Fallout 3, the latest release from Bethesda Softworks, is a sequel that’s been a long time in the making for fans of the original PC classics. It’s been ten years since Fallout’s last iteration on the PC; a lot has changed and advanced in the last ten years, technology and the emergence of video games into mainstream media not least among them, and Bethesda has striven to stay true to the franchise’s legacy while injecting their own experiences and innovations from the current generation. The two things I wanted to know most going into this game were: 1. Does it stay true to the spirit of the original PC games, and 2. Is it fun?
For those new to Fallout (or for those who’ve played too many games in the last decade to remember the details of the first two games), I suggest checking out the Fallout wiki for a comprehensive look at the historical events of its alternate timeline. In typical canon, however, the player’s character leaves his/her home ostensibly on one quest, but is inevitably drawn into the larger schemes and machinations at play in the remains of the good ol’ U.S.A. The game follows what is being established as a “Western” RPG template, with a relatively short main quest but plenty of side quests and an open world to explore. The main story also has a definitive “ending” as opposed to the ability continue playing after the main storyline was completed like in the first two games, so players must tie up all undesired loose ends before completing the primary quests.
The graphical accomplishments of Fallout 3 are truly impressive. The most successful aspect of the game is probably its environments, ranging from the crumbled ruins of downtown Washington D.C. to some of the makeshift settlements patched together by Wasteland survivors. People familiar with the D.C. landscape will find landmarks such as the White House, Lincoln Memorial, the National Archives, and more faithfully recreated despite being a bit worse for wear. Some of the more fanciful designs include Megaton, a town constructed around an (initially) undetonated atomic bomb and Little Lamplighter, which bears strong resemblance to the Lost Boys’ village in the movie Hook, except that it’s in a giant cavern as opposed to towering treetops. The atmosphere of the Wasteland is excellent, giving players a sense of vast, emptiness that one might expect after a nuclear holocaust. This is assisted by the fact that Bethesda set the game’s draw distance to “all the ******* way” after complaints of severe pop-in in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, meaning that practically from the moment you leave your vault you can see all the way to the Washington Monument. Character and enemy models are slightly less impressive, however, as named characters might make some sort of impression upon you, but everybody else (raiders, mercenaries, settlers, and animals) have very limited differences in models. It says a lot about graphic advancements in that every model looks as good in the in-game engine as the few carefully rendered ones did a decade ago, but the player character model suffers from some odd animation quirks - playing the game in 3rd-person behind the back mode recalls memories of Earth Defense Force 2010 (youtube it to see what I mean), which is unfortunately not a compliment despite that game’s fun factor. It looks like you glide your way across the wastes as opposed to actually running on them and it is annoyingly easy to become trapped on some part of the geography when navigating hills or piles of rubble. This problem can be solved with a fast travel when outside or by saving, reloading, and holding the joystick so that you move slightly as you “fall” into the environment, but it’s an annoying issue nonetheless. Still, character visual customization is fun, as a rather extensive modeling system is provided in the beginning of the game (with an extensive selection of beads and makeup) and your character model thankfully reflects whatever head and/or body armor you happen to be wearing throughout the game.
The sounds of Fallout 3 are a mixed bag of the old and the new. The official soundtrack by composer Inon Zur is dark, heavy, and suitably menacing, but isn’t particularly noticeable unless you’re exploring one of the creepier sections of the game. Provided you perform a certain quest, you’ll probably spend more time listening to one of the game’s in-game radio stations, Galaxy News Radio in particular as it plays some popular tunes from the 1950’s and also reports events in the Wasteland as affected by the decisions you make in your quests. The station and its DJ, Three Dog, are somewhat limited in repertoire, sadly, and given how much time you can spend playing this game it can quickly become tiresome to hear the same songs repeated every half hour or Three Dog’s inane dialog over and over again. The voice acting is a mixed bag too, as certain characters like the PC’s father or Moira Brown in the town of Megaton are well-acted with a great deal of personality, but the average person you meet on the street sounds much more mundane. Maybe that was intentional, though, as people who are trying to eke out any kind of living on a daily basis probably don’t have much pep left in them. Sound effects are nice, with the sounds of bullets, explosions, and...lasers (come to think of it I don’t really know what a laser gun sounds like) being faithfully replicated and not drawing the player out of the game. The inclusion of the beeps, dings, and whooshes that were part of the first two games is also a nice touch.
