Fallout 3 is one of the best PC RPG's ever made
Written: Feb 21 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Almost everything about it is perfect
Cons: The ending was a letdown
The Bottom Line: Fallout 3 combines the gameplay for Knights of the Old Republic and Oblivion to make one of truly great RPG's of all time.
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| phungus's Full Review: Fallout 3 for PC |
I've spent the past two months playing Fallout 3 almost every night for at least a half hour, and I finally completed the game. I never stopped anywhere in between to write this review because I actually wanted to finish the game in order to give my full assessment of it. In short, it really is one of the best PC games ever made, but the ending was a letdown. This game is also available for the PS3 and Xbox 360, but the PC version is supposed to be the best.
This game is set in a futuristic Washington D.C. that has been obliterated by a nuclear holocaust. There are some survivors living up on the surface in a world that looks something like a cross between the wild west and the Mel Gibson movie The Road Warrior or Mad Max. Your character happens to be one of the few lucky people who grew up in an underground vault with a handful of others who retreated there after the holocaust. When your father goes missing one day, you follow him out to the surface, and there your adventure begins.
If you ever played Oblivion, then this game is sort of the same in that most of the world is wide open and you are free to roam. There is one main plotline, but also plenty of side quests to keep you busy. The game has a level cap of 20, and I reached that after tons of combat and doing about two-thirds of the quests, so I skipped out on a quite a few more. There were many places I never visited because I didn't have to, but needless to say I could go back and replay this again for plenty of new experiences. Other than the main storyline, you really don't have to complete anything you don't want, though the added experience and quest items will certainly make the game a lot easier.
What I liked about the gameplay was how it blends first person shooter type action with role playing game style elements where you talk to some people and shoot others. This makes the whole world very realistic, and sometimes you can't tell friend from foe until you get within speaking or shooting range. Although the world is huge and there's plenty to explore, you rarely go more than a minute or two before having some kind of encounter, so it never gets boring. It can be quite difficult if you aren't careful about keeping plenty of ammo and health supplies on hand.
The graphics in Fallout 3 are stellar, and the amount of detail put into the landscapes and buildings is phenomenal. Most of downtown D.C. looks like New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, and your exploration is sometimes limited to piles of debris that block roadways. You can actually enter some of the real buildings in D.C., though the scale is a bit off. For example, there's a quest that involves you stealing something from an exhibit in the Smithsonian Museum of Science, and in another you travel to the Lincoln Memorial. For the most part, it all looks very realistic.
This game has a few bugs that, as of this writing, have yet to be corrected. One really annoying one is for Vista users (like me) who have the Sidebar turned on. If it's on while you play the game, you'll frequently get a flashing section of the game's main menu screen on the side of your display. There's also a few issues with getting stuck in the piles of debris around the game, and sometimes you can't move where you think you should. I never actually got stuck to where I couldn't move, but I had a few scares. I also had several occasions where the game would crash to the desktop after a while, so you should save your game quite often.
I thought the ending kind of sucked because it pigeonholes you into limited options when there should have been alternatives. I know the story had to eventually come to an end, but I was let down by the way it played out. There are apparently a bunch of alternate endings to the game, and I reloaded my save game right before the end and tried a few different options for mildly different results. The ending wasn't bad enough to detract from my overall enjoyment of the game, but I was really expecting something more.
Overall, I was really impressed with Fallout 3. From the graphics and sound to the gameplay and storyline, this is truly one of the best role playing games ever made. It has the right blend of action and story to keep any gamer's attention all the way to the end, and I highly recommend it.
Recommended:
Yes
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