Now, some can take a moment and say that this game is promoting the utter demolition of the US of A and others can say that this game is a violence-filled catastrophe that begs the question "Why do we like seeing brains and eyeballs splash against our screens in ultra slow-mo?" I say this game is nice little walk through what the post-apocalyptic backyard of Washington, D.C could've looked like had the Red Scare been totally right in every respect. The game has a sense of nostalgia while keeping to the tried and true form of blowing everything to bits and asking questions never that we've seen a hundred times over...and it executes every part of it almost perfectly.
In the gun-toting RPG developed by the minds who brought us the brilliance that is the realistic sword-fighting, cave-spelunking of Oblivion, you play a young man who emerges from one of the many underground "vaults" dotting the post-nuclear wasteland to find his (or her) father, who's left the vault in search of something that's completely unbeknown to the rest of the vault-dwellers. Leaving the vault-in-turmoil, you venture through the nuclear-draped wasteland of our nation's capital. 50's music pumps through a radio station who's signal is in need of repair. Walking down the road a piece, you meet a flying robot, tossing out words from the "president" John Henry Eden, who seems pretty content with gratifying everyone that everything is gonna be a-okay in the capital wastes. You know that's a bunch of baloney and you haven't even been out of your hole for more than 10 minutes. Walking up a dirt sideroad, you come across a makeshift town called Megaton. The door, which has been fashioned out of two aircraft wings and an jet engine, open up as a clunky old robot greets you with a friendly "Howdy, partner" in a voice not different from Mr. Stephen Hawking's. You enter the town, and a man named Lucas Simms states that he hasn't seen one of those vault uniforms you're wearing in ages. That's when you realize just how interesting things are about to get.
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CONCEPT (10/10) The storyline of the game is very rare for Fallout 3's genre. Starting from early childhood, going through a brief period of being a baby, to being a 10 year old, to taking an aptitude test as a 16 year old, and eventually leaving the fault at 17, you can develop and relate to the character you create. The story is well-written, definitely a mark of professionalism instead of just leaving the character in an extraordinary situation with guns. The game is a major test of morality, earning you karma points or losing you karma points ultimately depending on what you choose to do. Should you help the talking tree? Or leave it to another eternity of torment? It sounds weird now, just wait till you're there.
MUSIC (10/10) While you can choose to blow supermutants apart while listening to the voices of the 40's and 50's like The Ink Spots or Cole Porter, you can also listen to the dulcet tones of an old woman's Stradivarius violin or the haunting ambiance of Inon Zur's composition. Zur does well to reproduce a sound that feels like it's being carried along the winds of the wastes, or echoing through the worn hallways of an abandoned vault. The music never becomes repetitive or annoying, instead, you may find yourself humming "Way Back Home" by Bing Crosby while you're hanging with friends. While this will get you many weird looks from your peers, it may just be the bridge across the age gap.
ENVIRONMENTS (10/10) Whether it be an abandoned military installation or a small village, the environments of the Capital Wasteland are never dull or lifeless. It was a joy to explore the endless array of unique locations that are reminiscent of what used to be D.C. The city itself is beautifully reproduced. Climb the steps of Capitol Hill, walk down Pennsylvania Avenue or loot the many remaining office buildings, trainstations and homes of olden days D.C. The possibilities are endless and unique, just be sure to bring your hunting rifle.
GAMEPLAY (9/10) The gameplay is definitely a modern marvel of the video gaming generation. Leaving little to expectation and more to imagination, your required to actually survive your experience in this survival RPG. The one thing that upset me the most was that you cannot level up past a certain point, leaving many of the perks to be experienced in a second game, also once the story ends, the game ends, unlike Oblivion in which you could continue exploration.
CHARACTERS (10/10) Fallout's characters, whether it be a random settler or an actual story character, are anything but lifeless. Their emotions and actions are felt by the gamer in ways that are normally absent in shooter games of Fallout's intensity. If you kill a character, you're going to either feel righteous in your actions or feel like a douchebag for shooting that settler in the face.
----------OVERALL------------ 10/10 Fallout 3 is definitely a game for the ages. It's won Game of the Year more than 80 times, a well-deserved amount. Bethesda took their policy of "Go anywhere, do anything" to extreme lengths with this game. With gratuitous violence, a gripping storyline, amazingly rendered environments, unbridled exploration, shiny new technology and a kickass fighting system, Fallout 3 offers little upsetting points and more fun and exciting gameplay that's rarely seen in a game of this genre. Fallout 3 really sets the bar for FPS/RPG games. I hope to see more like this from Bethesda in the future.
