|
|
|
Average Customer Review
Share your thoughts with other customers
|
|
|
The most helpful favorable review
The most helpful critical review
259 of 268 people found the following review helpful:
A review from an impartial gamer
I play a lot of different RPG's and was not a fan of Elder Scrolls Oblivion. I will list the pros and cons as impartially as possible so you can be the judge on what matters to you.
PROS:
- You are left to explore and find things to do and quests on your own. This game is a true RPG. You have one main quest. Everything else are side quests...
Published 21 months ago by Jarlaxle
|
› See more 5 star, 4 star reviews |
 |
197 of 240 people found the following review helpful:
Not Your Parents' Fallout
Fallout 3 represents Bethesda Softworks' first take of the legendary game franchise since they purchased the rights from the failing Interplay in 2004. So, how did Bethesda do? In essence, Fallout 3 is Oblivion (Bethesda's most well-known game) with a sci-fi/post-apocalyptic skin on it. The Good, Bad, and Ugly on this game includes...
Good:
-...
Published 22 months ago by Ron Cole
|
› See more 3 star, 2 star, 1 star reviews |
|
|
259 of 268 people found the following review helpful:
A review from an impartial gamer, November 18, 2008
Fun:
This review is from: Fallout 3 (Video Game)
I play a lot of different RPG's and was not a fan of Elder Scrolls Oblivion. I will list the pros and cons as impartially as possible so you can be the judge on what matters to you.
PROS:
- You are left to explore and find things to do and quests on your own. This game is a true RPG. You have one main quest. Everything else are side quests.
- Over 100+ hours of places to explore. and more than 100+ unique map locations.
- Tons of perks and ways to develop your character. Become a science genius or concentrate on stealth and your lockpicking ability. Invest in large guns and go into places with guns ablaze. Play the game how you want. Be good and people will love you, be bad and people will fear you.
- Replay value. This is rare in RPGs but Because of the many different ways you can play the game I see myself playing this game again to play a different type of character.
- Some people complain about the targeting system known as VATS. This game is not an FPS. VATS gives you a wonderful 1st person shooter feel with an RPG style or turned based combat. Score a critical by shooting your enemies head and it might explode. Shoot the enemy on his weapon hand and he will not be able to attack you very quickly.
- The graphics are amazing. Its a beautiful post apocalyptic mess. The detail from the stains on a found mattress or a found comic called "Grognak the Barbarian and the Lair of the Virgin Killer" are all amazing. You can tell a lot of thought went into detail.
- The voice work is nice. Almost every character talks out loud. This allows you to listen and respond instead of just watching a mouth move and reading dialog all the time.
- Enemies do not automatically level with your character. This was my biggest problem with Oblivion. Some people liked the fact that enemies would always be your level. I found it totally unrealistic. Go ahead, run your level 1 character through the Wastelands. You might come across an easy roach or a mutant with a minigun. In my book this makes the game more fun and much more realistic.
- I have read on the forums and some bad reviews here that they can not find tons of ammo. This is not Halo, Call of Duty or any other FPS. People need to take the right mindset. This is a world 200 years after major Nuclear war. Things will break, ammo is sometimes scarce, radiation is a fact of life, bottle caps are money, people trade everything and you live in a harsh world. I think some people need to watch the Madmax series just as a primer to understand the world created here.
- Instant travel. Once you have visited an area you no longer need to walk to the location. You can locate the area on your map (through the PIPBoy 3000) and select it to instantly travel.
- The PipBoy 3000 Interface works great. This allows you to keep track of stats, items, equipment, quests, notes, maps, and karma very easily. The UI is easy and it keeps all the data you need at your finger tips.
CONS:
- AI is nothing special. It's not bad, just nothing special. When I am shooting a shotgun at you, running at me with a pool cue might not be the smartest thing to do. They will sometimes run away if severely over matched (which is the smart thing to do). The AI is no worse then any other games, just no big improvements here.
- Lack of good music. You can find radio stations on your PIPBoy but I was not a fan of the music. The background can be ok but not great. Sometimes when alone in the Wasteland you want some good background music.
- I had the game crash once but not a lot of times like some people are reporting. Still unacceptable but manageable. Loading and saving times can take anywhere between 10-30 seconds which is kind of slow.
