<div align="center">Produced By : Bethesda Game Studios Released : October 31, 2008 (EU) Platform : 60, PS3, PC Fallout 3 experienced a lot of hype during it's conception and release, not all of it positive, the major theory emerging that F3 would simply be Oblivion with guns. Nothing could be further from the truth. Fallout 3 is a game in it's own right, and while showing hints of Oblivion within it, it manages to stand on it's own two feet ; not an easy task when in the shadow of it's Game of the Year older brother. Where to start?. An honestly hard question primarily thanks to Fallout's absouletely vast array of gaming options, styles and locations. We'll set the scene ; Earth is not what it once was, it's a shell of it's former beauty, a hallowed desolate wasteland. And why? Nuclear war. The story of Fallout takes place after a series of nuclear wars, leaving the citizens of Earth scrambling for suvival in underground bunkers called "Vaults", no one leaves these vaults, no one enters ; well, until you come along. After an inventive character creation process you are suddenly thrust into a whole new world, entirely different from your sheltered vault life. I'll keep the vault events under wraps, but you'll likely forget them once you step outside. Your first glimpse into your new world leaves you blinded, harsh light flooding your eyes, as the light clears you catch glimpse of brown ; lots of brown. The landscape before you is destroyed, old black trees lie crippled against decapitated street signs, buildings stand rotting as the rock falls from their frame. It's a bleak scene, you step down into an obliterated little village, surveying the damage until suddenly..."I don't want to set the world on fire..." You pick up a radio signal, known as "GNR Studios" this radio station will become your best friend during the horrifying dives into the murkey depths that is Fallouts underground. All of the music within the game comes from this radio station (And others), and you'll grow to love the sound of the host as he hollers into the wasteland ; that is until, you lose the signal. It's not until you have left the inner circle of the wasteland that you lose the radio station signal and when you do, you're thrust into a world of silence, with only the wind to accompany you. The sounds are done exquisetely throughout Fallout, every single conversation you have is voiced-over allowing you to truly immerse into the new world. That is, if you can overcome the rather traditionally British accents every character seems to have adopted. Although the music may seem like an odd choice at times, instead of the usual tension building music games use, it actually makes sense. Throughout the game you'll notice Fallouts rather light-hearted look on destruction, from the characters, the mutants, and the radio-stations ; it's all very Bioshock-esque. Calming atmospheres that relax you before blowing your head off. And talking of blowing heads off ; Combat. Now, this is where there are similarities between Fallout and Oblivion, they work under primarily the same principle. Shoot/Hit the enemy from an ok but occassionally awkward perspective, if not for one little detail. V.A.T.S. This system when entered, allows you to pinpoint specific regions of an enemies body to aim for (The usual, Arms/Legs/Head etc., though some creatures have extras). When you fire a shot within the VAT system (Which you'll do a lot, I mean...a lot, imagine a lot, then a lot more.) you expend AP points, meaning you can't abuse the system completely. Since you use the VATS system so much within the game (A lot by the way), it's a good thing that it looks stunning. Every time you use it you'll be rewarded with slightly different animations ; time will slow down as the camera trails a whirring bullet, before exploding into an enemies forehead or you'll see your character firing off a round of bullets. Granted, this can get repetitive towards the end of the game, though it has been rectified to an extent by different weapons having different animations. As a beginner within the wasteland, a vault-newbie, your vats shot will result in essentially what you wanted ; a dead enemy. However by slipping skill points into your weapon specializations you'll be rewarded with exploding skulls and decapitated limbs. Which rather nicely brings us to skills. Never forgetting that Fallout is indeed a RPG game, your character levels up and expends skill points as you'd expect from any RPG. You are able to max out 20 levels, and each time you level up you've got two ways to upgrade your character. This system works fantastically well, you're given a list of skills to put points in to (Medicine, Science, Lockpicking, Big/Small guns etc.) and then you're rewarded with a perk too. These make your Fallout experience just that bit more exciting, and strange. There's a lot of normal perks, such as ones that will boost your skills or give you more AP points for your VATS (Which you use, a lot..) and then there's the more...abstract options. Your character can become a cannibal, feasting on the corpses off your fallen enemies (or friends, if that's your thing), or you can collect the fingers of off evil characters to sell them, presumably to a freak. However, the most interesting perk is called "Mysterious Stranger", this perk means that occassionally during VATS a, you guessed it, Mysterious Stranger appears and blasts your enemies to pieces in style. Overall the skills system works very well, although