Game Review - Retrospective: Fallout 3

 Fallout 3 - The Beginning of My Love for Fallout

Fallout 3 - Post-Apocalyptic Nightmare

My first Bethesda game title was The Elder Scrolls IV, Oblivion and I enjoyed the freedom to explore and the chaos of exploring Cyrodiil. I picked up the GOTY edition of Fallout 3 for my PS3 in 2010. I had a lot of free time, as I'd graduated from vet school and was looking for a job. 

At first, I couldn't make sense of this game and after a couple of hours I set it aside. I tried it again a few months later and I was hooked. The Wasteland's pure chaos and the fascinating stories you can discover made this game a real favourite of mine.

Fallout 3 was the first game developed and published by Bethesda Softworks after they acquired the IP from Interplay. The first two games were top-down isometric RPGs with strong stories and countless options to resolve situations. 

The transition to 3D first/third person viewpoint allowed for more immersive exploration and the introduction of VATS allowed for a more strategic approach to combat. This originated with the 'aimed shot' mechanic of the isometric Fallout games. You have a lot of freedom to explore and a large map to find all kinds of secrets in. 

I gave Fallout 3 four stars, and I'll get into why it's not five later. This game introduced me to the franchise and I love exploring in it but there are a couple of issues. There's a bunch of interesting characters, locations and side quests. A well designed environment with an interesting range of enemies to tackle. 

The Good

• The map: the locale is recognisable as Washington D.C. but the landmarks are damaged and there's no order within the city limits. There are so many locations, both real places and ones created for the game and exploring this map is really interesting.
  
  
• Chaos: the random encounter system is amazing and you just never know what you're going to walk into. My first deathclaw experience was as a level 3 character in this game, so it didn't go well for me. But I like the unpredictability as it reinforces the feeling of desperation, isolation and just trying to survive. 
  
  
• Characters: there are a few awkward bits of dialogue, looking at you Harkness, but there are a bunch of interesting characters to meet in this game. Colin Moriarty, Mr Tenpenny, Herbert 'Daring' Dashwood, Three Dog, Horace Pinkerton and my favourite, Moira Brown. Most of the voice acting is good, and a lot of characters are involved in interesting side quests.
   
• Atmosphere: Fallout 3 is very atmospheric and often spooky. You really feel scared and alone whether you're navigating the metro tunnels, walking the empty wastes or inside the Dunwich Building. There's definitely a little bit of horror in places and you can see that most people are just struggling to survive.
  
  
• Humour: I have a very dark sense of humour and Fallout really appeals to it. Lots of little bits of environmental storytelling such as some interestingly positioned skeletons and creepy mannequins. The little dioramas with teddy bears and garden gnomes too.
   
• World-building: we're in a very different location from the earlier Fallout games and it makes for a nice contrast. It's understandable that DC would be hit hard, as it's the seat of power in the US and this means that people are struggling to rebuild any kind of society. Unlike in the NCR where the budding nation grows well, in DC society is small isolated settlements and only a handful of trade caravans making journeys between them. 
  
  
• Future foreshadowing: easier to spot now in hindsight but you can really learn a lot about other parts of the world which are explained in Fallout 4. Particularly about the Institute, synths and the Railroad. If you fully explore the Replicated Man quest you can learn a lot about topics you'll explore in Fallout 4. Also meeting Arthur Maxson and RJ MacReady who are kids in Fallout 3 but you see them again as adults. 
  
  
• Real consequences for decisions. These can be missed in some cases, but they are there. If you decide to blow up Megaton before getting any info about your dad, you're left to figure it out for yourself with no leads and no quest-marker. If you enslave people, bounty hunters might track you down. If you are too nice, or too evil, you will be hunted as well. Worst of all, if you do evil things, Liam Neeson will be disappointed in you. 
  
  
• Tranquility Lane: An important part of the plot, but this sequence is absolutely amazing. The whole premise is creepy and unsettling, and you are left with the choice of doing horrible things to the residents or using a musical cue to solve the puzzle and get out while permanently killing the residents. Which is the better option? 
  
  
• The art design: it's a bit aged looking now, but I think they did a phenomenal job with designing the creatures and environments. I love how Megaton looks, built from salvaged planes and vehicles. Harold especially is amazing, both alive and after you kill him with fire if you're evil like that. 

