Roaming a Wasteland Couldn't Be Any More Engaging

User Rating: 9 | Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition X360
Fallout 3 was a game I had picked up based on recommendations from others. I am not a big fan of RPGs and until recently, was not comfortable in games that are played from the first person point of view. After playing Deus Ex a summer or two ago, I got of the latter and while I looked at my gaming queue, almost 40+ games, I realised I had to tackle one of these longer games at some point, or have all of the long games at the end, which would be too much on the old noodle. I took a deep breath and jumped all in.

The game is set in post-apocalyptic Washington DC. I currently live and have grown up in the Washington DC area, and that alone made the game that much more engaging. The Metro stations they have in the game look a lot like the ones I've visited in person. The graphics are sparse, at times. The background does resemble a Scooby Doo cartoon in its repetition. At the same time, there are little nuances that make each area somehow stand out as you go in for a closer look. The Game of the Year edition of this game came with all the DLC and each of those new areas had new environments, but those were far less varied and detailed than the Wasteland. In a game of this size, I was unsurprised to suffer from all kinds of glitches and screen tearing. At various points I would have to reload the game to stop walking through objects or getting stuck in them. I was surprised how I wasn't frustrated by this for the most part.

The voice acting and story of the game were both very engaging. I wasn't immediately immersed in the game, but after a few days of playing, little things started to nag at me and I realised I wanted to play the game more and more. I went so far as to spend days looking for as many bobbleheads as I could find, getting all but one until Raven Rock was unlocked. Some of the NPCs said the exact same things again and again, making interacting with them tiresome. Many of the NPCs would give you optional quests, like the man who ran the water works. I would receive XP for giving him Scrap Metal for free. Each interaction was exactly the same, unless you wanted to be rude or no longer hand over the goods for free. That made those things tedious at times.

The variety of weapons and your ability to fix them was a lot of fun to dabble in. I ended up sticking with a couple weapons and not bothering much with the really big weapons or the mini-nuke gun. I used them when I could, but the limit on how much you could carry made me quickly realise that a few weapons that you could repair on the go were better than a couple big guns that might break after a few uses, like the missile launcher.

In addition to the bobbleheads, there were also skill books that you could acquire that would increase your level in things like repair. I didn't go so far as to get all of them, but as I picked up various things, I levelled up that much faster. In the end, I think I only had 100 on about 3 or 4 areas, but was over 90 on all but 3. The increase to the level cap with Broken Steel made this possible, and to me, made that DLC worthwhile.

The overall game, minus the DLC, was amazing. The landscapes weren't breath-taking, but the story had me sucked in within days and I couldn't get distracted by much else other than Last of Us. I went the path of good and had very high positive karma by the end of the game. The reaction from the NPCs to my being good made it worthwhile.

I did a review for each piece of DLC, and the reason I got the GotY edition of this game was because I was enjoying the main game so much. I even went so far as to pick up the GotY version of New Vegas after playing this game. Each piece of DLC was decent, but none of them made me stop and say, wow, I am so glad I played that. I thought The Pitt, Point Lookout and Broken Steel were all fun, but none stood out any more than the other. I give Broken Steel the edge for adding to the ending of the main game and increasing the level cap from 20 to 30, which also unlocked some other fun extras. I ended the game a ways from level 30, but I doubt I'll go back again.

This game really was a fully immersive game and I have only a few complaints, none of which would stop me from recommending playing this game because it is just plain fun. This was the first game in a long time that I was able to sink over 100 hours in. That says something all on its own.