Fallout 3 is a breathtaking experience in a post-apocalyptic wasteland full of dark secrets and explosive combat.
Fallout 3 is set in a post-apocalyptic D.C., referred to as the Capital Wasteland. It is set in the year 2277, two hundred years after a nuclear war between Japan and China, in which Washington DC and its many states were destroyed by nuclear bombings. People took shelters in underground institutions known as Vaults, wherein they would be safe from the dangers of life on the ground. Others were not so lucky, facing the harshness of the bombings first-hand and subsequently becoming disfigured and dehumanized. These unlucky inhabitants, now known as Ghouls, wander the railway undergrounds that connect the cities and towns of the wasteland. Players take the role of an unnamed vault dweller who, following a mysterious disappearance from his/her father from Vault 101, must escape security forces, enter the wasteland and track him down. Upon entering the wasteland, the vault dweller gains a perspective on the new D.C.. The first foray into this wasteland is awe-inspiring, displaying a muted colour aesthetic that evokes a great sense of terror and dread throughout the 200 hundred previous years. It's also a darkly beautiful world, with a rich sense of history that ties in with the mythology of the series. Fallout 3 is a science-fiction emphasized game, yet also finds heavy inspiration from story, artwork and architecture of the the American culture of 1950. Posters, buildings, items in the world and the overall design are all decidedly retro, which also makes the game world riveting and constantly involving. The central plot involving the player's father, as well as the subsequent mystery surrounding the escape, is always interesting and, though the ending isn't as inspired as the setting, still makes for an engaging story to run parallel with its intoxicating game world. Despite the huge, detailed world and dark atrocities within, the story is overshadowed but well told. It has a good foundation of locations and characters, who are twisted and memorable, while some are more humane and of good will. The writing is top-notch and meeting a host of new faces on your journey is worthwhile. The actual subplots and details regarding the game's quests are well-thought out, interesting and definitely worth checking out. The history created here is terrific, and gives a personal weight to the world.
The visual design is top-notch, with its incredible art direction and brilliant creature design. The animations are weak, though, and are as wooden as they were in Oblivion. However, the architecture looks brilliant. Buildings are rusted, rundown and well-detailed. Wandering around the many buildings of the game is quite eerie, because you get a sense that these places have history and, with the lack of a populace in the game world, makes for an unnerving experience. The attention to detail throughout the experience is nothing short of incredible. Bethesda have clearly committed themselves to making this one of the deepest, most immersive and visually appealing games around. It is aided by it's fantastic atmosphere, which evokes dread and tension at every turn. The player is inexperienced in the beginning, is always in danger and can become attacked by anything at any moment. The ambient soundtrack also reinforces the mood. It's tense and chilling, especially during the night, when wandering tunnels lighted only by fires, or traversing a school riddled with dead bodies strewn on the walls. These moments are the special kind in Fallout 3 – the moments to savour long after your 100 plus hours. The sound design is also top-notch, with the booming of gunfire to the growls of rabid dogs and down to the uniformly great voice acting. However, one more than once occasion, they were sound cuts when firing and missing voices from dialogue. It can bring you out of the experience at times, but thankfully its infrequent. The licensed soundtrack, however, is hauntingly effective, evoking all of the eerie 1950s ghost stories. It's particularly effective when wandering around desolate towns and factories, where the only form of company lies in a dimly lit radio on the cabinet in the corner of a room. The dialogue is excellent throughout, with great, historical fiction to back it up.
