Fallout 3

This Review is straight out of what I used for my review essay in my comp1 class. It's not really in blog format. When i get the chance I'll change it up a bit and put in the pictures i had in mind but for now, I figured something was better than nothing. Also I had to explain any specific terminology, which is why some things like AI are explained in parenthesis.

Fallout 3 is an epic game. Of all the things it does well, of which there are many, it really creates an amazing atmosphere. It is it's own very distinct world, from the 1950's era specific songs on the radio broadcasts to the Enclave's (new U.S. government with a shady agenda) propaganda spewing president and to every other little detail in every part of the world - you really feel like you're in a post apocalyptic wasteland. You are almost always scavenging for supplies and running into dangerous enemies out in the barren wasteland, walking through abandoned towns and destroyed cities and it really makes you feel like you're there. It feels lonely and dangerous and sometimes even scary.

The main story doesn't stray too far from the previous iterations in the franchise, but that's alright, because it worked there and it works here too. You live in Arlington Virginia, in Vault 101, one of the many vaults designed as a safe haven for people during the event of nuclear fallout. The game literally begins, in a first person perspective, as your mother gives birth to you. You then pick your gender and what your face will look like when you get older which is followed by a dramatic scene of your mother dying from complications. When that's all done a white flash jumps you to one year later and your father leaves you in a playpen which you proceed to escape from, learn to walk and get a feel for the controls for basic movements. It jumps further to your tenth birthday party as you learn the basic social interactions like talking to people and where you meet such characters as your friend Amata, her father the Overseer (basically the guy in charge of Vault 101) and your Father's friend and fellow scientist, Jonas. Another flash sends you to a classroom where you, at 16 years old, take a "placement" test. You choose your skill sets and determine which stats you want to specialize in. After one of these flash forwards you find yourself as an adult amidst chaos; your father has left the vault (the very vault that no one enters and no one leaves from) and Stanley has been murdered by Vault Security. Your friend Amata explains all of this to you and tells you that the overseer and his goons are searching the vault for you. She gives you a pistol that she stole from her father's office and tells you about a passage through his office to the vault door that would sneak around most of the security staff. You're eventually faced with a huge vault door and switch. Turns out, opening the vault is really just a matter pulling a switch despite the popular belief in the vault that they're all locked in. You pull the switch, the vault begins to open and you walk through a short tunnel, open a door and then the game actually starts.

Fallout 3 is very much an RPG (role playing game) in the sense that you will always be micromanaging your inventory, be able to collect and use hundreds of different weapons, apparel and other items and also in that you have branching conversations where you will be able to vary your responses greatly which in turn, will vary different character’s reactions to you; even going so far as to include a karma system that tracks how “good” or “bad” you are. Something that sets it apart from other RPG’s (primarily the developer’s other big franchise, Oblivion) is that you are not traveling through lush green forests, using magic spells to defeat mythic monsters or encountering massive thriving cities full of friendly people. You are traveling across an irradiated wasteland 200 years after a nuclear holocaust that is almost completely barren and dead. You use modern weapons and technology (even creating custom weapons from any spare junk you come across) to defend yourself against mutated animals, people and monsters of unclear origins and terrifying ferocity and other people who are trying to survive in this hellish environment. The biggest, most advanced city you will come across is in one half of an old broken ship of rusty metal stained with rust. Though there are surely some friendly people the overall atmosphere is very dog-eat-dog with most resorting to absolutely anything to survive. You will need to scavenge for weapons and supplies like food and water constantly while keeping a close eye on your radiation level, if you want to live. You are not just living in this world, you are surviving in it; and that is a tone I have never felt so engulfed in, in any other game before. And don’t let the RPG elements bore you, this game is chock full of action, and is rated Mature for a good reason. There is constant gunplay and an abundant mess of blood and gore presented in all of the fights; not at all to an unreasonable point but in a way that is perfectly fitting with the tone of the game.
The controls are very fluid and intuitive. Your Pip Boy (a watch-like device worn on your wrist) contains all the info you need from maps and your inventory to objectives and a status menu with your health and current radiation levels. You can switch between a 1st person and 3rd person view on the fly and although I often used the 3rd person view while walking around, the 1st person view is far more effective for actual combat. Any weapon in the game can be fired manually but can also be used in a new gameplay mechanic called Vault-tech Assisted Targeting System. VATS, as it is more often referred to be an option where by pressing a button all of the enemies in range will be highlighted. You can then scroll through the enemies and more specifically, each enemy’s body parts such as head, body and any extremities and queue up shots on your choice of enemy and location. This adds a small strategic element that spices things up some; especially since after queuing up your shots you are rewarded with cool cinematic camera angles as the actions play out in slow motion. This nifty feature is of course limited though, you have a set number of AP (Action Points) and each shot with different weapons has a different corresponding number of AP used. This gives a great balance to the combat where you can depend on VATS for particularly tough enemies or when suddenly ambushed by multiple enemies.

For the first 30 hours of gameplay I was absolutely in love with this game. It was near the 40 hour mark where for the first time, I was really disappointed. There are tons of different quests for you to go on with the main story consisting of a small portion of them. I got so into the story that I focused on that instead of the countless other side missions and more minor quest and as it turns out, when you finish the last part of the quest, the game literally ends. You’re sent back to the main menu and can start a new game, load a save file from the minutes before completing the game, but can’t continue to play the game with the extensively upgraded character you’ve spent 30+ hours decking out with the best armor and weapons you could find. Despite the initial shock and even anger that left me feeling, I soon started a new game (keeping in mind not to progress too far in the main quest) and have put in another incredibly entertaining 30 hours (and counting) of gameplay. It just would have been nice to have some sort of warning beforehand. Other than that the game is nearly perfect, and I don’t throw that word around in videogame reviews, with the only real exceptions being flaws so small I almost don’t even want to mention them. But for the sake of objectivity:
There is one character who although not a main character of great importance, will give you caps (the currency of the wasteland) in exchange for random parts of scrap metal you find – and keep in mind that currency is very valuable, and very limited here. So you can imagine my disappoint when I come into town looking for Stanley only to discover that while I was out exploring, his AI (Artificial Intelligence) was so bad that he had wandered off a ledge to his death, never to be revived. It didn’t ruin the game, there are plenty of other ways to make money, but it was disappointing.

There are a few instances of small flaws in logic essentially, where something a character says or does, simply doesn’t make sense. Such as when I rescued a small family from their Super Mutant captors; the leader of their small town said to me “Here, the whole town got together to get you something to express our gratitude” she then handed me a bottle of dirty water. There are other such instances where someone else I rescued from some terrible danger would express overwhelming gratitude and then tell you to get lost when you ask them a favor in the future.
These inconsistencies though annoying, are small and considering the absolutely massive scale of this game world and everything in it, they take little to nothing away from the overall experience.

This is an ingeniously crafted game with a very real atmosphere that caries through every environment, gameplay and a story that is endlessly engaging, and several features and ideas that have never before been seen in any other game. Being a broke college student (and somewhat frugal regardless) the pivotal questions I ask myself before buying a new game is: Will this game be worth 60 dollars? Will it be fun enough and long enough to justify 60 dollars? The answer for this game is a resounding yes. If you figure I’ve played it for a total of 60 hours so far (which is certainly a generously low estimate) and have had a great time with it than that is 1 dollar per hour of high quality entertainment. The best part is I’m still playing it and having a blast, Fallout 3 is a spectacular experience and without a doubt my pick for game of the year in 2008. I have never been as adamant as I am now for the use of the term “must own.”