Fallout 3 (PC)
Manufacturer: Bethesda Softworks Part number: 12690
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Gamespot editors' review
Fallout 3 (PC) price range: $29.99
- Reviewed by: Kevin VanOrd
- Reviewed on: 10/28/2008
- Released on: 10/28/2008
A lot of games make a big deal out of player choice, but few in recent memory offer so many intricate, meaningful ways of approaching any given situation. You fulfill or dash the spiritual hopes of an idyllic society, side with slavers or their slaves, and decide the fate of more than one city over the course of your postapocalyptic journey through the Washington, DC wasteland. Your actions have far-reaching consequences that affect not just the world around you but also the way you play, and it's this freedom that makes Fallout 3 worth playing--and replaying. It's deep and mesmerizing, and though not as staggeringly broad as the developer's previous games, it's more focused and vividly realized.
Welcome to the wasteland.
This focus is obvious from the first hour of the game, in which character creation and story exposition are beautifully woven together. It's an introduction best experienced on your own rather than described in detail here, but it does set up Fallout 3's framework: It's the year 2277, and you and your father are residents of Vault 101, one of many such constructs that shelter the earth's population from the dangers of postnuclear destruction. When dad escapes the vault without so much as a goodbye, you go off in search of him, only to find yourself snagged in a political and scientific tug of war that lets you change the course of the future. As you make your way through the decaying remnants of the District and its surrounding areas (you'll visit Arlington, Chevy Chase, and other suburban locales), you encounter passive-aggressive ghouls, a bumbling scientist, and an old Fallout friend named Harold who has, well, a lot on his mind. Another highlight is a diminutive collective of Lord of the Flies-esque refugees who reluctantly welcome you into their society, assuming that you play your cards right.
The city is also one of Fallout 3's stars. It's a somber world out there, in which a crumbling Washington Monument stands watch over murky green puddles and lurching beasts called mirelurks. You'll discover new quests and characters while exploring, of course, but traversing the city is rewarding on its own, whether you decide to explore the back rooms of a cola factory or approach the heavily guarded steps of the Capitol building. In fact, though occasional silly asides and amusing dialogue provide some humorous respite, it's more serious than previous Fallout games. It even occasionally feels a bit stiff and sterile, thus diminishing the sense of emotional connection that would give some late-game decisions more poignancy. Additionally, the franchise's black humor is present but not nearly as prevalent, though Fallout 3 is still keenly aware of its roots. The haughty pseudogovernment called the Enclave and the freedom fighters known as the Brotherhood of Steel are still powerful forces, and the main story centers around concepts and objectives that Fallout purists will be familiar with.
Although some of that trademark Bethesda brittleness hangs in the air, the mature dialogue (it's a bit unnerving but wholly authentic the first time you hear 8-year-olds muttering expletives) and pockets of backstory make for a compelling trek. There are more tidbits than you could possibly discover on a single play-through. For example, a skill perk (more on these later) will enable you to extract information from a lady of the evening, information that in turn sheds new light on a few characters--and lets you complete a story quest in an unexpected way. A mission to find a self-realized android may initiate a fascinating look at a futuristic Underground Railroad, but a little side gossiping might let you lie your way to quest completion. There aren't as many quests as you may expect, but their complexity can be astonishing. Just be sure to explore them fully before pushing the story forward: Once it ends, the game is over, which means that you'll need to revert to an earlier saved game if you intend to explore once you finish the main quest.
Thus choices are ruled only by your own sense of propriety and the impending results. For every "bad" decision you make (break into someone's room, sacrifice a soldier to save your own hide), your karma goes down; if you do something "good" (find a home for an orphan, give water to a beggar), your karma goes up. These situations trigger more consequences: Dialogue choices open up, others close off, and your reputation will delight some while antagonizing others. For example, a mutant with a heart of gold will join you as a party member, but only if your karma is high enough, whereas a brigand requires you to be on the heartless side. Even in the last moments of the game, you are making important choices that will be recounted to you during the ending scene, similar to the endings in the previous Fallout games. There are loads of different ending sequences depending on how you completed various quests, and the way they are patched together into a cohesive epilogue is pretty clever.
