Fallout 3: First Impressions

Let me start by saying straight away, Oblivion? Didn't like it!

So when I heard that Bethesda had the Fallout licence and was making the sequel for one of my all time favourite games, well I got a bit scared.

So I went out and got myself the special edition with the funky metal lunchbox and Bobble head inside, and was very relieved when the opening sequence that began "War. War Never Changes.
There are also a lot of other things familiar to the Fallout sequence, with the opening tutorial being pretty decent (Fallout 2, for one of the best-ever games, has one of the worst-ever tutorials) the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. is worn proudly, and they have recreated the look of the Fallout universe beautifully.

Then I spent two days playing it and, well,

The first thing you'll notice is the change from the old isometric viewpoint to a first-person perspective. Okay, yes, this does make the world Wonderfully immersive, but it also signals what is a big change in the game play. This is no longer RPG with strategic elements but rather a RPG-Action game.

Part of what made the previous Fallout games so great is that they were such wonderfully detailed RPGs, the action, the fighting, that was all secondary.

What is painfully obvious though is Bethesda's desire to make an First Person Shooter that would sell well on consoles.

And this is where ALL of Fallout 3's issues come from;
1 - It's a console port (albeit a good one)
2 - It desperately wants to be a FPS

Yup, Bethesda has tried REAL hard to use it's Oblivion engine to make an FPS game with Roleplaying elements. (Sure, FPS games might sell well, but it's a very crowded market out there, and that was never what Fallout was about anyway)

The gameplay? It really is little more than wandering the wasteland shooting various nasties before entering dungeons to do more shooting nasties.
Sure, the post-apocalyptic setting may give this a fresh vibe, but in the end, it's like they ripped of "Stalker, Chernobyl". In fact a lot of the game fells like they've ripped off other games.

Simply put, not nearly enough effort has been put into the quests and dialogue trees. This becomes painfully obvious painfully quickly. On stepping into the first town, the first speech option for the first NPC I spoke with was "You want help disarming the bomb?". Hang on? What bomb? And this happens frequently, you'll speak with NPCs and have speech options for tasks that you really, really shouldn't.

Compounding all of this, the quests all feel flat and uninspired. With quests invariably falling into the category of "Fetch X" or "Defeat X" and only offer a choice between "good" or "Bad".
Sure, Fallout 2 did have many bugs when it came to it's various quests (with many incomplete quests making into the release version) But it's NPCs felt far more real, iut's quests much less cliched and there was always a non-violent option who could use to complete the various quest objectives (Sadly all of Fallout 3s quests will eventually involve combat, Charisma and Speech are really the "Dump" stats here)

This is not a great RPG.

The quest management system is similarily problem stricken, Oh, it's not outright buggy, but at the same time, it feels like they just barely bothered with it. For instance now, after Many hours in the game, one of my remaining quests is "Deliver Lucy's Message". That's it. No further detail. Oh, I'm sure Lucy told me who she wanted it delivered to, but that was many, many hours ago. So now, when I've finally explored the world a little more, who the hell am I supposed to deliver it to?

The inventory managment is barely any better. Oh sure, it this was a console, I sure having to scroll through the menus of my Pipboy would be fine. But this is a PC, I want hotkeys to switch between items or use stimpaks or Nuka-Colas. And while we're on that subject, a brief item description for each item wouldn't go astray either, at the very least let me know which skill I need to equip a weapon, and maybe a few details on what it does (ie- The Pulse grenade, that you can only assume does bonus damage to robots? or is that pathetically low damage number the same for every target?)
Neverwinter Nights is an example of very successfully implementing this, and it could have given the game endless color, maybe give the game back some of the personality that is missing, but so abundant in Fallout 1 & 2.

And that, is unfortunately the third, fundamental problem with this game. The overiding mood. Fallout 1 & 2 were wonderfully pastiche homages to a post-apocalyptic world, with a frequent dash of black humor.
Sure, Bethesda has talked extensively about wehy it made the choice to "not be cartoony" by keeping Fallout 2s humorous edge (though their are a few homages, such as discovering the "Naughty Nightwear" in one of the subway stations) But at the end of the day it stops the game feeling unique. It doesn't have that certain 'flair' that marks it as it's own game. Instead it feels like it has tried very hard to be a number of other, better games, such as Half-Life, Stalker, even stealing from more notable console RPG-adventures such as Fable- The Karma system, & you can get your own houses in the various villages)

And when all is said and done, the oblivion engine, is no Half-Life 2 engine, this will never be a stellar FPS, and is a far cry from being a strong RPG. It remains painfully caught between the two genres whilst pandering to the console market.

Yes it's pretty, but that's just not enough really.

So why not try instead -
Want RPG fun? Neverwinter Nights (1&2) will better scratch that itch.
Want.
RPG-Action? Fable FTW.
Or just like the Action/FPS elements? Then, Half-Life 2 is king.

- 3.5 stars.

Cheers,
-Kale

PS- Bethesda. Please apologise and offer the license to Bioware now.