 |
| Source // MobyGames |
"I don't want to set the world on fire." Where were you when that Fallout 3 trailer landed? Alright, as far as monumental occasions go, the trailer for Fallout 3 isn't exactly earth-shattering, but this would be the first Fallout title in a long while, and not only was it coming to consoles, but it was coming from the folks behind The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I could not be more interested. Oblivion With Guns was coming.
My literal first encounter with the series was an afternoon at a friends house, watching him on his computer, but I consider Fallout 3 to be my introduction to the Fallout universe. For those familiar with the isometric RPGs of the past, the drastic switch to a first/third-person perspective would be controversial, among many other topics for discussion, but for me, this was simply kinda cool. I played the hell out of Oblivion and wanted to play the hell out of Fallout 3 as well.
And so I did. Bugs and glitches and all.
 |
| Source // MobyGames |
Fond Memories
I sunk tens, if not a hundred hours into Fallout 3 on the PlayStation 3. The main game, DLC, I played as much as I could and must have had a good time doing so. Yeah, playing any Bethesda game on a console was a right pain in the arse, but when you got into the habit of saving often and in multiple slots, poor performance wasn't too annoying. You learned to live with it, sadly.
Years and years have gone by since I last played it, or any other game in the series, if we ignore playing the first Fallout for this 1001 list, and truth be told, I was a little excited to dive back into this post-apocalyptic world inhabited by radiation, raiders and morally questionable characters - especially on the PC, where I could get a load of mods to further enhance my experience and enjoyment.
My excitement immediately disappeared, however, as despite going on sale so, so many times in the years since I started this quest, I haven't actually got Fallout 3 for the PC. Steam tells me it's not optimised for anything after Windows 7, and I can believe that.
I've got the PS3 version, though. It may even by my original copy, I'm not sure. But there's just one thing that's stopping me from getting this disc spinning...
 |
| Source // MobyGames |
Frustrations
Well, I say one thing. One thing to start with: The Introduction. A section vital for new players and unskippable for seasoned gamers. A tutorial so unloved that modders regularly remove it so that nobody has to endure the early life of a vault dweller in this universe.
Your father is none other than Liam Neeson, continuing the tradition of Bethesda games having some big names attached to them who you might eventually hear on your travels, but otherwise won't feature much in the vast expanse of gaming you could see yourself getting up to.
 |
| Source // MobyGames |
 |
| Source // MobyGames |
After the Gene Projector uncannily guesses what you'll look like in a few decades, you're let loose upon Vault 101, your home, as a baby. Don't look up what's going on behind the camera on YouTube. Shut off from the outside world for very obvious reasons, this is the only place you'll likely ever know, so you better get good at walking, talking, and shooting giant roaches with a BB gun, because it seems like you'll be doing it for a long time to come.
 |
| Source // MobyGames |
 |
| Source // MobyGames |
Fun Times
Obviously, you do. Escaping the vault, your eyes take their time to adjust to the light of topside, a distinct sickly shade of green and yellow, vibes of this place just not being right. Why did your father want to come out here? More importantly, where did he go?
That's your quest in Fallout 3. Whatever you do between now and then is all up to you. The world is there to be explored, and it is a massive world. The Pip-Boy on your arm serves as your menus, inventory and all-important map. Where will you go first?
 |
| Source // MobyGames |
 |
| Source // MobyGames |
 |
| Source // MobyGames |
It's likely to be the nearby settlement known as Megaton. Why is it called Megaton? The friendly robot outside the door casually informs us that we shouldn't be afraid of the bomb sat in the middle of town, an unexploded nuclear device dropped sometime during the war. How long ago was the war? Are we still in it?
 |
| Source // MobyGames |
 |
| Source // MobyGames |
Life outside a vault doesn't seem so bad. Radiated water can be washed out of your mouth at the bar run by a ghoulish looking bartender. He's had better days, I'm sure, but he's still kicking, providing the community spirit that keeps us all going through these tough times. At least I guess he does. I can't remember a damn thing about him.
You get a bunch of quests here, as you'd expect. Go here, fetch that, get rewarded with shiny bottle caps. It's Oblivion with guns, you know what's going to happen.
 |
| Source // MobyGames |
 |
| Source // MobyGames |
You might not know what you're going to face in the wastelands, however. Thought the mud crabs were big in Oblivion? Check out these Rad scorpions. Not rad as in radical. Radiated. Giant stabby monsters. Zombie-like ghouls and giant insects find a home here too, and you're free to deal with them as you see fit, though your choices do generally boil down to "Shoot" or "Smack".
Your stats and skills will evolve over time, much in the same way as Oblivion, where doing something will improve your ability to do it, and levelling up is always a treat. I can't remember how I made my first character. It probably morphed into a bit of all-rounder, but you can go down the soldier route, the sneaky route, the speaky route, and the game will try to accommodate whatever you choose.
 |
| Source // MobyGames |
 |
| Source // MobyGames |
Further Frustrations
I say "try" because the consensus among many is that Fallout 3 fails. Going through so many drastic changes to the formula and the gameplay leads to a hugely ambitious title, and trying to allow one player to go through the game as a pacifist and another player to go through the same game as a masochist does mean some issues here and there.
Take talking, for example. A lot of players will opt for a shoot first ask later stance, sure, but enough want to at least try to diffuse the situation by having a chat. The world stops as you zoom into this all-too-familiar dialogue screen and you get to select what you say, with more options being available to you if you have a high skill in speaking to people.
When you see a response that begins with [SPEECH 60%] or whatever, you know that this option exists because you are skilled in speaking, but it's somewhat random as to whether it'll work. If it doesn't, you can either proceed with the conversation and try to salvage it some other way, or you can reload a save and just try rolling the dice again. You did save recently, right?
It happens all over the place. Lockpicks break, but goodies are always found behind locked things. Do you get good at the skill by putting points into it? Do you get good at lock picking by actually getting good at moving the analogue sticks in the right way? Do you just abuse saves until you're in? I mean, you're free to do it however you like, I guess.
I haven't played enough of Fallout to know how much Fallout 3 dumbs everything down for a new audience, but I know enough to know it does. Players can point to those glaringly obvious responses based on your speech skill, for example. In earlier games, you didn't have a clue if what you were saying was as a result of being a cunning linguist or not. You, personally, had to weigh up whether a response was going to work or not. It was involved and challenged players to pay attention. Fallout 3 doesn't do that.
The radar in the bottom left is another argument. Fallout demanded you put the effort into knowing where you were going, and would, I'm told, have characters outright lie to you. No wonder I was lost so early on in that game - Fallout 3 points you in the right direction every single time. You don't explore the world at your leisure so much as follow the green arrow and avoid the red blips.
But chief amongst all the arguments for the dumbing down of the gameplay for the sake of a new audience that demands instant satisfaction is the V.A.T.S. system.
 |
| Source // MobyGames |
 |
| Source // MobyGames |
You can play Fallout 3 like a first-person shooter if you want, but as seemingly every trailer, screenshot, and review pushed the Vault-tec Assisted Targeting System front and center, you can bet players would make use of a regenerating ability that slowed down time so much that you could line up shots to different body parts before letting them rip and watching the insanely bloody splats that usually resulted.
 |
| Source // MobyGames |
 |
| Source // MobyGames |
Further Fun Times
It was ridiculous and it was over the top - a single bullet could tear limbs off, and bodies practically exploded before your eyes - but it was a fusion of real-time and turn-based combat that we'd not seen before, and we used it often.
The sounds of time slowing down, the electronic feedback of the Pip-Boy lining up your shots, the low and slow sound effects of bullets in chambers before zipping through flesh, and then everything speeding up and a slot machine cha-ching showing you'd just earned yet more experience points for being so damn swag... This was Fallout 3.
It was built upon the back of some incredibly story-driven games that demanded a lot from their players, but it was remixed, if you will, for a new age, and a new audience with different tastes. Me. This was designed to appeal to me, and it bloody worked.
 |
| Source // MobyGames |
 |
| Source // MobyGames |
Final Word
I went everywhere and did everything, and when I'd done that there was DLC to tack bits and bobs onto the sides to do too. I enjoyed my time with Fallout 3 even when it was a buggy mess because it was designed to be enjoyable. That it didn't reach the heights of the first two games, or that it did them a disservice was lost on me because I didn't know what any of that meant. Now I do.
Fallout 3 was 'fixed' by the release of Fallout: New Vegas, a game with the same brand new engine and mechanics but written and developed by folks who worked on Fallout, unlike Fallout 3. The difference in storytelling is clear if you've played the two games to any great length of time, and I played just as much New Vegas as I did Fallout 3.
The fact that I remember neither story is largely my fault. It's been many a year since I've played, and bad story or not, these games are pretty darn big and involve a fair few quests for you to do. It's no surprise that I can't remember the details.
But I do remember the journey. Sort of. Exploring over the next hill just to see what's there, but getting distracted by a settlement over here, or someone grabbing my attention, or another enemy to fend off. Picking up a new weapon and duct-taping it back together for a chance to use it on an unfortunate raider. Customizing my look by swapping out armour and clothing.
There's so much I've not touched upon in this write up that I probably do need to play it again. I can't tell you specifics of the controls because I can't remember them. I can't tell you how characters sound or how varied the quests are either. I just have this sense that Fallout 3 was great, New Vegas much more of the same, and both now old and on the janky side.
Janky but loveable. Well, I don't love either of the games, but I admire their world somewhat and look forward to another journey through the wastelands in some fashion. I just think it'll always be better in my head, through nostalgia goggles.
Was it perfect? Was it what you wanted? Was it really that bad? You can answer "No" to them all, whether a fan or not, and if you can put up with the jank, you'll find something to like too.
Fun Facts
The gutsy look of bodies exploding in V.A.T.S. was partly inspired by the slow-motion crashes of the Burnout series. Can what is done to cars be done to bodies? Yeah...?
Fallout 3, developed by Bethesda Game Studios, first released in 2008.
Version played: PlayStation 3, 2008, via memory.