 A review from an impartial gamer |
| Review Date: November 18, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Jarlaxle, Marietta, Ga |
I play a lot of different RPG's and was not a fan of Elder Scrolls Oblivion. I will list the pros and cons as impartially as possible so you can be the judge on what matters to you.
PROS:
- You are left to explore and find things to do and quests on your own. This game is a true RPG. You have one main quest. Everything else are side quests.
- Over 100+ hours of places to explore. and more than 100+ unique map locations.
- Tons of perks and ways to develop your character. Become a science genius or concentrate on stealth and your lockpicking ability. Invest in large guns and go into places with guns ablaze. Play the game how you want. Be good and people will love you, be bad and people will fear you.
- Replay value. This is rare in RPGs but Because of the many different ways you can play the game I see myself playing this game again to play a different type of character.
- Some people complain about the targeting system known as VATS. This game is not an FPS. VATS gives you a wonderful 1st person shooter feel with an RPG style or turned based combat. Score a critical by shooting your enemies head and it might explode. Shoot the enemy on his weapon hand and he will not be able to attack you very quickly.
- The graphics are amazing. Its a beautiful post apocalyptic mess. The detail from the stains on a found mattress or a found comic called "Grognak the Barbarian and the Lair of the Virgin Killer" are all amazing. You can tell a lot of thought went into detail.
- The voice work is nice. Almost every character talks out loud. This allows you to listen and respond instead of just watching a mouth move and reading dialog all the time.
- Enemies do not automatically level with your character. This was my biggest problem with Oblivion. Some people liked the fact that enemies would always be your level. I found it totally unrealistic. Go ahead, run your level 1 character through the Wastelands. You might come across an easy roach or a mutant with a minigun. In my book this makes the game more fun and much more realistic.
- I have read on the forums and some bad reviews here that they can not find tons of ammo. This is not Halo, Call of Duty or any other FPS. People need to take the right mindset. This is a world 200 years after major Nuclear war. Things will break, ammo is sometimes scarce, radiation is a fact of life, bottle caps are money, people trade everything and you live in a harsh world. I think some people need to watch the Madmax series just as a primer to understand the world created here.
- Instant travel. Once you have visited an area you no longer need to walk to the location. You can locate the area on your map (through the PIPBoy 3000) and select it to instantly travel.
- The PipBoy 3000 Interface works great. This allows you to keep track of stats, items, equipment, quests, notes, maps, and karma very easily. The UI is easy and it keeps all the data you need at your finger tips.
CONS:
- AI is nothing special. It's not bad, just nothing special. When I am shooting a shotgun at you, running at me with a pool cue might not be the smartest thing to do. They will sometimes run away if severely over matched (which is the smart thing to do). The AI is no worse then any other games, just no big improvements here.
- Lack of good music. You can find radio stations on your PIPBoy but I was not a fan of the music. The background can be ok but not great. Sometimes when alone in the Wasteland you want some good background music.
- I had the game crash once but not a lot of times like some people are reporting. Still unacceptable but manageable. Loading and saving times can take anywhere between 10-30 seconds which is kind of slow.
- No item descriptions. The important data like weight, condition value, and perks of the item are still displayed but full description of the items are no longer available. This is different then Fallout 1 and 2 where each item had a paragraph describing it.
Additional thoughts:
This game is rated "M". This means you shouldn't play this game with kids in the room. This isn't a Con for me but this might be a problem for all you gamer mom and dads out there. Seriously, no kids allowed. Women offer there "Services", cussing, blood splatter on the screen when you get injured, mutants hanging people on meat hooks, tons of drug use, and of course blowing peoples limbs off. Good times but not for the kiddies.
No, its not perfect but it is a lot of fun and the best RPG currently on the market. My 5 star review was based on that fact. This is the best RPG I have played since FFX (Final Fantasy X). I hope you enjoy it.
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I cant help crying for ten years waiting
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| Review Date: October 28, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Shuhao Cao, |
Maybe you would argue that this is just "Oblivion with guns", but this "Oblivion with guns" has more to offer than just "Oblivion with guns", it has a massive story(according the guide i received today, after you completed the game you got tons to do), also the SPECIAL is back! Pipboy is back, i cant help crying after i creating my character and seeing a whole new wasteland, which is far more detailed than the game I played 10 years ago. Maybe you would argue again, Bethesda is incapable of doing top-notch black humor like Black Isle, but the feels of exploring the wasteland is back, here I listed a few pros and cons
Pros
+ build of the whole wasteland
+ mission design
+ user interface
+ storytelling
+ Pipboy
+ tons of things to explore
Cons
- cant skip the VATS slow motion
- making choices wont affect the whole game too much, unlike Fallout1 &2, you have to pay for what you ve chosen
- no item description........(huge disappointment for some old fans maybe)
In general, I would recommend this game to those who love Oblivion
Update: the system is much more similar to Fallout 2 than to Oblivion, you have skills and perks, and at each leveling up you have 10-20 skill points(depends how much Intelligence you have) to distribute into a variety of skills, then you have perks like Lady Killer or Animal Friend; the system is deep and fun since you could be an agile and slick thief or a strong and stubborn warrior based on how you distribute your points and the initial attributes(S.P.E.C.I.A.L.)
Update 2: for those of you concerning CE, I got my CE from amazon on the releasing date, and this is the nicest CE I bought this year comparing to the Fable 2 CE and GTA 4 CE. The CE package has a neat looking lunch box, you could either put it somewhere as a decoration or use it as the storage for small stuff, that Pipboy figure is a fine-maded bubblehead; There is also an artbook of 100 pages featuring the concept art in Fallout3, and a DVD of making of the fallout 3; I think the CE is totally worth the price especially now amazon is offering the $10 giftcard.
Update 3: this game is not for you if you are looking for a first-person shooter like Far Cry 2 or Call of Duty!!!!! this is a role playing game |
Like Oblivion, only bigger, and with more stuff to do
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| Review Date: November 17, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Andariel Halo, Phenomynouss@hotmail etc is my e-mail |
I didn't write a review for Oblivion because there were hundreds of decent enough reviews that encapsulated my experience. I saw no need to add to the "ALSO, I LIKED IT, TOO, AS WELL" crowd without any negative comments worth mentioning.
The same dealy applies to Fallout 3, yet because of the sheer size and scope of it compared to Oblivion, I can be bothered to put both positives and negatives together into a decent enough review.
For note, I have never played any of the previous Fallout games, and showed no interest in them prior to this.
Also, I'll be dropping the name "Yahtzee" a bit, referring to video game reviewer Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw and his video reviews for The Escapist magazine.
Positive:
-The world is indeed tremendous, and compared to Oblivion, which to Yahtzee was merely a square mile of English countryside multiplied again and again with wolves and bandits added, this world is simply a gaping epic story in itself to look at. Ten hours into the game, I still can't get over stopping and staring at the horizon, and knowing that This is the way Washington D.C., has looked for two hundred years! Being a historian, this trapped me in a quantam vortex of awesome and pee-pants.
-The V.A.T.S. targeting system, which has slow-motion angle shots for combat scenes. While Yahtzee mentioned that it looked "groovy pants", he also pointed out that because it's basically the same thing every time you use it, it would gradually just become "pants". For me at least, it hasn't yet become pants, after ten hours of play.
-Realistic gore! The M rating is put to use here, in the form of excessive violence. While nowhere near the sort of explicit body explosions of something like "Rambo", I never get tired of seeing a point-blank gunshot to someone's head have a chance of blowing their head up in a mess of blood, bone, and mushy meat fragments. Nor do I tire of crippling someone's arm and seeing their gun fly out of their hand, or firing at someone's limb enough times to dismember them, or to sever their head from their body by utterly destroying their neck with bullets.
