Short review of PC version.
[spoiler:549704c273]
If anyones bothered, I've been a silent observer of this website for many years although I've not had reason to post until now. I bought Fallout 2 about 6 months after release and then Fallout roughly a week later. I've played both games through a couple of times and love them dearly. I spent much of the late nineties and early noughties playing games like Fallout 1 & 2, Baldurs Gate 1 & 2, Thief 1 & 2, CS, System Shock 1 & 2, Deus Ex, Quake and Morrowind. Ie, my favourite genres tend to be shooters and RPG's and if you're similar you might be able to relate to the following review.
The most noticeable fault is the difficulty level, its far too easy, this does seem to be a fault of Bethesda as of late. I haven't died or come close to dying once and I'm about 5-6 hours in. The editor hasn't been released yet and the community seems unsure as to whether it ever will be, it's one area Bethesda tend to excel in so fingers crossed. Incidentally, it took the modding community to turn Oblivion into a respectable challenge.
While the the difficulty level is detrimental to the atmosphere, it still succeeds in providing a very interesting world to wander around. It's bloody enourmous in the same way Oblivion was bloody enourmous which is only a good thing. The number of locations and POI to visit is huge.
Compared to Oblivion it runs incredibly well too, I have literally everything on max (AA, ASF and all view bars at full) on my mid-high end rig and there is no noticeable slowdown at all.
The VATS combat is pretty intuitive although you may find yourself wishing you could just let rip, FPS style. In fact you can play it as an FPS but it doesn't really feel right and a single headshot invariably isn't enough to drop a baddie. This makes the non-VATS based combat a little bland and its doubtful it'll satisfy anyone who got into PC gaming playing Quake/HL etc. It's apparent what Bethesda are attempting to do with VATS, offering an experience along similar lines to the action point combat system in the first two games. While it suited an isometric (trimetric for the purists) RPG perfectly this attempt to weld it onto an FPS engine feels a little clunky.
Theres a large assortment of weaponry to blow things apart with and they all feel relatively meaty if a little similar to each other. You can generally achieve the same thing with a pistol as you can with an assault rifle which is a bit of a shame.
Theres little incentive to get in close as the ranged weaponry invariably outshines the wide variety of bludgeoning, cutting and sawing utensils on offer. Indeed a rifle is usually more effective than a sledge when a deathclaw is attempting to couple with your face which is kinda silly.
The most important question for some is "Does it live up to its predecessors?". Sadly, in my opinion the answer is no. As some other threads have been saying, theres a distinct lack of dark humour which characterised the first two games. The same awkward animation, dialog and npc interaction that graced Oblivion is also present. At times it really does feel like you're just playing an extremely professional Oblivion full conversion. So far for me atleast, it doesn't feel much like its namesake although other veterans of the franchise may think otherwise.
The storyline so far seems relatively good if a little detached. As with Oblivion it'll probably take me 2 or 3 revolutions (periods in which I get bored, go away for a month or two before coming back) to actually complete the main storyline. In a way this is a good thing because its testament to how many side quests and distractions the game provides. Don't expect the story to blow you away (ala Deus Ex) though.
Despite all this groaning its still a game that you're going to be playing for 2-4 weeks as its great despite all its faults. As with Oblivion, I reckon its going to take a dedicated modding community to turn it into the classic it deserves to be.
Bring on OOO/MMM/Frans/FCOM etc!
8/10.[/spoiler:549704c273]
System used for review:
AMD X2 Black Edition 5000+ at 3.2GHz
4GB Geil Ultra RAM
NVidia 8800 GTX OC2 768MB
2x Western Digital SATA HDD in RAID
Windows Vista x64 SP1
[spoiler:549704c273]
If anyones bothered, I've been a silent observer of this website for many years although I've not had reason to post until now. I bought Fallout 2 about 6 months after release and then Fallout roughly a week later. I've played both games through a couple of times and love them dearly. I spent much of the late nineties and early noughties playing games like Fallout 1 & 2, Baldurs Gate 1 & 2, Thief 1 & 2, CS, System Shock 1 & 2, Deus Ex, Quake and Morrowind. Ie, my favourite genres tend to be shooters and RPG's and if you're similar you might be able to relate to the following review.
The most noticeable fault is the difficulty level, its far too easy, this does seem to be a fault of Bethesda as of late. I haven't died or come close to dying once and I'm about 5-6 hours in. The editor hasn't been released yet and the community seems unsure as to whether it ever will be, it's one area Bethesda tend to excel in so fingers crossed. Incidentally, it took the modding community to turn Oblivion into a respectable challenge.
While the the difficulty level is detrimental to the atmosphere, it still succeeds in providing a very interesting world to wander around. It's bloody enourmous in the same way Oblivion was bloody enourmous which is only a good thing. The number of locations and POI to visit is huge.
Compared to Oblivion it runs incredibly well too, I have literally everything on max (AA, ASF and all view bars at full) on my mid-high end rig and there is no noticeable slowdown at all.
The VATS combat is pretty intuitive although you may find yourself wishing you could just let rip, FPS style. In fact you can play it as an FPS but it doesn't really feel right and a single headshot invariably isn't enough to drop a baddie. This makes the non-VATS based combat a little bland and its doubtful it'll satisfy anyone who got into PC gaming playing Quake/HL etc. It's apparent what Bethesda are attempting to do with VATS, offering an experience along similar lines to the action point combat system in the first two games. While it suited an isometric (trimetric for the purists) RPG perfectly this attempt to weld it onto an FPS engine feels a little clunky.
Theres a large assortment of weaponry to blow things apart with and they all feel relatively meaty if a little similar to each other. You can generally achieve the same thing with a pistol as you can with an assault rifle which is a bit of a shame.
Theres little incentive to get in close as the ranged weaponry invariably outshines the wide variety of bludgeoning, cutting and sawing utensils on offer. Indeed a rifle is usually more effective than a sledge when a deathclaw is attempting to couple with your face which is kinda silly.
The most important question for some is "Does it live up to its predecessors?". Sadly, in my opinion the answer is no. As some other threads have been saying, theres a distinct lack of dark humour which characterised the first two games. The same awkward animation, dialog and npc interaction that graced Oblivion is also present. At times it really does feel like you're just playing an extremely professional Oblivion full conversion. So far for me atleast, it doesn't feel much like its namesake although other veterans of the franchise may think otherwise.
The storyline so far seems relatively good if a little detached. As with Oblivion it'll probably take me 2 or 3 revolutions (periods in which I get bored, go away for a month or two before coming back) to actually complete the main storyline. In a way this is a good thing because its testament to how many side quests and distractions the game provides. Don't expect the story to blow you away (ala Deus Ex) though.
Despite all this groaning its still a game that you're going to be playing for 2-4 weeks as its great despite all its faults. As with Oblivion, I reckon its going to take a dedicated modding community to turn it into the classic it deserves to be.
Bring on OOO/MMM/Frans/FCOM etc!
8/10.[/spoiler:549704c273]
System used for review:
AMD X2 Black Edition 5000+ at 3.2GHz
4GB Geil Ultra RAM
NVidia 8800 GTX OC2 768MB
2x Western Digital SATA HDD in RAID
Windows Vista x64 SP1