Fallout 3 is the radically different continuation of the Fallout series, preserving some gameplay concepts while completely changing the game itself. You are a vault dweller, finding your place in the radioactive wasteland remnants of Washington DC after a series of nuclear attacks.
Gameplay: 10.0
Unique gameplay concepts - What drives the game, and what is it similar to?
It's pretty easy to see the similarities to Oblivion, another Bethesda game, and since they use the same game engine, it makes sense.
Fallout 3 does improve in nearly every way in which Oblivion "fell short", but you do have to handicap the results from Fallout 3 because it was the beneficiary of a game that came out several years earlier.
Fallout is both a shooter and an RPG. It has a very good sense of a real world, where there are lots of memorable characters, a good story arc and many ways to complete quests. The conversation system is in a classic RPG style, and a lot of game features are similar to the original Fallouts such as body looting, inventory control, finite items and a very realistic mercantile system.
Fallout's unique approach to an idea of "open-world" rings true in Fallout 3, too. They have an exact amount of characters within the world and you can always kill those characters and they'll stay dead forever. You could always go through the game and kill literally everyone so you're the only man standing among NPCs. Enemies are still unlimited, though, and that makes sense.
Their gun fighting is pretty fun, and pretty versatile. The ability to recruit mercs to roll with you (or carry your items) and the sense of realism associated due to their finite health and requirements to join with you are pretty fun to play with.
One polarizing aspect of their gameplay is their VATS system, where you can essentially slow/stop time in order to fine tune your aiming. You can always try to shoot enemies in the head, torso or limbs to get differing effects (more damage, inability to fire/knock a weapon out of somebody's hand, make them slower), but in VATS you have a certain amount of points to use any weapon you have, aim at any particular point of the body and have a high percentage of landing them. Not to mention, it's an efficiency crunch on damage dealt versus time and damage taken.
A lot of people hate VATS and a lot of people like it. I thought it was fine just how it was. If you like it, use it, and put upgrades into it. If not, just simply don't press the button to use it!
They do a good job of making a huge variety of enemies throughout the game. There are some that will rightly scare the crap out of you, some that are easy as pie, and there are the baseline raider gangs that come by every once in a while to try to kill you.
The map is pretty huge, making for a lot of gameplay space. They divide the map into different areas so it's not quite as much of an open-world feel as a game like Grand Theft Auto or even Oblivion.
Fallout is definitely a treasure-diving game, too. There are TONS of items in the game, and a lot of (seemingly) worthless items. Diving around in drawers or just finding stuff on the floor is endless, but can sometimes be a little annoying. But, nobody is making you dive in those drawers and look around for junk! Looting guns and items off bodies is more efficient and I think everyone resorts to only that after a while.
The reason I said some items were seemingly worthless is because Fallout puts a lot of items to use to make unique weaponry (after you discover the plans). One of these weapons can actually launch any item at an enemy and deal them damage. Pumping teddy bears, plates, books or whatever other useless crap into a gun and firing them at enemies is just too fun of a concept to pass up.
They do have a weight system to their inventory, like Oblivion, to limit the amount of items you can carry, adding for strategy when deciding to sell things or just drop them on the floor. Their inventory system is actually pretty enjoyable, unlike most RPGs (in my opinion). One of the funniest things in the game is trying to pickpocket people and reverse pickpocketing them with live grenades.
Fallout sticks to it's roots with it's attribute, upgrade and perk system. When you level you can add points to make you stronger, tougher, etc, and occasionally you will get perks that can be as random as charming the opposite sex easily, getting more bloody deaths when killing somebody or being killed, eating corpses for health, etc. A lot of these perks are available depending on if you are good or evil, and you gain good or evil points by killing/helping random civilians or making quest choices that will benefit or hurt the remnants of society. There are also some perks that can only be obtained by being as neutral as possible (cue Zap Brannigan).