The gameplay in Fallout 3 is primarily geared towards role-playing elements, but these are streamlined like they are in Oblivion and, once you get the hang of things thanks to handy tutorials, you'll find it is more accessible and usable. The first hour of the game is quite methodical, but is important for both story exposition and first-hand knowledge of the controls. However, once you've selected your character (from many ethnicities, facial hairs and hairstyles) it's on to your attributes. There is a system in Fallout 3 called S.P.E.C.I.A.L in which each letter represents an attribute that you level up over the course of the game. Strength refers to melee combat, damage and readiness with certain weapons; Perception is based around explosives, lockpick and familiarity with energy weapons. Endurance refers to the HP system, poison and radiation resistance among others. Charisma is for conversations and the ability to gain alternative speech options, as well as purchasing items and weapons at discounted prices. Intelligence is for repairing equipment, hacking and using health vials and other pharmaceuticals. Agility is for sneak skills and combat and Luck is for all of the previous skills and the likelihood of increasing them. These seven traits are permanent talents that are set according to their chosen selections. Balancing them out is key, but you may take preference of one over the other, so it's good to consider your options before progressing. You then choose three of a number of listed perks. These can be simple features like more mobility, extra damage and accessibility with particular weapons, but the main draw is that they permanently increase these chosen stats (like science, medicine, melee skills etc) every time you level up. For example, if you start out on level 1 with Science skill 40, Level 2 will enable you to dial it up to more than 40, but a maximum of 17-19 more points (57-59 maximum). Once they are chosen, then it's on to combat, and boy is there a lot of depth to the combat in Fallout 3.
The game revolves around an inventory system using an object known as the Pip-Boy. Obtained early in the game, this device allows you to check all of the statistics and menus. This displays your health and its stats, such as your limb conditions, your radiation level and your overall stats including kills, quests, items, locations discovered and number of bottle caps and XP. Your weapons, medical supplies and items are also listed, and selecting them is quick and easy. You can select different clothes and armour too, which is immediately applied to your character. The radios of the Wasteland are here too, and so are the quests. The quest screen displays your active objectives, and also other inactive quests at the time. It's easy to select different quests and view their objective history. Lastly, the map. This contains all of the information, such as the kilometre-wide view of the Wasteland and its locations, as well as a local map for whatever building or facility you are in at the time. Map markers can easily be placed on the map and tracked via the HUD in the game.
Combat in Fallout 3 revolves around the extremely significant and hugely satisfying V.A.T.S system, or the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System for the uninitiated. The technology of Fallout 3 revolves around Vault-Tec, as they control development of science equipment and laboratories around the Wasteland. These places are since rundown and dangerous, and the research all but gone. It's nice to see this much depth to the backstory, and it's remarkable to just wonder around and locate items and objects and find out about them in detail. Anyway, this combat system is unique. When an enemy is within the range, the camera will zoom in on the target, allowing you to select specific body parts, of which utilizes your AP (Attack Points) in order to fire. Once you have selected body parts or used up all of the AP meter, your character will then open fire at those particular limbs. This results in some brutal, bloody violence and destruction. Legs fly around, torso fly off the bodies of enemies and heads pop like watermelons. It's gory, but boy is it gratifying. VATS is important because the actual shooting is generic and clunky, but I think it is intentional on the developers part, and instead forcing us into using their expertly-crafted combat system, which is fantastic. Combat covers a wide range of weaponry to utilize, all of which are useful in their own way. You see, some enemies are more prone to particular weapons than others, and its this experimentation that is most rewarding. Raiders, the regular spike-armored enemies you'll see roaming around the Wasteland, are your perfect target for using these (eventually) crazy weapons. There are pistols, machine guns and shotguns and sniper rifles as expected, but there are also some really powerful guns that can tear the enemy in two. There is a ripper blade which will dismember the enemy, the combat shotgun will pop heads, energy weapons will disintegrate enemies into piles of ash and grenades and mines will sever legs and arms. Each encounter in the Wasteland is tense because of the setting, but also because of how adept the enemies are. The AI is quite aggressive most of the time, which makes for some really brutal shootouts. Whether its a group of raiders trying to steal from a merchant, the intimidating Super Mutants surrounding the DC metro or ghouls fortifying the underground tunnels, every gunfight is exciting and visceral. There are also opportunities to craft some homemade weapons. The schematics for these concoctions will be located at random locations, in buildings or with people. They consist of using particular metallic items or other lifestyle objects (think batteries, steam gauges, lunchboxes, pressure cookers and many more) and can be used together to create resulting weapons. These are not overly significant creations, but they are useful and a welcome feature in Fallout 3.
There is also a repair function in the game. When you use a particular weapon to a certain excess, its condition will degrade. Once it degrades to an extreme effect, accuracy and reloading will be harder and less functional. In order to avoid this, or counteract it, you can repair them. Repairing requires a certain skill level, and also requires two or more of the same weapon. You can then select whatever weapon is degraded and the use the identical weapon to repair the equipped one. This can be done at any time and is extremely useful in combat.
If you take a specific amount of damage, your limbs can be wounded to an extreme of inability to properly move, or the inability to aim with precision. Getting shot in the head will disable your sight, with messy blurs and grating whistle sounds that also affect the player. You can heal limbs by using stimpaks, where you select certain body parts to be healed. Once your limbs are healed, your former issues with movement, accuracy and sight will have recovered and you will return to the adept state of which you originally had. The same goes for radiation. If you expose yourself to dangerous parts of the world, such as irradiated tunnels, pockets of hazardous walkways or laboratory test rooms, your radiation level will increase rapidly (depending on the severity of the situation). This can be decreased by using RadAway, which are medicinal items that remove the dangers of the radiation and help you recover to a normal state. Sometimes, however, if you have no RadAway and cannot escape, you can succumb to extreme radiation sickness and die. Always remember to have such items equipped for such predicaments.
Sometimes, though, you may come across people who may fight with you. First, there are merchants who will barter with you. You can purchase guns, items, weapon parts, medicinal supplies and melee objects, as well as sell any items you desire – even useless things like cutlery, mechanical items (car parts) and home objects (toys, glasses, tin cans). You can also buyback some items at an increased cost. There are around a dozen of these merchants scattered around the vast landscape of the Capital Wasteland, and they also bring welcome relief to dozens of lonely, isolated hours in underground mets, dark, dank sewers and the plain ridges of the peak cliffs tens of feet above. There is one large location in the world, known as Megaton. It is a shanty town made of sheet metal and rusted pipes and is filled with a populace who avoid the harsh brutality of the Wasteland in favour of safety and shelter. This place is home to a food bar, saloon, clinic, water plant and more, and is one of very few safe parts of the Wasteland. I won't spoil anything, but the only thing I'll say is that their safety could depend entirely on you.
There are people who may occasionally join you. These are known as followers. These guys will assist you in battle and will provide company anywhere you travel. It's a great feature for Fallout 3 and is useful, especially when traversing fortified locations that require a helping hand. Followers can die, though, and once they are dead they won't come back.
The merchants and stores I mentioned are bartered with a form of currency – bottle caps. Pre-war money is useless in this world (though you'll get a good amount of caps for them – and they don't weigh anything!) so bottle caps are the way to spend and barter in the Wasteland. Bottle caps are hugely important for survival in Fallout 3. Stimpaks cost, so having caps at the ready is the difference between surviving a tense battle or dying during a tense battle. You can earn bottle caps in almost any way in Fallout 3, whether it be quests, exploration, killing or stealing (more on that later...).
The enemy variety is excellent. There are lots of different species of enemy, from human raiders and slavers to super mutants, ghouls, mole rats, radroaches and the mighty deathclaws. Battles are tense no matter who you fight, but Deathclaw fights are unnerving. They are ferocious, big, strong and deadly, especially close up. I usually think when you spot one, you are basically dead. It would be a minor miracle to traverse a dark sewer home to deathclaws unscathed, and credit to you if you do, but it's unlikely. The same goes for the Yao Guai bear-like creatures. These beasts are terrifying and can kill you in maybe one or two hits. Avoid these types of enemies at all costs. However, if you are crazy enough to take them on (like me) you'll want to arm yourself with big weapons. I like rocket launchers, but there are also energy rifles (more powerful than energy pistols, and handy against deathclaws) and Fat Boy launchers. Seriously – who doesn't like a mini nuke launcher? Super Mutant Behemoths are an intimidating challenge, though. They are 30-35 foot creatures with massive complexions, befitting of their name. They deal high amounts of damage and can be killed with nuke launchers and rockets. There are only a select amount, but boy are they tense – and rewarding.
