Abiicias
Member
[size=small]Introduction[/size]
[size=small]Negatives[/size]
[size=small]Positives[/size]
[size=small]Overall[/size]
[size=small]After sinking in about 4,000+ hours into Fallout: New Vegas and having my cousin constantly say that Fallout 3 is the more superior game, I went and bought Fallout 3: GOTY Edition, sat down, and sunk about 50 or so hours in to see if the hype holds up for someone as myself. Now I’m no hardcore Fallout Fan as I’ve only played Fallout 2 and Fallout: New Vegas, but learned the themes, methodology, and appreciate the tiny details here and there. Heck, I even watched Oxhorn’s entire New Vegas playlist which is about 140+ videos spanning from 20 to 60 mins long about each individual piece within the game. So when I hear that my cousin still says Fallout 3 is better by comparison, though he never beat New Vegas, I decided to jump into this adventure and see exactly what my thoughts would be as I played through it and how it lives up to what I am accustomed to. Here are my general thoughts of Fallout 3 without heavily comparing it to something it’s not.
Notes:
• There may be slight spoilers. Then again this game came out ages ago so most people would already be aware.
• I did use a mod which is the unofficial patch that fixes a lot of issues with the vanilla game.[/size]
Notes:
• There may be slight spoilers. Then again this game came out ages ago so most people would already be aware.
• I did use a mod which is the unofficial patch that fixes a lot of issues with the vanilla game.[/size]
[size=small]Negatives[/size]
[size=small]• Quests. There are very few quests within Fallout 3 to where I had to lookup what the quests were because I felt I wasn’t playing the game right. Being nearly level 30 without touching any of the DLC, but can only remember doing a small handful of quests. There is probably just as many, if not more, unmarked quests compared to marked quests which isn’t bad, but the approach has a lot to be desired. There are multiple unmarked quests that I honestly feel should be marked for how lore heavy, significant, and just more enjoyable to go through than some of the marked ones. There is a unmarked quest regarding two families in a tiny village town where they are so nice and inviting that they appear creepy with all things considered with things turning super dark and expected with the two families basically murdering and eating travelers. Then we have some marked quests that have very little going on such as the Nuka Cola Quantum fetch quest or the Hospital quest. Yes this is easily fixed by the purpose of “Exploring the game to discover new things” but the approach to how these quests interact to the player and the rewards for the effort don’t sync up. This led to me being honestly confused as to why I felt like I did nothing but I’m suddenly near the end game, and yes I did do majority of the quests.
• Being good doesn’t pay off. I am the type of player who prefers to be good and always do the right thing. A positive personality to the point where I do my best to avoid negative karma by all means possible. In Fallout 3 however, being Evil pays way more. A good example is Vault 101 and your dealings with Talons. If you’re super good, Talon Company basically harasses you through the rest of the game. The opposite can’t be said. In Vault 101’s example, you get kicked out for your father’s mistakes and when you finally come back, you’re assaulted, shunned, and even after fixing everything the best way possible, your banished once again. It’s a cruel wasteland where it literally doesn’t pay to be good in comparison to the pay scale for being cruel.
• Game likes to break more than it should be allowed. I am mainly referencing the DLC here but this can apply to the base game as well. Many times I had to reload a save because a thing didn’t load right, something vanished, or progress was just impossible. This is expected from s Bethesda game, but this happens far more often than I’ve ever experienced with the other products by Bethesda, including Morrowind, Fallout 2, and whatnot. It’s just frustrating and blankly annoying.
• Factions don’t really mean much. Aside from the Brotherhood of Steel, every other faction or group has little going on or isn’t even explored that much. Even the Enclave which is basically the antagonist group for the main story. A good example of what I mean is that the main story leads up to this voice calling himself the president of the United States. You finally meet the person and you have a max of 4 dialogue trees. 3 of which kills him. Meaning that if you choose any of them, you basically miss a chunk of lore but nothing really changes for the groups. The point that the game tries super hard to kill this guy as soon as you meet him with zero real questions being answered, is a huge blow to pacing and buildup.
• Crafting is a huge element which is never really used. Many locations through the wasteland is dedicated to just supplying you with useless junk to craft inferior goods or to just gather for never ending gathering quests. Quite a bit honestly are dedicated to just giving you stuff to shoot with the “Rock-It Launcher”. The only useful item I came across crafting is the first thing you learn to make which is the Bottlecap Mine. Even the Deathclaw Gauntlet was basically useless by the time I got to it.[/size]
• Being good doesn’t pay off. I am the type of player who prefers to be good and always do the right thing. A positive personality to the point where I do my best to avoid negative karma by all means possible. In Fallout 3 however, being Evil pays way more. A good example is Vault 101 and your dealings with Talons. If you’re super good, Talon Company basically harasses you through the rest of the game. The opposite can’t be said. In Vault 101’s example, you get kicked out for your father’s mistakes and when you finally come back, you’re assaulted, shunned, and even after fixing everything the best way possible, your banished once again. It’s a cruel wasteland where it literally doesn’t pay to be good in comparison to the pay scale for being cruel.
