When I first got Fallout 3, I was expecting a good role-playing type game. While I was granted my prediction, I was surprised by how much more there actually was. Fallout 3 is defined as an action role-playing game, but let me tell you it's so much more than just that. It has the concepts and gameplay of a first-person-shooter, the nail-biting storyline of a horror/survival game, and the replay-ability of an open world MMO.
Let me break this down into a few parts. We'll start with the storyline.
Plot:
You start out this game in Vault 101. You are a newborn, just learning to walk. Your father smiles at you, tells you he loves you, and leaves to go out for a bit. Being the adventurer that you are, you escape your play-pen and explore the room just as soon as you learn to walk. You pick up a book called 'Your SPECIAL', and from there begins the customization process that makes this game so unique. We'll discuss the customization process later, for now, back to the storyline.
You soon skip later into your life, your 10th birthday. It is at this age every boy steps into manhood, and receives his Pip-Boy 3000. The Pip-Boy is essentially a computer that sits on your wrist, like a watch. It displays all of the game's menus and any information you would ever need. It contains maps, notes, stats, your inventory, a radio, a compass, and anything else you could possibly come up with needed for survival. At this birthday party you learn how to interact with your environment, and meet some interesting characters. You also find your childhood rival and vault-bully - Butch. Butch is a classic prettyboy tough-guy, who finds pleasure in making everyone else around him upset.
After doing a few beginner-missions and getting a feel for the game, you skip to one fateful day.. your 19th birthday. You discover that your father has escaped Vault 101, a feat thought impossible and suicidal for anyone trying to attempt it. You immediately follow him, after getting in a few small fights with the guards and Overseer, ruler of the vault. You make it out into the Wasteland, and here your journey truly begins...
I don't want to ruin the plot for anyone here, but let me tell you, it's one of the best I've ever seen in a video game, no exaggeration. Between more than eighty hours of storyline gameplay and over a hundred hours on side-quests, you're sure to stay entertained by everything the plot has to offer. It's a real 'keep you guessing' type of storyline that I love to see in a game. Once you pick up the controller, it's tough to set it back down. I'm sure die-hard Bethesda fans will see this as the best investment they've ever put into a videogame.
Graphics:
The graphics for this game are phenomenal. Bethesda really put a lot of time into details, and it shows. I've literally spent hours enjoying the realism when I hit someone across the face with a bat, or blow off a limb using a close-combat shotgun. They put so much effort into making sure it all looks and feels real. No generic blood spots and splatters, if you shoot them in the chest you see a realistic-size wound with a realistic amount of blood. If you blow their head off with a high-powered rifle or shotgun, you see the blood splatter accordingly onto the wall behind them, and the brains drop out of their skull when the body hits the floor and keels over. Now, I'm not saying this game will make you sick- for the amount of blood there is you feel unusually un-nauseous when you kill someone. Maybe it's just because the whole game feels grim and hopeless. (In a good way, of course)
Customization:
And now to the part of the game everyone is raving about- The customization. Right from the get-go you can mold your character into anything you want. Man or woman, thief or do-gooder, genius or meat-head, the choice is yours. There are a few basic attributes you assign early on, and can change slightly throughout the rest of the game. These are called your SPECIALs (Strength Perception Endurance Charisma Intelligence Agility and Luck), and determine a lot of things for your character. A character with high strength may be good with melee weapons and have a lot of Health, but a character with High perception can sense enemies before they even see them. Also, not everything has to do with combat. Some skills such as intelligence generally determine how well you can 'Hack' a terminal or how effective medicine is. Other skills like Agility allow your character to move quicker and give you more action points to use in VATS (Vault-Tech Assisted Targetting System). Other than just basic stats, things like Karma influence your character. Karma is the general likeability of your character, meaning a positive karma will make more people want to talk to you, trust you, and help you out with favors, while a bad Karma will deter some inhabitants and make mothers hide their children when you walk through town. Generally speaking, having a positive karma is difficult yet more rewarding in the long run. I, personally, have a really bad karma because I'd rather kill someone and rob their store than get a discount for being 'nice'. Of course in the end, it's all up to you and your style of gameplay.