It's really hard to complain that much about Fallout. The biggest complaint could be the huge gaps in action when exploring, but they do have a fast-travel to make up for that after you've explored the particular location you want to travel to. A lot of people complain that it's too easy of a game, but I didn't find that to be a nuisance. Very solid game.
Presentation: 9.0
Graphical and audio presentation (animation, texturing, overall look & artistic style)
Fallout 3 looks decent, and the environment looks really good (despite it being a disaster).
VATS has cool sound to make it a pretty surreal experience, and the audio is decent enough, but not overly memorable.
Theatrics: 10.0
Story, Dialogue, Cut-Scenes and Artistic Use of Camera
Fallout actually has a good story, some weird story turns and good voice acting/dialogue along the way. There are several very amusing points, several dramatic points and several points where you can't help but feel like you're in the story and questioning your own decisions.
There are a lot of random points of quests or exploration where you'll find an interesting sub-plot that can make you laugh hysterically, or honestly feel bad when you find somebody that wound up dying an unfortunate death. A lot of their sub-plots among the city are very creative.
Great versatility, great characters. Overall, one of the best story experiences in gaming.
Controls: 8.5
Ease of Use and Smoothness of Controls
Fallout has those goofy Bethesda controls, and controlling VATS can be annoying sometimes. Talking to people and selecting the correct item can get a little irritating, too. Overall, they're pretty good. It's a pretty slow game, though, and controls aren't overly important.
Replay Value: 10.0
Total Gameplay Time versus Expected
Fallout 3 will provide for tons of gameplay on it's own. Each quest is unique and rewarding. I played through 1.5 times and probably got around 65 hours out of it. If you play this game and go from start to finish without exploring, you're doing it wrong.
Fun: 9.0
How much fun was the game?
Fallout 3 is a pretty fun game. This, surprisingly, is a rather low score comparatively. The gameplay is slow, but it is very consistent. There are points where fighting a ton of really tough enemies can get taxing, and you never feel unusually powerful, likely by design. It knows what it wants to do, and it does it well. But I can't say the overall gameplay is really stand-out fun. It's good though.
My Overall Rating: 9.5
Suggested Gaming Experience Level: Medium
What kind of experience playing video games do you need to really appreciate this game?
Gameplay: 10.0
Unique gameplay concepts - What drives the game, and what is it similar to?
It's pretty easy to see the similarities to Oblivion, another Bethesda game, and since they use the same game engine, it makes sense.
Fallout 3 does improve in nearly every way in which Oblivion "fell short", but you do have to handicap the results from Fallout 3 because it was the beneficiary of a game that came out several years earlier.
Fallout is both a shooter and an RPG. It has a very good sense of a real world, where there are lots of memorable characters, a good story arc and many ways to complete quests. The conversation system is in a classic RPG style, and a lot of game features are similar to the original Fallouts such as body looting, inventory control, finite items and a very realistic mercantile system.
Fallout's unique approach to an idea of "open-world" rings true in Fallout 3, too. They have an exact amount of characters within the world and you can always kill those characters and they'll stay dead forever. You could always go through the game and kill literally everyone so you're the only man standing among NPCs. Enemies are still unlimited, though, and that makes sense.
Their gun fighting is pretty fun, and pretty versatile. The ability to recruit mercs to roll with you (or carry your items) and the sense of realism associated due to their finite health and requirements to join with you are pretty fun to play with.
One polarizing aspect of their gameplay is their VATS system, where you can essentially slow/stop time in order to fine tune your aiming. You can always try to shoot enemies in the head, torso or limbs to get differing effects (more damage, inability to fire/knock a weapon out of somebody's hand, make them slower), but in VATS you have a certain amount of points to use any weapon you have, aim at any particular point of the body and have a high percentage of landing them. Not to mention, it's an efficiency crunch on damage dealt versus time and damage taken.
A lot of people hate VATS and a lot of people like it. I thought it was fine just how it was. If you like it, use it, and put upgrades into it. If not, just simply don't press the button to use it!
They do a good job of making a huge variety of enemies throughout the game. There are some that will rightly scare the crap out of you, some that are easy as pie, and there are the baseline raider gangs that come by every once in a while to try to kill you.
