feel as if you're a post-apocalyptic survivor searching for a close relative who may or may not be in danger.and who has to grow up through near-death encounters with the worst creatures or others seeking to survive the same horrors you are. When people talk about deep, immersive video games, Fallout 3 can stand as a reference.

If you seek to break the world, you'll occasionally find a way -- which is understandable, given the limits of time and tech -- but it does pull you out of the otherwise broad and engrossing experience. Faults be damned, though; this is the kind of hugely ambitious game that doesn't come around very often, and when it does, you'd be a fool not to play it and enjoy the hell out of it and look forward to the day (next-next-gen?) when the fidelity of open-world RPGs takes another big step closer to the uncanny valley's far side.

We've mentioned Oblivion quite a few times in the span of this review, since it's impossible to write about Fallout 3 without comparing it to its technical predecessor. Yes, Fallout 3 is a lot like Oblivion (with guns!), but it's a superior game in nearly every way, as it features a more engaging storyline, impeccable presentation, and hundreds of hours of addictive gameplay. While the jury is still out on whether or not hardcore Fallout enthusiasts will accept the game as part of the storied franchise, Fallout 3 is a must-have title for most RPG fans, as well as one of the finest games of this generation.

Fallout 3 delivers a megaton blast in terms of storyline with a tale that will evaporate hours from any gamer's life -- and with a main story that covers about 25 hours, you'll experience many a sleepless night. But there's at least 20 more hours of map yet to be explored (and there's a download option here for future updates). While it lacks a diverse spectrum of enemies and the V.A.T.S. system isn't perfect, Fallout 3 remains a well-balanced game of story versus combat, something that every gamer needs to experience just to understand why engaging stories often make the greatest games.

It's unfortunate that Fallout 3 is saddled with so many little- and medium-sized issues, because they get in the way of what's an otherwise fantastic experience. The world is well-realized and full of options. It'll be a struggle in spots, but I'm willing to guess that most people will be able to overlook a lot of the game's problems and still have a very good time exploring the irradiated wasteland formerly known as Washington DC.

The presentation of the game, as a whole, is what really takes Fallout 3 and boosts it into a level high above most of the other games being released this year on the Xbox 360. The fact that, even after all the side-missions are completed, there is still some exclusive downloadable content (details unknown) coming at some point even excites us more. From the moment we booted up the title to the minute we started writing this review our life was engrossed by Fallout 3. Bethesda had us hooked and obsessed for the entirety of this gaming experience. We can only hope that the mass number of action titles coming out this Fall don't allow this masterpiece to fall through the cracks. Fallout 3 is everything we could have ever imagined and there is no reason that if you own an Xbox 360 you should not be playing this game; go buy it.

Personally, I'm having a ball with this game. I've been playing it pretty much non-stop since our review copy arrived at the office, but I'm sure as hell not going to stop any time soon. There are elements here that are significantly altered from the first games - some pleasant, some not - but I ultimately find the game to be a good thing: it's a different experience, yet one with many familiar ingredients.

And for the rest of you... well, you have a treat on your hands. As I said up at the top, this is a massive game: in a month that's seen the release of five or six of the year's best titles, I reckon this is the absolute peach. It's packed with interesting places, with choices to make, with that nebulous sense of adventure you only find in the best RPGs. And after a long wait, it's finally here.

Fallout 3 has been by some margin the most enjoyable game I've played since BioShock - a game with which it shares a similar artistic vision and ambience. Despite so many worries, Fallout 3 almost effortlessly succeeds in its central aim of reviving a much-loved brand to appeal to the vast majority of players. It's a thrilling, all-consuming experience that will absorb you for weeks, whether you're attracted by the action, the adventure, or the role-playing, as you fall in love with the relentless excitement, incredible atmosphere, sense of place and sheer choice.

Bethesda has once again delivered a game of life-affirming brilliance that will be heralded as a classic, and talked about for years to come.

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