Fallout 3 (Xbox 360) – Review
I can’t be the only person who has not played any of the Fallouts or Elder Scrolls games. I tried getting into the first Fallout a year ago, but I was about 10 years too late and could not keep myself interested in the dated mechanics and graphics, brilliant game or not. I found the idea of Morrowind and Oblivion intriguing, but I saw some pre-release videos of the dialog system and was immediately turned off by the stiff looking characters. Games like Final Fantasy X and Grand Theft Auto III upped the ante for character animation only half a year earlier and I just was not interested in taking a step backwards in that department. Despite my ultimate lack of interest in those works, Fallout 3 has been a permanent fixture on my radar since the moment it was announced by developer Bethesda Softworks.
The narrative in Fallout 3 is presented in two ways, each with varying effect. The primary vehicle for story progression is a branching dialog system jacked from Bethesda’s Elder Scroll games with those stiff character animations I mentioned my dislike for earlier. The dialog itself is well written, the voice acting generally good, and most enjoyably, the branching dialog options usually require some consideration when trying to choose the option which would elicit the type of response from the NPC I am hoping for. The “good” and “bad” choices quickly become identifiable, though the “right” choice is not always cut and dry. While you usually have a full gamut of tones to chose from (polite, sarcastic, sociopathic, etc.), sometimes you can only be rude, which I found pretty funny the few times it occurred. Storytelling shone most when told while you’re still in control of your character, similar to a Half-Life or Bioshock. Some of these moments are unexpected and ultimately effective in immersing the player deeper into the world but they are sadly few and far between.
It is a long conversation, one in which he decides moving is bad
Again, my only complaint is the visual delivery method that Bethesda uses for all interactive conversations in their 3D games. For what it is worth, I came away from Fallout 3 far less annoyed by this than I was expecting, but it is still too ugly for its own good. Initiating a conversation with an NPC swings the camera around into a fixed waist-up view of the visually emotionless character you are speaking to. The player character is not shown nor heard in any of these conversations. While, as I mentioned before, the voice acting is normally good, the NPC characters’ presentation reminds me of watching people who have been stopped on the street by a television news crew, had a camera stuck in their face, and were forced to suffer through awkward, personal on-camera discomfort. In this day and age, with the money being spent (and made) on games like these, there’s no reason that Bethesda could not have hired a couple more people to animate dialog scenes, a la Mass Effect.
Thankfully, the Capital Wasteland and Washington DC environment that envelopes the world of Fallout 3 makes up for any other shortcomings in the presentation. It is a visually captivating place to wander through and quite varied for a post-apocalyptic desert. The downtown DC area has most of the landmarks you’d expect to find and they are all explorable, if not integral parts of the main narrative. You’ll ascend to the top of the Washington Monument, check out some exhibits and the planetarium at the Museum of History, and aid in putting Abraham Lincoln’s head back on the old man’s memorial. The Metro tunnels aid in connecting various places throughout the city and are analogous to the dungeons of traditional RPGs.
The desolate wasteland has even more to see, including abandoned towns, caves, power stations, and several outposts of relatively civilized wasteland dwellers. The stars of the wasteland are the Vaults though. To explain any of the Vault’s premises would be ruinous to one’s enjoyment of the game, so I’ll just say that of all the environments, the exploration of these elicited the strongest emotional reactions from me, from being unnervingly creeped out to laughing gleefully.
Sadly, the map system is so terrible –purposely so, I assume, given the interface is a four inch monochrome CRT– that it is difficult to visit every possible location without tremendous blind searching or succumbing to a FAQ. This is mainly a problem within the downtown Washington D.C. area, which is segmented into many sections via “invisible” walls comprised of massive rubble mounds. To get between sections, traversing the sewers and Metro tunnels are the only way to some areas. This doesn’t sound too bad in theory, and combat in the tunnels is enjoyable, but the map is engineered in such a way that your current heading and location while underground is indecipherable. The over-world map –perhaps half-jokingly true to 1950′s technology– doesn’t update your current location as you move underground, so, following the compass direction and/or the location marker tied into the compass will often lead you far astray of your intended destination.
