This game was my first
venture into the action-role play genre of an optional liner
storyline and free roaming environment. I hadn't played the previous
instalments of Fallout for the PC so the introduction of the karma
system was totally new to me. Making good or bad choices having an
effect on how you play the game and whether or not you got to do
optional quests because of being too good or too evil was fantastic.
There has been so many times I've played games a bit on the renegade
side and never got penalised for it, yeah it makes the game super
easy but where's the enjoyment in that? As well as the karma system
the character development is a lot more detailed than what I've been
used to. There are skill points I can assign to my S.P.E.C.I.A.L
(Strength. Perception. Endurance. Charisma. Intelligence. Agility and
Luck ) traits and practical skills such as weapon proficiencies,
science, repair and speech etc which are all dependent on how many
points are in allocated in S.P.E.C.I.A.L. The more you have in
Charisma the better your Barter and Speech skills. The Fallout series
have all had Perks which can be obtained when the player levels up
which can determine extra attributes to your skills. For example I
had no idea in my second playthrough that I could just completely
skip doing the Wasteland Survival Guide side quests by persuading
Moira Brown that it was a daft idea, hence getting the Dream Crusher
perk, this means that enemies are now afraid of me and their critical
hit chance is reduced by half. Ha!
Fallout 3 is based in
post-apocalyptic America after a 200 year nuclear fallout caused by a
war between China and the USA in 2077. You are one of the many
survivors in an underground vault called vault 101. You were born
there and you will die there. No one enters and no one leaves.
your Tomb/Home :)
Until your Dad does.
Leaving the underground community in disarray and letting the
gribblies in killing the unarmed residents which pisses off the
Overseer, the boss man, who seems to think you, a nineteen year old
kid had something to do with it. You are thrust into the Wasteland
with nothing but a security truncheon and a Tunnel Snakes Gang
leather jacket to face all manners of thugs, thieves, raiders, mental
robots, giant radioactive beasties, feral ghouls, super mutants, Mr
Burke and much more. You suffer all this just to find your Dad and
demand to know what the hell is going on!
As the story progresses
you learn that your father, voiced by Liam Neeson, was a scientist trying to bring back the
waters of life and start re-building humanity and that task now falls
to you.
You have your typical
tutorial style quests to get you used to the game during the
“childhood” years of living in the vault, I guess it is a nursery
for the game. Then as the story progresses and you get launched into
the wider world you have the option to follow the main storyline and
complete optional side-quests and any Downloadable Content you may
have with the game. You can choose whatever gaming style you like to
complete the quests. For example; you can go in to Tenpenny Towers
with diplomacy and tact, while pickpocketing keys to just let the
ghouls in or you know, guns blazing and let the ghouls take over or
even take the ghouls out yourself. It's entirely up to you. There has
been times when I tried a little of both to complete a quest
depending on whether I want Good or Bad Karma resulting from it.
What I love most about this game is the exploring and thus far it is
the only game, that I have played, that actually rewards curiosity.
You can be in the arse end of nowhere and still find food, gadgets
and ammo. Especially if you try to be a real smartie pants and walk
to Rivet City without using the underground metro tunnels. Plus it
all looks and sounds amazing. True survival.
There are a few special
items tucked away here and there to help improve your chances of
survival and some items increase your stats permanently: Vault Tec
Bobbleheads. They're everywhere and some are very hard to find and
send you MILES out of your way to get. Some, if your not careful can
only be found before certain main storyline events have occurred.
Keep an eye out chaps.
Yes, I play with Dolls!
The combat system for a
newbie like me was easy to grasp especially the VATS- VaultTec
Assisted Targeting System. Everyone is a crack shot with the Gauss
Rifle using that. It did take the difficulty of moving targets away
for me and being completely new to a FPS. I panicked a lot in my
first playthrough. Some people said VATS detracted from being “in
the game”, essentially pausing the game to line up your shots. I'm
sorry but walking into Old Olney on your tod with nothing but
grenades you kinda need that brief pause to. Breathe. Lob your last
grenade. And leg it. You also don't want a game to detract from the
fact it is a game afterall, not a simulation of surviving in a
post-apocalyptic wasteland. Why the hell would I be in America
anyway? I'd want to see how well I do in my home country: make a game
about that!
I honestly don't know
what it is specifically that I love about this game I just do. I have
played it through 3 times now, once on the ps3 and twice on the xbox
360 and I've never been bored with it. Even though I've been through
all the quests as Good, Neutral and Evil. I've explored every nook
and cranny, played the DLC over and over. It is such a good game.
Fallout New Vegas,
however, is a different story.
I tried to leave off
playing it for about a year but I still feel like it was just another
DLC. They didn't change much of the game to make it stand alone from
Fallout 3. It was too short for one and I don't know whether it was
the choices I made or whatever but I found the ending a bit
disappointing. I thought they were going to implement some sort of
war tactics style gameplay at the end but they didn't and the ending
is not what I would have chosen for myself. I might pick it back up
and play it again to finish the side quests which seems a lot more
fun and engaging than the main storyline I have to say. Might leave
it completely and play something else.
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