it is impossible to get everything you want even after maxing your character out, this means you will have to replay the game to try all the styles you want. Although there's one style which will apply to every single player, the Survivalist. As you'd guess, at the end of a nuclear war there's a fair bit of radiation still hanging about, and it's not just there to look preety (Although...it does look preety). Radiation is shortened within the game to RADs, and as these RAD points build up you will eventually be struck with radiation poisoning and then, when your RADs max out, your character joins the many many eat-able corpses of the wasteland. There's a constant thirst for survival within the game (Literally), and you're faced with constant little decisions. Imagine, you've battled through an abandoned school, thriving with ghouls, you're weak and low on health...but your radiation levels are dangerously high. You reach a small bathroom and glimpse over the decrepit toilet, do you drink from it? Any water source on Fallout is availible to you but it comes with a hefty price, the rising radiation that courses through your veins. So, do you drink? These little choices can be over-shadowed with Fallouts gigantic moral choices. As tradition allows, your character can be Good, Neutral or Evil. But how you come to these standings is not always black and white. Fallout loves to test your judgement, you'll come across situations where even the most Evil of players will struggle to choose the Evil route, Good players greed will be tested time and time again. Overall the moral system works very well, and comes with benefits depending on which alignment you follow ; for example, Good Players can recruit a hulking-talking-intelligent-Super-Mutant to assist them, while Evil players can reside in their tower, gloating at the destruction of a nearby city as well as feast on corpses. I'm struggling to find fault with the morality system, aside that you really must consider every decision you make, what you consider a good deed may well lead to the death of an innocent, or worse. It's not always clear what path you should take and occassionally you will make a decision only to be rewarded with evil karma ; this can be frustrating, but if anything, it adds depth to the game. So ; overall, Fallout plays well, handles skills well, has an absouletely positively gigantic wasteland for you to explore with an abundance of quests and an absouletely epic storyline. However, it is not without it's faults. Often when transversing the rocky landscape you'll get bored if trying to reach a far away location. There is a fast-track option but it only occurs when you have discovered the location, and there's no standard way of speeding up your movement. The animations are also flawed in spots, even ones directly taken from Oblivion, there are brief frame-rate issues and on occassion characters will get stuck in walls or repeat the same motions. These faults can't detract from what is in totality a masterpiece in game creation ; Fallout will lead you from birth to death and give you a hell of a ride on the way. A must-buy. Graphics : 8/10 Animations are flawed in spots, but the Wasteland looks fantastic. Gameplay : 9/10 A huge space to explore, a huge host of quests, a gigantic array of peculiar weaponry and a deliciously gory VATS system. Replayability : 10/10 Though to fully complete the game will drain many, many house of your life, you'll still find yourself wanting to do it all again. From a rifle-totting Wasteland protector to a clawed-fist thug, mercilessly decimating anything in his path. The game, will keep you coming back for more. Sound : 8/10 The radio/music idea is fantastic, however the choice of song's is a tad limited, but the radio propaganda will keep you entertained. Overall : 9.5/10 Buy it, just go get in the car and buy it now. A fantastic game with more game-time, and good game-time, then any other game released this year. <span style="color:#9ACD32">Images Courtesy of IGN.com </div>
Nice review. I've been told lots of good things about it, I just can't quite shake that taste of Oblivion. I really wasn't an Oblivion fan which is the main reason I'm so hesitant to get this game. I loved Bioshock, and it definitely seems like that esque of gaming. I suppose a price-cut is always around the corner, or a rental. Anyways, very nice review, it was a good read.
Well. A friend of mine, had Oblivion and was like you ; wasn't a fan, barely got through the main storyline. He however loves Fallout and has completed it multiple times. Although it's Oblivion-esque it's just, much more involved. Give it a rent or something. =]
Great review. Read about it myself already and I read somewhere that the only "annoying" thing was that the game pauzes whenever someone of your friends comes online or goes offline (Ps3 version). Still, this might go on my Christmas list
Awesome Review, Only thing I disagree with is the GFX =D They are really nice, (At least on my comp) I would have given GFX a 9. Other than that Spot On!
The main reason I downgraded the graphics is because of the animation issues in spots, and that none of the equipment really looks stunning to the point you're willing to play in third person. They're definetely good, just not spectacular.
Wow, I gave it a chance and I'm really glad that I did. I'm addicted , I can't stop playing! Thank you for pushing me towards it, I agree 100% on the review. Very nicely done, now I know for sure!