There are also other forms of enemies (and allies) in robots. There are the primary Protectron models, who protect security-sealed factories and labs, and can be operated through the use of hacking to wander the building and dispose of any remaining enemies in that area. There are also Mr. Gutsy robots, who usually serve at bars, cafes, parties and stores, but can also be used as medical services and ammo dispensers. Another form of robot is the aptly named Robobrain, which actually has a visible, mechanized brain that can be exposed to fire. Of course, these robots can also turn on you, and these fights and particularly dangerous, as they have powerful machinery and weaponry, and take a fair bit of effort to dispose of. If at a right skill level, some robots can be subjugated, subsequently attacking enemies instead of you.
This levelling system is fantastic in Fallout 3 and is as addictive as the game world. You gain small amounts of XP for killing enemies (more for killing larger and tougher foes), completing quests, hacking and lockpicking. Each time you level up, in addition to an awesome musical sequence, you get to dial up the number of points attributed to the three chosen perks you selected earlier in the game. Like I mentioned near the beginning of the review, every time you level up you have the opportunity to increase these stats, and the results of these increased stats are great. While once a weak, inexperienced traveller, you will eventually become a skilled, adept killer who can utilize a wide range of guns and kill anyone with precision. XP is earned through the aforementioned hacking, which is a surprisingly fun sequence which, although numerous, never becomes repetitive. When you open the RobCo terminal, you must select from a list of words and try to estimate as many correct characters as possible. You have three attempts and the result of succeeding lies in experience points and oftentimes the operation of a protectron. Lockpicking is another cool feature that is tougher than terminal hacking, in my opinion. Here you must use bobby pins (found throughout the world and also purchased) and turn it around the lock while simultaneously pushing the lock against the pin. If successful, the door will open and its contents will be yours. These two forms of unlocking have difficulties attached to them. Very Easy and Easy terminals and locks are simple enough, but Hard locks are tough, and can break the bobby pins very easily. It's important to prepare for such difficult sequences, particularly as, once they are broken, they remain that permanently.
The speech system in Fallout 3 is one of its most focused points. There are hundreds of situations where you will be interacting with many characters, and can choose from a selection of dialogue options. There are positive choices, but there are also negative, more commanding choices. These effect how each character views you in the world. For example, demanding a code from a man will force him to ignore you, yet persuading him may have the opposite effect. This is due to your speech skill. If it is high, you are almost certain to succeed, as displayed by a percentage meter at the side of the dialogue box, which shows how likely you are to succeed with that particular selection. However, if your speech skill is low, you can basically kiss goodbye to any chance of a bypass. Yes, some quests can also be bypassed altogether if you are creative and intelligent enough to observe the possibilities. Speech plays such a big role in Fallout 3, that combat's reliance pales significantly by contrast. Depending on your skill level, you can lie to people, or trick them into believing you. There are more options, such as aggressive dialogue selections that can result in shootouts or arguments – most likely both. These options require some thinking, because the consequences are impactful. I don't think I'll forget the time I lied to a destined slave, telling her that everything was okay, when she was oblivious to her fate. Or when I refused to give a sick man some clean water, whereby my following return there was met with his dead corpse near the entrance. It's these moments that make Fallout 3 morally intriguing (and devastating) where choosing any option can be seriously difficult. Being the good guy brings the wealth of positive energy around the people you aid, as well as the way people treat you. However, being evil has its discomforts. Killing anyone and everyone is weighty, and people respond realistically to such actions. Both moral systems have their own benefits and negatives (good has mostly beneficial results, of course).
