i believe it is time to review what was easily my favourite pc game of 2008, which i picked up earlier this year and have been playing ever since:
FALLOUT 3
(fuck i love this game)
fallout 3 is a combination of an FPS and an RPG set in the post apocalyptic ruins of eastern america, where mutation, radiation, and violence have pretty much torn the country apart following a nuclear holocaust sometime in the late 20th century. you play the part of the lone wanderer, an inhabitant of vault 101 (one of many underground safehouses built by the government before the holocaust), who's father escapes the vault one day, with no explanation and no goodbye. desperately seeking answers, you follow in your father's footsteps and leave the vault, in an attempt to find him and discover why he left. this all takes you on an elaborate journey through the capital wasteland (the name that the DC area earned following the holocaust) across a staggeringly huge game world that is home to hundreds (maybe even thousands) of locations, each full of unique AI to interact with. however, it is more the way you experience this journey than the journey itself that makes fallout 3 so great.
morality 101 (heh)
thats because fallout 3 is completely and utterly open. it's the most non-linear gaming experience ive ever had the pleasure of experiencing, and thats what makes the game so fantastic.
exploration is the key word here. from the very first moment you leave the vault, you can go anywhere, talk to anyone, do whatever the fuck you want. you can be the savior of the wastelands, or the grim fucking reaper. it's all your choice. and we aren't talking "do you want to eat little girl y/n" bioshock morality, either. fallout 3 has a karma system, where everything you do that affects other people positively or negatively gives you good or bad karma, which in turn affects how people react to you and what circles you can associate with. certain companions will only assist you if your karma is good, for example, whereas companions such as mercenaries or gang leaders will only follow you around if your karma is rather lacking. either way, the game adapts to your choices and offers you new ones at every corner, be it "do i steal this guys weapon or not" or "which guy do i help in this quest".
the most prominent example of morality is at the very start of the game, where you choose a location that you wish to be your home. your home is important, as it is your central hub where you can store things, heal, and eventually upgrade with other commodities. so, shortly after leaving vault 101, you are given an objective: to go check out the nearest town, megaton. megaton is a pretty large settlement built entirely out of scrap metal, inhabited by doctors, merchants, chefs, and..uh..a couple of religious nuts. seems like a pretty ideal place to live, right? well, here's the thing: the town is built right on top of an unexploded nuclear bomb that was dropped during the great war, and has been dormant ever since. pretty solid logic amirite!
entering the town bar, you may notice a shady figure named mr burke sitting in the corner, wearing a fancy suit and snappy hat. approach him, and he will present to you your first moral dilemma of fallout 3: do you take his explosive charges, plant them, and blow the shit out of megaton, killing everyone inside; or do you reject his offer and tell him to get the fuck out of megaton on the double? choosing the first option will grant you access to a high class residency to the west named tenpenny tower, where the richest people in the wasteland take refuge, with access to safety, food, and luxury suites, as long as they can afford it (well, as luxurious as you can get in the aftermath of the apocalypse). blow up megaton, and burke will put in a good word for you, giving you a home and all the commodities that megaton provided for no cost.
the residents of tenpenny tower are snobs and often bigots, so, weighing the options, do you: a.) crush the innocent citizens trying to scrape a living in megaton for a life of relative luxury in tenpenny tower, or b.) put a bullet in the shady bigots head and carve out a home in megaton?
my choice is pictured below.
B)
ok, so i am a terrible human being (apparently with a shitty haircut too), but thats the thing here: you can be whatever you want, and whoever you want in fallout 3.
the rpg behind the fps
and that's all because of the rpg elements that fallout 3 has tucked beneath the grimy rifles and frag grenades we've all become so accustomed to over the years. maybe "rpg behind the fps" isn't the right way to put it, though, because usually the two blend together so seamlessly that you wouldn't even think to distinguish them at all. still, the rpg elements play a very important part in fallout 3: they are what make the game so much deeper than your standard fps, and so much more involving.
for example, in your standard fps, big gun = more power. while it's not as if that isn't true in fallout 3, the choices that you have in both the range of weapons on offer and, more importantly, the ability to customise their effectiveness, make it far less important, so you won't be constantly on the lookout for some fat ass minigun or flamethrower. while these weapons have a higher base damage than, say, a lead pipe, if you don't have a high enough big guns skill, the difference wont be quite as monstrous as you might think.
