Fallout 3

Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Released: October 31st 2008
Price: £40 on Xbox/PS3 £20-£25 on PC

Fallout 3 has been released alongside Fable II, Gears of War 2, and Farcry 2, That’s a far from easy line up to compete with. And with Christmas looming ever closer how will you choose what to buy? Does saying that Fallout 3 is an absolutely massive open plan RPG that strongly resembles Oblivion but with lasers, rocket launchers, drugs and power armour entice you?

Fallout 3 is here! Having said that there’s a very good chance that the 3 at the end of this games title means nothing to you. If that is the case then prepare to be enlightened.

The graphics, and cars, have vastly improved since the last game.

The original Fallout games were PC only RPGs set in the post-apocalyptic wasteland that used to be America, their top selling points were the massive scope of the games and the ability to do almost anything you wanted. For example you could become a prize fighter, leader of the mob, an x-rated movie star or a slaver. This was all along side trying to complete the main storyline of saving your small tribe from disease and starvation. If that sounds good to you, and if you enjoy a bit of old school gaming then I would actually recommend Fallout 2. I got that game for my birthday when I was a kid and I still play it now and then!

There’s nothing like blasting the head off a feral mutant at close range with a sub machine gun, except for maybe blowing it into tiny pieces!

The Production of Fallout 3 was taken on by Bethesda who were the producers of Oblivion. The game starts with you as a baby in a sealed vault, which has been your people’s protection of the nuclear war. The game quickly speeds you through early life and along the way you determine what you will look like and what your initial stats and skills will be. When you finally leave the vault at age 19 to find your father you are left alone and unprepared in the wasteland. Ultimately you can lead you character to glory, by saving prisoners from super mutants and by purifying the worlds water supply. Or you can become a super villain, by blowing up entire towns and murdering innocent people and eating their corpses (nice!).

Fallout 3 uses the Oblivion engine and within Fallout 3 is a heart of dungeons, loot and death. At times when your in a cave fighting a giant wolf-bear hybrid with a Chinese sword, you could actually be playing Oblivion.

Shoot it first, ask what it was doing on the train LATER!!!

Graphically Fallout 3 is very impressive, as you would probably expect from the producers of Oblivion…
For example there’s nothing like blasting the head off a feral mutant at close range with a sub machine gun. Except for maybe blowing it into tiny pieces by sneaking up and putting an active mine or grenade down its trousers. Cresting a hill often reveals some fantastic eye candy, and due to the size of the world there are plenty of hills to crest.

Speaking of the scale the game is massive; coming in at about 70% of the size of Oblivion this game is big. It takes about 20 hours to complete the main story line, but anyone who can play it without being sucked into the fabulous side plots is very single minded. Unlike Mass Effect the side line missions and stories don’t feel like they were written by a 10 year old child. Some of the side missions include, a scientist who wants his renegade android recovered, slavers who will pay a lot of money for anyone you manage to drag to their hidden city and saving (or not) a small town built on a highway overpass from a strange nocturnal gang.

However you choose to play this game combat will always be a big part, from battling creatures and robots in the wasteland, to obliterating a giant mutant ambush with a “mini nuke”. Keeping this in mind there are two ways that you can do combat. Firstly, as an FPS. In terms of an FPS Fallout 3 will never match up to Call of Duty 4 or another such dedicated shooter but it does the job adequately, keeping the combat fun by often ending with the separation of the last limb hit from the body of your enemy.

Do you wanna play the odds?

However the main talking point in the combat of Fallout 3 is VATS. VATS or the Vault-tec Assisted Targeting System is Bethesdas concession to the old turn based Fallout games where you could pick a part of your opponent to target. VATS allows you to pause the game and spend action point on shots or hits aimed at a specific part of your opponent. Attacking different parts of different enemies will result in a different outcome. For example attacking the feelers of a giant fire ant will send it crazy killing friend and foe alike, whereas attacking the head of most creatures will often result in the most damage. VATS also gives you a percentage likely hood of a direct hit to that part of the body and gives you damage estimation so that you can plan your attacks carefully. Depending on your character, your weapon and what drugs you may have taken before combat you can get up to about targeted shots or hits in one go. However if you are in combat for a extended period you may use VATS again because action point recharge slowly over time.

I would also like to praise Bethesda on the perks that they have included in this game. Perks are a special trait that you gain for your character every time you level up. Some of the perks are both inventive and funny and can become an important part of your characters game. For example the ability to eat corpses to heal yourself, the Sandman kill (I’ll let you find out for yourself), the Animal friend and the Ninja training are all fantastic perks that improve the game that little bit more.

After playing a lot on this game and comparing it with many others I would recommend it if you are a shooter fan or an RPG fan but ideally both. The game holds a lot of surprises and is a long source of entertainment. I do have one or two negatives to add though. You can’t kill children! Which might not seem much but is really really annoying trust me and secondly the game doesn’t or rather won’t make it to classic status. It’s a very good game but in my opinion people won’t still be talking about it in a few years. It just lacks the spark that makes it different from all the other games, and whilst I would recommend it, if you’re not an avid RPG/shooter fan I wouldn’t put it at the top of your Christmas list.

Score: 4.5/5