kjell1979's Full Review: Fallout 3 for PlayStation 3
When Bethesda Softworks announced they were developing the sequel to Fallout 2, I knew I was onboard. I was a big fan of Oblivion, even more so a fan of the wide open sandbox game. I marked my calendar and even took Thanksgiving week off just in case I didn't have enough time to play the game throughout the beginning of November.
Story
Imagine a world where the culture of the 1950's survives in America for 120 years. Then in the year 2077, the US gets into a war with China where nuclear weapons destroy everything. Fallout 3 is set 200 years after that nuclear exchange with China. You are a resident of Vault 101. The vault system is a sustainable fallout shelter where people fled during the war with China. Shortly after becoming an adult, your father leaves Vault 101 into the barren wasteland of post-apocalyptic Washington D.C. You're forced to follow your father and find out why he left you behind in the vault.
Post-apocalyptic Washington D.C. is a tough place where survival is a day to day nightmare for most people. It's a place where morals take a back seat to making sure you're alive to see another sunrise. The choices that you make in the wasteland can show people that there are still good people in the world or show the residents of the wasteland that their concept of evil is nothing compared to what you're capable of.
Gameplay
The common phrase associated with Fallout 3 is it's "Oblivion with guns". And to a certain extent that's true. It's a sandbox action roleplaying game where guns feature prominently in combat. Beyond that Fallout 3 has many similar aspects to Oblivion such as the ability to fast travel across the map to different locations, the towns scattered across the globe, various dungeon-like areas, and sporadic enemies scattered across the overworld. However, the 50's theme along with the burnt out landscape certainly removes a lot of the similarities among the two games. Some towns contain just a few people and require a mission just to access certain services.
Fallout 3 is classified as a roleplaying game. You start out with a basic set of attributes. These do not change much but they can be augmented by ingesting certain foods and drinks. These attributes are standard roleplaying attributes like strength, endurance, intelligence, etc. However, when you level up, you put points into certain abilities such as small arms, explosives, speech, barter, and several more. This has a cap of 100 points but allows you to be more accurate with your weapons, do more damage, repair yourself or your weapons more with each attempt, etc. In addition with each level you gain you're allowed to assign yourself certain perks. Perks allow you to augment attributes, abilities, or obtain other unique trait. Finally there are a few times where you can gain a mutation. Mutations give you a benefit that's really rare and unique but can be really valuable. Experience is accumulated by killing enemies, successful speech challenges, successful lock picks, or computer terminal hacks. You can also get experience by completing missions and a few other activities can result in some experience. Experience allows you to level up. When you level up enemies will get tougher to a certain extent. At certain level plateaus certain tough enemies will appear in certain areas, other enemies will carry more powerful weaponry, and rewards will be more plentiful. The good part about Fallout 3 is that you can screw up a little bit in your character development while leveling up without creating a world too powerful to survive in.
One unique aspect to Fallout 3 is how to manage radiation. Even though the bombs fell 200 years before you first set foot in the wasteland, just about everything is irradiated. Certain areas you explore and food you ingest cause your body to absorb radiation. The more radiation you absorb, the more your attributes drop. Take in too much radiation and you will die. While radiation isn't everywhere, it's hard not to take in a rad or two here and there. Pretty soon you'll need to take a dip in some water or eat some food to recover some hit points. There are two ways to get rid of radiation: visit a doctor for a nominal fee or use an item called radaway. This makes stimpacks and purified water much more valuable because it heals you without pumps your body full of harmful rads.
Combat is an important element in Fallout 3. While you can choose to fight indirectly by hacking a computer terminal, or sneaking around your enemies, there are times where you'll have to blast your way past certain adversaries. The wasteland yields many ways to kill your enemies. There are small arms like pistols, rifles, and automatic weapons. There are explosive weapons like grenades and mines that really can cripple opponents. There are energy weapons like laser pistols and rifles. Finally there are heavy weapons like miniguns, rocket launchers, and everyone's favorite "the fat man" which is a tactical nuclear bomb catapult. You can also equip yourself with lots of other armors and helmets to help avoid damage. There are also special versions of each weapon and equipment item that either do more damage or yield unique properties. You can also accumulate lots of items strewn across the wasteland to assemble your own custom weapons using schematics. If you're in a real bind all vehicles are nuclear powered, so shooting one will cause a small nuclear explosion handy for taking out a few foes.
Combat for the most part is in real time, the one exception being VATS mode. VATS mode turns this first person shooter temporarily into a turn based strategy game. VATS stops time and allows you to target different body parts of your enemies. VATS mode depends on the action points you have available. For instance a full set of action points will net you about 4 shots with a pistol (or bursts with an automatic weapon) and 2 shots with a sniper rifle. While you can do a lot of damage in VATS mode, it can't be used too much. When you run out of action points you're left to fend for yourself in real time. It doesn't take too long to recoup your action points, maybe 15 to 30 seconds to go from nothing to a full set again, but that's a long time when you're in a firefight. VATS does provide some nice visuals and cutscene similar to that of Tecmo Super Bowl which is a nice touch. My biggest complaint is that you can get certain percentages but you might end up firing into a wall or door even though the angle didn't appear to yield that result. It can be really annoying because you might use up all your action points dumping valuable ammo into a doorframe.
