GAME REVIEW: Fallout 3

Fallout 3, more than any other game I have ever played lives and dies by the axiom "It's not the destination, it's the journey".

Fallout 3 is a first person action role playing game by Bethesda Softworks, and based on Fallout 1 and 2 by Black Isle Studios in the 1990s. I played the Xbox 360 version.

The world of Fallout 3 is a bleak post apocalypse set some 200 years after a nuclear war. Humanity has clung to survival by it's fingernails and is starting to make a comeback in the strange new world, but as the game's tag line says "War never changes".

You start the game as an infant where you choose your appearance and sex, then go through a number of scenes depicting your childhood in an underground bomb shelter known as Vault 101. Gradually you learn how to control the game and select your character's attributes. Once your character becomes an adult, your Father leaves the vault without permission throwing your life into chaos. The game begins in earnest as you venture out into the irradiated wasteland that was once the Washington DC area in search of him.

Once loose in the capital wasteland the world is your Oyster. You can be whatever you want to be. a hero, a villain, or anything in between. I chose to be a right bastard. By the end I was known as "The scourge of humanity." and I loved every vile depraved minute of it.

Those familiar with Bethesda's other RPG series : The Elder Scrolls, will feel right at home because Fallout 3 plays very similarly to Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion. I enjoyed Oblivion, but have never finished it. I am the type of person that rarely finishes long games, and the fantasy setting of Oblivion couldn't hold my attention. In contrast the gritty post apocalyptic setting of Fallout 3 sucked me in immediately and never let me go. Fallout 3 Makes some definite improvements over Oblivion. Lock picking is a lot more fun as is combat thanks to the VATS targeting system.


I've heard more than one game journalist on various podcasts bemoaning the extreme (sometimes just plain silly) level of violence in the game. To them I say: Grow a pair! This is not some very serious (Read: pretentious like GTA 4) game. The entire fallout series has always dripped with black humor. The Old ultraviolence fits very well with 80s pulp like Mad Max and Fist of the north star that the fallout universe springs from.

During your journey through the wastes you meet many interesting characters. Some of them can join you in your travels though you can only have one other person in your party (aside from mission specific people). The main story arc in Fallout 3 is good but nowhere near as engaging as that of Last year's Mass effect. It also ends abruptly and in a rather anticlimactic way. The ending is made up of snippets pieced together differently depending on what you did, and how good or bad you were. I felt the ending was abrupt and unsatisfying (though the sequence leading up to it was EPIC). Most of the fun I had in the game I had in side quests and just plain exploring. I was constantly blown away with just how much there was to do and see. After just under 70 hours I still feel there was a lot left to do that I didn't find. I will be replaying this game and very soon. I may play as a goody-goody hero, but most likely my inner dickhead will once again shine through.

Fallout 3 is a game that needs to be savored. If you rush through it and play only the main quest you will be disappointed and will be cheating yourself. Enjoy the journey, because Fallout 3's game play is it's own reward.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED