Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition

It doesnt even run

[h1]A Wasteland of Potential... And Problems.[/h1] ‎ [i]Fallout 3 was my first exposure to the franchise back in my console days, and for years[/i] [b][i]it was a game I remembered quite fondly.[/i][/b] [i]Since then, I've played every mainline game in the series and delved deep enough into the lore that Steams 8000 character limit isn't enough.[/i] [i]After returning to Fallout 3 all these years later, though, it's hard to ignore the truth.[/i] [b][i]It's just not a very good game.[/i][/b] [i]But before you ♥♥♥♥ your pants and scream, that doesn't mean I don't like it. It has my respect for what it accomplished. It brought the franchise back from a bullet to the head and without it, we never would've gotten the game that followed.[/i] [h2]Achievements:[/h2] [i]There was once, when Games for Windows Live existed. They were cut and never added to Steam.[/i] [h2]Recommendation:[/h2] [i]To be blunt, it's really only worth you're time if you know what you are getting into. it has a nostalgic pull that's hard to replicate but for new players? It's a hard sell.[/i] [hr][/hr] [h2]Story.[/h2] The main story is easily the weakest part of the entire game, [b]collapsing the moment you actually stop to think about it.[/b] I want to preface this by saying: [b]you are not the main character in this story,[/b] your father is. He's the one driving the plot. You're mostly there to clean up after him.[spoiler]Even after he dies, Li simply takes over and continues pushing forward.[/spoiler] The Capital Wasteland is supposedly facing a devastating water crisis,[b] yet nobody seems to care.[/b] Outside of a few beggars, the issue barely affects anything and Tenpenny Tower has access to purified water with no explanation. The writers expect you to accept contradictions without question, and it only works because they decided to omit rain. The GECK is just McGuffin that solves whatever problem the story needs it to. The story also borrows heavily from previous games without understanding why those ideas worked in the first place. Super Mutants are now nothing more than orcs, factions receive minimal characterization, and "War. War never changes." is an iconic opening line that is almost meaningless here. The Enclave are equally underdeveloped, serving as little more than generic villains. And the game's final moral choice falls completely flat when it forces you to[spoiler]sacrifice yourself[/spoiler]despite the fact that you can have radiation-immune companions standing right beside you. And if you have the DLC to rectify this it tries to make you feel bad for not[spoiler]killing yourself.[/spoiler] [h2]Gameplay.‎‎[/h2] At its core, it has a solid gameplay loop, explore the wasteland, loot, fight off whatever tries to kill you, and slowly grow stronger. For a while, it works well enough to keep you moving, especially the first time through when everything still feels new. V.A.T.S bridges the gap from [i]Fallouts[/i] turn-based roots, although undeniably satisfying, it highlights how weak gunplay is outside of it, stiff and inaccurate. Melee combat feels weightless and quickly falls off unless you commit to it. The Karma system may as well not exist. Instead of tracking your choices and shaping the world it's little more than a binary bar that tells you whether or not you are a normal person or psychopath. [b]No moral grey, no nuance, it's a very clear good or bad.[/b] And the choices mean very little. Even your father doesn't care if you blew up a settlement or not. [b]Exploration is the strongest part of the game.[/b] Discovering new locations, clearing out ruins, and stumbling into random encounters gives the world its best moments. Even when the systems around it feel shallow. [h2]Difficulty.[/h2] Whatever difficulty there is really only exists for first-time players. Once you’ve spent any time with the game, [b]it becomes incredibly easy to break[/b], exploit, and charge through everything. Knowing where to find certain weapons and armor, and what skills to invest into, quickly makes most encounters trivial. When it comes to level scaling, enemies are mostly just replaced with stronger variants as you progress. Personally, I don’t find “every ghoul now wears slightly more clothes,” to be the most riveting form of progression and the [b]difficulty settings do nothing to rectify this[/b]. Higher difficulties simply turn enemies into bullet sponges while increasing incoming damage, making fights take longer rather than interesting. [b]The whole system feels like a very basic interpretation of difficulty[/b]. [h2]Visuals.[/h2] The Capital Wasteland does a solid job of portraying a world devastated by nuclear war. It's bleak, lifeless, and feels post-apocalyptic.[b]But that atmosphere comes at the cost of visual variety[/b]. The color palette consists of grey, brown, and the iconic green hue. Combine that with scenery that's mostly barren wasteland and parking lots, with very little in between, and the world quickly starts to feel repetitive. There are some memorable landmarks dotted throughout the map, of course, but they're separated by vast stretches of empty space. Then there's Washington itself, a sprawling mass of grey ruins that can become a nightmare to navigate because [b]everything shares the same visual identity[/b]. [b]The atmosphere is one of the game's greatest strengths[/b], but it achieves that by making everything blend together. It also raises a question, it's been 200 years since the bombs fell, why does it all look like bombs fell a few weeks ago? Textures are low resolution even when they're meant to represent important environments or objects. Up close, much of the world appears muddy and simplified, with limited detail in surfaces, vegetation, and environmental clutter. Even at launch, it wasn't exactly pretty to look at. [b]It is not a good-looking game but it is consistent and instantly recognizable as Fallout.[/b] Animations are functional enough, but they haven't aged gracefully. Movement is stiff, abrupt, and lacks any real fluidity, whether you're exploring, in combat or talking to NPC's. [h2]Audio.[/h2] The audio design is solid enough, even if it isn't particularly amazing. Weapons have enough punch to make combat satisfying, explosives carry a decent amount of weight, and environmental sounds do a good job of selling the feeling of exploring a ruined wasteland. [b]Where it does truly shine though is the OST and licensed music.[/b] The original score is subtle, often fading into the background but it does a good job of reinforcing the tone of isolation and tension when it does appear. [b]And the main menu theme might be up there as one of the greatest themes in gaming.[/b] The licensed music, is instantly recognizable as Fallout. Wandering the wasteland with '40s and '50s classics playing through the radio creates a cheerful and unique experience. Juxtaposed against exploring a dead world, almost gives the game more identity than anything else. [h2]Performance and Bugs.[/h2] [b]It feels like a gamble to even get this game to run.[/b] Looking around the community you might see it launches with little to no trouble and run relatively well. For others it might refuse to start-up, crash constantly or feel like you need a computer science degree to get it running. Could be hardware dependent, could be luck or maybe [b]you just didn't sing enough praise to the Machine God[/b]. When it comes to bugs,they are mostly harmless and always add a bit flavor, most of the larger game-breaking ones have community fixes but [b]that does not mean you won't have any issues[/b]. Quests can fail to trigger, NPC's can vanish, or just not go where they are supposed to, companions can get stuck and things can fall through the ground. Quick-save often and don't always follow the quest marker.