I bet some people thought this was going to end around #11 or #17 or #24 or something.
Westsidewill, 7.5.<blockquote>The problem starts to come about when you play the “main quest” of the story that features a bunch of holes, that I would love to point out but I don’t really want to spoil the game for anyone, which I just can’t get over. You take the time to make a HUGE game that has all sorts of fun side quests, doors to open, buildings/caves/tunnels to explore but ignore the core quest? What the hell?
If I would have done this review before I won the game, like 99% of the other reviewers out there, I would probably have agreed with them. The fact remains that I play a game to tell me a story, a story that I can have my say in and have an enjoyable time unfolding the story, this game told me a story that was just stupid.</blockquote>Blog 2 Evolution, 9.75.<blockquote>Fallout 3 is 3D! So, farewell top view 2D boring gameplay.
Since I talked about money you should know that Bethesda Softworks had a cool idea and used as reference coin the Bottle Cap. Yeah! Your efforts are awarded with Bottle Caps (Nuka - Cola Caps). That’s the main idea of the gameplay.
But the storyline is breath taking! And that makes this game a winner.</blockquote>scranto_200, 5/5.<blockquote>Fallout has always been about setting a mood with atmosphere and ambience, and Inon Zur’s score for the game is perfectly suited for the task. It is understated and subtle one moment, frenetic the next, and then punctuated by sparse but stirring crescendos. There was nothing particularly thematic (leitmotif, anyone?) or hum-able yet it still worked so well. I was particularly delighted to find that he had woven some of the ambient tones and themes from the original Fallout into the mix. It was further proof that Bethesda Softworks had kept congruence with the franchise as one of it’s top priorities.
And ultimately the message of the game is, potentially, more inspiring and optimistic than any Fallout game to date. The world of Fallout is dark and pessimistic, with the grim humor that I love as the only coping mechanism. But now it seems there might be a dim light at the end of a long tunnel. This is, perhaps, Bethesda Softworks greatest contribution to the franchise.</blockquote>Experimental Progress.<blockquote>Another problem with the system is that if you can go anywhere and do anything, the question "why bother?" becomes bigger and bigger. Freedom is nice, but since most of the changes I can make are fairly superficial (if you make "good" moral choices, you are pursued randomly on occasion by a mercenary company sent to kill you; if you make "bad" choices, you are pursued by vigilantes called Regulators; same thing, but with different costumes.), I think the freedom actually pulls a person out of the immersive experience, since you can control yourself, but it doesn't feel like your choices matter. In the RPG experience (Role-Playing Game), Bethesda's failing has always been towards an inability to create a compelling story--the overarching universe the story takes place in is well-realised, but the story itself falls short, in dialogue and event. I realise that the player is supposed to then compose his or her own story, but... that only goes so far.
But let's talk about the awesome parts. Fighting is a great mix of action and turn-base,lthough it favours the latter a little more closely. And some side-quests are compelling and amusing, like the man-tree in Oasis. I also give full props to Bethesda for using the game's set location to its full extent, perhaps more fully than I've ever seen in a video game.</blockquote>ImmoralGamers, 6.0/10.<blockquote>Animals and humans throw themselves at you with a reckless, insane abandon in this world, begging you to end their life with an earnestness that only the coldest of hearts could refuse. Old women with baseball bats fling their atrophied bodies at power-armoured, plasma rifle wielding soldiers, and all you want to say is “hey guys, let’s just think this through for a second, maybe weigh up the likely outcome.” How did these people survive in the Wasteland with such self-destructive aggression issues? What did they do with themselves before you turned up to slay them in their hundreds? The Brotherhood of Steel drop like flies whenever the player is around: where the hell do all these recruits come from? How is this a sustainable ecosystem?
This is the Fallout 3 experience: brilliance gives way to gentle awe, becoming excitement, gradually tempered to unspectacular enjoyment, ultimately fading to a jaded, cynical and absolute understanding of the game’s mechanics. Like a nuclear explosion, it starts off bright enough to burn itself into your eyes, then diminishes to a dark, undefined blotch. Repetition of the experience may prolong the enjoyment, or it might give you radiation sickness and cause your brain to bleed out of your nose. Only prolonged exposure will tell.</blockquote>Critical Interaction, A.<blockquote>Wandering countless hours through the wasteland I have deliberately mutated myself with massive amounts of radiation, severed appendages of rabid mutants with a make shift garbage gun and carelessly launched a nuclear strike within my own perimeter. Coming into Fallout 3 with little knowledge of the game’s lore, I was enamored by the post-apocalyptic setting and instantly enveloped by the variety of opportunities presented. The high expectations of Bethesda, creators of the Elder Scrolls series, have mostly been fulfilled.
The character creation is deep without breaking the conventions of reality and the way players are introduced to the world, back story and game play through virtual adolescence seems natural and immersing. The leveling system works well to make every stat point allocation and level bonus a tough decision. A myriad of play styles can be utilized from a thieving, heavy-gunning tender heart to a ruthless and cunning scientist specializing in unarmed combat.</blockquote>Örnsköldsvik.net, 9.2/10.<blockquote>Still, what you have to understand is that Fallout 3 is fundamentally Oblivion with a little better but gloomier graphics and of course a whole new story in a world destroyed by nuclear arms instead of an ancient fantasy world, mutants instead of demons and considerably more mature content. But these differences could be more than enough for anyone with a hankering for a deep and extensive first person RPG in a post-apocalyptic setting even if you didn't feel the draw of Oblivion.</blockquote>
Westsidewill, 7.5.<blockquote>The problem starts to come about when you play the “main quest” of the story that features a bunch of holes, that I would love to point out but I don’t really want to spoil the game for anyone, which I just can’t get over. You take the time to make a HUGE game that has all sorts of fun side quests, doors to open, buildings/caves/tunnels to explore but ignore the core quest? What the hell?