Missions make up the majority of what you do in Fallout 3. While there aren't nearly as many missions as there were in Oblivion, the missions that do exist have many more legs to them and take much longer to complete. Instead of simply visiting one area of the map, collecting an item, and returning for your reward. Instead most missions have several checkpoints, lead you to several locations, and can branch off in many different ways. In addition most missions have a morally positive, negative, and neutral outcome. Gaining or losing karma allows you to access to certain areas, allows you to hire certain partners, or even nets you gifts from residents in the wasteland.
One final point worth mentioning is the economy in Fallout 3 is pretty balanced. You have to work hard for each cap you earn. You're constantly losing caps to heal yourself and remove your radiation. In addition ammunition is scarce and a valuable commodity in and of itself. Even if you accumulate a lot of loot from a mission or raid, shopkeepers will quickly run out of caps. Certain commodities have limited qualities in the wasteland like mini nukes, nuka cola quantum, and other items. Your weapons will also degrade over time and repairing them either cost a lot of money or you'll need a similar item to scavenge parts to repair it.
Controls
The controls in Fallout 3 are pretty straightforward for a first person shooter. The two thumbsticks allow you to look and move around. The right trigger fires your weapon, the R2 trigger opens up VATS mode. The left trigger aims your weapon, while the L2 trigger toggles between first and third person view. The L2 toggle doesn't work too well. Once you're in 3rd person mode, you have to almost double click the L2 button to get back into 1st person mode. Square reloads your weapon while triangle jumps. The X button confirms actions that appear on the screen and the circle button opens up your Pip Boy menu. One of the great features of Fallout 3 is the hotkey system that allows you to equip different weapons or use certain items at the touch of a key.
While Fallout 3 is a first person shooter, the responsiveness of the controls isn't precise. Most of it is explainable. For instance, you can't open your Pip Boy if you're in the middle of reloading. This can lead to untimely deaths if your enemies return fire while you try to reign in your assault rifle as it recoils. The same goes for entering VATS mode. However, with clever planning you can use a combination of VATS and real time action to plan for situations when you're facing return fire with low health.
Graphics
It's hard to say a game set in a post apocalyptic environment is beautiful. Fallout 3 certainly fits the bill here. Yes the graphics are very accurate for what the Washington D.C. wasteland is which is dull and burnt out and filled with old relics of the Washington D.C. you know and love. The colors are drab and dull. The bright earthly colors either died in the initial nuclear explosion or faded over the next 200 years. However, Bethesda Softworks certainly captured that imagery to a tee. Certain structures still exist while others were just a shell of their former existence.
Technically the graphics are very good. Draw distances could be much better, especially when VATS picks up enemies before they're drawn to the screen. Movement is for the most part fluid, however the more that's going on in a given area, the more likely you are to drop frames. In some cases you can drop a ton of frames all at once and you appear to skip across the screen.
Like Oblivion, there isn't much diversity among character models. Face shapes can change, but it seems as if you're looking at the brother or sister of many other people you've met in the wasteland. I admit that it's much better than Oblivion, but it's also very noticeable.
Sound
The music fits the retro 50's theme to a tee. There are two main radio stations that exist in the wasteland and also contribute almost exclusively to Fallout 3's soundtrack: Galaxy News Radio and Enclave Radio. Galaxy News Radio tends to play more popular music from the 50's like Bing Crosby and more jazzy numbers. The dialog is narrated by Three Dog who has a closer understanding of what life is like in the wasteland. Enclave Radio is more of a idealistic station that plays patriotic music and is narrated by the current sitting president. No matter which station you choose, it provides quite a soundtrack for blowing away baddies around the wasteland. Whether it's a folk tune or Yankee Doodle Dandy, it's quite a riot to listen to that music when dismembering your foes. The only problem I see is that the soundtrack is really small when compared to a game like Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. Often I wish there was a third or fourth radio station that plays other types of music from the 50's.
The sound effects are very good as well. The screeches that feral ghouls emit can send chills down your spine especially when you're in a dark building or tunnel. Each weapon seems to have its own distinct noise depending on the ammunition it uses and how big it is. For instance a hunting rifle that uses a .32 caliber bullets is much louder than a silenced .10mm handgun.
The voice acting is pretty good. Like Oblivion, there are lots of recycled voices, but this time Bethesda Softworks did a better job of giving the voice acting talent the creativity to diversify the tone and makeup of their characters. Also like in Oblivion people can go from jovial to annoyed very quickly but at least they stay that way since there's no way to manipulate the overall stat to measure how pleased someone is with you like the speech mini game in Oblivion.
Replay Value
Fallout 3 is one of those games that can easily be enjoyed more than once. Besides just a ton of loot lying around, there are missions and rewards the open up depending on your morality. In addition, there are so many ways you can play the game. You can be a weapons expert and blow away anything that moves or you can be stealthy and sneak around your enemies, or you can hack terminals and overpower your enemies indirectly. In that sense you can play through the same missions over and over again in several different ways.
In many respects Fallout 3 won't be seen the same way as Oblivion. The mood is much different and bleaker, the environments not as lush. While it's certainly a diverse environment, so many good things can go wrong. Not every mission has a happy ending even if you do everything right. No matter how much good you do, the residents in the wasteland are still miserable. But Fallout 3 is still a good game. There are lots to do and just about the only regret I have is that once the main story is over, your game is over. Despite the game's problems, Fallout 3 is one of the best games released this year.
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