Fallout 3: Best Video Games of 2008

The video game Fallout 3 by Bethesda is both a worthy successor to the original Fallout series and Bethesda's continuing excellence in the video gaming market. Combining elements of several gaming genres, it's a first-person shooter/role-playing game trapped in a survival scenario, written with a black sense of humor and a tremendous amount of clever dialogue and a far-reaching and ambitious plotline that never fails to deliver.

You're a refugee of Vault 101, an underground, sealed environment that keeps you and a few hundred other humans safe from the irradiated wilderness of a post-apocalyptic world above you. No one enters the Vault- no one leaves the Vault. That is, until your father (voice by Liam Neeson) disappears one day with little to no explanation. In a rage, the Overseer tries to have you killed, and from that first momentous choice on, it's up to you to decide how your fate unfolds as you forage across a vast sandbox environment completing both the main quest and many dozens of side quests. Using actual maps of the area around Washington D.C. as a backdrop, the game map is to fit, if not to scale, and one can find many familiar landmarks that range from familiar small towns to the spire of the Washington Monument itself.

Like the video game Oblivion, Fallout 3 is primarily played from a first-person perspective. It lacks the tactical merits that a true first-person shooter would have- there's no cover or complex movement system, and it's hardly a strafe-and-pray approach to combat. However, a reliance on weaponry to deal with raiders, savage ghouls, and mutant animals will keep even a veteran player on their toes as they trek across a harsh and brutally realistic landscape of twisted girders and irradiated rivers.

Much of Fallout 3's extensive and well-written plot is heavily reliant upon good conversation choices by the player. Simply shooting everything will often as not end up with the player killed or a wanted fugitive and make it impossible for them to advance the primary storyline with any ease. Many situations exist which allow for a character to achieve 'karma' for their actions, whether good or bad- in one city one might choose to destroy the entire town for a promise of millions, while in another the character may facilitate a diplomatic resolution to a housing crisis. There are repercussions to both choices, and the consequences are impossible to predict. In my first hour of gameplay I managed to drive off two of the most important supporting characters in the game and lose access to a wealth of equipment to boot. I was thrilled at how ably the reward system goes beyond the simple 'good/evil' point system. Good characters may find themselves harangued by bounty-hunters; evil characters find the law after them in the more goodly towns.

The retro-fifties artistic stylings of the game world lend it a decrepit and darkly humorous air. Using art and images from everything from Lost in Space knockoffs to art deco ouvers, the game designers have used some of the most iconic art from the early fifties 'Atomic Era' decor as a backdrop to the harsh world of Fallout 3. The entire game feels as if the world ended in the fifties, from the clunky tracked robots to the crackling sereandes of the Andrews' Sisters that plays on the only decent radio station. It's chilling and bleak, but at the same time, tongue-in-cheek and even funny.

For a video-game enthusiast who enjoys a well-told story and a rich and complex game world, Fallout 3 is an excellent addition to their library. Admittedly it's not without bugs here and there, but overall it is a very entertaining game that promises well over a hundred hours of gameplay to complete all of the main and optional quest objectives, not to mention ferreting out all the little nooks and crannies designed by the developers. If you're looking for a casual shooter, this can fit the bill too- the combat system is fairly intuitive and offers a helping hand to beginners at the game. More experienced veterans will find themselves employing the special combat system in-game to supplement their tactical skills.

The mood and the setting are what make this video game remarkable. You're lost and alone at first, wandering a radiation nightmare armed with a pellet gun and a prayer. Family is gone, friends are turning on you, and everywhere you look, there's an enemy around the next rock. All you can do is look to the horizon, find the next set of radio towers, and hike on, hoping to find some signs of human life. But no matter how many cities you visit or friends you make, there's no getting over the feeling you get when you cross the desert between towns- when you're out there, in the world, all alone.

Be prepared to get lost in the world of Tomorrow.