4thofeleven | Review: Fallout 3

Man, I’ve been on an RPG kick these last few months… Oblivion, Mass Effect, and now Fallout 3.

Alright, so Fallout 3’s your basic first person post-apocalyptic RPG shooter. Bethesda’s done a good job of correcting some of the flaws of Oblivion – NPC faces don’t suffer from the uncanny valley effect as much, they managed to hire more than two voice actors this time, and monsters don’t level up faster than your ability to kill them…

Fundamentally, the Fallout universe is a pretty depressing place, even more so from a first person perspective. The moment you leave the Vault, you come across the skeletons of those trapped outside when the bombs came down. Its… it’s not exactly a cheerful experience stepping over skeletons as you make your way through the remans of the children’s section of the Arlington Library. As for the survivors – super mutants have taken over most of downtown DC, mindless feral ghouls control the ruined subway tunnels, and every civilized settlement is under constant siege by slavers and raiders…

On the other hand, the game makes an effort to make you feel like you are making a difference, giving you the option to rescue captives from cannibalistic mutants, train a village of helpless teenagers in shooting so they can defend themselves from enemies, or forging a peaceful alliance between a small farming town and a family of vampiric cannibals… The in game radio comments on your actions, and it’s nice to hear the radio announcer praising you for your good deeds, and random citizens will give you free items in thanks for what you’ve done for their communities... I haven’t had the heart to try out the evil options yet…

Gameplay wise, there’s a nice merging of RPG and shooter elements; you can aim manually, but damage is determined by your character’s stats – or you can make targeted shots, using up ‘action points’, which regenerate slowly over time. When making a targeted shot, the game pauses and you select which area of the enemy you want to shoot at. They’re not as effective as they were in Fallout 1 or 2 – an enemy with two crippled legs isn’t completely immobilised, for example – but they’re still pretty effective. I like to shoot the guns out of people’s hands, myself. The lockpicking minigame’s a lot more fun than Oblivion’s, though I’m still getting the hang of the hacking game.

I like that most of the skills are equally useful – Barter probably isn’t worth putting points into, but most of the others are about equal. I was dubious about the value of the Big Guns skill – missile launcher ammo being rather scarce in a post-apocalyptic wasteland – but then I found the plans for a ‘Rock-It Launcher’; the unholy fusion of a vacuum cleaner and a leaf blower, which lets you hurl any random junk at enemies. Now you too can strike your enemies down with ash trays, garden gnomes, and giant bundles of now worthless pre-war currency!

As suits a game of post-apocalyptic survival, Repair is the ultimate skill. Most of the equipment you find is in pretty poor shape, but with a high repair skill, you can salvage parts from one gun to improve the quality of another, as long as they’re basically the same type. Not entirely sure how that works when it comes to baseball bats – what parts, exactly, am I salvaging from one, and how am I adding them to the other?

One note – the game is very bloody. A critical shot can make heads fly off and limbs explode into messy red chunks. The game got an MA rating here, and while normally I consider Australia’s game rating system ridiculous, in this case, it’s fairly on the ball – this isn’t a game for kids.

Other notes:

- I like that virtually all the perks you pick at level-up are fairly useful. Fallout 1 and 2 had a bunch of perks that were all but worthless – here, there’s generally quite a few interesting decisions to make when levelling up.

- Also in contrast to the earlier Fallouts, radiation is a constant threat here. There’s virtually no pure water sources in the wastelands, and most of the food you find is irradiated. Anti-radiation pills are just as essential as medical supplies and ammunition.

- The radio station is pretty neat, but it’s a shame you can’t add your own MP3s to its playlist – I’m getting a little sick of the songs it offers, and I’ve got some Nina Simone and Supremes songs I think would fit in perfectly…

- For some reason, only some helmets can be worn with sunglasses, and it seems completely random which – some full-face helmets still let you wear glasses, while the motorcycle helmet doesn’t.

- Anyone know if the Chinese propaganda radio message is part of a quest, or just atmosphere? I picked it up while running from raiders a while back, and now I can’t work out where I heard it.

- I like the special weapons you can make out of salvaged junk, but I wish there were more of them. And shouldn’t there be more flexibility in what sort of junk you can use? Surely my Chinese Officer’s Sword should be just as usable as the heart of my flaming sword as a lawnmower blade!

- Australian censorship stupidity: The game was going to be banned in Australia. Because of the bloody death animations? Because you can sell children into slavery? No, of course not! Because of drug references! Fortunately, Bethesda agreed to make the necessary changes to ensure an Australian release. The changes? Renaming the ‘morphine’ item to ‘med-X’. Because you don’t want a game being available where your character can take morphine after suffering a crippling gun wound!

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go eliminate the slavers who've taken over the Lincoln Memorial...