What does everyone think of Fallout 3's city ruin design?

Do you like exploring the giant city ruins?

  • No, it annoyed me.

    Votes: 14 41.2%

  • Yes, I enjoyed it thoroughly.

    Votes: 10 29.4%

  • Eh, it was alright. Didn't bother me.

    Votes: 10 29.4%
  • Total voters
    34
J

JammyRoger

First time out of the vault
I fucking hate it.

What a blunt way to start a post, but recently I've been getting into Fallout 3 after finding a GOTY disc lying around, and I've actually been having a lot of fun! So what's with the intro? Well, after visiting Rivet City and accidentally skipping the "Following in his Footsteps" quest, I decided I'd go to GNR headquarters because I don't want to miss anything.

This lead to an hour and a half of me traipsing through city ruins (Specifically starting at Georgetown North), taking a corner and seeing a giant pile of rubble in the way with an invisible wall at the top. I tried climbing through metros and that only helped a bit, but it still seemed like every turn I took lead to a dead end, with maybe some raiders, Talon mercs, or a super mutant in the way. It was insanely frustrating and it brought my Fallout binge to a screeching halt.

Has anybody else been annoyed by this? I haven't seen anything about it online, so I decided I'd come here and post my thoughts, but more importantly, see those of others. So yeah, I'd like to hear what everyone thinks.
 
I think its mostly fine but is kinda werid I will give you that. I mean its cool how it desgined so you have to take the metro to get places however some of the desgin is just bad. I found the more ope space of the city is developed better such as the area around grey ditch. But yeah some of the downtown whasington area is pretty anyyouing bad. But its alot better than it was with fallout 4 as everything there was accessible so I guess it took effort and I can't fault them for that.

Like i've already said I think bethsda world building skills are good. And the enviroment story telling is good its jus tthe quest that lack really .....
 
IMO, the level design of the city isn't that bad at first sight. Problems are
- Lack of variety (every location end up looking the same)
- Lack of content (might be good to see more settlement or signs of it, instead of the same endless critters)
- Lack of sense. (people are supposed to travel in those areas filled with non breeding enemies)
- Lack of goals.
- Lack of other stuff.
 
I am also not a big fan of some of the map design of downtown DC. Like the OP I found myself lost from time to time because how the metro lines connected everything did not always make sense.
And of course all those annoying dead ends. I like exploring but in general there was nothing really rewarding at a lot of these locations that made the convoluted paths to them worthwhile.
 
Navigating the Metro could be annoying, as well as dead ends, but it never killed the game for me. I think the Metro tunnels could have held more within them, like actual settlements, rather than just having generic enemies throughout. Maybe the surface could have been more open yet more dangerous while the Metro would be slower to navigate but safer, or vice versa.
 
I really like Prone Squanderer's idea, now that would've been something great. But as it stands currently, it's just alright. Greyditch was great though, you could take shortcuts through buildings, but in D.C, the buildings are just massive roadblocks and set dressing.

To be fair though, I was tired and a bit fatigued from Fallout when I left Rivet City on that faithful day. In the end I got so annoyed that I just fast travelled to Wilhelm's Warf and tried walking around the city, and that's how I got there in the end. My reward was facing a huge group of super mutants with my company being some dead Brotherhood Paladins. After talking to Three Dog, I then shut down my game and slept. I'll go back to the game soon, maybe a break is just what I needed.
 
It was barebones, but for the time, it was alright. I have fond memories of Georgetown, and the area behind/alongside the Capitol (not the mall) simply because they felt a little different. More residential, a change of pace from the gloomy, formal ruins. Stuff like the Hotel and Hospital were nice, too.

Nowadays it wouldn't fly in a new game. Too many dead ends, not too much to do. Sometimes I think it would had been better if it was ALL flattened with rubble and ruins to a more inhabited metro and bunker network than the weird mix of buildings and monuments we got.
 
The visual design of the ruins (and landscapes in general) was the least offensive thing about the game.

Hands-on it was of course detrimentally miniaturized and plain just like everything else in the game.
 
I don't dig the metros. They're specifically designed to be both unavoidable and kill dungeons. I usually play as a somewhat passive diplomat and fallout 3 goes out of its way to fuck that up for me.

lolpop109 said:
Like i've already said I think bethsda world building skills are good.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
The only thing I have to say about Fallout 3s level design is, calm down on the fucking metro tunnels. An open world game where the only way to get from Point A to Point B is to go through series of underground tunnels isn't a good open world.
lolpop109 said:
Like i've already said I think bethsda world building skills are good
Click to expand...
Level Design - Maybe

World Building - No.

Bethesda make levels in video games, not living breathing worlds.
And the enviroment story telling is good
Click to expand...
Guiz, Guiz there are skeletons in funny positions doing things which people do in everyday life.

#MuhEnvironmentalWorldBuilding.
 
I get lost quite a bit, and annoyed that I hve to go through a ton of mazes. And like others said, the metro tunnels didn't really need to be pretty much mandatory.
 
Jogre said:
The only thing I have to say about Fallout 3s level design is, calm down on the fucking metro tunnels. An open world game where the only way to get from Point A to Point B is to go through series of underground tunnels isn't a good open world.

Level Design - Maybe

World Building - No.

Bethesda make levels in video games, not living breathing worlds.

Guiz, Guiz there are skeletons in funny positions doing things which people do in everyday life.

#MuhEnvironmentalWorldBuilding.
Click to expand...

I think the the skeleingtons really took hold in fallout 4. There where also skeletions placed in FNV but yeah I mean that was cool. They just just whent overboard in fallout 4 for sure
 
Atmosphere wise it's great. It definitely doesn't hold your hand as much navigation wise as other places, so it can be frustrating for some players. I liked that it was a challenge. That I wasn't completely sure where I was ending up. Learning to read the signs properly takes some work, but it does outline the general layout of the overall metro. It's kind of rewarding to finally get your bearings, and it's not that hard once you've got some experience with it.

Definitely not a great place to jump into unprepared. Kind of like jumping into Dead Money haphazardly near the start of your first NV run. That's why the game guides you to certain entrances to get to quest objectives. For GNR it suggests the north end. Heading there from the south end would take a really long time, compared to just walking around to a better starting point. It's kind of supposed to be maze like, I think. To add to the tension, and really there aren't a lot of other ways to make getting from point A to B require some kind of planning--or map sense. So honestly I think it was one of the best aspects of 3, if not one with lots of potential. Kinda wish they had a bigger sewer system for NV. Might have made the city less of a nightmare, with all the crashing, when you want to go from one Strip location to another.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top