Fallout 3 remains true to the series' character development system, using a similar system of attributes, skills, and perks, including the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system from previous games for your attributes, such as strength, perception, and endurance. From there, you can specialize in a number of skills, from heavy weapons and lock-picking to item repairing and terminal hacking. You will further invest in these skills each time you level, and you'll also choose an additional perk. Perks offer a number of varied enhancements that can be both incredibly helpful and a bit creepy. You could go for the ladykiller perk, which opens up dialogue options with some women and makes others easier to slay. Or the cannibal perk, which lets you feed off of fallen enemies to regain health at the risk of grossing out anyone who glimpses this particularly nasty habit. Not all of them are so dramatic, but they're important aspects of character development that can create fascinating new options.
The VATS system makes for some awesome-looking battles.
Although you can play from an odd-looking third-person perspective (your avatar looks like he or she is skating over the terrain), Fallout 3 is best played from a first-person view. Where combat is concerned, you will play much of the game as if it is a first-person shooter, though awkwardly slow movement and camera speeds mean that you'll never confuse it for a true FPS. Armed with any number of ranged and melee weapons, you can bash and shoot attacking dogs and random raiders in a traditional manner. Yet even with its slight clunkiness, combat is satisfying. Shotguns (including the awesome sawed-off variant) have a lot of oomph, plasma rifles leave behind a nice pile of goo, and hammering a mutant's head with the giant and cumbersome supersledge feels momentously brutal. Just be prepared to maintain these implements of death: Weapons and armor will gradually lose effectiveness and need repairing. You can take them to a specialist for fixing, but you can also repair them yourself, as long as you have another of the same item. It's heartbreaking to break a favored weapon while fending off supermutants, but it reinforces the notion that everything you do in Fallout 3, even shooting your laser pistol, has consequences.
These aspects keep Fallout 3 from being a run-and-gun affair, and you shouldn't expect to play it as one. This is because the most satisfying and gory moments of battle are products of the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System, or VATS. This system is a throwback to the action-point system of previous Fallout games, in that it lets you pause the action, spend action points by targeting a specific limb on your enemy, and watch the bloody results unfold in slow motion. You aren't guaranteed a hit, though you can see how likely you are to strike any given limb and how much damage your attack might do. But landing a hit in VATS is immensely gratifying: The camera swoops in for a dramatic view, your bullet will zoom toward its target, and your foe's head might burst in a shocking explosion of blood and brains. Or perhaps you will blow his limb completely off, sending an arm flying into the distance--or launch his entire body into oblivion.
User reviews
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This game ROCKS!
by jspencer09 on November 3, 2008
Pros: V.A.T.S combat -- vicious and so gratifying to see enemies die in gory slow motion!
Amazing graphics that you don't need a Cray Supercomputer to run.
Liam Neeson as a voice actor
Immersive, fully realized postnuclear gameworld.Cons: these are all nitpicky, and should not detract you from getting this game:
purchasing from merchants can be clunky
the HUD map system is a little confusing -- too many arrows pointing in conflicting directions.
character movement is awkward.Summary: The benefits of the game far outweigh the cons. THe HUD system is a little confusing -- you'll be overwhelmed by all the different green arrows and triangles pointing ...
Summary: The benefits of the game far outweigh the cons. THe HUD system is a little confusing -- you'll be overwhelmed by all the different green arrows and triangles pointing you off in conflicting directions, and the character movement is very awkward. It's cool to switch to third person to get a look at your character in all his gear, but you won't want to stay in 3rd person for very long, as watching him or her move is so awkward. Seems like they glide rather walk naturally. Again, this is a minor issue, and everything is great in 1st person.
Now on to the good stuff. This is my first Bethesda game. I never played Elder Scrolls or Oblivion (and maybe I'm missing out) so I was just blown away by the graphics on this game. Amazing graphical presentation. You really get a sense of what a postnuclear world might be like, and it sucks you right in. I love the freedom you have, in that you can just wander the Wasteland, encountering all sorts of little side-quests and battles that don't have anything to do with the main plot. It really gives you the sense of a living, breathing world. Most games are just-fleshed-out-enough that as long as you follow the plot that the developers intended, the game world seems real; but if you stray from the beaten path, you start to spot the seams, so to speak. Not here. You could not even pursue the main plot and just randomly wander, encountering all sorts of fun, deep, immersive characters and stories, with the freedom to resolve the issue however you wish. This is a roleplayers dream come true. And combat is so gratifying. Keep in mind, this is *NOT* a first person shooter, and doesn't behave like one. Combat is based on stats -- computations being done behind the scenes -- based on your SPECIAL point allocations, skill and perk selections. A minor nit to pick is that -- outside of the glorious slow motion of VATS - your weapons sound underpowered. Shotguns especially sound really tinny. In VATS, the audio is in slowed down to match the action, and everything sounds deep and gratifying. I think they did this on purpose to encourage you to use the VATS system.