There are some unfortunate bugs and glitches in the game, but they don’t ruin the overall experience by any means. Most are contained to scripting issues with NPCs being in the proper physical location in the game at the right time and their subsequent awkward dash to be in the right place, and there are some really bizarre physics bugs that cause enemies to occasionally go flying hundreds of feet as a result of a finishing blow, or more commonly, objects and downed enemies dropping from the sky as you move from one location to another, such as exiting a building back into the wasteland. The NPC characters that join your party can also be a real chore to manage, and if you’re not careful, can “get lost” when you need them most. This is usually caused by the NPC’s inability to handle the terrain your character has no problem making his or her way through, such as heading down rocky hills or through fences. One character in particular is a hulking beast, which leads to his tendency in narrow passages to get in your way and stay there because he’s inclined to get behind you. When this happens, you end up having to spend an inordinate amount of time pushing the character down the pathway until there is room for you to sidestep him.
VATS in action
The combat system is the largest innovation Fallout 3 brings to the RPG genre. There are two methods for blowing enemies extremities off. Bethesda’s approach to the heavy reliance on fire arms throughout the game is to give the player a very un-RPG-ish option of shooting projectile weapons and wielding melee weapons in a real-time first person view. Early on, this can be frustrating for players equating this method of control to First Person Shooters, as the damage done to enemies is determined by a roll of a die, not the accuracy of your aiming. Later on –particularly when using weapon-types that you have leveled up– this is not much of an issue. Using the real-time combat earns Action Points that can be spent on the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (aka VATS), which is the big innovation I alluded to above. I would be surprised if this style of combat is not picked up and expanded upon by a gun-focused RPG or ten in the future, it makes sense and works beautifully. Initiating VATS while an enemy is in view pauses the action and allows the player to target specific body parts, i.e. head, left/right arm, torso, left/right leg. Unlike the previous Fallouts, there is no targeting the eyeballs or groin, but for what it’s worth, you’ll only be taking head shots once your character has leveled up sufficiently. Early in the game — while the player character is still weak — strategic use of shooting enemies’ arms and weapons to disarm them is very important in avoiding quick death at the hands of the better equipped.
Viewing Skills with your wrist-mounted Pip-Boy 3000
Inventory management is probably the largest potential bummer in Fallout 3 for some. While I personally enjoyed the balance of encumbrance with near OCD-level collecting of utter crap, I can only imagine this will turn others off entirely. It is work, and it can be time consuming depending on your desire to pick up objects from the environment. Ammo thankfully has no weight burden, and secondary NPCs that join you on your travels add somewhat to your carrying capacity, but you will find yourself frequently visiting your “home” to dump things off. Weapon and Armor degradation and repair is also something I enjoyed managing, but again, I’ve heard more than a few people curse this feature.
The ending is comprised of several enjoyable set pieces tightly woven together, but it does still come as somewhat of a surprise when the game ends. I normally would complain about the way the ending is handled, but given the rest of the game that preceded it, it’s acceptable. For completionists, continuing your exploration of the world is a matter of loading up your last save, as there is no Game+ option here, for understandable reasons.
Warts and all, I’ve found Fallout 3 to serve up an addictive experience worthy of any role-playing game aficionado, and I can only assume an extra special treat for fans of the original Fallouts or Elder Scrolls series. The recent announcement of potentially significant expansions coming to the Xbox 360 and PC versions in early 2009 only make the package that much more worthwhile.
Review Score: 8.5/10
For the record, I have put in 90 hours into the game as a Good Karma character, and have obtained every achievement except for three missions I locked myself out of due to my karma choices, as well as the “level/neutral karma/bad karma” achievements. I have visited every location on the map.
