All the fun of nuclear war, minus the risk of radiation poisoning!

Fallout 3 was a game I was sort of on the fence about.  I had played it several months before I actually bought the game, and really didn't care for it. Around April, Joe bought the game when he picked up his new Xbox 360, and I was talking with him about it, and some of the crazy things I did. It wasn't till then that I realized that I just might actually like this game after all. So about a week later I picked it up. Best. Decision. Ever.

Fallout 3 is one of those games I would recommend buying a next gen system for, whether that be a Playstation 3, a Xbox 360, or even getting a PC that will run it.  Though currently there is no DLC for the Playstation 3, I hear that when the game of the year edition releases it will include all of the DLC. Speaking of DLC, I'm not gonna talk about that in this review; this is only about the main game.  It would take far too long to mention all the DLC in this review, so instead I will be discussing the DLC in a second review that will come later on.

Now let’s get down to business. It's the year 2277, and the world has been devastated by a nuclear war that happened 200 years ago. The story takes place in the ruins of Washington DC, though set on a slightly different timeline than our own. Imagine a 1950's sitcom, any of them. Ok, now imagine that kind of world, only the technology kept going forward, but society stayed the same. That's what the world was like before the bombs fell.

The story starts right as you are being born, and you live most of your life in a Vault, which is a huge underground shelter that was built to survive the bomb blasts. Shortly after birth you get to decide what your character will look like at the age of nineteen. They apparently have the technology to age enhance a baby's face right at birth to show the parents what it will look like, which is pretty cool. 

After that, you live out an abridged version of your character's life, which basically helps build your character.  As a toddler you read a book about your attributes, and at ten you learn how to use weapons and the V.A.T.S system, which I will explain later. At sixteen, you take a test that determines your skills. At nineteen, you are running for your life to try and escape the vault, because the overseer when bat-shit crazy. This seems to be a common link between the vault overseers, as you'll find out later. However, as soon as you leave, this is where the real game begins: surviving the Capitol Wasteland.

The main storyline is actually really short. It could probably be finished in less than five hours. The real meat of the game, and by far the most interesting part, is the large number of side quests. The Capitol Wasteland has some rather amusing characters. It is definitely in your best interest to seek them all out. How you handle their different situations is up to you, though. There are several ways around most challenges you face in the game. You also have an alignment, and unlike some other games that have a morality system, in Fallout it is actually possible to be neutral.

Now for everybody's favorite part, combat. At first glance it looks like it would play like any other first person shooter, and if that was the case, I wouldn't be reviewing this game right now. Cause as I've mentioned in the podcast, FPS games make me dizzy. You can still play it like one, however I prefer to hit the right bumper it brings up V.A.T.S, which stands for Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System. It's basically the game's RPG style targeting system.  It zooms in on whatever your about to kill, and gives you a percentage to hit. You can aim at different parts of the body.  After you choose a target the scene plays out. You'd think it would get either boring, or really slow down gameplay, but it really doesn't.

Another thing I really enjoyed with this game is that there was pretty much no level grinding needed. Sure, levels help; they let you raise your skills, and give you new perks, which are basically passive abilities. My favorite is Bloody Mess, it raises all weapon damage by 5, and makes kills more messy. It's fun! Really though, you could pretty much do any quest you wanted right from the beginning of the game. Some might be harder than others, but it would be possible.

Bethesda does really outstanding work on creating a world, and making that world look beautiful, even if it is just a ruined wasteland. However, I feel they need to work on character models a bit. They're not terrible, but they don't look all that great, especially in certain lighting.  Voice work for the game was really good as well, including Liam Neeson as your father.  That was pretty awesome.

Well, it’s about time I end this review, it's an incredible game and I could have easily gone another three pages about it. However I would not suggest going out and buying the game right now. Wait until October and buy the game of the year addition, it's $60, yeah...but it contains all five of the DLC add-ons. It's definitely worth the wait.

	System:	Xbox 360
	Genre:	First-Person RPG
	Experience:	Finished the main quest, side quests, and DLC quest in 49 hours.

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites