GameGirl

In a world where we as gamers are accepting five to six hours of gameplay as industry standard, Bethesda rises above to buck the trend and offer up an epic journey, and one of immense proportions. Thus, this is only a First Impressions, as I am expecting a good 30 hours of gameplay are left in my Fallout 3 experience. So, here are my thoughts on one of the most anticipated titles of the year.

Overview:

Fallout 3 is nothing short of amazing. I've spent nearing 15 hours in the game thus far and am not only thoroughly enjoying myself, but also eagerly looking towards the next bit on the horizon. I've escaped Vault 101, made a name for myself in Megaton, been presented with some heavy moral choices by very dodgy Wastelanders, and only occationally gone comepletely sandbox happy and had to reload my save file.

To those that would say "it looks like Oblivion with guns" I say to you nay, it is not. Bethesda has incorperated some of The Elder Scroll's features into Fallout 3, but it by no means feels like Oblivion. The big difference for me is the immersion. I found it hard to get into the world of Oblivion, and found it difficult to care for or connect with the ingame personalities. But we will get into that in more depth later. Lately, I've felt too underwhelmed by magic, elves, and orcs to the point of taking a leave of games all together. Fallout 3 was the cure for that, as I have never found myself more ensnared by a game since Ocarina of Time. Now, let's break the game down and take it bit by bit:

For me, Fallout 3 really shines in this area. Bethesda left no detail unfinished, right down to the desperate hand written notes on the ground outside the Vault 101 door to the bodies jammed on spikes from the breakdown of society. The world, the colors, and even the dialog ooze a certain desperation, pulling you into your role in a post apocalypic survival crawl. Megaton, the first Wasteland town you encounter upon leaving the Vault, has immense detail to its structure, having been built from every bit of scrap metal and wood to be found after the bombs went off. Just walking through the buildings is enough to give you an appreciation for the environmental detail as your eyes wander from half a bus, to a plane fuselage, to the undetonated bomb in the middle of town.

The Children of Atom, worshippers of the bomb, were a nice touch. At first I thought they were your run of the mill religious nuts, until I crept close to the bomb only to discover it was quite radioactive. I imagine now the crazy worshippers were bred out of standing to close to the damn thing. I find myself wondering about the townspeople, their stories, their tales of hardship... which is something I feel Oblivion lacked.

I did enounter one mistake on Bethesda's part in exploring: I crossed into a small town of settlers only to be told by my Pipboy 3000 I could now fast travel between town locations. Shame on you Bethesda, for creating an insanely detailed world just so players could skip right through it. I could undertand this feature in Oblivion, as the world you see when you come out of the sewers is pretty much the same world you see in an almost copy/paste like fashion throughout Cyrodil. But I say you to: do NOT fast travel the Wastelands! You will miss too much!

The plot of the story is quite unique, as this is the first franchise of games I've played that take on the post-apocalyptic scenario. Perhaps this is why I find the game to be so refreshing. With the plot, you have the main, arching storyline and hundreds of side quests/ interests along the way. I am by no means rushing the main storyline, so I pick up the side quests where I can, and I have yet to find one that seems boring or a waste of time. Each quest, at least those I've encountered in the first 15 hours, has been worth the time it takes to do, as they introduce you to new experience after new experience within the game. The main storyline, while the setting is quite stimulating, seems to be quite generic at this stage: I'm set on a quest to find my father. Granted, the information I've found out about dear old dad since embarking is quite interesting, and really plays a nice role in driving the player experience.

The "look" of post apocalypic DC is nothing short of amazing.

While playing you have the choice of tuning into one of two radio stations: one called Galaxy Radio ran by a nut called Three Dog, encouraging us to "fight the good fight." The other is music/news radio. I really enjoy the music you can listen to while playing, as it really gives off that 1950s vibe, and provides amazing juxtaposition to putting bullets in peoples' heads.

All NPCs have voice acting, which has been improved upon since Bethesda's work on Oblivion. I've only encountered one instance of an NPC switching tone/accent suddenly, without warning, and it seems they have had more people working on the project this time around.

Straightforward, logical, and easy to use. The Pipboy 3000 works with the same functionality as the menus on Oblivion. Although the maps leave something to be desired. You're even ran through a small tutorial cleverly disguised as the first years of your life.

I am highly impressed with the auto targeting system, which allows you to manually cycle through various parts of an enemy's anatomy to choose the most strategic hit point, then stack attacks on that point. When the selection is done, it goes to a wonderful cut scene where you get to see everything happen in slow motion and, if you're lucky to have a critical hit, watch the enemy fall before you.

The game is a FPSRPG. Some of your skill as a player is based on your FPS ability, some is based on algorithms rooted in your stats, equipment, and allocated skill points. I've made the mistake of taking the route I usually do as the crafty sneaker/lockpicker. I could be wrong here, but I think this is not going to be nearly as handy as building up your endurance, gun skills, and mechanical/ medical skills. Luckily, I have the time to reverse the damage I've done in allocating my skill points, so I recommend as a first time player going the route of big/small guns and mechanical/medical.

If you don't have this game, you need to go buy it. I would rate this game as being one of the highest on my list of "best games evar" and I am betting you would too. You can expect a full review of this title from me once I finish, but I wouldn't expect that to be for another several weeks. In the meantime, go grab yourself a copy and experience it for yourself!