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Let's give this a try...
Game name: Fallout 3
Players: 1
Age rating: 18
Review:
I've been a huge Fallout fan since I played the original Fallout game so many years ago (that makes me sound old doesn't it?!) so it was inevitable that I would pre-order Fallout 3 as soon as it was announced. There was a lot of apprehension among Fallout fans that Fallout 3 would turn out to be Oblivion set in a nuclear wasteland. Personally I kept the expectations to a minimum (as much as I could) and decided to play the game before judging it.
So, I was happily wasting time on my PC when the doorbell rang and I half sprinted, half jumped down the stairs to receive my copy of Fallout 3 then turned my 360 on and started up the game. You start the game just being born and the doctor gives you a 'genetic approximation' of what you will look like as an adult. Basically it's a fancy character creation method. You fast forward a few years through various stages of your childhood, all of which give you certain items/abilities or ask you to further customise your character. You finally leave the vault and, just as you exit, have the option to change ANY of the choices you've made thus far, much like in Oblivion... For me, this wasn't a good start to the game. I enjoyed the character customisation options but I dislike being able to change anything just before you step out, it ruins the atmosphere they've so carefully crafted by having you grow up from a baby.
You step out of the vault into brightness (you've never been outside so your eyes will obviously need to adjust to real sunlight) and you're greeted with the sight of the wasteland in all it's glory. Graphically, Fallout 3 is fantastic. The graphics aren't as realistic as FarCry 2 but the scope is simply amazing. Even towards the end of the game there were times when I found myself climbing up a mountain range and just turning around to survey the landscape. It looks beautiful - if you can ever describe a nuclear wasteland as being beautiful. I particularly enjoyed seeing the White House and the surrounding memorials in all their nuclear goodness - not because I dislike them, they're just impressive monuments to see.
The music and sound effects add to the atmosphere, helping to give you a real sense of how vast the wasteland is. There are times when you're running through the wasteland to one of your many destinations and you feel very alone. Fallout 3, like Oblivion, gives you the option to fast travel to a destination if you wish to. Personally I tried to walk it as much as possible, I enjoyed exploring. The radio stations were a nice addition to the game too. There are a few different radio stations, the main two being Enclave radio (which broadcasts messages from the Enclave - remnants of the US government) and GNR (which plays music and broadcasts stories mainly about what you've done - your choices affect what the DJ says).
Combat is like any other FPS really, enemies aren't particularly intelligent and most will just run towards you spraying bullets in your direction. I found that a few would take cover but they were a minority. Fighting enemies inside was a simple matter of laying a few mines, making sure they saw you, and then running away down a corridor waiting for them to follow and then get blown up. The VATS system is the 'alternative' to normal FPS combat. In the original Fallout games combat was turn-based and a lot of Fallout fans were unhappy about real-time combat in Fallout 3. VATS was more than likely designed to keep them happy. It's a system where you can pause the game briefly and tell your character who to shoot and where to aim (head, arms, legs). Aiming at different locations can dramatically affect your opponent - hit an enemy in the head and a critical shot will, at the least, disrupt them for a moment (at one point an enemy crippled my head which caused my vision to blur and the screen to sway, making combat incredibly difficult - I thought it was a nice touch). At best it will take their head clean off. Hit an enemy in the leg and you could cripple them, slowing their movement speed. Hit the arm and they could drop their weapon. You can't use VATS all the time, however, it uses AP (action points) which take time to regenerate but it's a cool twist to the usual combat system. There's something nice about using VATS to watch your bullet speed towards the enemy's head just before it literally blows it off (I had the Bloody Mess perk so most of my kills ended with body parts being sprayed across the floor). On the downside I found that VATS was only useful at close range. With a sniper rifle, at range, I usually only had a very small chance of making a headshot which I could make quite easily firing manually.
Fallout 3 has a great many good points to its name. The story was well-written (though a little predictable at times) and fun to go through. Perhaps a bit short but there's plenty more in the game to keep you occupied. There are literally hundreds of locations you can explore in the game and there are side quests to a number of those locations. I have a few sidequests to do which I haven't even found yet.
This brings me to the downsides and, unfortunately, I think there are quite a few. You see, as much as I enjoyed Fallout 3 and do think it's a good game, it's not a Fallout game. It could easily have been an Oblivion mod, a lot of the time it plays like Oblivion, the people move and fight like they would in Oblivion, the speech system is the same as Oblivion. Hell, they even use some of the same voice actors. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Fallout 3 shares a lot of Oblivion's code. I found myself becoming increasingly irritated as I realised that most parts of the game reminded me of Oblivion. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Oblivion, I just wanted something different from Fallout. The game has been 'dumbed down' to appeal to a wider audience and that, unfortunately, is part of the problem. The skills system has been simplified. Instead of needing to use the 'Medicine' skill to heal crippled wounds or severe injuries and the 'First Aid' skill to heal minor wounds you now just apply a stimpack (healing item) to the crippled limb in order to heal it. In Fallout 1 or 2 if one of your limbs was crippled you had to finish combat and you could then take care of your wounds. In Fallout 3 you can just go into your inventory, thereby pausing the game, and uncripple yourself. I don't often find that a game I played over 10 years ago was more realistic... Another of my concerns is with the enemies. Specifically Super Mutants and Deathclaws. Anyone who has played either of the original Fallout games knows that these two enemies were a nightmare until you had Power Armour and a very big gun. I remember being mauled by Deathclaws or ripped apart by a Super Mutant's minigun many times in the original Fallout games so I was somewhat cautious when I stumbled upon them in the wasteland in Fallout 3. I needn't have been, apparently neither Super Mutants or Deathclaws are particularly dangerous in the Washington DC area of the wasteland.
All of these are just minor complaints when compared to my final problem with the game. They've taken out the thing that made Fallout what it was. The adult content. In Fallout I could gamble, both for money and items, and I could visit prostitutes. In Fallout 2 I could become a pornstar, have sex with a number of different people - some of which actually affected the game ending - and even get married and pimp my wife out. Fallout 3 has none of that. There's no gambling, there's one prostitute but all she does is walk up to the bedroom and then fall asleep on the bed. I expected the usual 'blacked out screen'. I realise that it looks like I'm complaining that I couldn't hire a prostitute in the game. It's not the actual act of prostitution that I want, it's the adult atmosphere and choices that the original Fallout games had. When I played Fallout 2 I was 13 (and yes, my parents were not happy when, when they asked what I was doing in the game, I told them that I was pimping my wife out for money) so imagine my surprise to find that, now I'm actually OLD enough to play the game, all of those choices have been taken out.
Perhaps I expected too much from Fallout 3. I want to make it clear to everyone that I do not think it's a bad game. I enjoyed playing it and will, no doubt, play through it again to see what it's like as an evil player. I just don't think it's in the same league as Fallout 1 or 2. It's too much like Oblivion.
Ratings
Graphics: A
Sounds: A
Gameplay: B
Replayability: C
Overall score: B
That review was longer than I had anticipated!
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