skills are half of the system you use to customise your character at the start of the game, and which you level up as you progress through the game (the other half being your S.P.E.C.I.A.L attributes which ill talk about in a minute). there are 13 skills in fallout 3, which affect how good you are at using certain weapons or items, sneaking around unoticed, getting good prices from traders, and many other things. a brief rundown of the skills is below, to give you an idea of the level of customisation in fallout 3:
barter - affects the prices you get selling your items and buying other peoples
big guns - determines your effectiveness with big guns like the flamer or minigun
energy weapons - determines your effectiveness with energy weapons like the laser rifle or plasma rifle
explosives - determines your effectiveness with mines and grenades
lockpick - affects your ability to pick locks of various difficulties
medicine - determines the effectiveness of medical items such as stimpaks or radaways
melee weapons - determines your effectiveness with melee weapons such as knives and sledgehammers
repair - your ability to repair damaged weapons, machinery, and other electronics
science - affects your ability to hack terminals of various difficulties
small guns - determines you effectiveness with smaller weaponry such as rifles, and pistols
sneak - affects your ability to stay hidden and remain unnoticed
speech - affects your ability to convince people things and sway their opinions with the power of words
unarmed - determines your effectiveness with your fists
my favourite is most likely speech, which sometimes allows you to skip huge fights or gain access to storerooms etc just by doing a speech check. the beautiful thing is that if you save before such a speech check and you fail you can just load and try again until it works. speech checks are an extra option in the dialogue which will feature a little percentage that tells you how likely you are are to pass or fail the check. pictured below is an example of dialogue choices while conversing with an npc, though the picture doesn't feature a speech check.
lockpick and science are both very useful too for exploring and getting places, usually into storerooms and locked rooms which deliver ammo or health, but sometimes allowing you to skip exploring large buildings by simply lockpicking/hacking further in.
N.E.R.D got nothin on this
S.P.E.C.I.A.L are your attributes that you pick at the start of the game, which determine which skills you excel at. for every 1 special point, you get another 2 points in that skill. i wont list which skills they effect, but the seven S.P.E.C.I.A.L attributes are:
strength
perception
endurance
charisma
intelligence
aglity
luck
and lastly, there are perks, which are more specific character buffs that grant unique skills or power ups. some perks will simply increase certain skills or S.P.E.C.I.A.L attributes, but most offer unique buffs such as the ability to eat corpses to gain health (the cannibal perk), or doubling the effects of some healing items.
forget terrible pun subtitles - the following section concerns shooting people with guns
and finally, combat. fallout 3 uses a unique targeting system in combat called VATS (something action targeting something), which allows you to basically stop time, select your target/s and desired body parts you would like to hit, then execute your plan. the VATS system manages to perfectly balance rpg and fps into combat, making battles tactical but still challenging.
for the majority of my playthrough of fallout 3, i found combat to be one of the weakest sections of the game, for a couple of reasons. firstly, the range of weapons at the start isn't extensive unless you resort to stealing and killing, and secondly, i wasn't using VATS properly.
mastering the VATS sytem is key. using it, you can cripple your opponents legs if they are fast (great for enemies like the yaoi guai which are basically fucking terrifying rabid bears that bound towards you so fucking quick and scare the shit out of you oh god ;( ), knock their weapons out of their hands if they are holding large, powerful weapons, or just cripple their arms, both of which render them incapable of wielding weapons.
later in the game, when you have access to probably over 100 unique weapons, combat becomes incredibly fun, and with the right arsenal and tactics you can take anything down, and feel incredibly satisfied about it.
for example, deathclaws are one of the most deadly enemies in the game.
this is a deathclaw. it's fucking huge, it has loads of HP, and it can kill you in about 8-10 lunges. first time you encounter one, it'll probably kill you. especially if you are using your fists.
using the vats system and the right weapons, though, he actually becomes a bit of a pushover (and a pushover who yields a shitton of experience aswell). if you shoot him with the poisonous dart gun, it will instantly cripple his legs. doing so reduces his speed to slightly lower than yours, which means you can strafe away from him while shooting him.
granted he still has alot of HP, so get out the right weapon for the job. i like to use the terrible shotgun, a shotgun which does very little damage unless every single pellet from the shotgun hits your enemy. this means that, at point blank range, it is quite possibly the deadliest weapon in the game. get close to the deathclaw (just out of range of his arms, mind you), and plug him a handful of times to see him wriggle in pain. good times.
this is just one example of the kind of tactical fighting that VATS so beautifully inserts into fallout 3, but if that isn't your cup of tea you can just get out your assault rifle, get at medium range, and aim for the fucking head. hell yeah.
all in all, fallout 3 is one of my favourite games of the year (granted it came out last year, but whatever), and one that I'm still playing religiously more than 50 hours in. I'm not even close to discovering every location, weapon, bobblehead, quest, notable NPC...
and theres DLC. lots of it.