Like I mentioned earlier, the way to earn bottle caps is entirely up to you. Completing quests usually gives out the most amount of caps, while exploring locations with eventually mount up to an eye-opening total. However, there are some disturbing ways to earn your "rewards". Firstly, you could do the correct and obvious thing by completing a certain quest or task. However, there are other more devious options. See a guy you don't like who is rich? Wait until he's asleep, pick his lock and take his belongings from his footlocker without him noticing a thing. Even worse? Killing a merchant and taking his whole life – his caps, weapons and personal items. It's dark stuff, but it raises the matter of player choice. None of these consequences happen automatically. Every actions boils down to even the most minute contribution from my character, whether it was killing somebody, stealing an item or tricking a person in a dialogue challenge.
Most of the game will be spent traversing the vast acres of the Wasteland and discovering locations, which will automatically be added to your map upon discovery. This also means you can fast travel to and from discovered locations, without only a load time in between. Unfortunately, the load times can be quite excessive (opening doors, fast travelling, and restarting from death all take loading screens) which can sometimes annoy. Thankfully, most of the time it's quick and efficient. There are also some mattresses strewn throughout the world, which calls for a rest before the next destination. There are hundreds of locations to visit, and most are filled with secrets and items galore. You can visit many places, ranging from underground labs, other vaults and abandoned towns to enslavement camps, factories and even a hotel suite called Tenpenny Tower. Your first trek to the Vault-Tec Headquarters (among many other locations) will be atmospheric, with a broken, dilapidated interior, rusted protectrons and dark, rundown laboratory passages that serve as stark reminders of a once productive and populated past.
Fallout 3 isn't short of memorable quests. The overall quest design is great and works well. There are some great ones here, like infiltrating a history archive for a local researcher, defending an isolated child from fire ants in a small town or even rescuing slaves from Super Mutants. These tie in well with the moral ambitions of the game, and the consequences of these quests reflect in people's view of you. Unfortunately, there are some problems. The objective blip on the game's HUD can be very unresponsive. Most of the time it works, but it can often spin around erratically, or can guide you in the wrong direction. Worst still, some quests can inform you to search for a particular individual, yet there is no clear indication of his/her location, which can result in some annoying navigation for unnecessary minutes or even hours.
Fallout 3 is such a fantastic game that its easy to overlook some flaws, but there are actually a numerous amount of them, particularly – but not exclusively – on the PS3. Firstly, visual issues crop up frequently. The framerate can be very shaky, which disrupts the flow of the combat. There are also frequent freezes that occur, lasting some seconds before stopping, usually when entering V.A.T.S mode. Speaking of combat, the camera can be troublesome. Most of the time its fine, but there are situations where it blocks view of the player, and there are other times where the player will be firing at nothing. Some other glitches occur too, such as enemies getting stuck in the ground, the player getting stuck on objects and wooden character models.
Again, though, Fallout 3 is an outstanding game and completely nails the RPG fundamentals of the genre, while successfully implementing an excellent combat system that makes every encounter bloodier and more brutal than the last. Throw in a great levelling system, awesome quests, great characters and a well-told story, and you have a memorable role-playing action game that does its predecessors justice. Bethesda have crafted an intricately detailed, remarkably atmospheric and overall intoxicating game world that is begging to be explored. Fallout 3 is a triumph.
SUMMARY
Presentation 9.0 - The disappointing story pay-off aside, Fallout 3's world is richly detailed, immersive and wholly engrossing, and one of the best worlds ever crafted.
Graphics 8.5 - The beautiful but bleak art direction, great architecture and creature designs make for a memorable looking game. Erratic framerate and glitches hold the game back visually.
Audio 10 - Fantastic voice acting, great writing, solid sound effects and a haunting suite of licensed 40s-era tracks that nail the atmosphere.
Gameplay 10 - Outstanding combat, deep role-playing and riveting, rewarding exploration.
Replayability 10 - The karma system encourages multiple playthrougs. Fallout 3 could take over 100 hours to see and do everything in this fantastic world.
Overall 9.5/10