- No item descriptions. The important data like weight, condition value, and perks of the item are still displayed but full description of the items are no longer available. This is different then Fallout 1 and 2 where each item had a paragraph describing it.
Additional thoughts:
This game is rated "M". This means you shouldn't play this game with kids in the room. This isn't a Con for me but this might be a problem for all you gamer mom and dads out there. Seriously, no kids allowed. Women offer there "Services", cussing, blood splatter on the screen when you get injured, mutants hanging people on meat hooks, tons of drug use, and of course blowing peoples limbs off. Good times but not for the kiddies.
No, its not perfect but it is a lot of fun and the best RPG currently on the market. My 5 star review was based on that fact. This is the best RPG I have played since FFX (Final Fantasy X). I hope you enjoy it.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
 
|
|
|
|
|
|
73 of 77 people found the following review helpful:
Excellent game, comprehensive review., November 7, 2008
Fun:
I recently bought 3 new games for PS3; Little Big Planet, Resistance 2, and Fallout 3. Fallout 3 is by far the winner for me. Little Big Planet is incredible in its own right, but Fallout 3 deserves 10 stars. Resistance 2, has great graphics, but the single player really lacks something that it had in the first game. I understand that the online play is now amazing, but I'm a story guy so that's what I'm playing for.
Food analogy for these three games;
Resistance 2; A nice brunch, but some of the guests are irritating.
Little Big Planet; Awesome snack party! Lets play again!
Fallout 3; A 10 course meal of the best of all kinds of food. WOW!
This review for Fallout 3 has minor spoilers.
All three games are great, but so far I've had the most fun playing Fallout 3. The scope of the game is huge, it feels huge, it looks huge, it sucks you in. The plot seamlessly welds together, and the detail is incredible.
My wife, who is an amazing artist, took a look at this game while I was playing and commented the following; "Whomever designed this game really knew what they were doing. The color pallets are very well chosen so that everything in the scene has the correct lighting feeling for the time of day."
I especially *love* the little details that make this game. First amazing detail; Hacking the terminals is *very* close to the way you would break into a real OpenVMS machine if you had console access. The terminals themselves look like old VT100 terminals. You can break into a VMS machine from the console (physical terminal) and the commands are not exactly the same, but when I saw my character typing them in, I was so happy. I think the authors of this game should be commended for their accuracy, and for their design choice. The OpenVMS system is very old, very useful, very strong, and very stable. The similar commands fit in *perfectly* with the look and feel of the terminals the robot company makes in the game.
Next up, the super mutants totally take lines from the villain "Humungous" in Mad Max: Road warrior 2. "No more games!" with the same delivery. This little detail is so perfect. There are little nods like this to the Sci Fi genre throughout this game.
Even the starting sequence of this game, and the load "slides" which are modeled after 50's micro fiche are so perfectly in character for the rest of the game that you find yourself wishing the load times when they show were longer so you could pore over the details revealed.
This game is so huge, and incredibly wide reaching. This is demonstrated by the example of a side quest/area that is introduced through deft foreshadowing into the game when your character inquires about the local area at one of the towns in the game. The person you're talking to refers to this nearby place to stay away from. "Its bad mojo!" So of course you think "Well I have to go there next!" Next stop, terror! And 3/4 of the way through the side quest you're asking yourself "Maybe I really should have listened to this guy" as you're dying and irradiated in a terrifying area of doom! This minor side quest is so big, and perfectly executed within the game that you really feel like you're paid your money's worth.
I think one of the things that some other reviewers mentioned is how cool it is that you can treat the game like a real time game, or as a more turn based game by using the V.A.T.S system. This lends flexibility to the game allowing you to play it either as the biggest open ended fps you've ever played or as a giant post apocolyptic RPG.
Game strategy is introduced subtly by the npcs, making you feel like you are there. An example of this is a side conversation you have with a kid who tells you about the calamity that happened to his town. He describes how his father would rant about the invaders and how to defeat them, but the kid doesn't understand what his father meant. You end up using the strategy to avoid death it a wonderful high quality Sci Fi B movie plot line yourself later.