Overall, if you are a fan of cRPGs, you'll love this one, because you have so much freedom and choice in a fully fleshed out, post apocalyptic nuclear America. If you approach this as a FPS, you will be disappointed -- it's not designed to be one, and there are plenty of other great games that will meet your needs. What this is a state of the art display of what a fully realized cRPG can be.1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Why would anyone give this game a bad review?
by P4leRider on January 12, 2009
Pros: Where to start.....great character customization, tons of weapons and armor options, huge "go anywhere do anything" world, Cool storyline, awesome dialogue, combat is a blast, and the VATS system rocks (great for screen shots:-))
Cons: Storyline is a little short if you do nothing but the main quest, but like Oblivion, you can spend countless hours doing side quests that make the game massively more satisfying.
Summary: Spend some time playing this game before you judge, and go places and do stuff other than the main quest! The best stuff comes when you get your character to ...
Summary: Spend some time playing this game before you judge, and go places and do stuff other than the main quest! The best stuff comes when you get your character to a higher level. I highly recommend this game to anyone who is a REAL gamer, and loves RPG's of all shapes and sizes.
Note: I played this game on PC, I have seen it on Xbox 360 and it doesn't look nearly as good, the ability to hotkey things, and the graphics on PC make the game much better. -
Great game that should have been the best
by nonerdspls on December 28, 2008
Pros: Super Graphics and Sound Effects
Great Fighting
Huge and open mapCons: Lackluster tutorial on some points
Short storyline
Game not deep enough
Little enemy selectionSummary: What can a person say about fallout 3? One of the greatest game of all time, perhaps. The best game of all time, no, but it should had at least ...
Summary: What can a person say about fallout 3? One of the greatest game of all time, perhaps. The best game of all time, no, but it should had at least a shot at that title.
When you begin the game, you get a basic character customization. Since I am not one of those that try the customization for hours, I checked it a bit and then moved forward.
Then the game begun, immediately you notice that excellent effort was put forward in cutscenes (whether video or not), conversations and storyline. The beginning of the game is very exciting and holds an excellent tutorial which sadly, forgets to explain some game mechanics (like how to switch on the lamp for example).
For this review, I will compare fallout 3 with oblivion since both were done by bethesda and share a very large number of similarities.
GAMEPLAY
The controls are standard controls of any first person shooter. Nothing new here apart from a very small and irritating detail, you cannot change the movement keys which are W, A, S and D. Yeah you heard right, the simplest thing in the world and you cannot change them. It took me a few hours to learn hoe to use those but eventually all went well but still it was quite frustrating.
You go around the map by running but similarly to oblivion, if you have already found a location, you can just open the map and click on the location to arrive immediately which is a huge pro. In the city, there are underground (subway) tunnels from where you must pass to reach your destination. You cannot pass from above the ground since the building ruins block you which is very frustrating considering the buildings ruins are almost everywhere and you can easily get lost in the tunnels.
During fights, a new system is introduced. This system lets you stop the game while fighting to aim at several body parts of the enemy (of course its use is limited) for extra precision and damage (almost max payne style). This system is a huge improvement on Oblivion and should be adopted for future first person bethesda games.
The quest log is easy to use and also makes it easy to find the quest item (or person) needed by showing its direction on both the small and big map (oblivion style).
When you level up, you gain a skill of your choice and the selection of skill is very interesting and useful. Since monsters level up with you, the skills are an extra edge that will help you immensely in the long run.
Game Controls : 7.5/10
GRAPHICS
One word here: UBER!
Everything around you seems like alive. The graphics are all crystal clear along with the animated sequences and cutscenes. The best graphical pc game I have ever played. Of course I played it in full graphics mode but still it is quite an achievement.
