Fallout 3 Reviews

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Written by BuckGB on October 30th, 2008

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At long last Fallout 3 has arrived, and the post-nuclear wasteland has never looked better. So to speak. The first two games were by the late, great Black Isle Studios, and built on the setting pioneered by Electronic Arts' Wasteland in 1985. After publisher Interplay sold the rights to Fallout to Bethesda, makers of The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, much controversy arose in the Fallout fanbase. Would Fallout 3 be a worthy sequel? Would it be dumbed down for console players? Would it simply be Oblivion with guns? Thankfully, these fears have proven baseless for the most part.

The biggest issue we have with Fallout 3 is that there doesn't seem to be a massive improvement in terms of Bethesda Softworks previous games. Oblivion was a great game but Fallout 3 almost seems at times to be a total conversion of Oblivion. The AI of the many NPCs in the game seems to react in the same way as those in Oblivion. Many of the quests have a familiar feel. Even the game's introduction, as we mentioned before, has a lot of similarities. This is a quibble, however. Most game developers would be very happy about a game as well designed as Fallout 3 turned out to be.

While the majestic dread of the badlands and its topography of secrets is simultaneously charming and intimidating, it's how you operate that cinches the deal. For the most part, your stats, observations, and resolve will steer the course of events through handy, context-sensitive button presses. Dodging into the shadows turns the (talk) option into (pickpocket,) while mini-games present the challenge of a lock tumbler or secure terminal.

These are exciting times for fans of role-playing games. Fable II raised the bar and Fallout 3, if anything, lifts it higher. It's the perfect game for those who love the depth and immersion that RPGs provide, but have a phobia of orcs, goblins and the like. It is set in a gloriously devastated Washington DC after a nuclear war has driven people into underground vaults. You're born in Vault 101 and set up your character during a clever accelerated childhood. When your scientist father escapes when you hit 20, you follow him. What ensues is state of the art, featuring an incredibly convoluted storyline, with vast numbers of side-missions, great control over character development, amazing visuals and an unusual but effective shooting system. Moral dilemmas abound. For example, the first location you find is Megaton, a rickety shanty town constructed around an unexploded atomic bomb. Should you defuse the bomb or explode it, obliterating Megaton? This is the perfect credit-crunch game, as it contains vast amounts of gameplay and replay value.

The one thing that surprises me about games like Fallout 3 and Oblivion is the capability that each game has of sucking you into the world that the developers have so meticulously created. I've already lost a good amount of time just wandering the vast wasteland in search of optional quests. I can scarcely imagine how many more hours await me. The other interesting thing about this game is that for the first time, Bethesda has really made a conscious effort to define the boundaries of what evil and good are. In Oblivion, you could easily go either way and switch in-between whereas the new "karma" system rewards you for the things you do - whether they be good or bad.

I had agreed to a seemingly simple request, to deliver a letter from a pretty young girl, her blonde hair standing out in the muted tones of the irradiated Megaton settlement. She was worried about her brother and needed the neatly folded note delivered to him at his home, several miles away. Though she seemed pleasant, the barkeep in town, an insidious man whom I trusted only so long as I kept a hand on my trusty 10mm slugthrower, told me she was hounded by a haunting fear that betrayed her calm demeanor. For once, I should have listened to him.

I got mixed up in a plot that involved murder, gang warfare and if you can believe this vampires. But I had delivered the damn letter, and had several new scars for my trouble. Now I was just trying to get back to Megaton, that horrible hole that had become my home. That's when I saw the church. Like the cute blonde, it caught my eye. And like her, it was probably best avoided. But I kept thinking that perhaps things would be different there, that I could find some unreachable solace. Even the whitewashed walls of the steeple were still intact, surely a good sign.

Speaking of quests, you can sometimes find various ways to complete them. An early example is when you try to escape from the Vault. You can go all gung ho and take out any person that gets in your way. I decided to kill the Overseer of the Vault the first time and that really pissed off my friend who incidentally was the daughter of the Overseer. The second time around I snuck around and avoided conflict as much as I could bypassing the Overseer and going straight for the Vault door. My friend this time was a lot more sympathetic towards me and I also had better karma going this route. There was also a part where I helped a citizen of the Vault save his mom from roaches. The first time I played I charged in but I didn't get to her time. He wasn't pretty happy with me after that. The second time I was able to convince him to go in by giving him my baseball bat and he took care of the roaches himself saving his mom. To show his gratification, he gave me his jacket. As you can see by these two examples, you can really get a different experience each time you play the game. I could easily save his mom, kill the Overseer and changed a few other outcomes before leaving the Vault. One great thing about Fallout 3 is you are presented with many choices each with their own set of outcomes and within all the combinations that are available you'll get a different experience many times over. How do I proceed this time knowing what I know from previous games? How can I maximize my chances? What would happen if I do this instead of this? These choices and variations really give you a ton of replay value.

Fallout 3 brings back a legendary saga to the foreground of video games and it does it with remarkable successes. Graphically it is a very powerful title, the ambience is carefully planned, and its size, freedom and scope are its principal highlights. It is as captivating a game in the beginning as easy to forget in the mid term; despite this, we can say that it is a title that is worth trying.

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