9.25/10
FALLOUT 3
(fuck i love this game)
fallout 3 is a combination of an FPS and an RPG set in the post apocalyptic ruins of eastern america, where mutation, radiation, and violence have pretty much torn the country apart following a nuclear holocaust sometime in the late 20th century. you play the part of the lone wanderer, an inhabitant of vault 101 (one of many underground safehouses built by the government before the holocaust), who's father escapes the vault one day, with no explanation and no goodbye. desperately seeking answers, you follow in your father's footsteps and leave the vault, in an attempt to find him and discover why he left. this all takes you on an elaborate journey through the capital wasteland (the name that the DC area earned following the holocaust) across a staggeringly huge game world that is home to hundreds (maybe even thousands) of locations, each full of unique AI to interact with. however, it is more the way you experience this journey than the journey itself that makes fallout 3 so great.
morality 101 (heh)
thats because fallout 3 is completely and utterly open. it's the most non-linear gaming experience ive ever had the pleasure of experiencing, and thats what makes the game so fantastic.
exploration is the key word here. from the very first moment you leave the vault, you can go anywhere, talk to anyone, do whatever the fuck you want. you can be the savior of the wastelands, or the grim fucking reaper. it's all your choice. and we aren't talking "do you want to eat little girl y/n" bioshock morality, either. fallout 3 has a karma system, where everything you do that affects other people positively or negatively gives you good or bad karma, which in turn affects how people react to you and what circles you can associate with. certain companions will only assist you if your karma is good, for example, whereas companions such as mercenaries or gang leaders will only follow you around if your karma is rather lacking. either way, the game adapts to your choices and offers you new ones at every corner, be it "do i steal this guys weapon or not" or "which guy do i help in this quest".
the most prominent example of morality is at the very start of the game, where you choose a location that you wish to be your home. your home is important, as it is your central hub where you can store things, heal, and eventually upgrade with other commodities. so, shortly after leaving vault 101, you are given an objective: to go check out the nearest town, megaton. megaton is a pretty large settlement built entirely out of scrap metal, inhabited by doctors, merchants, chefs, and..uh..a couple of religious nuts. seems like a pretty ideal place to live, right? well, here's the thing: the town is built right on top of an unexploded nuclear bomb that was dropped during the great war, and has been dormant ever since. pretty solid logic amirite!
entering the town bar, you may notice a shady figure named mr burke sitting in the corner, wearing a fancy suit and snappy hat. approach him, and he will present to you your first moral dilemma of fallout 3: do you take his explosive charges, plant them, and blow the shit out of megaton, killing everyone inside; or do you reject his offer and tell him to get the fuck out of megaton on the double? choosing the first option will grant you access to a high class residency to the west named tenpenny tower, where the richest people in the wasteland take refuge, with access to safety, food, and luxury suites, as long as they can afford it (well, as luxurious as you can get in the aftermath of the apocalypse). blow up megaton, and burke will put in a good word for you, giving you a home and all the commodities that megaton provided for no cost.
the residents of tenpenny tower are snobs and often bigots, so, weighing the options, do you: a.) crush the innocent citizens trying to scrape a living in megaton for a life of relative luxury in tenpenny tower, or b.) put a bullet in the shady bigots head and carve out a home in megaton?
my choice is pictured below.
B)
ok, so i am a terrible human being (apparently with a shitty haircut too), but thats the thing here: you can be whatever you want, and whoever you want in fallout 3.
the rpg behind the fps
and that's all because of the rpg elements that fallout 3 has tucked beneath the grimy rifles and frag grenades we've all become so accustomed to over the years. maybe "rpg behind the fps" isn't the right way to put it, though, because usually the two blend together so seamlessly that you wouldn't even think to distinguish them at all. still, the rpg elements play a very important part in fallout 3: they are what make the game so much deeper than your standard fps, and so much more involving.
for example, in your standard fps, big gun = more power. while it's not as if that isn't true in fallout 3, the choices that you have in both the range of weapons on offer and, more importantly, the ability to customise their effectiveness, make it far less important, so you won't be constantly on the lookout for some fat ass minigun or flamethrower. while these weapons have a higher base damage than, say, a lead pipe, if you don't have a high enough big guns skill, the difference wont be quite as monstrous as you might think.
