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Fallout 3 -
Positives
Negatives
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Full Review
Fallout 3 has often been referred to as 'Oblivion with guns' and aside from the post-apocalyptic setting and robots, the statement is quite true.
You start off as a 19 year old boy (or girl but in this review I will be referring to the main character as a he) inside the confines of Vault 101; an underground bunker free from radiation and mutated creatures above ground where you've stayed for the whole of your life until your Father decides to go walkabouts and you leave the Vault in search of your Father.
The opening scenes on Fallout 3 are excellent. A unique character creation process and control tutorial at the start of the game are the best I've witnessed from any game. You choose your sex, any facial hair you may have and of course what skills you want to have as your primary skills before you venture into the great outdoors.
Ah the outdoors. What sets Fallout 3 apart from Oblivion is the colour palette the graphic team have decided to use. Greys, browns and reds are the primary colours throughout the world so don't expect the lush greens and blues from Oblivion. However, without giving too much away, after a certain optional quest the colours can change slightly throughout the world.
The main quest line itself is not as strong as it could have been, with an abrupt ending that actually ends the game. If you're the type of gamer that doesn't bother with exploration or side-quest goodies you're probably looking at around 35 hours gameplay. With the side-quests and trying to explore every area that figure is boosted up to around 70+ hours.
The side-quests really aren't just thrown in for the sake of being thrown in. Besthesda have done an excellent job in capturing the feeling around post-apocalyptic Washington and the surrounding area. You'll come across a Nuka Cola-addicted woman, a robot that thinks its around the 1600s and cannibals. Each with their own unique storyline with multiple choices. It's refreshing in a game that relies so heavily to typical RPG elements that combat isn't the primary focus, although don't expect to finish the game without raising a finger.
Combat is one of the strong points of Fallout 3. The new V.A.T.S system is excellently introduced into the fray and can really be the difference between life and death, especially if you crank the difficulty up to Hard or Very Hard. Time freezes and you are free to target a specific area of the body. Crippling the legs means a creature limps and crippling a head can mean either a splattering of blood and a dizzying effect on your enemy or their head flying off and rolling through the desolate ruins.
However, with combat playing a crucial part in the game, it's amazing how unrealistic some of the deaths actually are. When playing using V.A.T.S mode, far too often have heads flown off or a raider's limp body has vaulted into the air only to be dropped a few metres away after flipping in the air several times. It's touches like this that ultimately detract from the experience and make you come to the realisation that this is infact, just a game.
The game as a whole is brilliant but along with unrealistic deaths there are also a few minor bugs that need to be addressed. The game can lag at times, especially when you start to rack up all the side quests and the save games become larger and larger file space and this is especially frustrating. On top of that is the dreadful collision detection for AI which, although sometimes very humorous, just looks stupid when a Radscorpion is desperately trying to attack you but stuck behind a small boulder.
Another point to add is the lip-synching and the graphics during speech. Sometimes the speech is slightly off with the lips of the character, or even more bizarrely, the lips don't move at all. For a game that has a msssive amount of voice acting and dialogue throughout, it just seems odd that Besthesda wouldn't have ironed this out. Also, the cell count is evident during speech making some of the textures look awful. (for anyone that isn't aware of what I mean, it's the pixels that you can see around the outside of a character)
However, with all this aside, the game as a whole is outstanding and a true demonstration that the developers can steer away from shield and sword and still deliver a brilliant game. The details thrown in are amazing from exploring the underground ruins of the Metro Stations to visiting the Lincoln Memorial, everything is woven together in what ultimately remains one of the best games I've played on the PS3.
If you can forgive the lip-synching and a few of the minor points that don't detract too much from the overall experience, this game is well worth a purchase!
Conclusion Scores
Graphics -
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Story -
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Gameplay -
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Trophies -
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Sound -
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Lasting Appeal -
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Overall Score -
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