Fallout 3

Fallout 3 is the third major title in the Fallout series, which, surprisingly, is why it is called “Fallout 3”. If you can’t wrap your head around that, good luck comprehending your opinion of the game once you have played it.

Taking place in the year 2227 (30 years after the setting of Fallout 2, and 200 years after the nuclear war that caused civilisation to crumble), Bethesda dump you into the depths of a really, really fucked up place. That’s honestly the best way I can put it. A war-torn, post-apocalyptic, desolate wasteland really just doesn’t do it, and that’s just what the developers want. The thing is, Fallout 3 handles this environment with such elegance and beauty that it almost turns the destruction of the world into an object of complete desire, and it’s fantastic.

You are introduced to the game and the character customisation through a few cut-scenes and playable sections that take you through various stages of your early years. Here you define your name, gender, looks and character skills. The whole introductory process doesn’t take too long, but you can extend it to explore if you wish, which is just showing off the whole open-ended game play that Fallout 3 has to offer through and through. The humour is quite dark as well. Perhaps it just appeals to people like me, who will pick something funny out of completely anything, such as a book geniusly titled “You’re Special!”.

The dialogue during the game contains a lot of strong language, but I think it’s used to good effect. The NPCs, and even yourself, don’t seem to swear for the sake of swearing, but more to give the conversations more impact when necessary. People swear when they’re gunning down something that is coming at them with a knife. It just happens. Fallout 3 respects that, and so shall you.

Much like Oblivion, the game is very sandbox in that, once you’re outside, you are free to roam wherever you like and do what ever you want, but the story remains very linear. Also, much like Oblivion, you’ll find that if you don’t branch out and go exploring, the story will be over reasonably quickly, and you won’t get a huge sense of satisfaction. If you want to get maximum enjoyment from Fallout 3, you really have to take an interest in the world surrounding you.

With a splash of horror and gore amongst the action, Fallout 3 offers a compelling atmosphere that doesn’t suggest it’s trying to be anything like Dead Space, but still offers an experience that makes you jump in all the right places, and take precaution in all of the others, which is really what you want.

What is described as a hybrid between a turn-based and a real-time combat system, Bethesda have implemented the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (“VATS”), and in short, pressing the button to trigger it pauses the action and allows you to target specific points of an enemy’s body. You have a percentage chance to hit each point, and each shot costs an amount of skill points (which you have a limited amount of), so that prevents you from going all-out headshots. Once you have spent your skill points and selected various points, the combat resumes in slow-motion, and you take your shots at the body parts selected. Should you get a critical hit, a bullet-cam catches up with the action, follows the bullet up to the fatal wound, and shows a wonderful blood splatter. The implementation of this system really works for Fallout 3, as you don’t need to use it all of the time, but it really is useful for boss fights or taking out multiple enemies when the situation looks like it is going to get a bit rough.

The menu system is good enough, although could be a little clearer. It’s almost as if the destruction has been taken to every point of the game, and whilst I appreciate the fact that civilisation was almost completely eliminated from the planet, that’s not necessarily a reason to add grunge effects to the GUI in an attempt to reinforce the disaster.

Weapon degeneration also gets a bit irritating, whereby, over time your weapons will gradually get worse. They’ll fire slower, hit less often and do less damage. I’d understand if I was beating on metal with an axe, but when you’re using firearms it doesn’t really make sense. Thankfully you can repair your use your degraded weapons to repair other weapons, so you begin to recycle everything you pick up, which isn’t a bad idea, but does detract slightly from the in-game currency, which funnily enough, is bottle caps.

There are some inconsistencies and idiosyncratic anomalies, however, but most of those are just down to me being pedantic and comparing a game’s reality to our reality. For example, 200 years have passed since the nuclear war, yet wooden structures are still standing without deterioration. You can also find various snacks and general items littered about the place, which surely wouldn’t have survived the erosion of time without being cared for. There are also settlements dotted about the planes that have power going to them. I’m not quite sure what is running the power-plants; perhaps they’re battery powered. Regardless, these things should be taken lightly and not considered as reasons to detract enjoyment from the game. It doesn’t have to be perfect in comparison to a real-world nuclear apocalypse.

Fallout 3 seems to be something missing though. Whether it’s the surrealism of the entire story and the things you have to do whilst embarking on your quests or whether there doesn’t actually seem to be much of a purpose behind the whole game, I’m not sure. I played the game for a considerable duration, and whilst I really enjoyed myself, I couldn’t quite wrap my head around what I felt about it. I have heard people say it’s like Oblivion with guns; I don’t think I’d go quite that far. Unfortunately I didn’t play either of the previous titles in the series, so I can’t compare Fallout 3 to its predecessors. All I can say is that it’s a wonderful action-RPG that certainly takes you by the hand and pulls you in slowly. It will frustrate you, confuse you and please you, but all of those emotions could occur at any one time for any reason.

Without a set way of going about finishing the game, you’re really free to go where you want and do what you please, however you can think of doing it, and that will really give each player a slightly different experience. If you like a bit of blood, some gunplay and an RPG, why not give it a go?