WHAT'S IT ABOUT?
The game that changed the face of the Fallout series forever, this centers around the dilapidated, brutal and sprawling areas of Washington D.C. and Maryland as you - the Lone Wanderer - try to reconnect with your father (Liam Neeson-voiced, I might add) who mysteriously disappeared and left you in an almost certain demise in Vault 101, all the while listening to a whole lot of 'bonga, bonga, bonga...'
PROS:
- Despite the absolutely depressing monochromatic brown palette of the world, the game world is massive, well-designed and layouted, intricate and varying, featuring hundreds of locations to loot, explore and shoot on, not to mention the stories just waiting to be uncovered in every location
- The freedom offered in accomplishing quests (or not) and the ways on how the game adopts, though in some cases it comes in the form of massive game-breaking glitches
- Adequately sufficient combat that would take some time to appreciate, especially the gunplay, though it becomes satisfying once the related attributes and perks (bloody mess!) are acquired, when you'll see your enemies splatter into million tiny pieces, from each of which you could loot them curiously
- The weapon and armor condition mechanic, which stresses the apt sense of desperation in a world of violence and desolation and scarcity
- Absolutely freaky enemy designs, particularly and most especially those horrendous centaurs
- The epic final quest, or the first parts of it anyway
- Perfectly appropriate radio soundtrack
- The wide variety of sometimes wacky and highly varying side quests that will force you to explore the every corner of the game world just to find them, like that one with the fire-breathing ants, the one with the talking tree, the one where you steal the Declaration of Independence, the one with two crazy wackos in costume, and the one where you get to nuke an entire freaking town, if you chose to
CONS:
- The trademark Bethesda bugs and glitches, like those causing characters to not appear where they're supposed to
- As rampant in most open-world RPGs, the game's failure to make the main story relevant to the whole game world, such that despite the engaging side missions, they feel completely disconnected to the general issues at hand
- Though may be due to technological limitations, the fact that time freezes when engaging in conversations, matched with pretty lame character animations and lipsyncing
- The low level cap, which ultimately discourages thorough soaking of every XP-gaining content, i.e. mindless killing, discovering locations, completing side quests (but also forces proper spending of attribute points and perks)
- The excruciatingly slow 'running' speed of the avatar, which is an absolute bummer especially when deathclaws are sprinting for your behind
- The pretty underwhelming presence of the primary antagonists, and how easy they are destroyed by mere successful speech checks and two plasma lasers to the head, who will have a direct interaction with the character on the very penultimate main mission