If I would have done this review before I won the game, like 99% of the other reviewers out there, I would probably have agreed with them. The fact remains that I play a game to tell me a story, a story that I can have my say in and have an enjoyable time unfolding the story, this game told me a story that was just stupid.</blockquote>Blog 2 Evolution, 9.75.<blockquote>Fallout 3 is 3D! So, farewell top view 2D boring gameplay.
Since I talked about money you should know that Bethesda Softworks had a cool idea and used as reference coin the Bottle Cap. Yeah! Your efforts are awarded with Bottle Caps (Nuka - Cola Caps). That’s the main idea of the gameplay.
But the storyline is breath taking! And that makes this game a winner.</blockquote>scranto_200, 5/5.<blockquote>Fallout has always been about setting a mood with atmosphere and ambience, and Inon Zur’s score for the game is perfectly suited for the task. It is understated and subtle one moment, frenetic the next, and then punctuated by sparse but stirring crescendos. There was nothing particularly thematic (leitmotif, anyone?) or hum-able yet it still worked so well. I was particularly delighted to find that he had woven some of the ambient tones and themes from the original Fallout into the mix. It was further proof that Bethesda Softworks had kept congruence with the franchise as one of it’s top priorities.
And ultimately the message of the game is, potentially, more inspiring and optimistic than any Fallout game to date. The world of Fallout is dark and pessimistic, with the grim humor that I love as the only coping mechanism. But now it seems there might be a dim light at the end of a long tunnel. This is, perhaps, Bethesda Softworks greatest contribution to the franchise.</blockquote>Experimental Progress.<blockquote>Another problem with the system is that if you can go anywhere and do anything, the question "why bother?" becomes bigger and bigger. Freedom is nice, but since most of the changes I can make are fairly superficial (if you make "good" moral choices, you are pursued randomly on occasion by a mercenary company sent to kill you; if you make "bad" choices, you are pursued by vigilantes called Regulators; same thing, but with different costumes.), I think the freedom actually pulls a person out of the immersive experience, since you can control yourself, but it doesn't feel like your choices matter. In the RPG experience (Role-Playing Game), Bethesda's failing has always been towards an inability to create a compelling story--the overarching universe the story takes place in is well-realised, but the story itself falls short, in dialogue and event. I realise that the player is supposed to then compose his or her own story, but... that only goes so far.
But let's talk about the awesome parts. Fighting is a great mix of action and turn-base,lthough it favours the latter a little more closely. And some side-quests are compelling and amusing, like the man-tree in Oasis. I also give full props to Bethesda for using the game's set location to its full extent, perhaps more fully than I've ever seen in a video game.</blockquote>ImmoralGamers, 6.0/10.<blockquote>Animals and humans throw themselves at you with a reckless, insane abandon in this world, begging you to end their life with an earnestness that only the coldest of hearts could refuse. Old women with baseball bats fling their atrophied bodies at power-armoured, plasma rifle wielding soldiers, and all you want to say is “hey guys, let’s just think this through for a second, maybe weigh up the likely outcome.” How did these people survive in the Wasteland with such self-destructive aggression issues? What did they do with themselves before you turned up to slay them in their hundreds? The Brotherhood of Steel drop like flies whenever the player is around: where the hell do all these recruits come from? How is this a sustainable ecosystem?
This is the Fallout 3 experience: brilliance gives way to gentle awe, becoming excitement, gradually tempered to unspectacular enjoyment, ultimately fading to a jaded, cynical and absolute understanding of the game’s mechanics. Like a nuclear explosion, it starts off bright enough to burn itself into your eyes, then diminishes to a dark, undefined blotch. Repetition of the experience may prolong the enjoyment, or it might give you radiation sickness and cause your brain to bleed out of your nose. Only prolonged exposure will tell.</blockquote>Critical Interaction, A.<blockquote>Wandering countless hours through the wasteland I have deliberately mutated myself with massive amounts of radiation, severed appendages of rabid mutants with a make shift garbage gun and carelessly launched a nuclear strike within my own perimeter. Coming into Fallout 3 with little knowledge of the game’s lore, I was enamored by the post-apocalyptic setting and instantly enveloped by the variety of opportunities presented. The high expectations of Bethesda, creators of the Elder Scrolls series, have mostly been fulfilled.
The character creation is deep without breaking the conventions of reality and the way players are introduced to the world, back story and game play through virtual adolescence seems natural and immersing. The leveling system works well to make every stat point allocation and level bonus a tough decision. A myriad of play styles can be utilized from a thieving, heavy-gunning tender heart to a ruthless and cunning scientist specializing in unarmed combat.</blockquote>Örnsköldsvik.net, 9.2/10.<blockquote>Still, what you have to understand is that Fallout 3 is fundamentally Oblivion with a little better but gloomier graphics and of course a whole new story in a world destroyed by nuclear arms instead of an ancient fantasy world, mutants instead of demons and considerably more mature content. But these differences could be more than enough for anyone with a hankering for a deep and extensive first person RPG in a post-apocalyptic setting even if you didn't feel the draw of Oblivion.</blockquote>