Creativity/Features:
This game is full of interesting new features and cool gameplay concepts that will have you jaw-dropped and shouting "Genius!". In Fallout 3, everything relates to what you actually do in that game. Let's say you get tired of looking at this town of survivors, so you go in and blast them all to pieces. Other than going to hell, you will notice a chain reaction that could cause you some problems. The traders who may have been living in that town will no longer be able to trade with the shops in the next town over, which means supplies will get lower over there and prices will raise. Not only will you be hurt economically, but as you just left a perfectly-good city empty, the next gang of raiders who stop by may decide to settle in. And just maybe someone from the next town over stops by to do business with the townspeople before they hear that raiders moved in, and so they get killed and robbed on sight. Now the town they came from is down one citizen, so that could mean they are short one city-guard or shop-owner. If you're lucky someone might move in to fill up their job, but very likely that shop will stay closed forever, and with one less watchmen the guards might be a little more cautious about who they let near their city. See what I mean? Everything you do affects the entire game.
Also fun for this game are companions. People who will follow you around, carry your stuff, and occasionally shoot a bad-guy. I have to say that although the concept was good, I was a little unimpressed with certain aspects of the AI. More than once I would have to backtrack to find my friend shooting the same cow, which happens to have about a bijiliion HP. So I have to sit there and unload clips or waste some grenades (precious, precious grenades) on that worthless piece of meat which yields little more than a rusty knife or a piece of cow meat which gives me a whole +5 health. They do come in handy for combat and relieving my aching back of carrying 200 pounds of equipment, but quite often can become a burden.. especially because they can't grasp the concept of 'Shut the hell up and SNEAK past these super-mutants, not fire at them!'
Massive world to explore:
This game is one of the biggest I've ever played. The world is huge, and you can spend probably a hundred hours running through the wastelands, sneaking around the Capitol, and exploring underground subway systems and basements. There is the ability to 'fast-travel' (Teleport yourself to a location such as town or monument), but only after you have found the actual place through honest exploration. Also, just about every building you see is an actual building that you can go inside and explore. It may not be more than an abandoned old house or an empty gas-station, but the realism is there. Just be careful about sleeping inside of an 'abandoned' house.. it may not be so 'abandoned' after all.
Combat:
The combat in this game is truly epic. Every bullet counts, and being accurate can be just as important as how much damage your gun does. In this game you can cripple limbs with realistic effects, confuse enemy robots by destroying their 'combat inhibitor', which throws them into a frenzy, or paralyze enemy humans with a well-placed sledgehammer blow to the spine. There are hundreds of weapons to choose from, and you can even create your own. You will need a blueprint and some basic materials (which can usually be easily scavenged), and the access to a work bench. The personal style of combat which you prefer can really be felt through the game. You might be a sneaky assassin-type, who uses sniper rifles to place that one-perfect shot through your enemies' skulls, or a fast-gunning SMG expert who also happens to be good with high-explosives. If you're into hand-to-hand combat, go for it! Use those brass knuckles to break some teeth, or take that baseball bat and crack some ribs. Anything is possible!
Combat is really a well-thought-out process, not just a button-mashing contest. That raider kicking your @$$ with a rifle? Shoot him in the arm, or even hit the gun itself, right out of his hands. Let's see you get me now, tough guy! Or maybe you ran into a couple super-mutants, and can't take them all at once (Because not everyone can be as good as me :D), run away and drop some landmines behind you. Maybe after one's got his foot blown off he'll have a tough time catching up to you. However you want to react to the situation, you can. There are no limits to combat in this game.
Danger:
And last but not least, the always looming thought of death. In this game you have to be vigilant at all times. Watch your step, you could end up getting crippled by a bear trap. Keep an eye out for shadows, there could be raiders hiding in them just waiting for the chance to strike. I don't recommend going out in the middle of the night, either. You won't be able to see that Super-Mutant Behemoth or those vampires with guns until it's too late. Maybe you should just find an abandoned store to sleep in until morning? Not always a good idea. You could wake up to the barrel of a bounty-hunter's gun and the last words you hear are "Got 'em."
So all in all, this game far exceeded my expectations. It might have been Bethesda's greatest achievement yet, even better than Oblivion.. Yes, I said even BETTER than OBLIVION. I hope you had as much fun reading this review as I did writing it, and have established a better opinion of Fallout 3. Until next time, game on!
-Tighe
