controller1.com

FALLOUT 3 Review

reviewed on Xbox 360 Also on PC, PS3. Developed and published by Bethesda Softworks
There are two versions of this review- the short version and the long version. Short version: Best Game released in 2008
Long Version: Well, I finished this at around 32 hours with half of the game untouched and the DLC still to go. I will try not to spoil it for those who are still to playing it still going through it but there are literally so many possibilities that no one will have played the same game as I did.
We all know of Oblivion, which was THE single-player RPG (particularly for many PC users) of the last few years and Fallout 3 has surpassed that. I thought I loved Mass Effect but that game has nothing on Fallout 3. I’m generally not a big RPG player but of the ones I have loved enough to finish, KotOR 1 and 2, Mass Effect and Fallout 3, ther SF trappings obviously appeal to me a lot more than sub-Tolkien D&D fantasy.

Fallout 3 is set years after the nuclear holocaust in the ravaged wasteland of Washington DC. You star as Vault Boy (or girl), who leaves the fallout shetlter Vault 101, the only home they’ve ever known, in search of their father. Along the way you meet various mutants and factions of humans who you can ally yourself with or fight against, build up a character (to level 20 in the main game, higher if you have the DLC) and try and restore fresh water to the people of the DC area. It’s like DC Cab with more radiation. And no Mr T, Gary Busey or Adam Baldwin from TV’s Firefly.

The gameplay is in first person (or  janky 3rd person) mode and you have all the fun of balancing stats with the semblance of an FPS (with similar problems to those in Mass Effect). Here, you at least hve VATS, which is an attack queueing system, expect here you can target individual parts of enemies. As you level up you can select where your stat points go and you gain a perk each level, the likes of which will allow you even more points in specified areas. There are even some strange perks such as becoming a cannibal or growing ears on corpses (all will be explained in game).

The story is superb and while it is the usual wrapper to send you on missions it does work rather well giving you choices along the way to be good or bad. I find that I can’t ever play these games as a douche and usually end up on the good path. So unlike real life but anyhoo. The writing and dialogue are excellent though some performances can seem stilted I’d say a large part of the fault is with the stilted animations rather than most of the acting. Liam Neeson and Malcolm McDowell lend their voices to some of the major characters and McDowell is particularly effective though his character’s animations when you finally meet him don’t need to be particularly dynamic. (SPOILERS- Its heavily motion captured lol)

Graphically, its a mixed bag. It runs very well on 360 (installed on the HDD) and the framerate is fairly solid 99% of the time with high quality textures and little pop in (YMMV on other platforms), but you do have the perfunctory animations that let the side down. When you are witnessing important events you veiw everything from your viewpoint and the important events feel a bit blah as a result. Sound is handled exceptionally well and the music is very well done (though the main theme reminds slightly of the Hellboy theme from the first movie)

If you own a machine capable of playing the game (though I understand PS3 will not be privvy to the DLC and hence the level cap stays in place), you owe it to yourself o play the best game 2008 had to offer. Yes better than Metal Gear, GTA IV, Fable 2, Gears 2, LBP, R2, Burnout or whatever.

controller1.com rating 3/3

PS- I never found the dog

Here are some clips from the Now Playing blog during our playthrough

“Fallout 3 has been started. Yes I envisage myself getting about 25% of the way through this game before I give up but since this game is so huge, I don’t think that will be a huge problem. It’s already more fun than Oblivion but that’s possibly down to the more SF backdrop. Cyrodil was a nice place to visit but I woouldn’t want to live there. Washington DC doesn’t look that much better but at least there’s no ‘Wayne’s World’ style zoom-ins everytime I talk to an NPC.”

“Fallout 3 is definitely not a hopeful game. You can’t save the world because its already been mostly destroyed. So there’s often a hint of sadness in a lot of your wanderings. If emo teens ever discover this game, there’d be a severe razor blade shortage worldwide.”

“So after a while I decided I would just map the thing. I literally spent about 3 hours walking around the map so that I can now fast travel anywhere and get to a location with a minute or two. I really want to go onto another game but F3 just does everything that Mass Effect didn’t.

One thing still bothers me about Fallout 3. There are many places where people make homes in various places that are still habitable. But no one has cleaned up. The war was years earlier yes people have lost many things: love ones, their homes and it seems their brooms.”