Each storyline in this excellent game is peeled back like layers of an onion, that you slowly uncover. The graphics are eyepopping sure, but I must give the writers for this game the highest praise. This is something that the author Neal Stephenson writes about in his book Diamond Age. The idea that you can have incredible immersion games that have a completely realistic physical environment a la the matrix concept, but without a gripping storyline you've got nothing. Well Fallout3 has the story lines, and it has them in spades. It has the eye popping graphics, and the incredible detail. This game has it all.
There is never a time in this game where the game mechanics themselves get in the way of the play. You can save whenever you want, and the completely transparent mechanics submerge you into the game environment.
In conclusion, if you like adventures, and you like Sci Fi, get this incredible Game.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
60 of 64 people found the following review helpful:
Fallout 3 = video game crack., November 4, 2008
A Kid's Review
Fun:
For those of us who have played Oblivion the obvious will be when you first start to assume that this game is a lot like that game. To some extent there are certain elements to that assumption that do hold true. However as the game really starts to unfold and you realize the world you're in that Bethesda has created that this is not Oblivion with guns. This is an epic post war nightmare that is both beautiful and haunting.
This the type of RPG that every gamer dreams of. A rich story in the main quest and an amazing amount of detail at every turn. The real meat of this game though is the side questing and the exploring of the landscape. You will literally spend HOURS checking out every nook in this game and not knowing what awaits you at the next turn. This is the type of game that will both make you use your head, and get your blood pumping at the same time. It's called balance and it's done to perfection in Fallout 3.
If you are not a fan of games where you have to take your time and you are looking for something to pick up and shoot things Fallout 3 is not your game. If you love games that require you to conserve your inventory and make crucial choices that will affect your outcome one way or another Fallout 3 is your game. If you are looking for something that is quick and easy, Fallout 3 is not your game. If you are looking for something that takes time, patience and you enjoy exploring Fallout 3 is your game.
The point is that you really need to know the genre of RPG to enjoy a game like this. That's not to say that if you have never played one that you won't enjoy it just expect to be a bit overwhelmed at first and allow the game to unfold which is where the patience aspect comes into play, because once it does you will be sucked into it's world and have a very very hard time putting it down if you do connect with it. These are the types of games that RPG gamers long for and this one hits it out of the park.
As far as the combat system it's both a mixture of action RPG and somewhat of a turn based element with what is called the VATS system. More or less this allows you to make a choice of which body part you want to target and will show you a percentage of if that part will be hit. Then you go to a cut scene which shows your results. You will find this element very fulfilling when you see an enemy taken by surprise and watch in glory as body parts explode on the screen when it works right.
This is a game that has endless amounts of game play value. There are so many choices and out comes you will be able to explore every part of the game. Finish every quest and still be able to replay it totally different if you chose to do so with a completely different outcome. That is rare to find a game like that with so much quality.
The version I own is the PS3 version so let me say first the game looks amazing. I am playing it on a 47 inch 1080 LCD TV with a 7.1 surround sound system and it just crushes on every single level. Are there glitches? So few you won't even care when you see them. The rumors that the PS3 version is somehow less a game from certain reviews is a lie. It's amazing and worth every single penny and your time.
Video game crack at it's finest and certainly game of the year for me.
Thanks again Bethesda for creating an epic world for me roam in.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
38 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
Absoutely Stunning RPG Shooter!, October 29, 2008
Fun:
Fallout 3 only appears to use the disc validation aspects of SecuROM 7.36.0006. I used System Mechanic to perform some "before and after" system scans to ensure nothing sinister was happening with the install. All I could find was the usual license and CD / DVD entries in the Registry. There were no activations or installation hiccups. The installation does take quite some time though, so I advise people to de-clutter and defrag before they install.
I don't want to issue any spoilers, but what I will say is that the graphics are revolutionary! The world feels very immersing and the character interactions are very realistic. The controls are very similar to Oblivion too, so it wasn't hard to dive in. The game is very, very polished and when you exit Vault 101 for the first time, the scenery that greets you is astounding! You can see objects in full clarity right out to the horizon and the environment looks very much like a post-apocalyptic wasteland, albeit under a very gray palette. I maxed out the in-game detail settings and my single slot GeForce 8800GTS (G92) 512MB handled it perfectly. This is first class!
