So I recently purchased the game “Fallout 3” for PS3. It won a ton of game of the year awards and such, and I’m really interested in post-apocalyptic type settings and stories, so it seemed like a pretty obvious choice! I haven’t played Bethesda’s first two Fallout games, but since this one looked so different I figured this would be a good enough point to start from. Now in terms of a quick review: it’s crazy. It isn’t perfect, in fact it has quite a few glitches (IGN’s review said the glitches were only prevalent really in the PS3 version). But these days I’m trying to move towards the PS3, so I didn’t get it for the 360 (mainly because Xbox Live sucks to pay for).
Moooooving on… it’s awesome. It’s a rather slow buildup (heck, it starts the game with your birth!), but it’s enthralling. And that’s saying something since there are so many camera and character glitches. The voice-acting is top-notch, besides Uncharted 2 the best I’ve ever heard in a game. And I’m pretty positive Liam Neeson is one of the “main” characters, which is awesome. The game immediately throws you into this twisted, post-apocalyptic fallout shelter. It’s only a bit in that you finally break out and see the real, destroyed world. And the world is vast. And so intricate. It feels alive (and yes, I realize it’s actually all destroyed). You carry around a watch-type device called a Pip Boy that catalogs everything you have, and can also play different radio stations. One of the stations is apparently a “pre-war music station, now just playing on a loop.” It’s things like this which make this game so great: the atmosphere of it all. It feels like you’re the only one left. It feels like you’re in some twisted disturbed world, that humanity has lost it’s grips with reality. And you’re the only sane one left.
slow buildup, part 1
slow buildup, part 2
Well maybe that’s an over exaggeration, but you get the point. And there is SO MUCH TO DO! It’s an open world game, so you can go anywhere and do most anything as long as you have the gear for it. The game also takes place near Washington, DC, so it’s awesome seeing the vast wastelands of places I know and have been many times (is it weird to say that?)! Discussions of the Potomac river, traveling to DC, fighting in the DC metro centers, talk of the President still being alive, all this makes for an awesome experience.
Ghouls in the DC subway system! Ahhh! Oh wait. They're not real.
It’s mind boggling just how much there is to do, and the game doesn’t hesitate showing you all the things you could have done had you made different choices. Oh yeah, that’s another thing, your decisions count. If you steal from people, you will be labeled a thief. If you kill someone, they won’t come back. If you’re nice, people will be nice to you. If you are caught doing something, it will matter. In fact, it turns out if you hit one certain bar owner in Megaton (a small city in the game) in the back with a baseball bat, all his men will chase you out of the town for good. Even though you didn’t hurt him that bad! How unfair.
Megaton, the town I was rudely chased from
Springvale, the first town you encounter. It also includes the elementary school
It didn’t hit me how well-done this game was until I came across a certain elementary school in the first town you reach. I went in, thinking it would contain some supplies, and wanting to see what the school would look like destroyed. But as soon as I walked in the front door, I saw there were cages nailed to the wall. Confused, I walked over, and realized there were skeletons in the cages. And when I looked up, there were bodies hanging from the ceiling. Only then did raiders (the game’s post-apocalyptic band of crazed, murderous thieves) come in and start shooting at me. They had been using the school as a hideout, and had been bringing their victims here and killing them. It was disturbing. And it made me legitimately mad. Not so much that the raiders existed (they’re just game characters, after all), but rather that this environment had to exist because the characters existed… if that makes sense. Say what you will about how terrible it is that would be put in a video game, if a game gets a visceral reaction from you, it’s doing something right. I got a similar reaction playing this (at times) that I got watching The Road. Not nearly as amazing as the movie (or book), but still great!
Oh, the details
Leaving the disturbing parts aside, this is similar to what we hope to achieve with our eventual post-apocalyptic drama idea Will and I are constantly working on. Granted, I’m only probably 1/5 of my way through this game, but I love it so far and had nothing else to write about!
In fact, after randomly writing for a while, I realize this probably makes no sense to anyone but me… Ah well!
Happy Trails,
Sam.
