Fallout 3 Review
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Character Development Bethesda incorporated a lot of familiar concepts from the original Fallout games into their system of character development in Fallout 3. The (special) attributes -- strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, and luck -- are all back, and they control roughly the same things. Bethesda also brought back perks and skills (but not traits), and many of them should sound familiar. For example, you can hack computers using the science skill, you can pick locks using the lockpick skill, and you can improve your resistances with the toughness perk. Some skills (like stealing and gambling) disappeared, and the perks got rearranged (partially because you now get a perk every time you level rather than every three levels), but I'm guessing that anybody who played the original Fallout games will be right at home putting together a character for Fallout 3.
Probably the most interesting change in the character system involves action points. The original Fallouts were both turn-based games, and they needed action points to determine how much you could do during a turn of combat. But Fallout 3 is a real-time game, and obviously it doesn't have such a need. So what Bethesda did was introduce the Vault Assisted Targeting System (VATS), which allows you to pause combat and target different parts of your enemies' bodies. VATS makes combat much easier (some might say too easy), especially with moving targets, but you can only queue attacks into the system until you run out of action points, and then you have to wait for the action points to (slowly) regenerate. I thought this was a clever transition, since Bethesda kept the definition of action points about the same, but they figured out a way to incorporate them into a real-time game.
Sadly, not all parts of the character system are as well thought out. For some reason, despite allowing characters to select three (or four) times as many perks as in Fallout 2, Fallout 3 actually has fewer perks to choose from, which is just odd. For any sort of perk or bonus system, it's always better to give players too many options rather than too few, and Fallout 3 has too few. Melee characters in particular get the short end of the stick here, since no perks were created for their playing style at all (what happened to the slayer perk?).
Bethesda also dumbed down the character system a bit, which I found to be kind of sad but not entirely surprisingly, since games seem to keep going in that direction. For example, the traps and throwing skills of the original Fallout games were combined into a single explosives skill, and even with a low rating in the skill I never failed to disarm a trap. I'm not even sure if it's possible to fail. Then there's the minimum strength requirement for weapons, which doesn't exist any more, and so characters can use any weapon they want, even if it's bigger than they are. And finally, the prerequisites for perks were reduced. Fallout 2 had some perks that required an attribute rating of 10, but in Fallout 3 the highest attribute requirement is 7. That might not sound like a bad thing, but it means that most characters can learn all (or nearly all) of the perks, and you're not forced to make any choices. A good character development system should always require you to make choices.
But the biggest problem with the character system in Fallout 3 is the level cap. Even without selecting any perks to add levels or experience bonuses to my character, I hit the level cap after exploring only half of the world, and since there's little variety to the enemies and equipment, that gave me little incentive to keep visiting optional locations. Bethesda in particular, with their goal of providing players with huge worlds where you can wander around for hundreds of hours, only shoot themselves in the foot by implementing a level cap. They either need to be much more careful about how they reward experience points to players, or they need to dump the cap altogether.
Gameplay
For gameplay, Fallout 3 has a lot in common with Oblivion. You're given a large world to explore, and there are numerous quests to complete, but mostly the game is about combat. As you make your way around the D.C. wasteland you'll encounter ghouls, supermutants, deathclaws, and more, and you'll have to fend them off using a variety of weapons. For ranged attacks you might use a Chinese assault rifle or a sniper rifle, and for melee combat you might use a baseball bat or a combat knife. You can also fight enemies with your fists, or use special (unarmed weapons) like brass knuckles.
Fighting creatures is pretty easy. The mouse controls your targeting cursor, and you just need to point it at an enemy and then click the left mouse button to fire (or swing) your weapon. If you hold down the right mouse button then you'll aim your weapon, which will give you a better view of your enemy, and if you press the V key then you'll enter VATS, which will allow you to automatically target different parts of the enemy's body (and show you the odds of hitting each part). Most of the time your goal is to shoot the enemy in the head, but some enemies, like giant ants and crab-like mirelurks, are vulnerable in other places as well.
