Fallout-3Wastelanders, vault dwellers, radiated water, mutation… Welcome to post-apocalyptica! The past few weeks I’ve been absolutely hooked on Fallout 3.

It’s a western RPG that takes place in the year 2277. Where in our ‘time’ the cold war ended without much activity, the cold war in Fallout 3 never really ended. Indeed, at breaking point the two super powers of this world, the United States of America and the People’s Republic of China, fired nuclear weapons at each other. The war only lasted two hours, but its effects would be far greater than expected.

Few ‘lucky’ people were invited into Vault-Tec vaults. These underground bunkers would provide a livable area for a select few Americans. At the time of the war, around 2077, the United States had a population of about 300 million. Buidling bunkers for all these people was deemed impossible and thus only 121 or so were built throughout the country. Unlike its original purpose – to keep people safe – the government instead tried doing all kinds of experiments to the people inside the vaults. Some vaults didn’t close properly and were defunct from the begining, while others were never supposed to open even after the war. Even worse, in some vaults the inhabitants were exposed to white-noise brainwashing or psychotic drugs.

The game begins with your main character literally being born inside one of the vaults. Personally I thought it was bit too much, but to each their own I suppose. You give your character a name and decide what he or she will look like when they’re older. That’s a lot to ask from a newborn, you know! The vault you are born in is Vault 101. A vault that was never supposed to open after its initial closure. Anyway, the game skips to a year later. Here you decide your character’s skills through the SPECIAL (Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and finally, Luck) system. I gave my own character high charisma for some stupid reason because I had no idea what I was doing at the time. A decision I would later on regret, but oh well, moving on.

The game again skips to your character’s tenth birthday, and boy is it a boring party. All your friend have been invited… Wait a minute… How are people born in these vaults? The vault’s been closed for 200 years, it has a relatively small population… Multiple generations… DO NOT GO THERE. *cough* You’re given a Pipboy-3000 which is basically a watch on steroids. Really, if I could own one in real life it would totally kick butt. It even comes with a light that’s very useful in dark areas! … Basically the Pipboy is your menu system in the game. You select items and can view your character’s stats. It even comes with a radio! … Yeah.  Your life passes by in a flash and suddenly you’re 16! You have to take the G.O.A.T.! Yes, of course it’s a test to further determine some more stats! I have to admit that I was getting pretty tired of the stats by this point. My character’s specialites became Medicine, Explosives and Science… Not sure if that’s a good combination…

Weee, years pass by and you’re suddenly 19! Your dad has escaped his boring life from vault and for no apparent reason the overseer want you dead! Oh, and the vault was open all along, oh, how convenient. You get a gun and THIS is where the real game starts. Every decision you make directly influences your karma from here on. For example, after walking the halls of Vault 101 you’ll come across Butch; a bully from your childhood. His mother is being attacked by enemies and you’re given three options: save his mom; tell him to save his mom himself or simply refuse to help. The first option gives you positive karma while the last gives you negative. Throughout the game there are several points where the storyline will change depending on your karma. Of course I saved the old witch because I’m helpful like that. But Butch, that lazy son a… biscuit eater.

After succesfully leaving the vault… YOU’RE FREE!! JOY!! EXCITEMENT!! … Now what? Well, yeah, that’s up to you. You can start the main quest to find your dad OR you can do whatever the heck you want. Speaking of which… Fallout 3 is no short game. The main quest can be finished fairly quickly, but there are tons of other things to do. That, and the map is friggin’ huge. The wasteland is known as the Capital Wasteland and… Wait for it… Is based on Washington D.C.! Big surprise there, folks. It’d take you like 30 minutes to walk from one side to the other, madness I tell you! Madness! (insert obligatory THIS IS SPARTA here)

The graphics in the game are superb. Admittedly the game features about a 100 shades of brown, but isn’t that the point? The land’s been nuked after all. You can’t very much expect a new garden of Eden when you walk out of the vault. Animation looks fantastic, and everytime you blow the head off of one of the Raiders it feels fantastic, too. Sound is also superb, every gunshot feels like music to your ears… That brings us to the radio. Actually, I was pleasently surprised by it. Galaxy News Radio, one of the game’s main radio channels, airs a variated selection of songs all from the 50′s. From Anything goes to Let’s go sunnin’. Why the 50′s, you ask? Well, it was then when Fallout’s timeline ‘split’ from ours. In fact, everything in the game feels retro. There are old Ford cars lying around powered by mini nulcear reactors. There’s a town built around an undetonated atom bomb. And generally nuclear weapons and machinery are accepted. Indeed, it’s the future people expected to see during the cold war.

I’d like to discuss another point if you don’t mind. No? Okay. The voice acting by your dad is wonderfully done, but the other characters have fairly dull and odd voices. It’s also very noticable how they only hired 6 voice actors or so because many of the characters share the same voice actor. The voice acting is still pretty good though, especially considering the game has a lot of text and everything is voiced.

For combat a unique system called VATS is used. This basically allows you to select different parts of the enemy’s body and allows you to fire at the selected part. It feels a bit turn based, but seeing a headshot in slowmotion like that looks awesome and surprisingly never gets old. Now, of course there are a few things bad about Fallout 3. The game, for example, is riddled with bugs. Some are even so bad that they won’t allow you to finish the main story. There are workarounds, but they shouldn’t have to be used. Instead Bethesda should release patches that fix these bugs.

When I started Fallout 3 I initially had mixed feelings. I was afraid it was going to be too much like Oblivion, another RPG by Bethesda, which I absolutely couldn’t stand. Luckily Fallout 3 kept me going to the end and I enjoyed nearly every minute of it. If you can look past the few bugs it has, Fallout 3 is an absolute must-have for every RPG fan. I’m not going to spoil anything, but even the story has some twists and turns that you wouldn’t expect. So wastelanders… If you’re out there listening to old Three Dog… Be sure to give Fallout 3 a spin!

Pros: Graphics, game length, VATS, side quests, extra content
Cons: Fairly short main quest, bugs, slightly meh-ish voice acting

Since I bough the Game of the Year Edition, the game also came with all the currently released downloadable content included on a seperate disc. The extras range from Awesome to Meh, but I’m certainly not complaining. They add another 20 hours if gameplay total or so and are definitely worth checking out. So if you haven’t bought Fallout 3 yet be sure to look out for the Game of the Year Edition!

I’m not sure what to add to the review, but if you have any suggestions be sure to leave them in the comments. Thanks!