Fallout 3 is a glorious cacophony of superb gameplay, graphic violence, dark humour

User Rating: 9 | Fallout 3 X360
I don't want to rant about how great the original two games in the Fallout franchise were, but they were pretty special and when it was announced that Bethseda were bringing the Fallout franchise to a third instalment of post apocalyptic carnage they had a lot of fans dubious as to whether their traditional style of free-roaming gameplay could match Bioware's previous efforts. Fortunately the answer was a resounding yes, and while the game has more in common with the Elder Scroll franchise than previous instalments in it's own, it manages to bring us from a fantasy realm of swords, magic and vast landscapes into a dark dingy world of abandoned subways, bleak ruins and partially eaten corpses with relative ease. Most of the aspects of the original games are here, from the stat system known as SPECIAL to the look and feel of the vault and cities this time all beautifully realised in 3D of course. Bethseda have taken care to make sure the game does pay tribute to the originals well. Perhaps the only exception is that sexual content has been toned down (which to be fair doesn't really make that much sense considering the massive levels of violence on display here), considering the original games were pioneering in same-sex relationships in video games and allowed you to take a job as a porn star, Bethseda's half arsed attempts (which involve prostitutes wandering around a few sexual lines of dialogue) look pretty poor. I even had several female characters flirt with my female character and refer to her as male, which in the days of character interaction like Mass Effect's is just lazy.

Anyway, enough on comparisons Fallout 3 is a great standalone title and you require no knowledge of previous Fallout games to enjoy it. Taking the role of a guy or girl born in the vault (an underground civilization ruled over by a tyrannical overseer) you spend the tutorial part of the game growing up from birth till some unexpected events interrupt your nineteenth year in the vault and you end up ejected into the wasteland, probably with a fair bit of blood on your hands. From there you must set out after your father who has also fled the vault and encounter various monstrosities, civilisations and quests on the way. The world itself while depressing to look at and coloured a lovely shade of vomit gray most of the time is superb to wander around as just like Oblivion has a huge area to explore and wander through. In terms of creating a good story and environment for it, Bethseda have done well as you'll find yourself involved in amazing set pieces as you progress through the main story and travelling all round the map.

Fallout 3 employs a morality system similar to many others out there, you can be good or evil but also have the added option of neutrality. This allows for a bit more flexibility in your morality although invariably half the time people will take evil decisions as there isn't anything quite so fun as some as the utterly depraved things you can partake in, in the world of Fallout 3. Want to blow up a city? Fine! Want to dress in a clown mask and horrifically maim people with a knife as a child? You can do that too! Want to just be one of the most downright unpleasant human beings ever? Well Bethseda certainly accomplish it here, the evil choices surpass anything previous done in a video game and make the Renegade option in Mass Effect look like a total wuss. Character interactions are great in Fallout 3 with some witty dialogue, some great voice acting (Bethseda must spend so much getting A-List actors into their titles) and a cast that while not as memorable as the aforementioned Mass Effect have a lot more life or in some cases un-life to them than Oblivion or Morrowind.


Obviously as you make all these decisions in the game you will also be fighting, combat in Fallout 3 reminds me distinctly of Deus Ex for some reason, although your not quite as inept with a gun as in that title. For those unenlightened in Deus Ex when you start off your effectiveness with a gun is similar to bubble wraps ability at protecting you from a nuclear warhead and in Fallout 3 combat is pretty much along the same lines. Fortunately Fallout 3 has deemed that it will aim for you and there is the handy VAT's system to ensure you never miss, or if you do it's because a part of the scenery like say the corner of a wall you didn't notice was there has inexplicably grown in the way and blocked your bullet. VATS essentially allows for you to target body parts of enemies and fire automatically, usually resulting in said body part rapidly departing from your opponents body and trying to do more flips than an Olympic diver before it hits the floor. This is accompanied by showers of gore and occasionally cries of awe from yourself as it does more often than not look really, really cool. In premise it works well and only a few minor annoyances really detract from it.

One of the few things I will moan about in F3 is the fact there aren't really many optional quests, compared to Oblivion at least there aren't many at all. Yes they are all pretty involving and lengthy and the game took me around 40 hours to plough through but putting that in perspective Oblivion took me 120 hours to plough through and I felt that not quite as much effort was put into that part of the game. Also when you're on quests, the map can be decidedly un-cooperative, and you can find yourself wandering through the greyish hues of the world for quite some time wondering on earth your meant to be going because the pointer doesn't really seem to be going anywhere. You will then eventually realise its pointing to the floor above you or something and you have no clue how to get there, which results in more aimless fumblings in the dark than the night after peoples first prom. When it comes to bug the game reportedly has it's fair share although I didn't really come across any so I suppose I was just lucky.

Anyway:- in summary Fallout 3 is a great game, it offers a superb world shaping morality system, it has entertaining combat, good character interactions and a believable environment with a good back story. A few minor flaws detract from the experience here and there but it's nothing that's going to stop you coming back to this wasteland for more blood soaked escapades in the future.