My biggest gripe with DRM is limited activations, which also infer spying on your machine. This game does indeed use the "evil" SecuROM, but it's just the usual SecuROM disc-checking that we have in tonnes of games prior to this. There are NO LIMITED ACTIVATIONS. I'm a big anti-DRM person, just look at my posts for Spore, but this, in my opinion, is an acceptable use of DRM and I recommend people get the game.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
Has to be game of the year, October 31, 2008
Fun:
I never played the original fallout games, but I have always been an elder scrolls fan. Oblivion is one of my favorite games that I have ever had the pleasure of playing, news that the same team bought up and was working on this game made me very happy, if it could just be oblivion with guns, I would be sure to find much enjoyment. However it is SO much more.
The game is epic in scope, when you are "born" you crawl around, and you find this book (which is very cool) that teaches you about the S.P.E.C.I.A.L System, and you get to choose how you will be. I love the whole way this game is presented, everything seems very realistic, the environments are of the best I have ever seen.
The voice acting has to be heard to be enjoyed. I finally beat this sucker, after many late night gaming sessions (who needs sleep?) its crazy how many times I would say, ok, a few more minutes then its time to sleep, and the next thing I know the suns coming up!
One of the cool things about this game is the Pip-Boy 3000, it is how you manage everything, stuff you pick up, your aid, your ability to check your radiation level, as well as letting you check your maps, choose your quest, and the coolest feature of all, the ability to listen to the in game radio.
The radio features music from the 40's and 50's and its all real music, very unique, and fits perfectly into the world this game has created. I love it. It adds so much to the experience.
Since your reading this review, you may wish to know about the "Collectors" features. So lets get into if its worth you dropping another 20$ for.
There is no definitive Yes or No. If you work in the game industry, this is one of the best things you can buy, you get a 100 page art book that looks really good, you get the concept art for the creatures, character armor, and environment landscapes. This book makes others such as gears of war seem quite inadequate, this book alone was worth the price for me. The very cool looking lunchbox which houses everything only sweetens the deal, it is very well constructed, and looks awesome, that's all i can say. If you enjoy the retro type advertising of the game (and in game) you will love the lunch box, it is very cool. You get a making of dvd, which I'm planning on exploring later on after I beat the game again. You also get the bobble head which is currently "bobbling" right now as I type. I love this guy, he looks awesome, I'm somewhat disappointed we didn't get the version with him giving a thumbs up, but this is still cool nonetheless.
This is a very good game, much more mature than oblivion due to the language and themes (one part has you visiting a virtual world, where you break up a marriage, beat up a little kid to make him cry, then proceed with murdering all the inhabits while wearing a mask scaring them all away -- though you can avoid it, if you figure out how to get out on your own!)
Speaking of which, I must mention the cool perks system. If you want to play the game as being evil (my next play through for sure!) you can use the "Sandman" Perk and kill people in their sleep, if that's not enough, there is a perk that lets you eat people! Also whenever you pick pocket you can replace what you stole with a grenade and watch as they die (you get an achievement for this too!)
The game is so good, so slick, I really hope they treat this game like oblivion and offer some expansions, maybe one taking place in NY, LA, or something, that would be very cool.
The new VATS system is pretty cool, you can use Attack Points and use your weapon in a cinematic view that lays waste to your enemy, weather your slamming a sledgehammer down on a demon dog, or shooting off a raiders head with your hand gun or rifle (think resident evil type animations), with that said, this game had me jumping several times throughout, it is very good and you get very involved in this game.
Lastly, I must mention the graphics are the best I have seen. They surpass Oblivion, and look better than any game out on the 360 right now.
Bottom line, pick it up, you will be playing this more than 1-2 days, it is a very good game, a game that requires repeat visits. It combines the best of all my favorite games, GTA's seedy underground environment, Resident Evils Character design, boss strength, and the gun play and horror, oblivions fantastic engine and how everything goes together. It has to be played to truly enjoy.
Also, the guide is NOT necessary, the game is pretty easy to figure out on your own. (though not an easy game)
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
40 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
A lot of fun, November 19, 2008
Fun:
This review is from: Fallout 3 (Video Game)
I have been enjoying Fallout 3 for about 70 hours now and I am having as much fun now as I was 50 hours ago, which is to say A LOT.
I cannot speak to the bugs that others seem to be experiencing. In my 70 hours I have had my game freeze only a handful of times, and none of them were anything that was game breaking. I have several friends who are also playing and none of them have expressed any serious glitches either.
