Think Oblivion on Depressants (Fallout 3 (PS3))

Member Name: World-of-Bones

Product:	Fallout 3 (PS3)
Date:	24/06/09 (59 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Graphics, Sound, Environment, Gameplay

Disadvantages: Some glitchs within the game

To any RPG fans the name Bethesda will bring back memories of the Elder Scrolls series, and it is these developers that have brought us Fallout 3. Many memories of the Elder Scrolls game will have been of the beautiful environments, especially Oblivion. The environments in Fallout 3 are, well, let's just say all is not well in the world of Fallout and the grass is definitely greener on the other side.

Fallout 3 is set in post-apocalyptic Washington DC, it takes place 200 years or so after a nuclear war destroyed (presumably) most of the planet and left it a barren wasteland; if not the whole World, certainly Washington DC, as you will find out. There is a variety of different landmarks around the game world, including the Washington Monument and the Natural History Museum, each with their own twisted, radiation ridden changes. Before the apocalyptic scenario took place a select few were wealthy enough to take homage in a chain of underground shelters to escape the horror. You are one of those taking shelter, in Vault 101. For the first 20 or so years of your life Vault 101 is all you know, there is no outside world to you. It is only when your father, unexpectedly, escapes from the Vault one day, with no warning apart from a pre-recorded message. He begs you not to follow him, but it wouldn't make a very good game if you abided his wishes, so powering through Vault 101 security guards and escaping through the leader of Vault 101, the Overseer's secret passageway. So, you emerge into the wastelands that are Washington D.C. and begin your personal quest to find out what the hell your father is up to. The story, without giving anything away, is actually good, which isn't always the case for Bethesda's RPGs. It's not the best of stories but what I like about it is the realistic nature of it all, I mean, it could happen. Nuclear holocaust is not completely farfetched and you're on a personal quest rather than one for the greater good like in a lot of games.

Now, onto the gameplay. If you've ever played Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, then think that, except with big guns and an added twist: V.A.T.S. VATS is a tool for helping during combat and also making deaths look incredibly cool, and I mean cool! You press a button and you kind of go into a "God Mode" of sorts, time slows down and you select which part of a victim's body you want to shoot. Now, body parts have percentages next to them indicating your chances of you landing the shot, these percentages seem to be mostly based on distance the enemy is away and your skill with the weapon. After you've selected your piece of meat there are a variety of different viewpoints automatically selected for you to view the shot, which is in slow motion of course. As well as being awesome watching your victim's head/arm/leg being ripped clean off the rest of their body this mode also serves a tactical use. For example, say you've got a giant mutant wielding an equally giant missile launcher, instead of trying to shoot him dead before he does likewise to you it would probably be advisable to render said giant mutant incapable of blowing you the f*** up, so just shoot his missile launcher. Sorted. For some people this VATS mode may get boring, but it never does for me, seriously I can play it for hours on end, never getting bored of the over the top violence, limbs flying around the place and that headless body slumping helplessly to the floor. Enough about VATS, you can also kill hideously mutated species in real time with a combat system identical to Oblivion, only with guns. It's adequate, but the normal combat mode isn't anything special really, I'm assuming Bethesda were counting on VATS to impress people. The rest of the gameplay is good, you can view in first person or third person (Which I do NOT recommend, seriously), do all the usual FPS sort of stuff, jump, crouch, shoot, zoom as well as the RPG elements forcing you to lockpick (which is actually good), hacking computer terminals (not so good) and generally interact with a hell of a lot of things.

Going back to RPG basics, character development is pretty standard for an RPG, and especially Bethesda games. You select a few key stats at the beginning, then when you level up you get skill points and can upgrade various skills such as Small Guns, Sneak, Security, Energy Weapons, Melee Weapons and so on. You also get a chance to select a "perk" every time you level up, which range from useful stuff such as increasing stats to useless, but fun, perks, including one which adds the chance of any victims entire body blowing up when you kill them. Gruesome. NPC interactivity is also very similar to Oblivion, but in many ways better because each character has more of a personality than they did on Oblivion. Basically, you talk to characters, listen to what they have to say and get a variety of replies you can say, depending on what you say they will reply in a suitable manner. Side quests are also a major part of RPGs, and this game is no exception with a multitude of various side quests sending you to far corners of post apocalyptic Washington and leaving you curious. But they also got the balance just right, with the side quests not being enough to distract you from your main quest. The weapons involved in this game are another one of the many highlights of this game. There are a lot of different types of weapon within the game world, each in it's own way looking gruesome when you kill with it. You start out with melee weapons you find lying around (I'll never forget the first time I took a dog's head off with a swift swipe of my tyre iron) before moving on to some smaller guns, eventually you've built up an arsenal of killing tools ranging from Brass Knuckles to Mini Nuke Launchers and everything in between.

There are a few problems with an otherwise brilliant game, for instance, the various glitches causing you to fall through the floor into even more barren lands than where you're supposed to be, even with the similarities, I don't think a post-apocalyptic Washington would be completely white with a green wall in the distance. Another problem is the undeniably awful third person view, there's not much I can say about it, it is just terrible. There is also no sprint button which I find incredibly annoying in games where the environment is as massive as this. Otherwise this is an incredibly game, with graphics as brilliant as one would expect from Bethesda, sound taking you back to the 50's and awesome gameplay.

Summary: A great game with a few glitches that get annoying. But VATS never gets old.