-Insanely top-notch graphics for a game of this sheer size.
-Play as male or female, with dialogue options altering to fit your gender (ie, you'll get compliments as to how much you look like your mother if you're female, or how beautiful you are, or how much of a bitch you are for trying to steal from them).
-Genuinely interesting story that pans itself out gradually.
-Interactive people all around, including Ghouls who are nice to you (there's even an implied lesbian Ghoul couple who run a hotel in the Underworld)
I'm sure there's plenty more great things to be said, but I can't think of any major ones to speak of and so I'll have to move on to the bad.
Negatives:
-I can't vouch for male characters just yet, but the customizable options for females is an utter mess. Faces are disgusting lumps of blotchy, rugged, seemingly acne-scarred messes (which considering that the character isn't raised in the Wasteland, but rather in the highly clean and stable environment of Vault 101, is a curiosity), and for some odd reason, every pre-set and color option always ends up with the same result---the women have 5 o'clock shadow on their upper lip, and around their chins.
None of the other in-game women suffer from these sort of options, managing to look like actual women, whereas your character is forced to look like a pre-op transsexual without a long, long time spent into wrestling with dials and sliders which, like Oblivion, are connected to one another, making it hell to mold the flesh with one slider without every other slider moving on its own to screw up your changes.
-The game is an action/adventure RPG, but it's still an RPG, so damage both taken and delivered tends to border on the ridiculous, as in one scene I had a pistol and used the V.A.T.S. system to put three bullets into a human opponent's head, and not only did they not die, but they were still standing, and continued to beat me half to death with a baseball bat until I had to punch them to kill them dead.
-Occasional game freezes.
-The instant-transport system from Oblivion is back, which has both good and bad implications in that you can easily move back and forth from places without spending hours wandering around the ruins, but it's done without any consequence to time or health or fatigue anything in between, so you can just teleport from place to place as much as you want as quickly as your game will load.
-As Yahtzee mentioned as the biggest problem with Oblivion's immersion failure, there is a limited number of voice actors for the Ghouls. I can thankfully say that unlike Oblivion, not everyone has the same two voice actors, but with the Ghouls in particular, there are quite literally only two voice actors, one male and one female, and they don't even bother changing up their voices when playing the Ghouls. As such, every Ghoul you speak to of a certain gender will sound exactly like one another.
-There are some audio tapes/files in the "Notes" section of your Pip-Boy (such as your father's personal diary entries and such) which are almost completely inaudible due to the low sound mixed with the poor recording quality. It's only by sheer luck, determination, strain, and high volume, that I've managed to understand half of what is said in these diary entries. |
Unbelievably addicting!
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| Review Date: December 18, 2008 |
| Reviewer: C. Bishop, |
I bought this game a few days ago, hoping that I made the right choice by picking this game over Tom Clancy's End War. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that I made the right choice now. Not since Final Fantasy 7, 8, and 9 have I ever found a game this addicting.
The world map is beautiful and extremely detailed. From radioactive rivers, to piles of rubble and smashed up concrete, the detail in these objects is amazing.
Im the type of gamer that HAS to explore every room, and check every nook and cranny to ensure that I have every thing that the building/zone has to offer. It takes me anywhere from 1-2 hours to completely clear most buildings and kill all the enemies inside. With the hundreds of buildings in the game, you can easily spend 100+ hours playing this game on a single character. I have read the complaints about running out of ammo, its complete crap. I havent run out of ammo yet, and I have a little over 40 hours completed so far. You may run out of "condition" on your weapons, but if you have your repair skill up, that shouldnt be an issue. If you play the game smart, and pick up the most valuable items you see and dont weigh yourself down with a lot of junk, you should have plenty of "caps" to buy ammo and repairs for your weapons.
