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Fallout 3: My take on the greatest game of the year
After playing Fallout 3 for Xbox 360 for over a week I can safely say that I am addicted. After an initial bout of complaints about the text in the Pip-Boy not being as legible as I would have wished for, it all started to make sense. In a post nuclear world, do we really have tools that are crisp and sharp or do we need fuzzy broken screens to give us that wonderful vault dweller feel? I vote for the latter.
Game Controls
The controls for the Xbox 360 are simple and effective. Movement and actions are straightforward and match most other games. The inventory screen presented some initial challenges until I got used to the way it worked. The Health/Status screen can be somewhat confusing at first look, especially the body part system which allows you to apply Stimpaks to a specific body part.
Combat
At first glance Fallout 3 appears to be just like any other FPS role playing game out there. Until you fire up the tactical interface, V.A.T.S. for short. The tactical targeting interface allows you a finer grade of control, at the expense of Action Points, referred to as AP from this point forward. You can regain AP by consuming beverages, drugs, and certain foods. The amount of APs spent differs from weapon to weapon, but you can usually get at least three to four rounds into one or more targets before you have to recharge and go back into “live-action” mode.
Aiming is a breeze, hitting is a whole different story. Depending on your skill level with the weapon that you happen to be using you may need to be fairly close to your target to hit what you are aiming at. The level of realism this provides appeals to me, and I take the same amount of pleasure from surgical one-shot kill sneak attacks performed with the sniper rifle as I do from getting up close and personal with the flamer or combat shotgun.
Skills and Perks
The skill and perk system of Fallout 3 works just like I expected it to. It holds true to the old system of earlier Fallout games. For a while I was worried that the skill system would be similar to that of Oblivion given that Bethesda Studios developed both games. Oblivion is a wonderful game that I am proud to own, although I was never fond of the way that skills improve with usage. I suppose it adds a level of realism — most of all it adds a level of repetitive actions, such as jumping repeatedly to get the Acrobatics skill to increase — that does not appeal to me. Fallout 3 remedies all that with a simple point based skill system and one perk per level. Perks are both useful and entertaining, ranging from combat improvements to the good old “Bloody Mess” perk that makes everything you shoot explode into… well, a “bloody mess.”
Character Interaction
Interacting with characters in the game is straightforward. All it takes is a click of the A button and you are presented with an easy menu that gives you options based on your current knowledge of previous conversations. Sometimes you are presented with special conversation options based on your skills. Some characters can be intimidated by strength whereas others can be convinced with words alone using the Speech skill. The conversation system usually allows for three routes: “evil,” neutral, and “good.” I have tried both the “evil” and the “good” route up until a certain point in the game, and they do allow for separate story lines that tie very well into the game as a whole.
Story Lines
The game consist of one main story line that ties into a multitude of optional threads that you are free to follow. Several of the optional threads will gain you favor with factions in the post nuclear wasteland. As a young man you leave the safety of the vault in search of your father. In your journeys through the stunningly beautiful landscape you come across a people so badly damaged by radiation that they have almost seized to be human — also known as ghouls — that depending on your character’s intended alignment will either become enemies or allies.
Creatures and Monsters
What would Fallout be without the Bramin? The two headed cows that so eloquently illustrates just how much the world will go wrong — if nuclear weapons ever are launched. For the wildlife sportsman there are several animals worth hunting in the wasteland. The beginner will soon face the dogs and rats of the wasteland and overcome them with ease. Not until you have faced your first Fire Ant will you come to appreciate just how dangerous the fauna of the future can become. All the animals and monsters you run into are expertly illustrated and animated, giving the game its wonderful surreal feel.
The Verdict
Now it is time to place the pros and cons in the scales of judgment and weigh them to the grain. What makes this game special, what makes it stand out in the plethora of games of the same style? Nuka-Cola. That’s what. And big fucking bombs, that’s what. If you thought that my answer would be eloquent, look again. This is the harsh, grim future of mankind we are talking about here, and it does not leave room for pleasantries delivered by anything other than the barrel of a gun or the points of a spiked board. Sure, there is pockets of sanity and civilization all over the wasteland, and they are resisting the barbarism and confusion on all fronts. Like small oases they hold out behind corrugated steel and sheet metal against the onslaught of radiation sickness, rad roaches, raiders, and the insane ghouls — the last vestiges of mankind proclaiming their right to live on after the apocalypse swept most of their brethren away into the half-life of horrific memories.
The sunsets are beautiful. Nuclear blasts in the sunset are even more beautiful. Shattered, twisted overpasses and interstate sections look like something a child built hastily in sand and sticks and then discarded with the quick sweep of a hand. The brush and starkly naked trees lend an eerie atmosphere to a landscape that can best be described as “scary as hell.”
This is the game of 2008. This is the game of the decade. I have been waiting for the Fallout games to come to a fulcrum and complete the unfinished trilogy that it was long thought to be. I am not disappointed. I am elated. Simply stated: Fallout 3 rocks!
Fallout® 3 © 2008 Bethesda Softworks LLC, a ZeniMax Media company. Bethesda Softworks, Bethesda Game Studios, ZeniMax and related logos are registered trademarks or trademarks of ZeniMax Media Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Fallout, Prepare for the Future and related logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Bethesda Softworks LLC in the U.S. and/or other countries. All Rights Reserved.
