I bought Fallout 3 not expecting much, to be honest. I had heard positive things about it from all my peers, and professional opinions seemed to all be in favor of Bethesda's latest 1st-person RPG, but I was still quite wary. You see, all these people had also recommended The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion to me, a game which I DO NOT LIKE.
Oh gods, what sort of forum spam have I induced by saying that forbidden phrase.
I won't justify myself by saying why I dislike Oblivion: this isn't a review of it. I just thought you might all want to know that I went into this game feeling a little biased against it, which makes the result all the more spectacular. Several folks have made the ever-popular argument "this game is a re-skinned version of X", with the X in this case being Bethesda's previous adventure. Honestly, I think that it should be the other way around: because Fallout 3 is better.
Quit copying me! Quit copying me! Stop it! Stop it! Seriously! Seriously! I'm a donkey porker! Wait, what did you just say?!?
For those of you who haven't been paying attention, Fallout 3 takes place in a post-nuclear war Washington. You grow up inside a Vault (essentially one of several safes that people bought space inside of pre-war in order to survive this sort of situation). Your scientist/doctor dad breaks out of the Vault, causing all sorts of chaos, so you get the boot and have to go find him to figure out what's going on. The rest of the main story is good enough to keep you playing through it, but you'll likely drop it in favor of the many other side quests that will frequently pop up, because they are far more interesting and unique.
The post-apocalyptic Washington, D.C. that Bethesda has created is a varied and interesting one. The only real complaint I ever had was with the subways: they're all very similar, to the point where one wonders if they just ran out of level design funds and wound up copy/pasting the first three they made to make the rest. The outside locales are all very individual though, and seeing the ruined remnants of D.C. landmarks pop up is a bone-chillingly awesome feeling. It's even better when you charge some of the monuments to claim them: battles focused in and around the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and the Capitol building are riveting. The game's 50's soundtrack on the in-game radio does wonders to add to the atmosphere: every time the song "Butcher Pete" came on I would tone done all the other audio to listen to it. Rushing a small group of raiders, armed with a chainsaw and that song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34ivDW_BU94], is truly a satisfying and bloody experience.
He looks angry. Maybe because I killed a load of his buddies with a mini-nuke. Life's funny like that.
The gameplay in Fallout 3 is a refinement of Oblivion's. The combat is essentially the same, though the game focuses on different aspects. Players trying to range in Oblivion had a harder time of it: the game's combat seemed to be geared to give melee players the advantage. Here, it's the reverse: ranged players have an easy time of it, while the melee players get a real challenge. However, players attempting to build a radioactive boxer will be very disappointed: fisticuff weapons are too few/far between, and too weak to bother even considering. There is another big problem with the combat system: VATS. VATS essentially pauses the action and lets you shoot/hit the enemy in a specific body part. This would be a nice feature if managed properly, but the system is too easy to abuse, and the only thing worth aiming for 95% of the time is the head. That isn't to say VATS by itself isn't fun: watching your foe's head explode or get ripped off their body never gets old. It's just that it makes the game far too easy to be comfortable with.
The leveling system is done in the style of Mass Effect: you have a certain number of points every level that you stick into skills to make them more powerful. It's a vast improvement on Oblivion: you no longer need a flow chart and day planner to maximize your power. Some of the skills are a bit useless past a certain level though, such as speech and explosives. After you level your skills, you get to choose a Perk: some level skills further, others grant new abilities. It gives a greater sense of character customization, and some of the powers you can get are fun enough to get you to pick them over more useful skills (the one that ups the gore level being a fine example.) The only issue with it is the low level limit, which is easily fixed if you have the PC version through a developer code. Console owners get screwed though: you can reach level 20 pretty quickly, and then the party's over for powering up.
While I like the improvements to the leveling system, the karma system the game implements is ridiculous. I played as the kleptomaniac hero of the land, saving everyone who came across my path, and then stealing everything off them that I could. It led to the extremely silly scenario that I was a savior of the wastes, but was sitting on a house filled with all the stolen goods of every single person I had saved. Pretty much the only places I hadn't robbed were the ones that required the lockpick skill to be maxed out, and that's only because I hit the max level before I could get enough points in it. The only two things that the karma system affects anyway are the game's ending, and which people will join you on your quest (a part of the game I haven't tested, due mainly to the thought that something like this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW0n99NrGL8&feature=channel_page] might happen, and that I work alone anyway.) So in the end, the whole deal winds up being little more than an annoying reminder that you're doing something bad.
Pfffft. Who cares that I just lost karma? It's not like I did anything REALLY bad....
In the end though, Fallout 3 comes with my highest recommendations. Its flaws are drowned out in the end by good presentation and gameplay. For the shooter fans, it's a nice intro to RPGs, and for the RPG fans, it's deep enough to keep you playing. If you intend to complete the game 100%, there's up to 90 hours worth of stuff to do. I would recommend the PC version over all the others for one simple reason: you can mod it/use developer codes to change parts of the game (raising the max level, for instance). However, those who prefer consoles will find just as much bang for their buck. My advice to you? Go buy it now, or at least rent it if you're on the fence.
A little note: I'm probably going to start doing reviews on a weekly sort of basis here. Not that it will always be videogames. Variety being the spice of life and all. Also, I don't have flaming demon squirrels. Just an ordinary team of crack sniper squirrels.
EDIT: The poll above was supposed to say "Pretty please?" at the end, but the silly thing didn't register the whole sentence. Boooooo.
EDITORS EDIT: Redid this review with center. Looks much more badass now.