In all, I can see myself making 2 more characters easily, just to experience the game differently. The current character I have is a good guy, but I will have to make an evil guy soon just so I can see how it affects the storyline. This game is definately a good buy! |
Never seen a game quite like this
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| Review Date: August 30, 2009 |
| Reviewer: G. Martinez, Lancaster, CA USA |
| Sure some can compare this game to Bethesda's previous attempt The Elder Scrolls IV, but at the end of the day I have never seen such a damn convincing world of a post apocalypse . Almost everything succeeds in this game, the story of the Lone Wanderer is not wholly original but what makes the the gamer interested is the mythology of the Capital Wasteland, you will find dozens of interesting characters that will make you care deeply for, may it be a Super Mutant Poet warrior named Fawkes, a loyal canine companion by the name of Dogmeat, or even a Super Patriotic Fascist news-casting president by the name of John Henry Eden. The music is eerily perfect for the atmosphere of Fallout 3, the happy upbeat music from the 30s give you a sense of hope and comfort even after your being attacked by a pack of Deathclaws or Ghouls (avoid the Deathclaws if possible). The gameplay is standard FPS or Third Person(in whichever way you want), but with RPG mixed into the gameplay. But what makes it stand out is the V.A.T.S system which allows you to slow time and aim for you enemies extremity parts, some may feel it takes away the challenge but if your a casual gamer you will heavily depend on it to fight packs of large creatures or humans with guns. But what makes the game really stand out is the open world you can explore, and oh boy is it huge. If you play a game 24/7 it might take you days to find every single city, landmark, and settlement. But if you play casually you spend weeks finding every single pace from basement to roof, the architecture of the buildings have elements of steampunk, and a lot of the building themselves have some character of their own may it be the city Megaton, or Oasis, or to the ever creepy Dunwich Building. Fallout 3 is one of the games that come every couple of years that gives us so much replay value that after 10 or 15 years later you will still be playing even after the PS3 and Xbox 360 are long gone. Don't hesitate in buying it, it is worth the price. |
Prepare to lose weeks of your life
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| Review Date: February 10, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Nicholas Arnold, Philadelphia, PA USA |
| The only thing I can truly say about this game aside from how amazing the storyline is, how many interesting side-quests there are, and how the game almost never gets boring for a second, is do NOT play this game if you lead a hectic, busy life. I've had it for about two weeks now and have already logged in 40 something hours. A friend of mine, who is unemployed at the moment, has logged in over 200 hours in a month! So if you value having time to do things besides play video games, this game will only hinder that by sucking your life in. But maybe it's not such a bad thing to get a nice little break from reality... |
Truly in the Fallout spirit
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| Review Date: December 14, 2008 |
| Reviewer: R. Daniels, |
I played the original Fallout and Fallout2, then the pseudo-Fallout title Fallout Tactics; I have replayed them throught the years and they remain some of my best gaming experiences.
I was very skeptical about how Bethesda would handle the great turn-based, specific body part targeting combat that Fallout made famous, as well as the tongue-in-cheek humor the others contained; 50's era Red Scare and cheesy advertising coupled with very mature, morally ambigous decision making and themes... It is one of the best games, especially for a sequel, that I have ever played.
HUGE game, near-limitless variety of quests, NPC interactions, routes to succeed; all without compromising how YOU want to play. Nothing says that you have to be white knight or criminal mastermind; just play as you would, given the stimuli of a post-apocalyptic, survival-first world.