Harold in Oasis

Harold's body after he burned.

The Bad

• The Main Plot: This is long so bear with me. The beginning is great. I love the premise of you being born in the Vault and expected to die in the Vault. Except you can figure out that you weren't born in the Vault. Up until Vault 87, the plot is good. Rising action, rising tension, an escalation from a personal problem to an issue that will affect the entire Wasteland. But... the Enclave's reason for wanting the purifier is kind of odd. If Colonel Autumn doesn't want to add the modified FEV, why does he want control of it? And a lot of them answer to Eden who is an AI. 
  
  Then you get to the purifier and it has to be turned on so it won't explode. But the radiation will kill whoever turns it on. For some reason it has to be either you or Sarah Lyons, despite you potentially having one of three companions who are immune to radiation. Yet they refuse, because it's your 'duty'. Even though Fawkes will tell you off for going into the GECK chamber because of the radiation earlier in the story. 
  
  If you have Broken Steel, an expansion that adds a kind of epilogue, then this is fixed but the ending slides aren't updated so it's kind of weird to be disparaged for ensuring clean water for the wasteland without anyone having to die to do so. It's a bit of a mess, and while Broken Steel kind of fixes it, it's still rough and messy. The main plot itself is just not that great. Oblivion kind of suffered from that as well, as did Skyrim to a degree. 
  
  
• Karma system: I like the idea of a karma system. It functions a bit like a reputation system where some characters will pick up on your karma level and treat you differently based on it. Lucas Simms likes you if you have good karma, and the Slavers of Paradise Falls are the opposite. The issue is that sometimes it really takes you out of your immersion by flagging your choice as really good or bad. It's also easily manipulated by stealing or giving tithes to the churches. 
  
  
• The Karma Mercenaries: Talon company will hunt you down if you have good karma, while the Regulators will do the same for evil karma. Which kind of makes sense, that people are noticing your behaviour and there are consequences for your choices. The issue is they can be quite relentless and annoying to deal with as they spawn quite frequently. It also pushes you to remain at neutral karma the whole game which can limit your scope for role-playing. 
  
  
• Bugs and Glitches: It's a Bethesda game so this isn't a huge surprise but they can be very annoying. A lot of them can be resolved using console commands if you play on PC, but if not, you're kind of screwed. There are a couple of potential game-breaking bugs such as Liberty Prime getting stuck during Take It Back. This happens if Paladin Vargas is killed and can be tricky to fix if you're on console. If you can't fix it, you can't complete the game. 

My Thoughts

Fallout 3 was my introduction to this world and I love it. It's flawed and the main story has plenty of room for improvement but I still love it. The chaos of the Wasteland, the small stories you can stumble across all over the place and the creatures still fascinate me, fifteen years later. I'll cover each DLC in a separate review in the future, but I highly recommend The Pitt and Point Lookout. Mothership Zeta is wacky but tedious, and Operation Anchorage is interesting but plays more like Call of Duty. 

The game loses 1 star just because of the plot issues. The main story of a game with strong RPG elements should be compelling and interesting to follow. It needs to keep the player motivated, and the latter half of Fallout 3's story just doesn't do that. The ending is messy, with some real inconsistencies with your companions making the self-sacrifice feel forced for no good reason. 

It just makes no sense that if the radiation is deadly, you can't send in Charon, Fawkes or Sergeant RL-3 so you can start the purifier and everybody lives. Yet they force you by saying your duty is to do this. Sure, it is your father's legacy but why would you go in there and die if you really didn't need to? Fawkes literally has a go at you for not letting him go and fetch the GECK because the radiation is deadly to you. So why would he then say "Oh no, I couldn't take that honour from you." 

That sort of inconsistency and forced contrivance for the sake of the story will break the immersion for the player and throws them off. Contrived circumstances that make no sense is poor writing and could be handled better. Broken Steel tries to fix this, but it's still not great. Overall, four stars and I do still love playing this flawed gem. I urge anyone to give it a go, and just explore the Wasteland. 

Thanks for reading. Much love to you all.

Emi The Cat Lady 💜