I have played both the previous Fallout games and vastly enjoyed them both, so to make a blanket statement that "anyone who was a fan of the first 2 Fallouts will hate this game" is just erroneous. I would agree with someone who said this game is more of a Next Gen title in the Fallout Universe rather than a true sequel to the Interplay games.
However, that does not in any way detract from the epic amount of fun to be found in Fallout 3.
The adventuring around the Wastes is the highlight of the game to be sure. The amazing amount of freedom to roam the Wastes is just phenomenal, so much so that once you do decide to progress the Main Story it can seem very limiting and cramped at times, especially when crawling around through the DC Ruins and all the subway tunnels required to get to the Main Mall.
However, compared to the vast scope and size of the experience, this is a minor complaint and really a very short and small portion of the game. It should only take maybe 5 hours to explore it all and finish up some questing, then you can Fast Travel back whenever you want and get back to tearing it up in the Wastes.
Combat is quality, but it is NOT a Shooter. People expecting Shooter mechanics will be disappointed, as even point blank shooting still utilizes an in game Dice Roll to determine whether you hit and how much damage you do etc.
It is likely that people complaining about Ammo or clunky targeting are unaware of this game mechanic, but it is what makes the game an RPG, not a Shooter. There is ample amounts of Ammo (I have never run out in 70 hours of gameplay and I have killed over 1000 living -isms according to my in game stat sheet), but it is not unlimited like a Shooter.
The VATS mode is a good way to illustrate the difference. You queue up VATS and it will give you a stop-time targeting system. Within this system, you will be given percentages to hit on various Body parts: 87% to hit the head, 95% to hit the Body etc. However, these percentages are also indicative of how much of a chance you would have to hit those body parts OUT of VATS as well. So if you have a 50% chance to hit a leg in VATS, you have that SAME chance to hit in real-time it just does not illustrate it anywhere. SO even if your targeting arrow is Red, you still only have the same percentage to hit as you would in VATS. Which is to say you will miss and waste a ton of ammo if you just think "my target is red I can unload a clip".
Dice Rolls are a staple of RPGS, Oblivion had them, it was just not as noticeable because you were using Melee weapons, but every time your guy reared back to swing it rolled the dice to see if you would hit, how much of a damaging blow it would be etc.
The game has a wide array of voice acting, some is great, some not so much. The story has its ups and downs, but is good enough to not take away from the overall (it certainly helps that the great Liam Neeson is the Vault Dweller's Father, he is an example of the Great voice acting). Various mini-quests are actually more entertaining and interesting than the main story, so there is definitely enough Good story in the game to keep it interesting.
However, the game's strength is in solo-adventuring IMO. While you can get sidekicks and helpers, the real fun is being a Hero of the Wastes and taking down Super-Mutants, Raiders, Slavers and Death Claws all by your lonesome as you scour the Wastes in search of unique weapons, caps, ammo and mini-quests littered throughout.
Overall, I would rate the game a 9/10 and consider it the only game on Xbox 360 that gives Mass Effect a challenge for best title.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
Simply Incredible, November 3, 2008
Fun:
This is an absolutely top notch game. I've been an avid gamer for around 20 years now. I've played countless games and this is one of my all-time favorites.
I'm a big fan of both Role Playing Games and First Person Shooters. Fallout 3 is both, although probably more of an RPG. For me it's quite hard to kill normal opponents without using the targeting system, which pauses the game. But this didn't bother me at all or lessen the experience in any way. The only thing that I would change would be to give the player the ability to control the camera during the slow motion combat shots. The camera angle can be poor at times.
The graphics are great, the atmosphere is very convincing and it's just good fun. It's also a somewhat odd mix of being very serious and yet very silly at times. I guess I would describe it as quirky, but in a good way.
The game is definitely not for younger people. The games is very gory, the language is about as bad as it gets, and there are quite a few references to prostitution and drugs.
I'm about 15-20 hours into the game and I've barely scratched the surface. I've read that the game can be completed in 20 hours. But that seems crazy to me. I put 90 hours into Oblivion before I even took the main quest seriously. Fallout 3 looks like it's going to have that kind of playability for me, and then some. I didn't really enjoy the combat in Oblivion nearly as much as I enjoyed just exploring the world. With Fallout 3, I enjoy both.
