A amazing game if you get to the root of it, but do you have the patience and the interest?
Fallout 3 takes place post apocalyptic America, mostly focusing on the Washington DC area and is set in the distant future of the year 2277. You play as one the inhabitants of vault 101, fallout shelters underground that were not supposed to save anybody but used for social experiments. In the early stages of the game you play through three specific growing up stages. The first stage is you as a young baby and this specific section sees you determine your characteristics such as strength, luck, agility etc. The game then sees you grow up further and shows your character being taught the skills that will come in handy latter in life. The game's plot is then revealed when your father opens the vault door and goes off into the wasteland. Scared and alone you know you have to leave the vault yourself and track him down.
Although the first sections of the game are mostly pre determined (other than a few speech options and some minor choices) everything after the vault opening is completely your decision. However don't make the mistake of assuming that your actions don't have consequences, for every bad choice there is a bad scenario that follows and vice versa.
This wasn't a new concept for me as I had already played New Vegas a knew what I was in for. The problem I faced on my first time round was not having a clue as to what I needed to do. Sure you have objectives that appear on your Pip Boy 3000 (A gift from you father on your Birthday) but the way this quests are completed depends on which way you choose to do it. This is a common problem that most new players will face because there is a whole new level of freedom here that most gamers are just not used to.
However once players play for a substantial time or have experience with these types of games it is total blast. The quests are really interesting and each has a different outcome depending on how you choose to behave. The travelling though can be an issue as most of the time you are forced to walk long distances, facing many enemies as you do so. However this really creates the feeling that you are alone, helpless and very low on ammo, like literally all the time I was having to watch my ammo gauge but it make me feel helpless. So few games these days create experiences that apply to characters and do not apply to the player directly and it's really quite fantastic.
A major negative for me though was the dullness of the environments. I mean sure they looked fantastically detailed and expansive but after a while it was like looking at the same dull image. This was something I didn't experience with New Vegas and I understand that it is supposed to look like it has been destroyed by bombs but at least give me some interesting things to look at.
The storyline has some fantastic moments and is a pleasurable experience but the side quests and DLC are things to consider when playing this game. For example those looking to just blast through this in a day might want to reconsider purchasing. Fallout demands that you put a lot of time and effort in and it is well rewarded because of how the story changes and how it makes you as a player feel.
This is definitely a game for experienced RPG and those who have played similar games such as Skyrim or the Elder Scrolls games. My only warning is to new players who may just find this one either dull or just extremely confusing.