Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition

One thing most people will discover about gamers is that they are a loyal bunch. Gamers can remember what games they played 10-15 years ago and how much fun they had playing those games. As such, game developers have discovered that if you can come out with a sequel, even if the game-play has little or nothing to do with the previous games in the series, you got it made.

Fallout 3 is one of those games. The first 2 Fallout games were turn-based RPG similar to X-COM, Fallout 3 is an action RPG. In fact outside the back-story, in terms of game-play and graphics, the games couldn’t be more different. Released by Bethesda Games (creators of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion), the game was released 2008 with a series of DLC (downloaded content) released after that. Being the cheapskate that I am, I waited till the Game of the Year Edition came out before buying it. Frankly I was never a Fallout fan and bought the game mostly on the back of Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

The story takes place in the year 2277, over 200 years after a nuclear war had devastated the world. In this world, the apocalypse happened because China and America were involved in a nuclear war and the whole world paid the price for it. The game starts with several (very) long cut scenes where you choose your gender, race, and skills. You are an inhabitant of Vault 101, a survival shelter designed to protect humans from the nuclear war 200 years ago. When your father, James, disappeared from the Vault, you are forced to escape as well and journey into the nuclear wasteland. You quickly discovered that the wasteland was located near the ruins of Washington D.C. and the locals called it the “Capital Wasteland”. As you chase after your father, you will learn why he left and the history of the world. You will also encounter several factions in the wasteland, including some who were in the previous games like the Brotherhood of Steel.

As an action RPG, Fallout 3 has a hybrid combat system. Mostly it’s a real-time shooter, however there is a system called VATS. When the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System is activated, combat is stopped and you are allowed to target various body-parts of the enemies. I found this to be very useful as injuries to specific body parts give me a big advantage in fights. Head injuries will cause enemies to stop attacking you for a short time, leg injuries can slow down enemies, etc.

It’s a system that works very well. The action is very exciting but with the VATS, you are never overwhelmed because of too much happening at the same time. The VATS also give the game-play a certain amount of strategy as VATS cost action points. It limit what actions you can take in VATS and forces you to decide what are the best actions you can take in the limited action points you have.

You can choose to improve your various skills every time you level up (Small Guns is a must!), and the character-leveling system is very flexible with a wide range of skills for you to choose from. In some ways the RPG portion of the game is very similar to Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.

In fact if you loved Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, I think it is fair to say you will love Fallout 3. Much like Oblivion, Fallout 3 has a huge map written many hidden locations throughout the map. If you follow the main quest only, you will hit less than a fifth of all the locations so players who like to explore are in for a treat. How you play your character also affect the game as some locations will only allow you in if you are either a good guy or a bad guy. You can also recruit companions who will follow you all over the Capital Wasteland. Whether these companions will follow you also depend on your alignment, for lack of a better word.

Despite the praise, I did find some things lacking in the game. Much like Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, the story was almost an afterthought. As you run across the wasteland, the main quest will be about the last thing on your mind. In a way, this was because of how good the game was. You would be too busy looking at the interesting ruins of the long-dead civilization that was America, fighting against mutants, heading to the next hidden location to worry about something as inconsequential as looking for your missing dad.

I also found the DLC to be the worst part of the game by some distance. Frankly, compared to the main game, the DLC missions were terrible! Outside “Broken Steel”, I found the other DLC to be poor. None of them expanded on the story, and some of them were not even located within the Capital Wasteland. It seems to be a waste having all that open spaces and hidden locations, yet you need to go onto a spaceship to do new missions.

However all these were minor hiccups as for me Fallout 3 is a total hit. The game's combat system, huge map and flexible character-leveling system work very well and the game was a lot of fun. However I found the DLC missions to be lacking, and if you don’t mind missing the extra levels given to you by “Broken Steel”, it might be better to buy Fallout 3 than Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition. You won’t be missing much.