This is a must buy.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
134 of 161 people found the following review helpful:
Overall, a strong step forward for Bethesda with a few unfortunately major flaws., November 3, 2008
Fun:
The next release by Bethesda after the gorgeous but surprisingly shallow game Oblivion, Fallout 3 is a vast improvement on almost every level over the company's previous efforts, providing an extreme level of high-quality content and a truly massive game experience at the expense of average writing and a poorly-implemented main plot.
First off, graphics. I'm running the game at High quality (as opposed to Very High) on a computer using parts that were cutting edge about two years ago. Visually, this game is a total knockout; painstakingly and stunningly rendered down to the smallest detail, from the wreckage and debris everywhere even to the level of most NPCs. The character models in particular stand out as a vast improvement over Oblivion's, although the character animations - particularly on hills - is still as stilted as ever and you will notice some repetitive faces. Where the game truly shines is in the environmental design, particularly on the graphical level - I can safely say that no other game has ever felt as real and vibrant (albeit dead, considering it's post-apocalyptic) as Fallout 3. The environment truly feels real, especially coupled with a surprisingly logical and high-quality approach to level design - office buildings and schools are laid out like office buildings and schools, most buildings have bathrooms inside. Wreckage and debris are used strategically to block off areas and direct the player, rather than bizarre architectural choices as in Oblivion (who builds a fort in the shape of one long tunnel?). I can't rave enough about the high-quality graphics, a few relatively minor animation issues and mild NPC face repetition notwithstanding. Downtown DC, with its half-demolished monuments and museums, is absolutely breathtaking. The game is also fully voiced, and the voice acting is relatively high-quality. Although you'll likely begin to notice NPCs who sound suspiciously similar - especially old women, who all sound identical - the acting is considerably better and they've reused voice actors a lot less than in the Elder Scrolls games. People who follow such things may recognize Raphael Sbarge (KotOR) and John DiMaggio (Futurama; FFX) in a few places. Liam Neesan does a decent job with fairly bland lines as the PC's saintly father and Ron Perlman is back to narrate the surprisingly tepid introductory and final movies. But Malcolm McDowell steals the show as the unsettlingly patriotic President Eden, mostly through a series of Roosevelt-esque radio speeches the player can choose to listen to at will through.
This is easily the most fun game I've played in a long while. They've stripped out a lot of things that bogged down earlier Bethesda efforts and even to an extent earlier Fallout games, which lends itself to a much more fast-paced, almost survival horror-esque feel to much of the game. The VATS system is a huge disappointment to anyone expecting true turn-based combat - it's much more like bullet time than anything else - but taken on its own merits is a pretty clever gimmick that is actually pretty fun to use. Combat in general is satisfyingly fast-paced, and a clever, logical approach to level design keeps the player moving along nicely in most areas while still giving the feeling that you might be down to your last clip of bullets or stimpack. Radiation - and particularly irradiated food, which heals you at the cost of adding to your rad level - is an interesting new dimension which is unfortunately barely touched on, as weightless, radless Stimpacks are weightless and much more effective than drinking water or food. Buffs take the form of drugs with a variety of effects, and can make the difference between survival and death - but watch out for (easily cured, and mostly pointless) addictions. There are a few glaring issues with the gameplay, however: the speech and dialog options, while again an enormous improvement over previous Bethesda games (FO3 features dialog trees instead of topic buttons, allowing for more dynamic conversations), require little to no thought on the part of the player - a far cry from the clever dialog puzzles former Fallout developer Black Isle was known for. High stats in Lockpicking or Science basically just buy you the ability to play their associated minigames at higher difficulty levels; if you're bad at Mastermind or have poor reflexes, don't expect to succeed at them, even with a maxed-out skill value. Combat is decently balanced but startlingly illogical in places, and at low levels it frequently takes an entire clip of shotgun shells to the face to take down a single human opponent; similarly, the economy is bizarrely stacked, with the reward for single-handedly saving a town from total annihilation being less valuable than a single night at the local inn. Cash in general is hard to come by for much of the game; even vendors rarely have enough to buy more than a fraction of your loot at a time. Fortunately, there are a few nearly limitless sources available to you, if you're willing to put in the work for the money, and the trade system allows for direct bartering. Character design and advancement is basically just a dumbed-down version of the previous games' systems, and badly in need of balancing. A few of the non-combat stats are ridiculously overpowered (you'll have a tough time getting through the game without a high Lockpick and Repair skill) and, unlike its predecessors, you won't be able to get through much of Fallout 3 without putting a significant commitment into combat skills (which comprise about half the skill set). However, it's still easily possible to cater to most play styles, and clever players with an eye on the strategy guide will have little trouble maxing out all their skills and most of their attributes before hitting the level 20 cap.
