Blinded by the light, you stumble into an unfamiliar world full of raiders and cutthroats ready to tear you limb by limb. Once you come to your senses, you’ll soon realize that this mythological world that you’ve been sheltered from in Vault 101 is a barren wasteland – literally called Capital Wasteland – that is full of danger around every corner. Equipped with your PIP-Boy 3000, it’s time to embark on your journey to find your father and learn the ways of the world.
Among the first missions you’ll receive right out the gate is to search a rundown super-mart and deliver a message to family at another camp. These two missions are straightforward and easy to complete, but it’s the NPCs that stand out for Fallout 3. What they lack in facial expressions and lip-synching they make up in personality and humor. Many of these dirtbags will betray you at the first chance they get and will lie to better their own personal lives. This is where Fallout 3 shines: the ability to interact with NPCs and walk away with a lasting impression that sticks with you when you move on to your next mission. One individual, a saloon owner, went against his word and anted up his blackmail for information that is needed to progress the main storyline. Needless to say, all I had on my mind when I was walking around Capital Wasteland fighting mole rats and vicious dogs was the grimy saloon owner who put me on the path to blowing up Megaton.
After putting in a good eight hours into Fallout 3, it’s safe to say that there’s enough variety in the missions to keep gamers chugging along through the post-apocalyptic world. Whether it’s journeying alone, with your dog or with a NPC, the action is well thought out and addicting at times. Unfortunately, Fallout 3 is similar to Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion with the simple fact that the third-person perspective isn’t a viable option for battling. It’s too hard to aim at the enemies who are constantly moving and jumping around like a bunch of jackrabbits.
The game world of Fallout 3 may seem daunting, but the sheer size is amazing; especially since the environments are incredibly detailed. With so much land to travel, players can use ‘fast travel’ to get from place to place in a hurry but only if they’ve already visited the location. Having so much to do, and tons of enemies to kill, players may run into the disease that’s contagious that Oblivion had – the disease of picking up every item they find and picking through the deceased bodies of your enemies to earn money (in the case of Fallout 3, bottle caps are the currency of the world).
Many cynics are concerned about the VATS, or the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System, and if it harms the gameplay. Players can choose to not use the VATS, but that wouldn’t be a wise decision since it’s a useful attribute of Fallout 3. VATS stops the game dead in its tracks and allows players to select which enemy they’d like to target and which body parts they want to fire at. In almost every occasion, I’ve opted to use VATS rather than manually shooting incoming raiders. Plus, with VATS, players are able to watch their enemy’s heads get blown to smithereens in slow motion.
Fallout 3 is an addicting title that offers a little of everything. It’s easy to get captivated by the dog-eat-dog world that Bethesda has created. Look forward to our full impressions when our review hits the web on October 28.
