Wednesday 29 October 2008

Fallout 3 review

Imagine a free PS3 to play it on!


By Nick Cowen at The Telegraph, who is blown away by Bethesda Softworks's free-roaming post-apocalyptic RPG.

To say that Fallout 3 is one of the most anticipated titles of 2008 is something of a gross understatement. The latest installment in this impeccable franchise from Bethesda Softworks has been had fans clamoring for information ever since the developer announced it. Following the promising previews, trailers and gameplay clips viewed by millions online, Fallout 3 arrives creaking under the weight of its own hype.

Well, fans will be happy to know Fallout 3 will probably exceed their expectations while staking a claim to being arguably the best game released in 2008.

The year is 2277 and the United States has been reduced to a post-apocalyptic wasteland in the wake of a nuclear war with China. The country is now just a bombed-out wilderness populated by desperate humans, malformed mutants and giant insects, and dotted with heavily guarded shanty towns, radioactive rivers and piles of rubble which once used to be city structures. There's also a large chunk of the population existing beneath the surface in vast underground shelters, known as vaults.

Players take on the role of a vault-dweller who was born and raised beneath the surface. When his father leaves the shelter for unknown reasons - and against the wishes of the vault's community leaders - he heads to the surface to search for him.

It's this search for family that provides - at least initially - the underlying story for Fallout 3. It's also just about the only consistent element in the game - such is the sheer scope and variety of the gameplay, scenarios and environments that this game is almost endlessly re-playable.

It's also impossible to pigeon-hole: Fallout 3 is a first-person shooter, a third-person shooter, a free-roaming sandbox adventure and a role-play game all rolled into one. Players gain experience through combat and performing side-quests in order to progress to higher levels in their character development. Once they attain a new level, they can assign points to different skills, be it in weapons, lock-picking, computer hacking or bartering - all of which will come in handy at different stages in the game. Based on these choices, players will develop a character that may depend on brute force or wily social interaction to accomplish their goals. This goes a long way towards granting each player their own unique style of play.

The choices don't stop at abilities, however. Players will come up against ethical issues as well. Decisions such as whether to give water to a beggar dying of thirst or help a shady individual nuke an entire settlement will affect their protagonist's moral fibre, and this in turn will impact how other in-game characters treat and react to them. As in real life, it's a lot easier and a lot more instantly rewarding to toss morality aside, but players who do so will earn bad karma points with every evil deed.

As you'd expect, players are guaranteed to run into countless situations in which violence is the only option. The excellent combat mechanics manage the impressive task of being uncomplicated, while at the same time utilising all the advantages and equipment the players have built up. Although the controls are simple, Fallout 3 is not a conventional shooter and players will come to rely quite heavily on the game's Vault-tec Assisted Targeting System (VATS). Once activated, the VATS allows the player to target specific area on their opponents bodies for a critical hit which dishes out a larger amount of damage. Then the game slows to a cinematic slow-motion crawl as the action recommences, and, depending on their character's skill (or in some instances, luck), players will be treated to some incredibly violent animations.

Make no mistake; Fallout 3 completely earns its 18 rating for its violent content (as well as its moral conundrums). The violence is visceral and brutal and more often than not, using the VATS mechanic will result an enemy's dismemberment or decapitation.

Players are spoiled for choice in the weapons department. There are the standard first-person shooter fare - pistols, grenades, shotguns and assault rifles - as well as more outlandish items. Players can also buy or trade for schematics and then build weapons from whatever junk is lying around. However, it's a good idea to keep firearms in a good state of repair as wear and tear grinds down their effectiveness in the long run.

Apart from instruments of death, players start the game with a handy gadget called a Pitboy. This doubles as a pause menu which among other things can be used to sort through inventory, pinpoint locations on the map, heal damage, upgrade abilities and check mission logs. It can also be used to traverse great distances on the map provided the player has visited their intended destination before.

However, given the incredible presentation of Fallout 3's desolate world, players would be forgiven for wanting to take the long way round between destinations. The gorgeous expanses, with accompanying wilderness sound effects and minimalist music, all combine to fill players with the eerie sense of impending doom that hangs over even the most serene vistas. This is a harsh and hostile environment where "survival by any means" is the only law of the land. But despite its dark veneer, the world of Fallout 3 is very easy to become immersed in, and players who are patient and brave enough to give it a thorough exploration will be richly rewarded.

In the human settlements the attention to detail and stark designs create a palpable sense of a civilisation barely clinging on to survival. The characters that populate them are sometimes a little generic - and at close distance can seem a little poorly rendered - but the excellent voice acting goes a long way towards balancing this.

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of Fallout 3 is how effortlessly it combines so many gameplay mechanics, storylines, characters, expansive environments and complex in-game intricacies into one fluid package. Staring out over Fallout 3's beautiful if harsh badlands as wind whistles on the soundtrack and the sunset bleeds red through the sky, it's easy to forget how much has gone into creating one of the most fully realised worlds on offer to gamers

Fallout 3 may offer depressing vision of the future, but it's impossible to not be swept away by it.

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