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Coolest game I have ever seen
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| Review Date: December 16, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Linus Messenger, Boise, ID USA |
| This single-player RPG gives you hundreds of hours of play without it getting old. Best visuals and gameplay I have ever seen. Very gory and use of strong language means no young children should play this. |
nothing more to say
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| Review Date: January 28, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Ed The Red, seattle wa |
| The only thing I can compare this game to is crack. I cant stop playing it and when im not playing it im thinking about it. Im not a hardcore gamer and Ive never played oblivion or fallout 1 or 2. But this game is hellacool |
An Excellent Time-Sink
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| Review Date: February 12, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Rainmaker, |
Fallout, much like it's brethren the Elder Scrolls games: Morrowind and Oblivion, is a fantastic way to waste a heck of a lot of time. The graphics are great, the sound is great, the gameplay is great. The VATS system is an excellent augmentation to the ranged combat system which is vastly more important than in the other two Bethesda offerings. The variety in dialogue options is a fair amount of fun, and there's quite a lot of miscellaneous stuff to do. BUT, it falls on it's face a bit in terms of story. The main plot line is shallow and short. There isn't really any character development outside of leveling up. Even your dog just isn't that endearing. And, to be perfectly honest, this game could be a lot bigger all the way around. This shouldn't surprise me since Oblivion was smaller than Morrowind, and this is just a continuation of the trend, but all the hype I'd heard made it out to be a massive game.
I still strongly recommend this game, I just think it could have been much more. I'm sure the upcoming DLC will help, but it would be nice for someone to try a little harder to marry the great stories of traditional RPGs with the technical prowess of the new generation. |
Fallout 3 Enter the Wasteland
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| Review Date: February 15, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Pinkstonspork, |
First of all the fallout series began with the developer Interplay. They developed the first 2 games in the series. The highly regarded Bethesda Studios took over the project of Fallout 3. The backround of the story is set in around 1960. America has advanced in nuclear technology and is attacked. This leaves nearly the entire Nation in a Nuclear Holocaust. You start the game in an underground vault which served as a Fallout shelter for the people. Outside in the wasteland are hideously mutated creatures. It is a dangerous world to be exploring in.
GRAPHICS:
Bethesda Studios Created the Elder Scroll series including the Game of The Year winner Oblivion and Morrowind. Following the tradition of open world gameplay and the go wherever do whatever you want gameplay is Fallout 3. The game itself in terms of graphics is stunning. There are so many objects on the screen at once and houses and buildings are filled with assortments. Within all this polish are some issues as well. Coming across as floating rocks, Stiff character animations, and some slowdowns in the frame rate. Texture pop up can also be an issue. Non of these really take away from the overall experience.
Audio:
The sound design is also top notch. Voice overs are very well done too. Every gun sounds different in the game from the blast of a shotgun to the discharge of an laser Rifle. There are alot radio stations you can listen to. Which plays music from the 50s and also a violin station. The score adds to the suspense and high flying action with haunting music hitting at all the right times.
Gameplay/Controls:
One of the major selling points of the game is the V.A.T.S. or Vault Tech Assistant Targeting System. With a weapon equiped you simply target an enemy, select a body part, the watch the slow motion kill cam. This is where the game gets very graphic in terms of violence and blood. With heads exploding and organs falling out. Parents be warned THIS IS NOT A GAME FOR KIDS!!! The language is very harsh too. There is a huge selection of weapons and types. Anyone who played Oblivion should feel welcome here. You can finish the main quest in about 20-30 hours but exploring every thing will go well past 100 hours.
*****Be warned after completing the main quest the game ENDS you cant play anymore. So if you want to get the most out of the game try doing some side quests in between main objectives. They can be very rewarding*****
*****Also be sure to save often, while rare there are some game ending glitches. I would recommend having at least 5 saves per character and to save every to minutes to avoid this*****
Overall this game gets a 10/10 With the extra downloadable content coming in the future it adds more to the score. |
So good you forget to eat and sleep!
