Fallout 3: In a Nutshell

FALLOUT 3 – “In a Nutshell”

Fallout 3, for all intents and purposes, IS Oblivion with guns. Generally speaking, if you loved Oblivion (and many of you did), then you’ll love Fallout. But this is not doing Fallout 3 justice, since the setting, look, feel and mechanics are just different enough to differentiate itself where it counts.

(as an aside, the next chapter in the Elder Scrolls is rumored to arrive in 2010, so here’s to hoping it’s “Fallout with swords”)

There’s plenty of info on the tubes about the graphics (good but not perfect), the sound (probably the single greatest technical aspect of the game), and the plot and story (essentially strong). But what about some of the more prevalent mechanics and aspects? Those elements that you’re exposed to from the beginning or from very early on?

V.A.T.S.

Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System, or V.A.T.S., is damn cool. With V.A.T.S. you can target specfic body parts or even the weapons of your enemies, to great effect. Obviously, the higher your skill with a specific weapon subset the better your chances of making blood sausage, but crouching helps a little. And, frankly, seeing the bad guy come apart in slow motion a variety of interesting ways is a great stress reliever. Action points determine how many actions you can take in V.A.T.S., so keep that in mind when going for the coup de grace. Also, become a video game drug addict and take Jet to get some more action points in a hurry.

Combat

It is a good thing V.A.T.S. is included in the game because the targeting in real time is, at best, problematic. Finer corrections to aim like you’d find in a true FPS (Call of Duty 4 comes to mind) would have been nice. Unfortunately, the scrolling moves either too slow or too fast to be useful, especially when you’re being charged by a feral ghoul. I don’t personally mind that your chance to hit is skill-based even if you were to stuff the gun in an enemy’s mouth, but I don’t like feeling like I’m missing because the controls aren’t finely tuned. I didn’t find this to be a problem with Oblivion simply because you almost always fought at close range, but when range comes into play, I should be able to make minute adjustments without having to feel like I’m fighting the controller.

Perks

The perks are so diverse and so interesting, it’s almost heartbreaking to choose one over another whenever you level up. Whether it’s Bloody Mess (make things go sploosh!) or Lady Killer (make ladies love you THEN go sploosh), they provide highly specific bonuses while also giving your character some great development options. Some perks can be taken more than once, too, making  it possible to really boost specific areas of development. HINT: Take Swift Learner, all 3x. That’s a 30% bonus to xp every time you earn xp.

Pip-Boy 3000

The Pip-Boy is easy to use and stores a surprising amount of info in a nicely organized fashion. Much improved from Oblivion which was big, clunky and hard to navigate cause of the font size. It worked, but I think it the font was too big. Pip-Boy does it right. The map is also improved over Oblivion in that it doesn’t just show the end location of a quest, but a path you can take to get there. That’s useful in DC when there are often crumbled buildings blocking your path.

Karma

Karma is sort of a silent partner throughout the game, and one of the more interesting. When you do good, you get Good Karma. When you’re naughty, you get Bad Karma. Here’s what makes this interesting: the game is almost completely different based on your actions and your karma. For example, in my first go around I decided to be a saint. I’d help when I could, refuse rewards, generally be a Jesus. Some people in the wastes didn’t like that, and sent assassins to clean my clock. The storyline narrows at the end and regardless of your actions you end up at relatively the same plot point, but the journey will be totally different. This gives great replayability to an otherwise linear and finite game. Kudos.

The Rock-It Launcher

Not necessarily a prevalent mechanic, but one that’s so fun I couldn’t resist. How entertaining to go through a bunch of boxes in the metro, find some tin cans, plungers, old destroyed books, knives, forks, spoons and dinner plates and turn them into projectiles of doom? Get the schematic for this bad boy from Moira in Megaton, grab the components you need, and then become a scavenger so you never run out of ammo. The Rock-It Launcher is at least as powerful as the assault rifle. The only real drawback is the weight of the weapon and the weight of all the miscellaneous junk you use for ammo. Once you’ve blown a raider into little pieces using a book or even a clipboard, life will never be the same.

SO, in a nutshell…

You should get Fallout 3 if:

1. You like RPGs.

2. You like black comedies.

3. You want a deep and engaging game that has a lot of replayability.

4. You like blowing people and animals up in slow motion.

5. You like oldies.

6. You’re from DC and you wanna see what it would look like if Dennis Kucinich had stayed in the race.