Full Review for Fallout 3 by imaloony8.0

Introduction

Well, what a game we have on our hands today, eh? Bethesda's Masterpiece, Fallout 3. The question is, does it deserve the title of "Masterpiece"? Well, I first learned about this game a long time ago from an Xbox magazine, and it looked fantastic. I learned more about it as time went on, and I quickly found out after purchasing the game that yes, it is worth all the hype. I've never played any of the Elder Scrolls games, but just by looking at this game, I can only assume how awesome the others were. As a short rundown of what this game is about, I'll go into that now: You are a child (Either a boy or girl, your choice.) born in Vault 101 about 200 years after the destruction that caused this post-apocalyptic world. You live in Vault 101, on of the many vaults created as a shelter from the radiation. In Vault 101, no one ever enters, and no one ever leaves. You go through your most important events as a child: Birth, your first birthday, your tenth birthday, your G.O.A.T. Test you take when you're 16, and finally, the event that kicks the main story off, when you're 19. When you're 19, your dad leaves the vault without telling anyone, and the leader of the vault is furious and sends his men to kill you. With the help of a friend, you escape the vault and go to find your father and discover why he left the vault.

But the question is: Is this game worth buying, you may ask. In short, yes. In long, read the rest of this review :P.

Graphics

I must say, this game may have the best graphics of any game I've played in the past, with it's only rival being Call of Duty 4 and Fable 2. I mean, if I lived in a post-apocalyptic nightmare world, it would probably look EXACTLY like how the world of Fallout 3 looks. The attention to detail is staggering, and it's an odd kind of beautiful. The only kind of "beautiful" a post-apocalyptic world can be. The main nit picks here are how stiff the characters move and talk, like their torso was covered with cement, and twice now I've had the game glitch so that whenever I looked in one direction something odd was seen. Once when I looked a certain way, it simply destroyed the scenery and I was left staring at a bunch of gray moving triangles, and another time, large pink and purple beams appeared. But I don't bash Fallout 3 too bad for that, since it's a rare thing and the rest of the graphics are so beautiful that they make up for this small foul.

Sound

I felt that Fallout 3 could've done much better in this section, but it still worked out well enough I suppose. When talking to people, I really feel like I'm talking to real people (Even the crazy ones...) and I feel that the voice acting was just, to put it simply, brilliant. The creature noises are also very believable and well done, as were the weapon sounds. Especially the Railway Rifle, which gives a very nice train engine whistle blow every time it shoots. There are also radio stations. And by radio stations, I mean only 2. Your Pipboy 3000 (The wristwatch you use that serves as your item and character management screen) can pick up radio waves, but I've seen about half the map so far, and I've only found 4 signals: The messaging system from Vault 101, a distress call you get to find a mission, Galaxy News Radio (GNR), and some sort of propaganda radio station. Only the ladder two play music, and they're pretty repetitive. I mean, I thought that I'd be able to listen to all kinds of radio in this game, and there might be, but I've only found two music stations so far, and one I never even listen to. I do listen to GNR, and it has very old music (Such as the ironically named "I don't want to set the world on fire) but it only ever plays like 5 different songs, so you'll find yourself board very quickly. There is also no ambiance music when your pipboy 3000 radio is off, which is a big letdown, so you probably should have it on at all times.

Gameplay

Here is where Fallout 3 comes out and smashes aside all other games and laughs as they cower before it's awesome power: Gameplay. This game has so many aspects that I don't even know where to start. Let's start with the combat. You have the option of many different weapons, both melee and ranged, such as high tech melee like the Power Gauntlet, low tech melee like the base ball bat and the combat knife, normal ranged weapons like the Combat Shotgun, the 10mm pistol, the Sniper Rifle, the Chinese Assault rifle and many more, Plasma and energy rifles and pistols, heavy weapons like the Fat Man (A mini-nuclear missile launcher) and the Mini Gun, and weapons you can make from scratch with the right blueprints, like the Rock-It Launcher, A weapon able to fire almost anything, from Soda Bottles to Vacuum Cleaners, and the Railway Rifle Mentioned Earlier. You can also use mines and grenades making the possibilities for combat almost endless. The V.A.T.S. Aiming system is here, and while it does take some of the skill out, it's an effective way of finding long range enemies, and is damn good fun to use. Here's another thing that Fallout 3 does that I feel many other games fall flat on: Enemies. There are simply a huge number of enemies, ranging from Mutants with enough radiation to make you playing the game feel like you're about to grow another arm to Robots with so many lasers you;d think that they could make millions off of laser light shows every night. You can also customize your character with armor, haircuts, and stat skills with many perks. You can choose to specialize in explosives, heavy weapons, you can take up stealth and lock picking, smaller weapons, energy weapons, perhaps repair and science skills, but there are plenty of places to waste points here, and I really feel that they have just about every skill I could possibly want. And let's not forget the perks, almost all of which feel worth your while and very helpful, and I feel that here, they just had fun with making all the perks, which was a good thing! They're very fun to gain and all very helpful! You can do many things on quests: Talk your way through the quest using your speech skills to make the quests quicker and easier, muscle your way through by shooting the ass off of everything that moves, or use your stealth and science skills to steal the items and info that you need. The possibilities feel endless and are simply fantastic all the ways Bethesda have found to do things, and I really feel that they did a simply fantastic job here.

Lastability

I'm sure that you can tell from the Gameplay section that there's a ton to do in this game. I've been playing this game for well over twenty hours, and I've barley seen half of the blood map! Hell, I haven't even completed the main story yet! You'll also want to play thing game again and again from different perspectives: Girl or boy; Good, Evil or Neutral; Energy Weapons, Small Weapons or Heavy Weapons, this list just goes on! Add on that to simply complete one file (Not 100%, simply to the point of being satisfied) will probably take you well over 40 hours, and you'll be play this game until your friends start arguing about whether the Xbox 720, the PS4 or the Wii 2 is better! The map is simply enormous with tons of buildings and sewers to explore and kill things within, you'll be sure to visit the historical structures of Washington D.C. (Oh, did I mention? This game takes place in Washington D.C.) and see what became of them, and you simply won't want to stop playing this game! The other day, I was down in my basement playing the game. I started playing around 11:00 AM, and when I stopped and stood up, I had a headache. Not knowing why, I looked at the clock, which said it was 5 of 6 PM! This game is extremely immersive, and you'll be playing it for a long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long, LOOOOOOOOOOOONG time.

Overall

What's left to be said? The game isn't perfect, but let me say, it's pretty damn close. It has an amazing environment, a last ability that will go on until you need to wear adult diapers, and it's combat is staggeringly good. If you can only buy one game this entire Year, make it (From what I've heard) Little Big Planet, Gears of War 2, or this, but I'd say this. If you own a Wii, then sucks to be you, because you'll never be able to experience the awesomeness of this game. If you have a PS3, and Xbox 360 or a PC, GO OUT AND BUY THIS GAME. It'll be well worth your while.

Final Score: 90%