The main plot is extremely short by design, taking somewhere between 8-10 hours for players progressing at normal speed to complete; taking note of one of the defining characteristics of the Fallout franchise, Bethesda opted to make huge swaths of the main quest optional (you can stumble upon information or people who will lead you further into the plot, bypassing intermediary steps), lending the game a feeling of versatility that more tracked-in games lack. Consequently, the game feels a lot more dynamic and flexible, even accounting for several quests that are essentially good guy/bad guy choices and at least two where there isn't even a bad guy choice. However, because Bethesda opted to only consider quests with their own subplots "sidequests", there's a lot to do in the Wasteland that is entirely freeform, and the game often rewards players for free-roaming and for following clues provided in the game's copious flavor text. The result is an unusually detail-oriented, lovingly crafted world that feels logical and realistic, aside from the relatively limited dialog options. The game is well worth buying solely for the wealth of awesome content lurking in the wings of the game, and already has an active modding community likely to produce still more content to keep you entertained long after the game's disappointingly average main plot has faded into memory. This is even true on the item level: there are a variety of awesome and entertaining gimmick weapons, the opportunity to buy and customize houses (which provides extremely tangible benefits, unlike the Oblivion equivalent) and several unique items lying around that can by claimed and repaired by the player. Fallout 3 has a level of detail rarely seen in any game.
On the downside, a few of the sidequests have glaringly obvious logical errors in them. Your character generally acts like an old hand at wandering the Wasteland straight out of his hermetically sealed childhood home, regardless of what dialog options you choose. And despite the general emphasis on free roaming, you do get railroaded in several places - your response options to a given NPC's behavior generally consist only of fairly transparent light side/neutral/dark side options where they exist at all, and the main plot abandons all pretense of player control in the second half - but for the most part, you're free to turn around at any point up until the very end and go back to free roaming, which is where the real meat of the game is anyway. The main plot itself is significantly better than Oblivion's, but falls apart at the climax, leading into an unexpected, abrupt and deeply unsatisfying resolution; also, in a radical departure from the rest of the game, the last few subquests in the main plot are essentially mandatory dungeons followed by a staggeringly black-and-white moral choice. Fortunately, the weakest elements of the game are mostly contained in the last two or three subquests of the main plot, and you can easily get months of playtime out of this consistently excellent sandbox exploration game without ever having to sit through the most disappointing parts ever again.
A few other things to mention that I left out of the review:
-The only DRM included with the game is a simple disc check (you only even need a serial number for Windows Live)
-There is a large and skilled pool of modders already producing custom content for the game, even without official word on a Construction Set.
-The load times are blazing fast. I have Word files that take longer to open than FO3 maps.
-The game is excessively buggy at the moment, and only PC users will be able to use most of the bug fixes. Console users may want to hold off until a patch is released.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
197 of 240 people found the following review helpful:
Not Your Parents' Fallout, November 3, 2008
Fun:
Fallout 3 represents Bethesda Softworks' first take of the legendary game franchise since they purchased the rights from the failing Interplay in 2004. So, how did Bethesda do? In essence, Fallout 3 is Oblivion (Bethesda's most well-known game) with a sci-fi/post-apocalyptic skin on it. The Good, Bad, and Ugly on this game includes...
Good:
- Spectacular Graphics (I'd have said beautiful, but we ARE talking about a post-apocalyptic world here). From blown-up highway overpasses to angry super mutants, players will be completely visually immersed in the game.
- Massive World. Fallout 3 is not a "first ten hours and you're done" game. The developers have said that F3 contains over 100 hours of game play if all of the side quests are done and, having played a good portion of them, I can say that this seems to be correct.