GRAPHICS : 10/10
SOUND
The sound effects of the game are great. You sometimes can hear low growling noises or footsteps coming your way while in a dungeon or building which adds to the scary atmosphere terribly. These noises are not randomly generated but made by actual monsters in the dungeon. The music needs a little working on though it is still great when it eventually plays.
The weapon noises and monster slashes also seem very realistic.
The voices during conversations are all great and no-one talks like a dummy unlike oblivion.
SOUND : 9/10
STORYLINE
Here the game takes a turn to the worst. The storyline in the beginning seems interesting to say the least but as hours pass by, the interest begins to dwindle as the player realizes that it is just running from spot a to b, kill monsters or whatever is in front of you and repeat. Oblivion had more story than fallout 3 and had something else which make it much better than fallout in this section : Guilds.
In fallout, you cannot join any type of guild - fair enough there are 1 or 2 but no rankings or whatever.
The side quests are interesting in the beginning but yet again the interest dwindles after some time.
The skill selection at level up in increases the interest here but since the developers have done a great job to dwindle the interest in the game after hours of gameplay, they made the character's maximum level to 20 (less than half the skills can be selected). They might have thought that this system makes for a good chance of game replay but guess what, it is not. The monsters level increase with yours so what is the point exactly? This ain't Neverwinter nights you know.
STORYLINE : 4/10
CONCLUSION : This game should have been up there as the best but it is *just* there among the best because of a few shortcomings. Still a must buy though. -
Awesome game!
by lokii_0 on December 13, 2008
Pros: Beautifully rendered, engrossing world and story-line, awesome combat system, it's one of the best games this year.
Cons: The ending was a bit anti-climactic, though maybe I was just disappointed that the game ended. :]
Also this game will cost you sleep.Summary: Don't listen to the idiot who hated this game because it doesn't play like Halo 3. This is a role playing game, not a freakin shoot em up (...
Summary: Don't listen to the idiot who hated this game because it doesn't play like Halo 3. This is a role playing game, not a freakin shoot em up (though it does have plenty of shooting).
This game is amazing. -
Great game but story line is too short.
by bmf59 on February 22, 2009
Pros: Graphics, Innovative game play, Environment is fun to explore.
Cons: Short story line. They should have made more quests required to finish the game. I didn't care for the ending.
0 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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My favorite game I'm currently playing!
by redgreen3b on February 12, 2009
Pros: You can play how you want to play it.
Cons: Too hard to find enough ammo for as many enemy are around.
0 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.
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Horrendous
by alderige on November 1, 2008
Pros: Ability to blow people up in slow motion.
Cons: everything else
Summary: This game is just as bad as oblivion was and no suprprise coming from the same people. the movement is robotic and the cammera speed is way too fast and ...
Summary: This game is just as bad as oblivion was and no suprprise coming from the same people. the movement is robotic and the cammera speed is way too fast and sensitive, enough to make you sick to your stomach. the dialogs are bad and the acting is worse, but that is not the worst part of this game. The absolute worst is the combat, it sucks as a mele combat game because there is no third person view and is real easy to loose your enemy due to crappy targeting and cammera. It sucks as a shooter as well, It takes all your bullets to take down a common foe and once again targeting is ridiculous, the controls DO NOT RESPOND as a shooter game like raimbow 6 vagas 2 or CoD 4 . On top of all the previous they kept most of the elements that made oblivion a horrible game to play, like but not limited to:
*crap loot (tons of it)
*senselesss wondering around
*little and bad guidance to quest objectives
*lock picking
*Horrible map system
*weapon repair
If you like oblivion and want to play it all over again in a weird futuristic way this game is for you, otherwise don't waste your time onthis game.0 out of 3 users found this user opinion helpful.
Specifications
- Manufacturer: Bethesda Softworks
- Part number: 12690
Product Basic Spec
- Platform PC
- Genre Role-Playing
Game
- Developer Bethesda Softworks
Product series
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Manufacturer: Bethesda Softworks
Specs: Role-Playing
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Manufacturer: Bethesda Softworks
Specs: Mature, Role-Playing, 1 Player
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Manufacturer: Bethesda Softworks
Specs: Mature, Role-Playing, 1 Player
Manufacturer info
- Bethesda Softworks
- Manufacturer profile
- Browse Bethesda Softworks products on Shopper.com
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- Website: http://www.bethsoft.com/
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