In the gun-toting RPG developed by the minds who brought us the brilliance that is the realistic sword-fighting, cave-spelunking of Oblivion, you play a young man who emerges from one of the many underground "vaults" dotting the post-nuclear wasteland to find his (or her) father, who's left the vault in search of something that's completely unbeknown to the rest of the vault-dwellers. Leaving the vault-in-turmoil, you venture through the nuclear-draped wasteland of our nation's capital. 50's music pumps through a radio station who's signal is in need of repair. Walking down the road a piece, you meet a flying robot, tossing out words from the "president" John Henry Eden, who seems pretty content with gratifying everyone that everything is gonna be a-okay in the capital wastes. You know that's a bunch of baloney and you haven't even been out of your hole for more than 10 minutes. Walking up a dirt sideroad, you come across a makeshift town called Megaton. The door, which has been fashioned out of two aircraft wings and an jet engine, open up as a clunky old robot greets you with a friendly "Howdy, partner" in a voice not different from Mr. Stephen Hawking's. You enter the town, and a man named Lucas Simms states that he hasn't seen one of those vault uniforms you're wearing in ages. That's when you realize just how interesting things are about to get.
--------
CONCEPT (10/10) The storyline of the game is very rare for Fallout 3's genre. Starting from early childhood, going through a brief period of being a baby, to being a 10 year old, to taking an aptitude test as a 16 year old, and eventually leaving the fault at 17, you can develop and relate to the character you create. The story is well-written, definitely a mark of professionalism instead of just leaving the character in an extraordinary situation with guns. The game is a major test of morality, earning you karma points or losing you karma points ultimately depending on what you choose to do. Should you help the talking tree? Or leave it to another eternity of torment? It sounds weird now, just wait till you're there.
MUSIC (10/10) While you can choose to blow supermutants apart while listening to the voices of the 40's and 50's like The Ink Spots or Cole Porter, you can also listen to the dulcet tones of an old woman's Stradivarius violin or the haunting ambiance of Inon Zur's composition. Zur does well to reproduce a sound that feels like it's being carried along the winds of the wastes, or echoing through the worn hallways of an abandoned vault. The music never becomes repetitive or annoying, instead, you may find yourself humming "Way Back Home" by Bing Crosby while you're hanging with friends. While this will get you many weird looks from your peers, it may just be the bridge across the age gap.
ENVIRONMENTS (10/10) Whether it be an abandoned military installation or a small village, the environments of the Capital Wasteland are never dull or lifeless. It was a joy to explore the endless array of unique locations that are reminiscent of what used to be D.C. The city itself is beautifully reproduced. Climb the steps of Capitol Hill, walk down Pennsylvania Avenue or loot the many remaining office buildings, trainstations and homes of olden days D.C. The possibilities are endless and unique, just be sure to bring your hunting rifle.
GAMEPLAY (9/10) The gameplay is definitely a modern marvel of the video gaming generation. Leaving little to expectation and more to imagination, your required to actually survive your experience in this survival RPG. The one thing that upset me the most was that you cannot level up past a certain point, leaving many of the perks to be experienced in a second game, also once the story ends, the game ends, unlike Oblivion in which you could continue exploration.
CHARACTERS (10/10) Fallout's characters, whether it be a random settler or an actual story character, are anything but lifeless. Their emotions and actions are felt by the gamer in ways that are normally absent in shooter games of Fallout's intensity. If you kill a character, you're going to either feel righteous in your actions or feel like a douchebag for shooting that settler in the face.
----------OVERALL------------ 10/10 Fallout 3 is definitely a game for the ages. It's won Game of the Year more than 80 times, a well-deserved amount. Bethesda took their policy of "Go anywhere, do anything" to extreme lengths with this game. With gratuitous violence, a gripping storyline, amazingly rendered environments, unbridled exploration, shiny new technology and a kickass fighting system, Fallout 3 offers little upsetting points and more fun and exciting gameplay that's rarely seen in a game of this genre. Fallout 3 really sets the bar for FPS/RPG games. I hope to see more like this from Bethesda in the future.