Fallout 3 – PC Review
One thing I did not really enjoy was the attribute selection: you choose your attributes at the beginning of the game without being warned that you won’t be able to change them in the future. And when you realize that, it’s generally too late to start over. However, except for this minor issue, the leveling system is very well done and unlike the chaos in Oblivion, it’s quite easy to use.
Except for your attributes, you have skills and perks. With skills being pretty self-explanatory (weapon handling, lockpicking, speech and so on can be improved here) I’ll talk a bit about perks. These are usually limited to one per level and are extremely varied, allowing you to design your character as a post-apocalyptic Rambo, a little Einstein or anything in between: the choice is yours and it will certainly not be an easy one to make: will you choose extra life points or the chance of a “divine” event to happen while you’re in a battle? Extra equipment storage capacity or a paralyzing palm? Add to that a level 20 cap and you’ll have endless options, endless character development possibilities, more reason for you to spend even more time in the Fallout 3 wastelands!
But that should be no problem since the universe is a quite charming one (as charming as a post-apocalyptic wasteland can be, you know?). You will meet all sorts of people you can interact with, from the quest holders to the “dead meat” – you’ll always have the option to kill or let live anybody you meet. You have the option to be nice with the people or start eating corpses in front of them; steal their items or ignore them for good. Everything influences the game one way or another, as well as yourself: depending on your behavior some people will decide to follow and help you while, on the contrary, others will never want to hear from you. However, no matter how much of a devil or an angel you choose to become, I doubt you’ll ever be alone. Which is not necessary a good thing.
But no matter what path you choose to follow one thing is certain: you will always have to fight for your life, from the regular mole rats and giant ants, to mutated dogs, raiders, ghouls and all sorts of creepy monsters. And dealing fights will generally be done via the VATS combat system or the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System – one of the weakest parts of the game. Even though it is very fun to use at first, it can soon become pretty annoying.
The VATS system basically pauses the gameplay and lets you choose the following moves your character makes during combat: you can target various body parts of your opponents, each having an unique hit chance and limited by your number of action points; then you press play and watch the horror unfold. Unfortunately, the slow-motion action scenes are generally presented from the strangest possible angles, making them hard to follow, hard to understand and barely captivating, except for the gory bits, and huge amounts of blood splatter, of course. Even more, you will generally not be able to defeat all your enemies during this VATS-operated sequence, so you’ll have to finish the job in a pure first person, real time, combat sequence – since action points won’t be recharged automatically unless you have specific perks. A bit of a mess-up, after all, but not really a deal breaker.
As it happens in every RPG, after a fight you’ll start your looting spree and I must admit that, for a post-apocalyptic world there’s a lot of loot to be had and generally tons of stuff to add to your inventory. This indeed simplifies the game but having in mind that there are enough enemies to waste your looted goodies on, it makes complete sense.
The game also allows nostalgic players like myself to go for a third person view instead of the default first person one, but that is poorly implemented so, unless you want to hate your character’s way of moving and the strange environment rotation, you’d better stick to the safer first person view.
“Bethesda took the chance of bringing us a different Fallout experience and they managed to reach perfection in today’s terms.”
So today’s terms are meaningless choices&consequences and poor writing?
“now I can say that their game deserves to be placed on the shrine I was talking in the beginning, right above the first two games in the series. Fallout 3 is evolution.”
No you can’t. It’s regression. It has nothing that the first two didn’t already bring to the table. (Except first-person-view but if that’s evolution in your book, maybe you should stop reviewing rpg’s and get back to CoD4). And it does poorly in several of hallmark rpg-issues:
character development, c&c, story.
Just compare Megaton and Junktown for christ sakes!
“So today’s terms are meaningless choices&consequences and poor writing?”
meaningless choices? try playing the game more than once.
poor writing? sure. until you learn to read. idiot.
And I don’t know where it becomes clear that this game is “regression” compared to the old ones.
Maybe in your head that sort of thing makes sense.
Here I thank God there aren´t many retards like you or else every game would be same old, same old.
“meaningless choices? try playing the game more than once.”
Meaningless, yes. Even if you blow up Megaton (and let’s not even go to the fact how utterly stupid the whole town is), Moira still lives and nothing else changes. Oh yes, ThreeDog whines about you but that’s about it.
“poor writing? sure. until you learn to read. idiot.”
Unfortunately, I learned how to read while in kindergarden. You honestly cannot claim that the writing in F3 is anything but piss-poor job. Both Todd Howard and Pete Hines themselves said that writing was their lowest priority and it absolutely shows:
“I’m looking for my father, middle-aged guy, have you seen him?” or
“[Intelligence]So you fight the good fight?” are just the tip of an iceberg of the fanfiction-level crap that the game spouts.
“And I don’t know where it becomes clear that this game is “regression” compared to the old ones.”
Maybe you should stop to think then. Bethesda took a game series which already had nearly perfect character system, logically consistent world and which was famous for both its writing and c&c. They turned out an Oblivion with Guns, ruining the character system (doesn’t matter what kind of character you create, you can easily max your stats and skills by level 20), ruining the world (where does the water and food come from? There are no farms or wells. Brotherhood of Steel is turned into a knights-in-shiny-armor thing while Super Mutants are just generic orcs to be mindlessly killed etc), and horrible writing. Megaton/Tenpenny plot has been lauded as a real choice, except its only cosmetical. And the endgame… jeesus, why I do I even need to point this stuff out?
“Here I thank God there aren´t many retards like you or else every game would be same old, same old.”
Oh yes. How much does Bethesda pay you? Or is it just the nagging feeling in the back of your head that you paid 50$ for a crap game and now need to mindlessly defend it everywhere?
Fallout2 improved some aspects of Fallout. BG2 improved nearly everything about BG, KotOR2 did the same for KotOR1 even though it was made by a different studio. I don’t even cry for isometric and TB since Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines showed the world that you can create an excellent RPG with first-person and realtime. Too bad the hacks at Bethesda were busy believing their own hype to take notes.
all i can say is wow. i thought F3 was and is a good game, its no oblivion but i havent played F1 or F2, or the other elderscrolls for that fact. but its just a game, u dont need to rag on it, if u dont like it shut up and dont play it. you need a life if your going to post an essay on how you think fallout 3 sucks.
Drizzt.
Hey Drizzt, maybe you should share your insight with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, you know the guys who award the Oscars, because, after all, it’s only movies. They probably need a life, instead of reviewing and criticizing movies.
You admit you have never played F1 or F2 and neither have you played any TES-game before Oblivion. Why should I take you seriously then? You have nothing to compare. It’s like claiming McDonalds is the pinnacle of culinary delight – idiotic claim but understandable if you’ve never had proper food.
And if you think that was an essay, you’ll have nasty shocks when you get to high school, not to mention college.