I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I don’t like horror games. Imagine my surprise when, after installing Fallout 3 and booting it up, I find it’s a horror game. Should’ve done my homework.
Fallout 3 isn’t a traditional horror game. There aren’t little girls stalking you, there’s not a giant metal suit off protecting said little girl. What there is, though, is equally horrorish.
I don’t exactly have the “nerve” for horror games. I’m the kind of guy that plays games in a well-lit room. So believe me when I say: If you’re the little girl variety, DON’T play this in the dark. It gets kind of hard to see when both the real world and the game are at night. Not recommended. Low scores will be experienced.
The story of Fallout 3is simple. You, a young man (or woman), live in a vault. WHY do you live in a vault? Because outside, the world has been ravaged by nuclear war. Unfortunately, all good (relatively — I mean, you’re in a vault) things must end. At age 16, your father escapes from Vault 101 to go explore the nuclear wasteland, and since there isn’t a story inside of a vault, you go looking for him.
After leaving Vault 101, I went straight to Megaton, a town built around a bomb. After being rudely welcomed by the town sheriff, I went into the local bar. There, I talked to a strange man that wanted me to blow up Megaton. I promptly drew my gun, turned on my LEET AIMBOT HAX and shot him in the face. Five times.
By “LEET AIMBOT HAX” I mean V.A.T.S. or Vault-tec Assisted Targeting System. It allows you to choose a queue of targets while the world is paused, and then it shoots them for you. This doesn’t mean it’ll actually HIT them, just that it aims for them. It has “AP,” or Action Points, which deplete the more targets that you ... target. They slowly regenerate, though.
I went around town and talked to the people. I was shocked when, from what I could tell, everyone had different voice files. The voicing was top-notch, rivaled only by the game Real Life: Real Life Adventures With Real Life People 2. The amount of time it took to make all these voice files must be phenomenally huge.
After looking around, I went outside to explore. I was amazed by all the detail in the world. No space was left untouched; it was filled to the brim with details! Like anyone would do, I spread my arms out and spun with gusto. I then looked down and saw that a mole rat had attached itself firmly to my leg.
Speaking of mole rats, this game has a slew of enemies: mole rats, bees, fly things, centaurs, super mutants, humans, raiders, etc. One thing I should note is that centaurs are not, in fact, centaurs. It has become apparent to me that the people of this world are awful at naming things. Centaurs should be called “Super awesome flying squids that shoot you in the face with acid.” Centaurs follow super mutants and alert them to danger. Super mutants are, surprisingly, super mutants. And to make matters worse, they have guns — that work.
After the very rude attack of the mole rat, I decided to head BACK to Megaton to see the doctor. His prices were awful, but I had no choice. After he healed me, I shot him in the face and stole back my money. After heading outside, the entire city of Megaton was angry at me. Everyone was shooting at me, so I decided to hightail it out of there.
No one in Fallout 3 is invincible. No, make that ALMOST no one. Often, if you kill someone crucial to a quest, the game will let you continue using another person. For example, I killed the sheriff of Megaton only to find out later that he gives you the quest to own a house. No matter; I could simply get that quest from his invincible son.
After running from the insane inhabitants of Megaton, I decided to wait just outside of town. I sat there for 72 hours in one spot. After waiting, I stood up, entered the town and bought some soup.
If you attack an enemy, it’s a “major crime.” If that enemy belongs to a faction, that faction will attack you on sight for 72 game hours. If you do something simple, like steal, it’s a minor crime. This doesn’t affect a faction’s standing toward you.
A faction could be a town, raiders, traders or any other group. If they want you dead, it’s advised to get a big gun, or run. Run like Lora Ingles ran from her problems in the olden days!
During my adventures, I noticed that I was walking somewhat strangely, as if I had to press BUTTONS to move arou &mdashl; nah ... wait, yes, I do. I later learned they were called “controls” and were very useful. Not only that, but they were very easy to use. Fallout 3 uses the universal WASD combination of buttons to navigate the world. In addition, it uses the V key — conveniently located under the WASD keys — to activate V.A.T.S. Everything is obvious, so there should be little trouble.
There are so many features that could be covered in this review, but I’m going to focus on only one more: the thing I hate most about this game. As part of the main quest, I have to get to a town. No problem. Unfortunately, I can’t GET to this town. It’s surrounded by buildings and rubble that CANNOT be bypassed. It’s not like the buildings are close to the town. No, this “border” is about a mile from the town I have to get to. It’s infuriating! I simply cannot find my way through it! I know I’ll feel stupid when I see the blatantly obvious answer.
Fallout 3 a very fun game on its own, and doing the side quests is certainly enough to keep me playing for hours and hours on end. Unfortunately, the inability to continue the main game means that eventually everyone I can reach will be dead, and there will be nothing left to do.
