Fallout 3 – A Retrospective Review

Why write a review of a game that is 2 years old when the new installment is coming out in about a week (see swag's propaganda)? Will anyone even read this?

Doesn't matter really, I am bored.

We'll get the basic plot out of the way first. You are born about 200 years after a nuclear war, hence the name 'fallout'. Everything looks like you're in a Mad Max movie; things are rusted, broken, worn out, and just plain ugly. Also, one of the most interesting aspects, in terms of art design, is the strange mix of old and new technology in the game. Several 1950's posters and aspects (like drive through movies) litter the landscape, yet there are also some futuristic elements, such as ray guns and giant robots. It's like a 1950's perfectionist vision of the future. You start off in Vault 101 as a kid, till you break free into the world...

The gameplay is best described as RPG with some turn based combat. While I do not normally like turn based combat systems, in this case I'll make an exception. You can shoot in real time, but you can also use “action points” (AP) with what's called the V.A.T.S. System (Vault assisted targeting system) to pause the game and effectively target certain body parts and weapons (see picture below). The RPG elements are a leveling up system and some interesting 'perk' add ons. These perks give you special abilities, like making enemies explode when you kill them, to interesting dialog options with characters.

But simply put, the best part of this game is going around the wasteland and exploring. Searching crates, boxes, file cabinets, etc. This, coupled with the fantastic art direction and decayed architecture, makes this one of my favorite games in the last 10 years.

Quick rundown of how I would rank the 5 expansion packs:

1. Broken Steel (Epic battles, no messing around here)
2. Point Lookout (true Fallout feel)
3. The Pitt (Bleak industrial style)
4. Operation Anchorage (Linear, but still interesting)
5. Mothership Zeta (Boring and bland, doesn't feel like Fallout at all)