Fallout 3 Review - PC

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary to nuke the absolute shit out of ourselves, at least we can be secure in the knowledge that the survivors will get to live one of the great American dreams: kicking ass in a post-nuclear nightmare.

At long last Fallout 3 has arrived, and the post-nuclear wasteland has never looked better. So to speak. The first two games were by the late, great Black Isle Studios, and built on the setting pioneered by Electronic Arts’ Wasteland in 1985. After publisher Interplay sold the rights to Fallout to Bethesda, makers of The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, much controversy arose in the Fallout fanbase. Would Fallout 3 be a worthy sequel? Would it be dumbed down for console players? Would it simply be Oblivion with guns? Thankfully, these fears have proven baseless for the most part.

Neutron Dance

Since it’s made by the Elder Scrolls guys, obviously there are some similarities. But to call Fallout 3 an Oblivion clone is like saying Jurassic Park is just Jaws with dinosaurs instead of a shark. Movement and map navigation is very similar, although no moreso than you’d expect from any free-roam game. Third person view still pretty much sucks. Most noticeable is the way Fallout 3’s characters animate just as stiffly and unnaturally as Oblivion’s. It’s a minor point, but still a bit immersion-breaking. Hopefully the next Elder Scrolls installment will remedy this issue, or at least give men and women different walk cycles.

Beyond that, Fallout 3 differentiates itself and is clearly grounded in the sensibilities of the previous Fallouts. The leveling system and perks feel unquestionably like the original games, and have made the jump to free-roam 3D beautifully. The ironically devastated world of Fallout has never been better realized than in Fallout 3, offering a vast landscape that is almost relentlessly bleak in its hopelessness. It's absorbing, immersive, paradoxically beautiful, and kind of depressing to play over long periods of time.

Mister Fusion

The main story concerns your father, who raised you in Vault 101. Your childhood and teenage years are shown in a clever character creation sequence that jumps from infanthood to young adulthood. At each age you determine some of your character’s stats and skill ratings until you develop a fully formed RPG character by the time your father ditches you and the rest of the Vault decides to try and murder you. After making your escape from this rather slow beginning, the wasteland of Washington, D.C. and its surrounding areas are available to traverse. There’s an immense amount of content in the game, and the need to explore and see what interesting thing is over the next ridge or horrifying creature is in the next ruin becomes almost an obsession.

For players who are okay with setting their own goals, the play value is nearly endless. Even outside of the primary quests, you can find individual characters who want to trade for specific items found in the wastes. You can scavenge equipment and use it to repair your own stuff up to more functional levels. You can scour the map for stat-boosting Vault Boy bobbleheads. You can simply pick a direction and walk that way until you run into something that tries to kill you or a building that seems worth exploring.

You’re free to be a paragon of virtue or an evil maniac. No character is invulnerable, so it’s entirely possible to wipe out entire towns if you’re strong and clever enough. Oblivion’s level scaling system is gone, so enemies that are dangerous early on will become bugs to be crushed easily under a high-level character’s heel. The classic Fallout feeling of going from a vulnerable newcomer to a death-dealing survivalist badass is completely intact.

Roads Go Ever Ever On

Unlike Oblivion's map full of nondescript temples and ancient ruins, Fallout 3's locations are all unique, and all have a story to tell. Occasionally events will reshape areas of the landscape. Some places you discover will offer new full quests, some feature optional free-form tasks, and some simply contain just enough clues to let you figure out what happened there before you arrived. Some of the implied events at the latter locations are truly disturbing, and add a lot to the setting. It's this sense of place that really sells the DC wasteland as a singular locale with a real history.

Whereas the old Fallouts were isometric turn-based RPGs, Fallout 3 is a full-blown real-time RPG with action-based gunplay. Stats still determine likelihood to hit and damage done, but if you want to play the game as a first-person shooter, you’re free to do so, and it works just fine. But for the true Fallout feel in 3D, you can use the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System. This allows you to pause the action and target specific body parts on your enemies, just like the precision shots in Fallout 1 and 2. You can’t target the groin or eyes anymore, but the payoff for using VATS is often a visceral cinematic kill with blood, bone and organs scattered all about. It’s a simple thing that seems like it would get old quickly, but even 70 hours in I find each headshot to be rewarding.

Despite how much I enjoyed Oblivion, as a Fallout fan and a Wasteland fan before that, I approached Fallout 3 with a healthy amount of skepticism. I really wasn’t sure if a developer new to the Fallout franchise could pull off a sequel worthy of having the number “3” after the “Fallout” title. It seems the team at Bethesda must be fans as well, because not only does Fallout 3 earn its numeral, it does the Fallout name honor as well.

Article by: Matt Keil