TRIPLE EDIT: Since this review was made before I had a previous reviews section, please look for my Braid review if you want to read them. I'll put them in, but give me some time ok?
Oh gods, what sort of forum spam have I induced by saying that forbidden phrase.
I won't justify myself by saying why I dislike Oblivion: this isn't a review of it. I just thought you might all want to know that I went into this game feeling a little biased against it, which makes the result all the more spectacular. Several folks have made the ever-popular argument "this game is a re-skinned version of X", with the X in this case being Bethesda's previous adventure. Honestly, I think that it should be the other way around: because Fallout 3 is better.
Quit copying me! Quit copying me! Stop it! Stop it! Seriously! Seriously! I'm a donkey porker! Wait, what did you just say?!?
For those of you who haven't been paying attention, Fallout 3 takes place in a post-nuclear war Washington. You grow up inside a Vault (essentially one of several safes that people bought space inside of pre-war in order to survive this sort of situation). Your scientist/doctor dad breaks out of the Vault, causing all sorts of chaos, so you get the boot and have to go find him to figure out what's going on. The rest of the main story is good enough to keep you playing through it, but you'll likely drop it in favor of the many other side quests that will frequently pop up, because they are far more interesting and unique.
The post-apocalyptic Washington, D.C. that Bethesda has created is a varied and interesting one. The only real complaint I ever had was with the subways: they're all very similar, to the point where one wonders if they just ran out of level design funds and wound up copy/pasting the first three they made to make the rest. The outside locales are all very individual though, and seeing the ruined remnants of D.C. landmarks pop up is a bone-chillingly awesome feeling. It's even better when you charge some of the monuments to claim them: battles focused in and around the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and the Capitol building are riveting. The game's 50's soundtrack on the in-game radio does wonders to add to the atmosphere: every time the song "Butcher Pete" came on I would tone done all the other audio to listen to it. Rushing a small group of raiders, armed with a chainsaw and that song [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34ivDW_BU94], is truly a satisfying and bloody experience.
He looks angry. Maybe because I killed a load of his buddies with a mini-nuke. Life's funny like that.
The gameplay in Fallout 3 is a refinement of Oblivion's. The combat is essentially the same, though the game focuses on different aspects. Players trying to range in Oblivion had a harder time of it: the game's combat seemed to be geared to give melee players the advantage. Here, it's the reverse: ranged players have an easy time of it, while the melee players get a real challenge. However, players attempting to build a radioactive boxer will be very disappointed: fisticuff weapons are too few/far between, and too weak to bother even considering. There is another big problem with the combat system: VATS. VATS essentially pauses the action and lets you shoot/hit the enemy in a specific body part. This would be a nice feature if managed properly, but the system is too easy to abuse, and the only thing worth aiming for 95% of the time is the head. That isn't to say VATS by itself isn't fun: watching your foe's head explode or get ripped off their body never gets old. It's just that it makes the game far too easy to be comfortable with.
The leveling system is done in the style of Mass Effect: you have a certain number of points every level that you stick into skills to make them more powerful. It's a vast improvement on Oblivion: you no longer need a flow chart and day planner to maximize your power. Some of the skills are a bit useless past a certain level though, such as speech and explosives. After you level your skills, you get to choose a Perk: some level skills further, others grant new abilities. It gives a greater sense of character customization, and some of the powers you can get are fun enough to get you to pick them over more useful skills (the one that ups the gore level being a fine example.) The only issue with it is the low level limit, which is easily fixed if you have the PC version through a developer code. Console owners get screwed though: you can reach level 20 pretty quickly, and then the party's over for powering up.
While I like the improvements to the leveling system, the karma system the game implements is ridiculous. I played as the kleptomaniac hero of the land, saving everyone who came across my path, and then stealing everything off them that I could. It led to the extremely silly scenario that I was a savior of the wastes, but was sitting on a house filled with all the stolen goods of every single person I had saved. Pretty much the only places I hadn't robbed were the ones that required the lockpick skill to be maxed out, and that's only because I hit the max level before I could get enough points in it. The only two things that the karma system affects anyway are the game's ending, and which people will join you on your quest (a part of the game I haven't tested, due mainly to the thought that something like this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW0n99NrGL8&feature=channel_page] might happen, and that I work alone anyway.) So in the end, the whole deal winds up being little more than an annoying reminder that you're doing something bad.
Pfffft. Who cares that I just lost karma? It's not like I did anything REALLY bad....
In the end though, Fallout 3 comes with my highest recommendations. Its flaws are drowned out in the end by good presentation and gameplay. For the shooter fans, it's a nice intro to RPGs, and for the RPG fans, it's deep enough to keep you playing. If you intend to complete the game 100%, there's up to 90 hours worth of stuff to do. I would recommend the PC version over all the others for one simple reason: you can mod it/use developer codes to change parts of the game (raising the max level, for instance). However, those who prefer consoles will find just as much bang for their buck. My advice to you? Go buy it now, or at least rent it if you're on the fence.
A little note: I'm probably going to start doing reviews on a weekly sort of basis here. Not that it will always be videogames. Variety being the spice of life and all. Also, I don't have flaming demon squirrels. Just an ordinary team of crack sniper squirrels.
EDIT: The poll above was supposed to say "Pretty please?" at the end, but the silly thing didn't register the whole sentence. Boooooo.
EDITORS EDIT: Redid this review with center. Looks much more badass now.
TRIPLE EDIT: Since this review was made before I had a previous reviews section, please look for my Braid review if you want to read them. I'll put them in, but give me some time ok?
