Fallout 3 Review

I've played my share of shooters and role-playing games. Even a mix of the two. But rarely do I get amazed about a game the way I did about Fallout 3.

Fallout 3 is a shooter mixed with role-playing elements and one hell of a leveling system. But before I get into the technical aspect of it, the story...

In a post-apocalyptic world set in 2277, 200 years after a nuclear holocaust left it into a wasteland, a young man is raised in a vault designed to preserve life after the war. One day, the young person's father sets out into the outside world, causing the young person to finally leave the vault for the first time in search of their father. The journey has the young person face the trials and horrors of the Capital Wasteland(name given to the post-apocalyptic world) and additionally grow and become more experienced as they search for their father...

The story is great and is matched with a great voicing cast, including Liam Neeson as the father, Malcolm McDowell as the president, and Ron Pearlman as the narrator. It always gripped me and had me wanting to find out what happens next. In a weird event, even my sister, who is not into these types of games at all, found the story to be so interesting, that she didn't mind just watching me play. That was an indicator to me of how great the story was.

In the beginning you customize your character choosing aspects such as gender, facial features and name. Some of these can be changed later on in the game. You follow life in the vault then outside of it. One of my favorite parts of this game is the ability to mold your character's attitude. You will communicate a lot with other characters, giving you dialog options which can portray you an a nice innocent person, or a bad ass takes crap from no one type of person. These will lead you to follow slightly different paths towards getting to your main objectives. But there is karma in the game. Do bad stuff, bad stuff happens to you. Do good, good happens to you. Of course, who could resist not doing a little evil?

One unique aspect of the game is V.A.T.S. (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System) creating a blend between real-time and "bullet" time (things go in slow motion). When activated, you are given designated hit areas where it will tell you the probability of hitting that area. When an area is selected, the shot will play out in "bullet" time and may or may not hit. At first I thought this would be tiring really quickly, but I always enjoyed the impact my bullet makes with someone in slow-mo. Very entertaining.

The game has a really great leveling system, where you can choose different skills (depending on your level) and add attributes to already set skills. There are many skills, which I haven't gotten through even after finishing the game. They range from how well you can communicate with others to how well you can kick ass with weapons. This alone is a good enough reason to play the game over again.

The graphics are amazing. The game looks really good and solid and the scenery is beautiful (in a technical way, since it is wasteland). I find just exploring the area to be entertaining, uncovering areas that sort of resemble their real-life counterparts, after they have been destroyed.

The atmosphere of the game is quite intense. I rarely ever get startled playing games and I've played games such as Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Dead Space, Left 4 Dead, and several other horror games. This game isn't really part of that genre but it should be in terms of intensity. I have never got as startled as many times for a game as I did for Fallout 3. Traveling at night in the wasteland gives off a horror movie feel, but this also makes it great for that reason as well. It is quite cinematic (well it should be when you have actors such as Liam Neeson playing voice roles) and you'll find yourself deep in the story.

There are many great things to be said about this game, but instead of writing it all down, you should go and see for yourself. This is truly an amazing game and hands-down to they designers and programmers. This has great replay value, and you'll find yourself playing it over a bunch of times to see the other directions the game can go. Actually hands-down to everyone involved in producing such a work of entertainment. Amazing game play, amazing story, amazing cast, amazing everything.