- Interesting World. There's a lot to see and do in post-war D.C.! Visit the Washington Monument, try and find historical documents, join a cult, stop slavers, or become one yourself! There are plenty of new (and different) things to do in Fallout 3.
Bad:
- No Turn-Based Combat. Fallouts 1&2 featured turn-based strategic combat; Fallout 3 is primarily First-Person Shooter style. The V.A.T.S. system of location-specific targeting has been added to sort of simulate turn-based combat for those interested, but it is poorly done (EX: what appear to be high-percentage VATS shots with a clear view from first-person end up being completely blocked by the target's slight movements; VATS will not stop the shooting even though precious ammo is wasted). Gameplay is primarily first-person, though a buggy "shoulder camera view" can also be used. If you love FPS games, this will not be an issue.
- Lacks Original's Dark Humor. Forced jokes do not make a Fallout game - the creators simply were not able to capture this aspect of the original.
- Linear Solutions. Initially, it seemed that there would be a lot of choices in how Fallout 3's quests were to be solved (EX: Lie to solve a quest or do the actual legwork? Blow up a city or disarm the bomb?); the problem is, these options tend to disappear shortly after the game starts - especially in the main story line. Most of the time, players can choose between the "Good" option and the "Evil" one - and that's it. Small choices like hacking a gun turret to clean out a room of Super Mutants or tossing in a few grenades to clean them out (two different skills) still exist, but the results tend to be the same. Fallout 3 tends to offer players the illusion of choice rather than actual choices, and that's not in the spirit of the Fallout series.
- Poor Music. The background music is both repetitive and boring; The "radio" songs are too few/not fitting to the zones.
Ugly:
- Quest Bugs. Many of the side quests have bugs in them that, while they can be worked around, still detract from the game. The Big Town quests have many examples of this.
- Crash Bugs. I didn't have any problems installing the game on my Vista system (many people report such install problems, however). I played the game for many hours without any crashes. A few days after installing the game, however, it crashed on loading a saved game and then refused to load up at all. Allowing my game to connect to the internet/Live seems to have cleared the problem up, but it is still very strange.
- SecuROM. Parts of your system will be scanned and various aspects checked to see if installation will be allowed. This is a very serious issue for some consumers (especially those that get installation errors), but not a big deal for others.
Fallout 3 is an excellent First-Person Post-Apocalyptic Action Game. Older fans may be extremely disappointed with the changes that have occurred to the series since Fallout 2, and may want to avoid this game if they are looking for a direct update. New players, however, will greatly enjoy the game if they liked Bethesda's previous game, Oblivion, or if they had fun with 2K Game's Bioshock. In my view, Fallout 3 is definitely worth playing - it just isn't the Fallout fans of the franchise might be expecting.
12/18/2007 Update: For those interested, Bethesda Softworks - the creators of Fallout 3 - have released an official worldbuilder/editor for the PC version of the game. It is called the G.E.C.K. (like the item in the game), and can be downloaded from the official Bethsoft website.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
Highly recommend the CE, October 28, 2008
Fun:
I got my CE from amazon this afternoon, and this is the nicest CE I bought this year comparing to the Fable 2 CE and GTA 4 CE. The CE package has a neat looking lunch box, you could either put it somewhere as a decoration or use it as the storage for small stuff, that Pipboy figure is a fine-maded bubblehead, kinda hilarious; There is also an artbook of 100 pages featuring the concept art in Fallout3, and a DVD of making of the fallout 3; I think the CE is totally worth the price especially now amazon is offering the $10 giftcard.
Now thinking about the game, maybe you would argue that this is just "Oblivion with guns", but this "Oblivion with guns" has more to offer than just "Oblivion with guns", it has a massive story(according the guide i received today, after you completed the game you got tons to do), also the SPECIAL is back! Pipboy is back, i cant help crying after i creating my character and seeing a whole new wasteland, which is far more detailed than the game I played 10 years ago. Maybe you would argue again, Bethesda is incapable of doing top-notch black humor like Black Isle, but the feels of exploring the wasteland is back, here I listed a few pros and cons
Pros
+ build of the whole wasteland
+ mission design
+ user interface
+ storytelling
+ Pipboy
+ tons of things to explore
Cons
- cant skip the VATS slow motion
- making choices wont affect whole game too much unlike previous ones
In general, I would recommend this game to those who love Oblivion
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
