Title: Fallout 3
Platform: PC (review platform), Xbox 360, PS3
Publisher: Bethesda
Developer: Bethesda
ESRB Rating: M for Mature

A couple of weeks ago I posted some initial impressions from Fallout 3 in the article Fallout 3: One Week in the Wasteland. Since I was not finished with the game at the time I couldn't give it a proper review and score, but I wanted to address any early fears about the game possibly betraying the Fallout universe by changing the combat from turn-based to pseudo real-time and the perspective from the isometric angle to a first-person one. Now that I'm finished with Fallout 3, it's time to dig into the game deeper and find out if the middle and end are as good as the beginning. We avoid spoilers as best we can in all our reviews, but through discussing Fallout 3's world and myriad of side-quests, it's possible that some information could slip. Fallout 3 is best experienced with a sense of exploration and wonder, so if you have not finished the game yet, continue reading with caution.

Like the previous Fallout games, Fallout 3 starts the character in a small community, Vault 101, before providing a quest that takes the player out into the larger world in search of something. While the heroes of past Fallouts were sent forth in order to save their communities, Fallout 3's Vault Dweller escapes in spite of the vault and its inhabitants. The player flees the confines of the vault in search of his or her father, who recently left the vault unexpectedly.

The main storyline through Fallout 3 is short, small and personal. It isn't the epic, world-saving story that we've grown accustomed to with role-playing games. But in a setting ravaged by nuclear holocaust, where eight-foot mutants roam around shooting people with rocket launchers and scorpions are the size of small cars, what is left to save? Rather than tell a story with world-shaking implications, Fallout 3 chooses to keep it intimate. Near the end, the story blossoms into a bigger package, but upon completion of the game, the world of Fallout 3 remains grim.

The stories were never what attracted me to the first two Fallout games and, when thinking back on them, I can't remember many details. What I enjoyed most about Fallout and Fallout 2 was the freedom. There was a sense that you could do anything and kill anyone without breaking the game's story or hitting imaginary walls. Fallout 3 continues that legacy giving the player the option to interact with the other characters in a variety of ways; the caveat being that there are always consequences. It's the essence of "role-playing."

The Vault Dweller battles two Super Mutants. Click the image to see it full size.

For example, soon after I arrived in Megaton, the closest major city to Vault 101, a shady character in the bar asked me to detonate the bomb at the city's center, killing all the citizens and destroying the city. I rather liked the city and the people so I declined. After thinking on it a minute, I considered that he might just hire someone else to do it so I turned around and shot him. The people in the bar reacted to the slaying but the game kept right on going. However, I was denied access to any more quests from Mr. Blow-Up-the-Town guy.

Later in the game, I wandered into the city of Paradise Falls, a collective of slavers in the Capital City Wasteland. The first person I met offered me a quest to round up some people to be slaves, and I took it thinking they were criminals. When I saw the list of the target names I recognized one of them as a guy I met earlier in the game. I decided right then and there to take a hard line on slavery so I killed every slaver in a big shootout. By doing so I was able to free the slaves inside the city, which opened up a few more quests. I could just as easily have completed the slaver quest and gotten the reward. The game works both ways. Much of my enjoyment of Fallout 3 came from the freedom of action and seeing the consequences of those actions.

The slaver city of Paradise Falls. Click the image to see it full size.

The quests are a great method of driving characters around the game world but I discovered some rather interesting mini-stories through random exploration, which were not attached to any quest. A love letter I discovered in Tenpenny Tower while rummaging through the rooms lead to a women murdering her husband and his mistress. The people of Andale, terrifying in their normalcy, let slip some hints in their dialogue to a sinister secret they were keeping. I discovered their secret and confronted them about it without ever trigging a quest. Fallout 3 has the main story, a buffet of side-quests and a host of other interactions that give the Capital City Wasteland such exceptional detail. Of the 150 some locations on the map, I discovered 96 of them before ending the game. I intend to replay it and go through every one at some point. I'm sure there are other gems like Andale just waiting to be uncovered.

Fallout 3 is powered by an updated version of the Gamebryo engine that's also behind Bethesda's 2006 release The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The two games share a visual aesthetic although with completely different art styles. While wandering around Vault 101 in the early part of Fallout 3, the graphics are good, but not amazing. The interior hallways of the vault are painfully sterile and the character faces are a tad robotic. I was worried that the graphics would be equally bland throughout the entire game but upon leaving the vault and seeing the first completely outdoor environment of Fallout 3, I was blown away. The engine is more than adequate at rendering the destroyed landscape of Washington, D.C. circa 2277 with an impressive draw distance revealing the faintest shapes of the larger structures and monuments in the D.C. area. The human faces retain that lifeless, robotic look throughout the game (although the non-humans look better), but they don't detract from the experience.

NEXT PAGE: Party System, Problem Areas and Conclusions

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