A HITN review. Can a game really breathe new life into a series and destroy what it stands for all in one go? Tune in to find out!
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Year: 2008
Played on: Xbox 360
Also on: PS3, PC
Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
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THE FANBASE. THE FANBASE NEVER CHANGES…
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Date posted: November 20, 2017
A
REVIEW
PREMISE
First off, please buy the game now! I Todd Ho- I mean, champ1822, would love you to support my comp- I mean, Bethesda! I can really you use the money Bethesda is a great company that you need to support, so go over to steam and buy a copy of Fallout 4© today!
In all seriousness, you should probably only buy the Fallout games on sale. The reason, I’ll get to later…
The Fallout series, believe or not, did not start as a giant open-world first-person RPG shooter- it began life as a homage to the great pc classic, Wasteland. In it, you played a vault-dweller who is tasked with saving his vault- giant underground safety shelters that protected many from great nuclear war that pretty much destroyed everything. The game was originally a strategy RPG, pretty much- movement and actions in combat were limited to your AP- you couldn’t shoot your way out every situation- quick thinking and planning was needed if you wanted to survive! The game also had a great dialogue system- if you were skilled enough, and had a good silver tongue, you could talk your way out of most situations- something you don’t see anymore- ESPECIALLY in FO 3 and 4!
After two successful games and one spinoff (Tactics) it seemed everything was going well. Until Interplay pretty much shut down. All of their properties were sold off, and Van Buren- the original Fallout 3- was canceled. Its not all bad though- several devs from Black Isle Studios, the company behind the original games, would go on to form Obsidian, which would go on to create Fallout: New Vegas, which is a whole story for a different day. Today, we’ll talk about Bethesda- the company that bought up the license- and how they simultaneously revamped the franchise and destroyed what made it great in one fell swoop, and why the fans of the original games hate it so much.
Fallout 3 is an entirely new beast compared to 1 and 2. The game now takes place in a huge open-world environment, much like Bethesda’s previous critical darling, Oblivion. Once the player leaves the vault, they can pretty much go where they want- just like, well, Oblivion. The game takes place in a bombed out Washington DC 36 years after Fallout 2- though it doesn’t really matter, because no characters are present from that game- though the Enclave are the main antagonist. Gone are the days of some-what turnbased combat- its pretty much a first person shooter now! VATS is still here, and you can still use it, and it even uses AP- the only feature thats feels remotely like a Fallout game.
So does this game do anything good?
PROS
It does actually!
First off, I actually love the dreary atmosphere- it feels like a post-apocalyptic America! There’s always a sense of hopelessness around every corner- its almost depressing, really! This is actually a great thing- I keep telling people that some of the best media anyone could experience is one that makes you unconformable- and Fallout 3 achieves this!
The map is huge- there are hundreds of places to visit, it seems! From a town built around a dormant nuke, to a huge freighter turned into a city of sorts, there is plenty to explore here! Some famous landmarks such as the Washington Monument and the Mall can be found, crawling with Super Mutants and other horrors. There’s even a robust system of tunnels that take you all over the wasteland- you can actually get lost and end up in god-knows where- it really makes the world feel more alive!
There are all sorts of enemies to fight- giant insects like roaches and Radscorpions are plentiful- other mutated wildlife include giant mole rats and the fearsome Yao Gui- Mutated bears that are quite hard to take down. You also got also sorts of crazy people- raiders are around every corner, and want you dead, for whatever reason. There are also different factions, like the slavers, who put bombs around peoples necks, and the Enclave- the main bad guys for most of the main questline. You also got Ghouls- zombified humans who had their brains rotted by radiation, causing them to go crazy, and all sorts of robots that have gone haywire. The wasteland is a dangerous place, indeed!
There is a treasure trove of different items here. So many weapons- knives, baseballs bats, hammers, a sword- and thats just melee! You have so many guns- shotguns, rifles, pistols, rocket launchers- but you also have energy weapons- plasma rifles, laser guns and what not! There is no shortage of weapons here! And who can forget the numerous types of armor, most notably the Power Armor wore by the Brotherhood of Steel- do you even need any other armor?
Not only is there a quite lengthy main quest, where you look for your Father, there are a multitude of different quests. From liberating a nice hotel controlled by a ghoul hating old-man, to freeing some slaves from, well, the slavers, there is no shortage of crazy things to do in this world gone mad. Or, you know, you can just go around and kill everything. Your choice!
Wow, seems like this game has a lot going for it? Who could possibly hate it?
CONS
First off, lets talk about how much a glitchy mess this game is. There are so many bugs in this game- some which have never been fixed, sadly! The game might be too big for its own good, seeing all thats wrong with it- items and even characters will just fall though the floor. Physics will sometimes go hay-wire. Things and characters get stuck. Sometimes your save files get corrupted. Such as life in the capital wasteland.
Even worse are the console versions- the ones I have sadly spent the most time on! Par the course, Bethesda games always have a bad time working on consoles. Whether it be memory leaks in the PS3 version, which eventually make the game chug at an unplayable framerate, to the game constantly pausing to catch up in the 360 version, it makes one wonder why Bethesda games even on console in the first place! At least all the contents there, I suppose… Definitely get this on PC if you want to play it! It goes on sale all the time on Steam- there is no excuse!
Finally, we come to the fans of the original, and why they hate FO3 so much. Its abundantly clear why- Fallout 3 is a far cry from the originals! Gone are the days of using your wit to survive- you can pretty much just shoot everything now! It’s sense of humor seems to be gone as well- everything is too dark, too depressing- funny, kooky characters are only here in there now. Not only that, but it seems things have gotten WORSE in the wasteland of America since FO2, in terms of rebuilding society. In that game, it seemed that, surely but slowly, things were at least trying to get better. Here, in Fallout 3, it feels like the bombs dropped yesterday- its easy to see why jumping from FO2 to FO3 is so dramatic for long-time fans!
Not only is FO3 as far away as you can get from a traditional Fallout game, there is actually one big final nail in the coffin- the cancellation of Van Buren, the original Fallout 3! It never so the light of day (except a few early beta versions) causing many fans to cry afowl. On top of this, they get Bethesda’s Fallout 3- what seems to be a hollywood bastardization of the beloved classic CRPG series!
Fallout 3 is one of the few “Hated In The Nation” games I actually understand the hatred for- it has almost nothing to do with the original games, other then having an post-apocalyptic theme with similar enemies and the VATS system. For all intents and purposes,the original strategy RPG elements are gone for good- as Fallout 3 did extremely well! Many people love this game, and I hate to admit- but I do to! It is one of the only games I enjoy that I understand, almost 100%, why it is so hated. Its a weird feeling- loving something that others hate so much, but knowing exactly how why others hate it the way they do. Now I know how my Ex-wife feels!
LAUGH TRACK AND APPLAUSE
ENDING THEME TO SEINFELD PLAYS
FINAL VERDICT
That’s right- I enjoyed Fallout 3, and so did many other people. However, in a rare instance, I understand why the game is so hated. But I also understand why the game is so loved as well. It is the perfect balance of love and hate, it seems. In a weird combination, I say that Fallout 3 deserves the hate it gets- but I also reward it a high score for its content. I implore you to play the entire series- Both of the original CRPG’s Fallout 1 and 2- and then play Fallout 3. You too will get a good gauge on why FO3 is so loved and hated, and by extension Fallout 4- which is another HITN review I plan on doing in the future!
Agree? Disagree? Good! Leave a comment about how terrible my taste is in the comments below!
Gamer's Edge 