• Game likes to break more than it should be allowed. I am mainly referencing the DLC here but this can apply to the base game as well. Many times I had to reload a save because a thing didn’t load right, something vanished, or progress was just impossible. This is expected from s Bethesda game, but this happens far more often than I’ve ever experienced with the other products by Bethesda, including Morrowind, Fallout 2, and whatnot. It’s just frustrating and blankly annoying.
• Factions don’t really mean much. Aside from the Brotherhood of Steel, every other faction or group has little going on or isn’t even explored that much. Even the Enclave which is basically the antagonist group for the main story. A good example of what I mean is that the main story leads up to this voice calling himself the president of the United States. You finally meet the person and you have a max of 4 dialogue trees. 3 of which kills him. Meaning that if you choose any of them, you basically miss a chunk of lore but nothing really changes for the groups. The point that the game tries super hard to kill this guy as soon as you meet him with zero real questions being answered, is a huge blow to pacing and buildup.
• Crafting is a huge element which is never really used. Many locations through the wasteland is dedicated to just supplying you with useless junk to craft inferior goods or to just gather for never ending gathering quests. Quite a bit honestly are dedicated to just giving you stuff to shoot with the “Rock-It Launcher”. The only useful item I came across crafting is the first thing you learn to make which is the Bottlecap Mine. Even the Deathclaw Gauntlet was basically useless by the time I got to it.[/size]
[size=small]Positives[/size]
[size=small]• I really enjoyed the tiny details within Fallout 3’s wasteland. I don’t know if it’s because I put tons of hours into learning how Fallout places lore, but being a new Fallout game to me it was also my first time actively reading and listening to every log, terminal, and trying to put the pieces together through those and the skeletons on the floor. I would almost say that there was more care into these tiny details of insignificant stories than to the main focus of the actual story.
• The patriotism and historical references are probably my favorite personal attachment to it. All the “America is the greatest and communism needs to die” thing really tickled me and made the second half of the main story so much more fun.
• The ideas that were applied story wise was pretty nice. By that I mean the building blocks of DC was interesting to see as I wouldn’t have considered some of the implementations that were added. Such as when the game actively informs you of things you normally wouldn’t be aware of right away. Such as “where are all the slaves at when there are so many slavers?” Another one of my personal favorites is the AntAgonizer vs Mechanic quest which was really interesting as it revealed a way to add onto some more concepts behind how certain creatures work in this universe.
• Its possible to get 100 on every stat before level 30. With all the DLC included your max level is 30 which if you picked up a few books along the way and did your perks right, you can get all your stats to 100 and potentially conquer every trap and master every gun by the time you’ve done everything.
• It’s really dark. This has a small comparison to New Vegas and this is why I appreciate it more. In New Vegas most atrocious acts are just referenced and acknowledged with little detail for imagery without having to dive into it. Fallout 3 doesn’t shy away from the nasty. You got a questline based off of kids being shipped to slavey, kidnapping a baby, murdering a companion, and much worse stuff that New Vegas didn’t get involved too much with.[/size]
• The patriotism and historical references are probably my favorite personal attachment to it. All the “America is the greatest and communism needs to die” thing really tickled me and made the second half of the main story so much more fun.
• The ideas that were applied story wise was pretty nice. By that I mean the building blocks of DC was interesting to see as I wouldn’t have considered some of the implementations that were added. Such as when the game actively informs you of things you normally wouldn’t be aware of right away. Such as “where are all the slaves at when there are so many slavers?” Another one of my personal favorites is the AntAgonizer vs Mechanic quest which was really interesting as it revealed a way to add onto some more concepts behind how certain creatures work in this universe.
• Its possible to get 100 on every stat before level 30. With all the DLC included your max level is 30 which if you picked up a few books along the way and did your perks right, you can get all your stats to 100 and potentially conquer every trap and master every gun by the time you’ve done everything.
• It’s really dark. This has a small comparison to New Vegas and this is why I appreciate it more. In New Vegas most atrocious acts are just referenced and acknowledged with little detail for imagery without having to dive into it. Fallout 3 doesn’t shy away from the nasty. You got a questline based off of kids being shipped to slavey, kidnapping a baby, murdering a companion, and much worse stuff that New Vegas didn’t get involved too much with.[/size]
[size=small]Fallout 3 was honestly a disappointing experience due to the hype that was surrounding the reason why I wanted to play it. It’s still a good game and has a lot of originality with how it presents itself. You can even see many concepts kept and put into New Vegas such as losing your brain and the cool ghoul that’s also also kinda a dick. I wil say one thing for sure, playing this will make my Tale of Two Wastelands playthrough much more enjoyable. [/size]