Personal game review: fallout 3

What do you get if you throw a traveller in a post-apocalyptic wasteland in the future that seems to be set in the fifties, the answer is fallout 3. Set in Washington DC, you start off as a character with a name and look of your choosing, who lives in vault 101, an underground refuge where a small band of humans live to escape the horrors of the outside world. In the first ten minutes of this game you’re already introduced to so much of the games plot which helps you to become more immersed in the game at the get go, plus with the added player customisation, you feel as if you are in control of your characters life. The plot of the story eventually leads to you escaping the vault to the wasteland of Washington DC. The gameplay can be first or third person, although there is much point going third person when you try to shoot someone as it makes your accuracy terrible, but it’s a nice touch if you want to look at your character. As well as the real time shooting gameplay the game also provide an extra form of gameplay. The VATS system allows the player to stop time and to choose where to shoot the enemy, then time starts back up again showing you character shooting where you’ve chosen in various cinematic cut scenes. This was a good idea to incorporate into the game because it adds a new level of interest to the shoot em up gameplay that you wouldn’t find in a call of duty game

 The map of this wasteland is a very reasonable size for people who like to explore in games, it means that the main plot of the game is just a part of what this game has to offer. The player is actually permitted to ignore the main quest, and to find his own way around the spanning landscape of burned houses, dead trees and raider’s campouts. Giving the player this freedom to do what they want in the game adds to the experience tenfold, as you feel you are the decision maker and what you do alters the course of the game itself. E.g. you come across a town called megaton which surrounds a mini unexploded nuclear bomb. If the player so desires he/she can rig that bomb to explode destroy everything and everyone in that town.

With such a grey vast depressing world with hours of content, you would think it get tiresome after a while. But fallout 3 definitely wins you with its charm, with robots who wander round asking to be your friend, or pip-boy the cartoon mascot for your pip-boy device, keeping track of your good/bad karma level (depending on how well behaved you’ve been). The on-going theme of ‘fifties vision of the future’, brings a delightful twist to this seemingly depressing game.  Turn on the radio and you will hear billy holiday, look around the wasteland you will see buildings that have an art deco style.

In conclusion I highly rate this game for its charm, its open approach to storytelling and its interesting gameplay.