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| Review Date: April 28, 2009 |
| Reviewer: N. C. Hill, Springfield, MO |
| This is one of those games that is so fracking good, you don't want to go to sleep for fear of coming back to reality. This is the kind of game that breaks up marriages. I lost myself in the Fallout universe while playing this game. You will be calling into work complaining of "stomach cramps" or whatever bull hocky excuse you can come up with just to play this game. There is so much to do and explore in this game, it blew my mind. The graphics really draw you into this post apocalyptic universe. The main storyline is quite enjoyable, but the side-quests are what really steal the show. From taking on giant mutant ants, to cannibalistic families inviting you in for dinner, this game never ceases to surprise me. I really enjoy the old-fashioned sounding music they came up with too, it actually sounds like old-timey music. The slow-mo effect, while not anything new, is rock solid fun. I also enjoy all the mature content, if this had been released with a teen rating i would have killed someone in slow-mo. This game is a keeper, you won't find yourself at the local gamestop pawning this one off for 5 bucks store credit. In summary, just buy this game, dump your girlfriend or wife, buy some ho ho's and ding dongs and stock up on caprisun because Fallout 3 is coming for you! |
Believe the Hype
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| Review Date: January 16, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Lucas Black, |
I'll admit, that previously I've been drawn to games with a fairly linear gameplay style. Not linear in the way that there's only one single path and it can only be traversed one way, but linear in the way that the game can baby you and keep you on the right track, even if you're given a decent scope to explore.
Well it turns out that I was just looking for the right massive, open game. Because here you're free to be your own man. Sure, you can tackle the main quest and it's decent. But the real treat is the exploration. There's a positively huge world to explore, and even more underground.
Lets say you have some kind of vendetta against the raiders. They roam the Wastes, pillaging like metal-head versions of pirates, and you don't like them. Maybe out of strong sense of justice, or maybe one of them just looked at you funny. Well feel free to wander around, picking them off from on-high with a rifle, sneaking in to set up mines before tossing in a grenade to stir up some carnage, or put on your power armor and run in, guns blazing.
There's a big town, the first one you're likely to come across, with an undetonated atomic bomb sitting in the middle. You can take it on as a mission from the town sheriff to disarm it, or have the mysterious Mister Burke rope you in to rigging it up to blow. And you're fully capable of doing so, climbing to the top of Tenpenny Tower, and watching the mushroom cloud in the distance as you vaporize the city, and all its residences. It's all up to you. Scurge of the wastes, savior, or anywhere in between. Get into the slave trade business, or shoot your way through the traders' encampment and free the slaves.
The only legitimate complaints I know of for the game are the controls with the VATS targeting system, but you don't even really have to use it. In fact it's often better and more fun not to. Sometimes the game doesn't even feel like an RPG. Sometimes it's an action game, sometimes it's a shooter, but it's always an adventure.
The graphics are... terrific. Sure everyhing's grainy and brown and dark and bleak. But somehow it manages to be pretty anyway. Everything might be ugly, but it's ugly in a really good looking way. I'm trying to think of a celebrity to use as an example, but feel that would be in bad tastes.
The facial animations can tend to be a little robotic, but the voice acting is top-notch and lively, from everyone. And in a game with so much dialog, that's very welcome.
Speaking of sound, I was surprised to end up really loving the soundtrack. And I don't mean the ominous background tracks made for atmosphere, but the 1940s hits played from the game's "Galaxy News Radio". I, being a youngster, never even heard any of this music. But after having it as a constant companion in my fares across the Wastes I grew to love it.
My first time through Fallout 3 I played for over 60 hours, and didn't even do everything (keep in mind I did add four of the add-on packs). And just a few days ago I started a new file.
Speaking of add-on packs, there are five. Broken Steel, Mothership Zeta, Point Lookout, The Pitt, and Operation: Anchorage. Personally, I found Operation Anchorage to be boring and linear. The Pitt was similar, but with a better story and an uglier world to explore. Point Lookout is a valuable addition. And Broken Steel continues the main story and raises the level cap. I haven't played Mothership Zeta, so I can't comment. But I only recommend Broken Steel and Point Lookout (which are offered together on a buyable disc if you don't have access to XBOX Live). The standalone Fallout 3 is the most powerful and by comparison the add-ons fall short in general.