skills are half of the system you use to customise your character at the start of the game, and which you level up as you progress through the game (the other half being your S.P.E.C.I.A.L attributes which ill talk about in a minute). there are 13 skills in fallout 3, which affect how good you are at using certain weapons or items, sneaking around unoticed, getting good prices from traders, and many other things. a brief rundown of the skills is below, to give you an idea of the level of customisation in fallout 3:
barter - affects the prices you get selling your items and buying other peoples
big guns - determines your effectiveness with big guns like the flamer or minigun
energy weapons - determines your effectiveness with energy weapons like the laser rifle or plasma rifle
explosives - determines your effectiveness with mines and grenades
lockpick - affects your ability to pick locks of various difficulties
medicine - determines the effectiveness of medical items such as stimpaks or radaways
melee weapons - determines your effectiveness with melee weapons such as knives and sledgehammers
repair - your ability to repair damaged weapons, machinery, and other electronics
science - affects your ability to hack terminals of various difficulties
small guns - determines you effectiveness with smaller weaponry such as rifles, and pistols
sneak - affects your ability to stay hidden and remain unnoticed
speech - affects your ability to convince people things and sway their opinions with the power of words
unarmed - determines your effectiveness with your fists
my favourite is most likely speech, which sometimes allows you to skip huge fights or gain access to storerooms etc just by doing a speech check. the beautiful thing is that if you save before such a speech check and you fail you can just load and try again until it works. speech checks are an extra option in the dialogue which will feature a little percentage that tells you how likely you are are to pass or fail the check. pictured below is an example of dialogue choices while conversing with an npc, though the picture doesn't feature a speech check.
lockpick and science are both very useful too for exploring and getting places, usually into storerooms and locked rooms which deliver ammo or health, but sometimes allowing you to skip exploring large buildings by simply lockpicking/hacking further in.
N.E.R.D got nothin on this
S.P.E.C.I.A.L are your attributes that you pick at the start of the game, which determine which skills you excel at. for every 1 special point, you get another 2 points in that skill. i wont list which skills they effect, but the seven S.P.E.C.I.A.L attributes are:
strength
perception
endurance
charisma
intelligence
aglity
luck
and lastly, there are perks, which are more specific character buffs that grant unique skills or power ups. some perks will simply increase certain skills or S.P.E.C.I.A.L attributes, but most offer unique buffs such as the ability to eat corpses to gain health (the cannibal perk), or doubling the effects of some healing items.
forget terrible pun subtitles - the following section concerns shooting people with guns
and finally, combat. fallout 3 uses a unique targeting system in combat called VATS (something action targeting something), which allows you to basically stop time, select your target/s and desired body parts you would like to hit, then execute your plan. the VATS system manages to perfectly balance rpg and fps into combat, making battles tactical but still challenging.
for the majority of my playthrough of fallout 3, i found combat to be one of the weakest sections of the game, for a couple of reasons. firstly, the range of weapons at the start isn't extensive unless you resort to stealing and killing, and secondly, i wasn't using VATS properly.
mastering the VATS sytem is key. using it, you can cripple your opponents legs if they are fast (great for enemies like the yaoi guai which are basically fucking terrifying rabid bears that bound towards you so fucking quick and scare the shit out of you oh god ;( ), knock their weapons out of their hands if they are holding large, powerful weapons, or just cripple their arms, both of which render them incapable of wielding weapons.
later in the game, when you have access to probably over 100 unique weapons, combat becomes incredibly fun, and with the right arsenal and tactics you can take anything down, and feel incredibly satisfied about it.
for example, deathclaws are one of the most deadly enemies in the game.
this is a deathclaw. it's fucking huge, it has loads of HP, and it can kill you in about 8-10 lunges. first time you encounter one, it'll probably kill you. especially if you are using your fists.
using the vats system and the right weapons, though, he actually becomes a bit of a pushover (and a pushover who yields a shitton of experience aswell). if you shoot him with the poisonous dart gun, it will instantly cripple his legs. doing so reduces his speed to slightly lower than yours, which means you can strafe away from him while shooting him.
granted he still has alot of HP, so get out the right weapon for the job. i like to use the terrible shotgun, a shotgun which does very little damage unless every single pellet from the shotgun hits your enemy. this means that, at point blank range, it is quite possibly the deadliest weapon in the game. get close to the deathclaw (just out of range of his arms, mind you), and plug him a handful of times to see him wriggle in pain. good times.
this is just one example of the kind of tactical fighting that VATS so beautifully inserts into fallout 3, but if that isn't your cup of tea you can just get out your assault rifle, get at medium range, and aim for the fucking head. hell yeah.
all in all, fallout 3 is one of my favourite games of the year (granted it came out last year, but whatever), and one that I'm still playing religiously more than 50 hours in. I'm not even close to discovering every location, weapon, bobblehead, quest, notable NPC...
and theres DLC. lots of it.
9.25/10
