Fallout III

Review from AJ, AJ and AJ - Tuesday, 25 November 2008 @ 11:06pm

Have you ever had the feeling that you’ve played a game before, even though you know you haven’t? There are a few Déjà vu games out there. Pretty much every first person shooter feels like one that you’ve already played. Especially if there is a gravity gun involved. I also get that feeling with Fallout 3. It’s almost too similar to Oblibion.... kinda like how Back to the Future 2 was a little too similar to Back to the Future

Now, I loved Back to the Future. It is probably in my top 20 movies of all time. It doesn’t make it into the top 10, but in terms of watchability it is definitely a contender. It is one of those movies that I can watch 100 more times and will still enjoy it. Not many movies have that same ability. Blues Brothers, The Big Lebowski and Monty Python and the Holy Grail are probably the only others that spring to mind. But then there was Back to the Future 2. Back to the Future 2 was, for all intents and purposes, the same movie as Back to the Future 1...except now set in the future.

In case you haven’t worked it out yet, Fallout 3 is Back to the Future 2 in this metaphor, and Oblvion is Back to the Future 1. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Bethesda release a “modern day” GTAIV clone using the same engine... just to round out the trilogy.

Unfortunately, that pretty much ends the metaphor... as much as I’d like to compare Marty to my character “Barry”.

Radio killed the video star...

So now I find myself in something of a quandary. I have to write a review for a game that I honestly was too busy enjoying to make any real criticisms about. Normally I keep a pen and paper and jot down all the things that piss me off about a game so that I can go off on some hapless rant about how long the load times are how many pointless cut scenes there are. But I didn’t.

Even if this game was released as Elder Scrolls V with wizards and rogues, I would still be really like it. The fact that it feels like a Fallout themed Oblivion mod doesn’t take away from the experience in the slightest. Sure a lot of the gripes about Oblivion are still present, like the dead faced zombie-like inhabitants of the world for one, but the “big empty world” setting just fits nicely with a post apocalyptic world. There is a whole lot of nothing in the wasteland, and that is how a wasteland should be. Even the “uncanny valley” can’t break the feeling of Fallout 3, as I’d probably look like this mob too after a nuclear war.

"No, I don't know what the hell a midichlorian is!

Fallout 3 is, at its heart, a classic RPG. It has the classic internal conflict of good versus evil. It has the staples of collecting shit and flogging it off to buy better shit. It has dialogue trees, quests, an ongoing story arc and has plenty of room for exploring. But Fallout 3 succeeds where more “family” friendly games like Fable fail. The range of moral choices in Fallout 3 are far wider and greater impacting than in games like Fable. Whereas in Fable you can skip through the world wearing a glowing halo and everyone wants to marry you, in Fallout 3 if you’re a goody two shoes you’re just as likely to wind up dead as if you were the meanest son-of-a-bitch in town.....maybe even more so. In a nuclear wasteland there are lots of nasty people, and nasty people don’t like do-gooders. Wandering around like a saint will mean some of the less pleasant locals will take a dislike to you, and some may even send hitmen after you. After all, people giving hope to the hopeless is bad for business.

The other significant difference is that if you want to be a real badass, you’ll need to bring your brass ones... because being evil requires you to perform some pretty unsavoury tasks. Not least of which involves blowing up an entire town. You won’t be doing anything like THAT in Fable 2! Just about every quest you take on has a good and evil path. In some cases the evil path isn’t so clearly defined as “destroy town or save town”.... but there is generally a lot of scope to decide. And of course, unlike Fable, Fallout 3 has very real and very permanent repercussions.

Ssssshhhh... I'm hunting wabbits!

I think that is one of the things I like most about Fallout 3. There is nothing to stop you failing every quest by simply going around and killing all the main NPCs. It’s obviously not the best way to make friends... but it is a valid option. Why complete a quest for someone when you can just kill them and loot their house! Of course, you won’t get as much experience and you won’t find where they’ve stashed the “good stuff”... but in some cases it’s probably more fun. Most of the quests are good fun, but there are quite a few which are nothing more than “go here, get this, come back”. But even those quests give you a reason to go to an area which you previously may not have ventured...so that in itself makes them worthwhile. Discovering new areas means that next time you want to head in that direction you can make use of the quick travel option (as featured in Oblivion).

Fallout 3 also has a really good story, and unlike the shoddy “rinse and repeat” main quest from Oblivion, the Fallout 3 main story arc is a genuinely good story. Even the side stories are well worth completing if only for the story. The people you meet along the way have genuinely interesting things to say, and the quests you complete genuinely feel like you’re contributing to society (or destroying it if you so choose!). Even conversations don’t feel so forced this time around, and there are plenty of “hidden” options which become available depending on various perks and your particular skill set. Nothing new there really, but the way it fits into the conversation is a lot more natural than previous incarnations.

I'm NOT Mad and my name is NOT Max

That’s not to say the game doesn’t have issues. The main reason for saving frequently isn’t for fear of dying, it’s for fear of bugs... and I don’t mean the radroaches. I couldn’t count the number of times I tried to walk somewhere I wasn’t supposed to and got stuck forcing me to quit and reload the game. There are plenty of other issues with the game as well, some serious and others just plain weird. NPC suicides, misbehaving followers, V.A.T.S freezing and some really bizarre sound glitches round out the top annoyances. In all, providing you save frequently, it’s not the end of the world... and even if it is, just keep in mind the place IS trying to recover from a nuclear holocaust. Apparently there are some patches on the way for the various platforms which will deal with a lot of the major issues... so I look forward to having Internet again (I just moved house) so that I can download that ASAP.

One thing that has received mixed reviews is V.A.T.S. I can’t even remember what the acronym is, but it’s the thing where you zoom in and select various parts of the enemy to target. What surprises me about this is primarily the fact that you can “target various limbs of the opponent and this can result in the limb being dismembered. Large amounts of blood spray from the stump with the opponent sometimes remaining alive”. Why’s that in quotes, you ask? It is an extract from the ruling that saw Soldier of Fortune: Payback refused classification in Australia. Once again, our ratings system working well! Somehow, this more targeted, more deliberate, more gruesome version of dismemberment is OK, but the use of the word Morphine wasn’t.... of course none of this would be an issue if we had an R18+ rating in Australia.

V.A.T.S. has received a bit of negative press, but I actually found it very useful...not only for conserving precious ammunition, but because I am playing an RPG, not an FPS. It means that specific knowledge learned from NPCs can actually assist you in combat. When combating the nasty Fire Ants for example, crippling a certain part of their body will make them go crazy and attack each other.... something that would not be possible to achieve without V.A.T.S.

Just don't mention the Morphine...

Another noticeable upgrade from Oblivion, is the levelling system. Now capped at level 20, levelling cannot be achieved with a rubber band on the controller and sneaking head-first into a corner of a room while someone is next to you sleeping. Fallout uses more traditional methods of levelling whereby you gain XP for doing quests, finding new areas and killing stuff. When you level, you allocate your points into your various attributes and choose a perk to upgrade. Not only does this not railroad you into a certain style of play, it allows you to fairly comfortably change at any time. There is a vast amount of customisation, and it is really up to you exactly what type of character you want to have. Of course, once you hit level 20, that’s it... so don’t go wasting points on skills you don’t use!

Fallout 3 is a great game, not just because it looks nice or because it plays well, but because it has a great story. Fallout 3 is, for the most part, an immersive and enjoyable experience. If it weren’t for the stunning array of bugs, it’d be in my top 1 or 2 games for the year. Unfortunately for me, like most RPGs, it takes more time to play than I really have available to play. The fact that I still manage to find 10 minutes here or there to do that next mission whilst waiting for the kettle to boil is a testament to the depth and intrigue Bethesda have managed to create in this post-apocalyptic paradise.

Pros

A shooter that still plays well for turn-based fans. Excellent story and Immersive environments. Free flowing, non-linear gameplay which allows for interesting character customisation and progression (rather than just changing what you look like).

Cons

One of the buggiest games I’ve played on a console. Brown and grey get a bit boring after a while. Characters still look like Oblivion zombies.