FALLOUT 3 Posted by Dan Pearson on Nov 3, 2008 18:28 (Nov 3, 2008 18:28) |
||||||||||||||||
In 2077 a global atomic war destroyed the planet, leaving a desolate wasteland and irradiated supplies. The war did not come as a complete surprise as vaults had been made where communities lock themselves underground in subterranean towns. Once you are in that’s it, you are expected to live your life, help the community and wait for the all clear to come.
Fallout 3 starts off like any great story, being born, here you are able to choose your name and are shown what you look like when you grow up, you can tinker about with your looks and hair and change whatever you fancy. The basic training is you growing up, as a toddler you learn to move and interact around vault 101, at age 10 you get your Pip Boy 3000, this is your main menu screen and PDA and it holds all of your quest data, maps, inventory and helpful notes. Flash forward to 16 where you take your GOAT exam, this is where you are able to update some of your abilities. Then the story kicks in earnest, your Dad has escaped from Vault 101 and the Overseer, who is clearly nuts is out for you now. You then fight your way out of the confined space of Vault 101 and take your first steps into the outside wasteland, but all is not as you were told, the world is still inhabited, by humans fighting for survival as well as mutants and other nasties lurking around the wasteland. You spot a town in the distance, make you way toward it and begin a huge adventure trying to locate your Dad.
 There are three types of quest available in the game and you can pile them up and select them anytime you like with the use of Pip Boy 3000. The main quest has you piecing together the whereabouts of you father which will take you to the main sights of what was once America, you then have side quests that you will learn of as you speak to the local inhabitants, these are involve things like helping to write a survival guide by getting radiation poisoning and breaking limbs and helping deliver letters and going on escort duties. The third way to quest is the most rewarding as it is all about adventuring away from the story itself and investigating the small towns and buildings scattered around the land. For example there is a school located nearby the first town of Megaton, wander through here and you will find a few little goodies that will help make you quest a little easier.
Capital Wasteland (the area in which you are able to adventure around) has many inhabitants, you have the humans scraping for a living by scavenging the wastelands and selling their wares, some of these people are friendly but unfortunately the bombs did not wipe out all bad as there are plenty of unscrupulous people looking to do one over on you. You also have raiders (thinks the bad guys from Mad Max 2) who shoot everything on site, then there is the brotherhood of Steel who pack laser technology, the super mutants who are huge green ogre-like beings, Ghouls who inhabit the underground caverns plus a few radiated beasties including giant ants and rats.
Though an adventure game at heart there is still loads of fighting involved and the FPS look really helps this along, the 3rd person view is OK but the usual camera issues get in the way. In combat you have two choices, either just aim and shoot like any other FPS or you can use the VATS, to do this simply press the right shoulder button when in range and the game will pause, allowing you to select which area of the enemy you will shoot at plus you can also take shots at groups and queue up attacks as long as you have enough points to use (these charge up very quickly). I was very unsure how this would work but after a few goes the VATS is a great addition, the movie like approach in these action scenes gives a little more to the game and the super slow motion scenes of enemies heads popping never gets tired.
 As you are no doubt aware this game is developed by Bethesda Softworks, the same people that gave us Oblivion, and there are plenty of similarities to that game. The way you interact, move about and the feel of the game is identical, which is no bad thing, and while Oblivion was a great game, this betters it. The post apocalyptic feel and the story that drives the main adventure really makes you want to explore. The people you talk to throughout the game all have some great personalities and top HD graphics to help them along with their amazingly accurate lip-syncing
The graphics of each location are truly award worthy, each location is finely designed and all of these areas hold their own looks and secrets, the wastelands are scattered with old highways and towns, sand blasted over the years, the cities are just huge skeletal buildings that hold untold horrors underneath, you will also come across a huge land locked aircraft carrier that has been converted into a town, truly stunning.
Fallout 3 is a huge game, offering in excess of 80hrs game play and even then you would not have scratched the surface, it’s great to know that a game this big can still fit on a DVD disc and I look forward to finalising this epic game. Oblivion was one of the best games on the Xbox 360, well its time to move over as this is everything and lots more. A must have for your collection.
|
||||||||||||||||
 |
Comments |  |