But in all, I found Fallout 3 to be a fantastic game, in my top-ten list of all time. And in a game-playing career of somewhere around fourteen years, that's saying something. If you're on the fence about whether or not to buy, I'd say buy. |
My game of the year for 2008
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| Review Date: December 20, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Cloud, Canada |
Originally when I played the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, I wasn't a big fan of it. The immersion-killing moments, the asinine levelling system and gripes with limited voice actors made me look at it as a disappointment. But seeing Fallout 3 in action intrigued me though I was still skeptical (and upon playing, I now look at Oblivion as actually good and ended up growing on me) but since the holidays are almost over and all the big titles are out, I can pretty much say with certainty that Fallout 3 is my favorite game that came out this year. Sure it's got gripes (what game doesn't?) but it's still definately worth a playthrough and I hope you got a lot of free time on your hands.
Story: It's 2277, 200 years after a nuclear war ravaged the world with landmarks all but destroyed, mutants found roaming the environment as well as nearly everything being irradiated. The only safety is for inhabitants of Vaults, underground homes that are sealed where no one is aloud in or out. You're part of Vault 101 and everything's fine until your dad suddenly takes off, someone's found dead and security's on your tail. So you escape the safety of the Vault and roam the D.C. countryside and look for your father and anyone else you happen to befriend...or tick off.
Graphics: Anyone who's played Bethesda's previous games in the Elder Scrolls series knows that they love big worlds and Fallout 3 is no different. And while it does maintain that gripe of Oblivion of not really offering variety in its locations like in most RPG's, this game is utterly gorgeous in its own right and the atmosphere practically oozes from the screen and the amount of detail found in destroyed cars, bridges that look near collapsable as well as the gore and slow-motion cutscene during kills, the game is stellar. But there's 2 gripes: characters still don't exactly emote body wise and they can be absolutely mad at you or saddened and their body just...stands there. The other is the amount of stuff in the game makes the performance take a hit and so you'll have textures popping in bit by bit, brief pauses and lulls and slowdown during heavy moments but considering Oblivion was the same, gotta blame it on Bethesda's ambitions then any ineptitude design-wise.
Sound/Music: Instead of Jeremy Soule who provided the score for Oblivion, we have instead Inon Zur who did the soundtracks for some Warhammer games as well as the recent Prince of Persia and whereas Soule's score in its grandioseness perfectly suited the world of Cyrodiil, Zur concentrates more on an ambience and an atmosphere then melodies and while some might find it "boring" or lacking in anything memorable, it helps immerse the player into an eerie, unfamiliar world. Though there's still some old school songs for you to listen to, Liam Neeson and Malcolm McDowell have excellent voices and thankfully, you won't run into anyone's clone frequently (one time in Oblivion, I literally ran into the same voice on 2 guys in the same inn) though there's still the occasional strangeness.
Gameplay: There's some games like Rock Band 2 or Little Big Planet where the game is so fun that it might not be necessarily a long experience but the fun factor never seems to wane and while you might try all the songs, you'll still find new modes and instruments to try instead, or even beating your previous score. Bethesda games on the other hand like to put as much as they can without the disc snapping in half due to the strain and essentially says "go". From a map filled with locations to uncover, weapons that you can create from scratch, skill books to enhance stats to quests involving locating specific items from various places, it's safe to say if you're somebody who wants to complete a game 100% well...Fallout 3 will be one of the biggest time-sinkers you'll have. But like Fable 2, do you even want to explore every single crevice and secret lair or do you just do what you're interested in? Like that game, you can play however you want and take on the quests whenever you feel like it so it's really up to you how you want to play.
Whereas combat and aiming is slightly clunky when you just aim normally, Bethesda has a fun and worthwhile (not to mention near necessary) system of VATS, or Vault-Tech Assisted Targeting System. Basically, pressing RB will pull up the enemy on screen frozen in place with limbs highlighted and a percentage for likelihood attacks will actually hit. Get a good hit on the arm and they might drop their weapon or if you're really ambitious, aim for the head and watch as their skulls explode in gruesomeness. It's gory but it's not disturbing and when you see eyeballs fly out in exaggerated fashion, you know it's meant to be fun and not gross. Only problem I have with combat is that enemies seem to have better aim than you and one enemy literally was 50 or so feet away with a pistol and his shots were more accurate than mine and this makes it worse when you're up against a minigun-toting Mutant.
Included in the game is the idea of gaining Karma which makes you evil or saintly depending on given actions so stealing and random killing will net you bad points whereas helping people will get you on their good side. But one thing I appreciated seeing and wished it was in Fable 2 is not only reactions by NPC's but also by the enemies and playing as a good character, I actually found myself the target of a hit because apparently I'm too noble and self-righteous. Imagine that, the world's gone so much to hell that even people who try to be good have to be snuffed out. Going along with Karma is the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system of levelling up which is thankfully level/XP based rather than constant repetition like Oblivion and upon gaining a level you'll be asked to level up certain skills like Medicine, Repair, Explosives and Lockpicking. You're also asked to pick a perk which is like a permanent special ability so for example one might dole out extra damage to men if you're a woman while another perk might add bonuses to certain stats. The level cap might be a bother unless you get the DLC's which'll take it off but it's still kind of a wait.
Over the years, my interest in RPG's dropped a little thanks to so many good games out there but also a sense that the game isn't happy with being a fun 20 hour adventure and instead makes it a tedious and unnecessarily long 40 one. Fallout 3 on the other hand is so fun that you'll probably just spend 40 hours or more just doing whatever and enjoying every bit of it. Might not be for everyone since it's slower paced than most action games and especially for a FPS (third person view optional but best to avoid) but this could be a long road you'll walk and just might enjoy every minute of it. |
All I can say is...WOW!
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| Review Date: December 20, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Brandon Gajda, Grove City, PA USA |
I am a newcommer to the Fallout universe and have never played either of the first two games. When Fallout 3 came out, I decided to give it a try. All I can say is...WOW!
You character starts out in Vault 101, and after a few segments of game play with your character growing up, the game finally begins when your father mysteriously leaves the vault. Having no choice, the character fallows his/her father's trail.
I was truly impressed with the massive amount of content the game possessed. Although the game (if you follow from beginning to end with no side quests) is about 10 hours, I found myself spending over 65 hours in the Fallout 3 universe. I was amazed at the amount of quests, the choices your character can make, and the number of enemies you face in the game. Every choice your character makes will have an effect on other aspects of the game. When I first played the game, my character found a town full of slavers. After gunning them all down and freeing their helpless captives, I gained increadible Karma and was able to get into other locations in the world much easier due to my reputation.
The enemies are fun to fight to include the deadly Super Mutant, the Raiders, Slavers, and other wasteland inhabitants. The game does not work very well as an FPS, but I found that the VATS combat system more than made up for that. The enemies are smart and very accurate in their shooting. I found myself having to find cover more often than not and waiting until the enemy was reloading before firing back.
Also, the incredible "Perks" your character can aquire each time he/she levels up is amazing. If you want a little hint on which perks are the best to obtain try the following early on:
Level 2: Black Widow/Lady Killer - Makes your character more powerful when fighting the Opposite Sex. It also unlocks unique dialog options when speaking to the opposite sex.
Level 3: Swift Learner - Gain an additional 10% experience.
Level 4: Educated - Gain three more skill points every time your character levels up.
Level 5: Swift Learner - Also gain an additional 10% EXP points
Level 6: Swift Learner - Same as above.
Level 8: Commando - Makes two handed weapons more accurate (Do not waste your time with "Gunslinger" which makes single handed weapons more accurate as single handed weapons become useless later on in the game.)
Level 10: Here and Now - Gain an additional level up.
Level 11: Mysterious Stranger - A MUST HAVE!
Hope these help for new players. I made sure I maxed out my Swift Learner perk early as my experience I gained went up substantially. Instead of gaining 50 EXP for defeating an enemy, I gained 65 EXP! |
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