The map is pretty huge, making for a lot of gameplay space. They divide the map into different areas so it's not quite as much of an open-world feel as a game like Grand Theft Auto or even Oblivion.
Fallout is definitely a treasure-diving game, too. There are TONS of items in the game, and a lot of (seemingly) worthless items. Diving around in drawers or just finding stuff on the floor is endless, but can sometimes be a little annoying. But, nobody is making you dive in those drawers and look around for junk! Looting guns and items off bodies is more efficient and I think everyone resorts to only that after a while.
The reason I said some items were seemingly worthless is because Fallout puts a lot of items to use to make unique weaponry (after you discover the plans). One of these weapons can actually launch any item at an enemy and deal them damage. Pumping teddy bears, plates, books or whatever other useless crap into a gun and firing them at enemies is just too fun of a concept to pass up.
They do have a weight system to their inventory, like Oblivion, to limit the amount of items you can carry, adding for strategy when deciding to sell things or just drop them on the floor. Their inventory system is actually pretty enjoyable, unlike most RPGs (in my opinion). One of the funniest things in the game is trying to pickpocket people and reverse pickpocketing them with live grenades.
Fallout sticks to it's roots with it's attribute, upgrade and perk system. When you level you can add points to make you stronger, tougher, etc, and occasionally you will get perks that can be as random as charming the opposite sex easily, getting more bloody deaths when killing somebody or being killed, eating corpses for health, etc. A lot of these perks are available depending on if you are good or evil, and you gain good or evil points by killing/helping random civilians or making quest choices that will benefit or hurt the remnants of society. There are also some perks that can only be obtained by being as neutral as possible (cue Zap Brannigan).
It's really hard to complain that much about Fallout. The biggest complaint could be the huge gaps in action when exploring, but they do have a fast-travel to make up for that after you've explored the particular location you want to travel to. A lot of people complain that it's too easy of a game, but I didn't find that to be a nuisance. Very solid game.
Presentation: 9.0
Graphical and audio presentation (animation, texturing, overall look & artistic style)
Fallout 3 looks decent, and the environment looks really good (despite it being a disaster).
VATS has cool sound to make it a pretty surreal experience, and the audio is decent enough, but not overly memorable.
Theatrics: 10.0
Story, Dialogue, Cut-Scenes and Artistic Use of Camera
Fallout actually has a good story, some weird story turns and good voice acting/dialogue along the way. There are several very amusing points, several dramatic points and several points where you can't help but feel like you're in the story and questioning your own decisions.
There are a lot of random points of quests or exploration where you'll find an interesting sub-plot that can make you laugh hysterically, or honestly feel bad when you find somebody that wound up dying an unfortunate death. A lot of their sub-plots among the city are very creative.
Great versatility, great characters. Overall, one of the best story experiences in gaming.
Controls: 8.5
Ease of Use and Smoothness of Controls
Fallout has those goofy Bethesda controls, and controlling VATS can be annoying sometimes. Talking to people and selecting the correct item can get a little irritating, too. Overall, they're pretty good. It's a pretty slow game, though, and controls aren't overly important.
Replay Value: 10.0
Total Gameplay Time versus Expected
Fallout 3 will provide for tons of gameplay on it's own. Each quest is unique and rewarding. I played through 1.5 times and probably got around 65 hours out of it. If you play this game and go from start to finish without exploring, you're doing it wrong.
Fun: 9.0
How much fun was the game?
Fallout 3 is a pretty fun game. This, surprisingly, is a rather low score comparatively. The gameplay is slow, but it is very consistent. There are points where fighting a ton of really tough enemies can get taxing, and you never feel unusually powerful, likely by design. It knows what it wants to do, and it does it well. But I can't say the overall gameplay is really stand-out fun. It's good though.
My Overall Rating: 9.5
Suggested Gaming Experience Level: Medium
What kind of experience playing video games do you need to really appreciate this game?
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