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Genre: Action RPG Publisher: Bethesda Softworks Developer: Bethesda Softworks Players: 1

By Keith B (13th Nov 2008)

Taking something old and making it new again is never an easy thing, if you’ve ever watched a documentary on rebuilding hot rods or classic cars. It’s not just enough to have the bones of something great, you need to have a team that can make the magic happen. Fallout 3 demanded that an extra level of work be needed, and thankfully it fell to Bethesda to deliver.

Nothing less than brilliance would ever do. The Fallout world is much loved by millions and that was going to be a very tough ruler along which to be measured. Delivering Oblivion only whetted appetites further, but those that have an affinity for either release should be more than happy with Fallout 3.

Set after a nuclear fallout in 2077, the world is a barren place, but thanks to underground bunkers a small percentage of the human race survives. Most people left their bunkers and braved the dark new world, but those in Bunker 101, where you dwell, never left.

Growing up with you father in the bunker provides both your training and your character history, allowing you to cutely wander around as a one year old, then at a birthday party, bringing you up to date with you as a young man. Suddenly all hell breaks loose: your father, a scientist, has left the vault, in pursuit of a project he worked on before you were born. Anything further has to be discovered and worked out as you too turn fugitive.

Leaving the vault is one of those moments in modern gaming, when your gaze breaks the crest of the hill in front of you and modern America lies there like an injured giant. Bridges swing in the wind, skeletal fingers of masonry reach to the grey heavens, dust whirls across the plains. It’s one of the most interesting environments I’ve played it, if only for the fact it hasn’t been completely taken to the ludicrous. Once you set off on your journey the world is suitable underpopulated, never feeling like it’s becoming a generic shooter.

As with all previous Fallout games, this is a heavy RPG. Inventory management, weapons and repairing, a massive range of specialist skills set upon a frame of typical RPG elements complete the picture. How then do you take a turn based RPG and turn it into a FPS? You give the players the option to use turns and initiative points, or to run free blasting. Many will take advantage of the Pip-Boy 3000 system, your targeting equipment on your wrist. Depending on your proficiency with a weapon and your initiative, you’ll be able to take set amount of actions based on how much you have in your Action Points bar. Line up shots, with hit location, and then sit back for a moment and watch the stats and odds do their thing. It’s surprisingly good fun and manages to keep the player entertained with some graphic animations. Later in the game, when you’ve shot your 200th Rad Roach in the head, it would have been nice to be able to skip the cut scenes.



But really, Fallout 3 is all about the game world, and the people in it. Anyone familiar with any games related to this will know the ropes – find someone and kill them, or don’t; defuse the bomb in the town, or detonate it; hunt down an escaped convict, or let them free and lie about killing them. Once you get your toes wet in Fallout 3 it will quickly become apparent that not only is there a lot to do, there is always options on how to do it. Be a bastard and people in the towns won’t want to talk to you, or be nice and they’re your friends. Fable 2 was better at making you feel the responses through interaction with NPCs but this isn’t half bad.

Problems that existed in Oblivion are still evident though, namely clipping issues and problems with stepping over an autosave line. Take my first experience with a nomadic people in their town. Walked in, was asked to murder someone. Went through the conversation tree and the end result was a gunfight with my supposed employer. Bam, killed him, but then had to flee the town as the entire populous was gunning for me. The problem now was I had to spend hours wandering the wastes doing little side missions for an age before I could return. Not the end of the world but an annoyance. There were also many times I had to reload a checkpoint because I’d managed to back myself into a corner and couldn’t get back out. In a world this large though, these really are minor issues.



But really, those why find the missions a little repetitive are missing the point, because while Fallout 3 is certainly not perfect, the goods outweigh the bad to such a degree that the negatives really can be ignored. Whether you want to trade, rob trade caravans, become a melee combat specialist or perfect killing from 500 yards, the possibilities are endless. There are so many voices recorded for this that coming across the same person as two different NPCs is rare; the music is well executed and often a little patriotic (if you’re American) which helps tie this murderous wasteland with the ideal that existed in Vault 101.

Fallout 3 isn’t just good, it’s more than that. When it says on the box that there’s 100 hours of gameplay, I don’t doubt it a bit. Chatting to others playing it and they’ve done completely different things to get to their positions. That’s the exciting thing, the chance to go back again and again to explore this game world. It’s a wonderful thing, to truly enjoy a game experience, and Fallout 3 has it by the truckload. Quite simply, a must play.

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