Fallout 3 Review

1st off I want to remind everyone that the reviews can be done by anyone and that just because someone does a review does not mean you can’t add your take to the thread. We actually want you to add your take so others can see what there friends think of a game.

OK on to the review.



I get tired of hearing the phrase “oblivion with guns”, it’s a completely unfair comparisons. I could say Bioshock is Half Life 2 with plasmids and you would be completely misled about the game. I’m sure some disagree but maybe they would argue Rambo and Die Hard are the same movie. Point is Fallout 3 is its own entity separate from Oblivion and unless you just really hate dialog options I would recommend you give it a try, even if you hated Oblivion.

Fallout 3 is probably one of the most fleshed out world I have ever seen in a video game. One of the most fascinating things I found personally was how large the world was yet scaled down. What I mean is the distance from the Washington Monument to the Capital feels and looks correct, but I know in reality the walk takes about 10 times longer. The whole game is like this is makes you feel and believe the size and would make some swear the size is to scale. Even though in reality a trip that would take all day in the real world might only be ten minutes in fallout. Of course once you’ve visited a location you never have to travel there again by foot you can just select the location and arrive there. You may have also heard the graphics weren’t that great. This is not true, it may not be photo real but it looks beautiful (for a wasteland) and feels alive. I often found myself staring at the sky and watching the clouds change, but that’s just me.

Now as Dude said you are going to have to be willing to invest sometime I would say just getting started could take an hour or more. I would say after 5 hours you should be completely sucked into this game which could be a problem if you’re a busy person as there is well over a hundred hours worth of content. With that also comes the dialog of which I hear there is over 40,000 lines of. Believe me there is plenty to do in this world and best of all it is up to you how and when you do it.

Alright onto the mechanics I’m sure most people have heard about the VATS system. When I first heard about it I didn’t think much and thought I wouldn’t ever use it, since I generally don’t get into RPG’s. I figured I would just use the FPS regularly, well the shooting is not bad but the damage is done best through VATS which isn’t a problem because it is an awesome system that works great. The VATS system allows you to pause time and select the body part you want to shoot. The level up system works great to, you never feel like you can’t level up fast enough and there are no dumb ways of doing it like swimming in a circle for an hour. You level up through killing (the harder they are the more points), hacking, persuading, and completing missions. After you level up you assign point to the areas you want to improve but you also get to select things called perks which can upgrade you in all sorts of areas from being more charming with women to being able to carry more weight to selling the fingers of the people you kill to some one for money. You can rally customize your experience this way.

The main story in this game is not the greatest and is only around 10 hours long by itself that said the side quest stories are great and extremely interesting. The main story itself is not bad it just doesn’t really go that far, I would say the first half is really good but then it just has a typical sci-fi ending. But don’t let that stop you from getting the game as the side quest are very good and don’t ever really feel out of the way or like they are only “side quest.” They feel part of the world and like they’re just part of your existence in the world. Believe me you will be amazed at the depth.

Now there is one thing about Fallout 3 that does break the suspension of disbelief and is annoying and that the hick ups it has from time to time. They are not that often relative to hours but you will encounter them and the game at some point will crash on you. For me this happened after a massive battle and was very irritating, but 3 crashes over 100 hour of great content can be forgiven if not forgotten. The frame rate problem though is much more often. It seems to happen when characters are being loaded out of sight sometimes and I’ve never had a problem when fighting.

Again this is one of the most vast and alive games I have played. I generally don’t get into RPGs but this one is something special. I highly recommend this game to anyone with the time. I my opinion there is no doubt that this deserved the award for game of the year for 2008. Also don’t only play the main quest as the rest of the world is where the greatness of this title lays, and it is great.

9.5/10

Saved by the bell... in this case the bells are the side quests.

Nice Review!

I agree with you, poeple that will play this only for the Story mode will be a bit dissapointed, the side questrs are where the real fun exists.

I played the game for about 6 hours, and is good but not great.
When I finisht it I will post here my score.

high 9s i'd say.. adn the new expansions kick ass.. if you have shelved this game, its definatly worth pulling out again...