Most features that i not utterly despise also have an associated flaw that i would also include for the sake of realism.
- The way they deal with Harold is quite good on the paper and seems a nice tribute to Richard Grey, while not mentionning it and having a very different result. Coming from Fallout 1, you cannot help but comparing those.
On the other hand, it happens too fast, considering Bob didn't evolved much in the 80 years between Fallout 1 & Fallout 2 and grew that much in 30 years between Fallout 2 a Fallout 3. Also, the Oasis place is poor both visually and in writting.
- For the most part, the scenery and the level/world design are very good. You get the feeling you are in a place that was once a big city and fallen a long ago. But considering the game is an empty shell all that good work on the scenery is wasted. Also, i don't think it is fitting for nuclear war and 200 years timeframe.
- The various holodiscs and computers manage to convey many feelings. All the DC area seems haunted by a dark past, not only during the war, but in the crapsack world that Fallout USA was. It is not only dark, but sometimes humorous. It seems that they only use writters from that aspects.
- While not perfect and not giving any significant choice, the beginning of the game, in the Vault, then the first steps outside (if we forget the unbelievable easy to kill springvale school raiders) are quite great moments, that i enjoyed a lot on first playthrough.
- While the gameplay is not great and everything become repetitive quite quickly, it was nice to meet most of the past creatures in 3D. For the most part, they are visually convincing.
- The vault experiments are not fitting with the social experiments of the Enclave and shouldn't be inhabited by insane humans 200 years later. On the same time, i loved those experiments and the way the various computer told about them. These places seems like some big tombs full of suffering.
- I also spend an enjoyable moment in the Vault 117 and Tranquility Lane.
- I liked most of the robots that appeared in Fallout 3. I am notably fond of the Sentry bot rythmed voice and i feel some sympathy for the protectrons. Those are amongs the weakest beings in the Capital Wasteland, and yet, they think they can handle security everywhere. Their vocal "threats" are quite touching. Also, individual robots, like Button or the "doctor" of vault 101 were great.
- They finally included some groups that were previously mentionned or implied but failed to do it in a good way. The Aliens, while not horrible, don't leave a memorable impression, while there is almost nothing to feel, learn or enjoy about the chinese.
- The Radio is a very great idea on the paper but the execution is between poor (Enclave/Agatha/The Pitt) and utterly horrible (Galaxy News Radio). Also, there is FAAAAR less content to hear than there is time to fully finish the game, which make the radio old many hundred hours before you finished seeing every rodents of unusual size's holes.
- The Pitt was a pretty good short game on its own, if we forget the unsatisfying last part. At the moment you finally meet Ashur, everything happens too fast. And then, there is barelly any differences between Ashur & Werner and how they will manage the city in the future.
(except that Werner won't hesitate to hurt the child and have no real doctor to find a cure. Also, he purposly lost half of the city to the trogs. So the slaves are far more screwed with him)
But for the most part, The Pitt succeed in many aspects. (At least, coming from Bethesda)
I won't be so sweet with Point Lookout, that is bigger, but has the exact same flaws than the main game, only in a different setting.
- There are some not memorable, but nice characters amongs the dirty crowd. I recall Pinkerton, Dashwood, Roy Philips, Bigsley, Werner, Ashur, Butch, Wally, James, McLaren, for instance.
- I don't think it was a good point, but i have to mention it. In Fallout 1-2 you could protect the caravans, but considering the nature of those games, it was mostly the usual random encounters with additionnal allies. Not that didn't enjoyed it, and is still enjoy it, but in a 3D environnement, and the impressive work the Bethesda develloppers did on the scenery/level design, following the caravans in those environnement was supposed to be great.
As soon as i finished the DLC, i did some travels following the water caravan guys. I played a few hours doing it and i had great memory of it, enjoying the landscape on a slow pace, since the caravan was walking, not running.
Also, it allowed me to have a more layered behavior. I had to scout the ground sometimes, trying to see from afar, if upcoming groups were friend or hostiles.
Sometimes, you find allies or friend, and enjoy their company. Sometimes, there are some outcast, so you have to hide, hoping that they won't attack the caravan, or find out that you helped those Lyon's buddies.
Sometimes the ennemies are too strong to let them attack the caravan, so you attack them on your own. Sometimes you see the ennemies from afar, but aren't moving in your direction, so can avoid fights.
At one moment, the caravan followed a group of Talon Mercenaries only a few meters behind, for more than half an hour, but as the Talon Mercenaries didn't noticed we were behind them, there was no fight. Then, the Talon Company seen some robots further on the road and attacked them, while the caravan fortunally moved in another direction.
While these moments were great, hold my attention for hours and helped me feel more immersed in that fictionnal world, it wouldn't have caught me hundreds hours either or justified the selling of that game.
Even a typical Open-world feature like that is somehow deeply crippled by some gamebreaking mechanics.
First, there was nothing ingame supporting my goal to follow and protect that caravan, no reward, no comment from the traveller, nothing. For the game, it's like i didn't do it.
Then i got the Animal friends two perks. It means that animals will protect me in case i have to fight. The problem is that, companions protects animals as well. It means that everytime an animal (even Talon Company dogs) is involved in a fight agains't some allied humans, (even Lyons brotherhood), my companions would defend the animal and kill all the allied humans. So i had to use the console commands to kill every animals from afar.
Last, but not the least, the water caravan didn't go to any cities. Sometimes, it seemed that they were close to one, but they avoided it and keep moving at random. So, even after 4-6 hours of walking, from the east, to the west of the map, there was no goal for that trip, none to distribute water, no stop, nothing. They just walk endlessly...
So, even if i had goods moments, (and i intend to do that again someday) i had to do something that the game wouldn't support at all, and i had to use console commands insta-kill agains't all animals.
In the most part, i don't think the game has any 100% reedeemable quality (i struggled hard to find some during my playthrough), but some features that are half-good or great on the paper. At least, you can say that there are some "nice try".
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