In an open world like that of Fallout 3, gameplay is where Bethesda really had to hit the mark, but a few shots go astray and keep this from being a truly outstanding game. With regards to successes and nods to to the original game, we can start with the SPECIAL system, which allows players to customize their stats and also determines which skill-boosting perks they can acquire throughout their adventures. The system is slightly different from the originals in that skills are capped at 100 and perks are acquired every level as opposed to every three or four. It’s mildly disappointing that one’s SPECIAL stats don’t more directly affect the way that the game plays out. In the original two, having an extremely low intelligence limited a character to being able to communicate in grunts and gestures, limiting the quests and interactions that were possible. In Fallout 3, having an Intelligence stat of 1 only affects your skills and skill points, but has no direct effect on conversations or any other part of the game. Having enough points in any particular stat can open up certain new conversation options, though, so at least it affects the high end if not the low. Also, as one progresses through the story, the landscape of the wasteland (literally and figuratively) can be changed by the quests one undertakes and the choices made regarding those quests. For example, the bomb in Megaton is only undetonated at the beginning of the game - depending on one’s inclinations, it could be disarmed for good or a new crater may decorate the landscape. Demonstrations of generosity or selfishness, and acts of righteousness or depravity determine the player’s karma level, which can influence the way certain factions interact with the player. Both of these systems from the past find a welcome home in the new game and are great for tailoring a character to a specific style of playthrough.
The combat system, though, is where the cracks first start to show. Players can choose to go through combat in the style of an FPS, but it’s generally not the most efficient method of fighting simply because it takes far too much ammo and opens the player up to taking a lot of damage. Instead, players are encouraged to make use of V.A.T.S. (Vault Assisted Targeting System), which is similar to the aimed shots one could pull off in the first two games. Players can “freeze” the action and use their action points, determined by agility and perks, to execute attacks on certain parts of enemy anatomy, including heads, arms, bodies, legs, or weapons (crotch and eye shots no longer included). The ability to cripple enemy limbs can greatly aid in taking down some of the game’s tougher creatures and using VATS also provides the opportunity to see an enemy die in a gory, slow-motion takedown as an arm or leg flies off or their entire body just explodes. While it is an interesting mechanic and a necessary one in certain fights, V.A.T.S. feels like a bit of a crutch at times and is plagued by a slightly annoying fault. The system is unfortunately incapable of noticing when there are objects just in front of you that will block your shots - it usually takes it into account if the player or enemy is completely behind an obstacle, but is woefully inept when it comes to shooting over any sort of ledge or around a corner. The death animations also begin to look extremely canned after a couple of hours of play, especially if you choose to take the “Bloody Mess” perk. Heads, arms, and legs all pop off from the same programmed locations and given the repetitious nature of enemy models, the gore loses a lot of its impact when your twentieth kill looks exactly the same as the previous nineteen.
As mentioned before, the game does an excellent job of capturing the ambience of a deserted wasteland. This is not the best thing in a game, however, where the player is always actively looking for something to do. The problem is alleviated somewhat later in the game as the discovery of more locations enables more fast traveling, but early on the game can be incredibly dull as you trudge across a long expanses of open fields knocking off the occasional bloatfly or mole rat. I also take issue with the game’s capping you at Level 20, as given how many locks to pick, computers to hack, and people/animals to kill there are, most people will likely reach the level cap long before they finish the game. Unless you really enjoy exploring, this takes a lot of fun out of the game because it stifles the sense of progress and . Should another sequel or downloadable content be released, I hope that the level cap will be raised and perhaps the advancement in terms of perks slowed down a little bit to balance things out. Additional quests would also be nice, as there are less than a dozen major quests in the game aside from the main quests, which, again, makes the vast amount of wandering feel a bit futile in terms of purpose.
Fallout 3 does a lot of things right, but the main thing I wish hadn’t been carried over from the earlier games is the number of bugs in the game. Fallout 3 is absolutely riddled with bugs - it wasn’t so bad when I first started playing, but the more time I’ve spent with it the more I feel I can compare it to Fallout 2, which was so buggy that it requires patches created by the fan community to make it relatively playable. Quests that don’t activate/resolve, situations that cause the game to crash, and problems like becoming stuck on the game’s geography all make the game feel unpolished.
Overall, Fallout 3 is still a great game. For anybody looking for a good western RPG, it’s difficult to find many other games that can match it at this time. It’s obvious that Bethesda took a lot of the feedback that they received from Oblivion and applied those suggestions to Fallout, but the problem for some of us is that it makes Fallout 3 more like Oblivion with guns as opposed to a real spiritual successor to the original PC games. In that respect, I would actually recommend that anybody who has yet to play the first two games wait until finishing Fallout 3 in order to avoid any preconceptions. You might miss out on a couple of emotional sucker punches and cameos, but I believe it would be worth it to enjoy a purer gaming experience. Fallout 3 may not be what longtime fans were expecting, but for a generation that has grown up on consoles and is looking for open-ended adventures, it’s definitely one of the best gaming experiences currently on the market. I’m looking forward to seeing where Bethesda can take the series from here.
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