[Review] Fallout 3 (PC)

[PizzaSHARK!]

Teamplayer Review: Fallout 3 (PC)



Developer: Bethesda Softworks
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Maximum Players: 1
Minimum Requirements:
Recommended Requirements:
Game Reviewed On:
M.S.R.P. $49.99; Available through Steam, Games for Windows Live, and retail outlets worldwide


[b]Gameplay

Third in the canon series (there are two other games utilizing the Fallout franchise but which are not considered to be part of canon lore), Fallout 3 plays out in a manner not unlike the previous two titles – it utilizes the same stat and skill system as the previous games (the SPECIAL system developed specifically for the purpose by Interplay way back in 1997), takes place in similar surroundings, and features many of the series’ hallmark items, weapons, and creatures.

However, being co-developed for consoles like the Xbox 360 has lead to dilution of a great deal of what made the original Fallout games so great – the stat system has been streamlined, skills are extremely easy to max out, the Trait system is just plain gone, and Perks have been streamlined. In the original games, creating a character was a somewhat involved process for the uninitiated.

This doesn’t hold true for Fallout 3, however. By the time you reach the end of the game (assuming you’ve done your fair share of exploring), you can easily have maxed out several skills (even skills you didn’t Tag) and your remaining skills won’t be far behind… which leaves the game to end up being far too easy, even on the hardest difficulty settings. On my first play-through, I went with Melee Weapons as my combat skill, and by the end of the game, gameplay literally consisted of me trotting up to enemies and mindlessly slashing them while mashing my stimpak key – stimpaks are so ridiculously cheap, and by the end game cash is so plentiful, that there’s no real strategy involved in combat… you can easily make your way through the game just completely disregarding the concept of cover and tactical retreat (or doing things like using mines to set traps) because you’ll be fairly swimming in health kits and other medical supplies by the end.

Making things worse, the combat system itself has been “console-ized.” While the transition to first-person real-time from isometic turn-based combat has been done admirably well, the game (which functions distinctly like your average shooter with heavy RPG elements mixed in) suffers from a handful of problems which are required for console gamers (who must deal with imprecise gamepads) but are a plague to PC gamers. Autoaim is rampant throughout the game, and there’s no way to get rid of it, short of doing some diving in the game’s .ini files. Moreover, locational damage is fairly minor – shooting someone in the head doesn’t provide a significant amount of bonus damage (you’d think shooting someone in the head with a 5.56mm assault rifle would be fatal), and serious status ailments, like being crippled or irradiated, from the previous games are so pathetic (and easily cured) that you can damn near ignore them. Finally, the game’s AI for both friendly and hostile NPCs is distinctly lacking – friendly NPC characters will gleefully charge a room full of enemies while you’re attempting to sneak by undetected, and AI enemies have Rainmaker-like accuracy with all weapons, at all ranges… and even while sprinting.

But it’s not all doom and gloom; the transition to first-person has been done admirably well, and the option for pseudo turn-based combat still exists, and in cinematic style. Additionally, the first half of the game is genuinely fun. The problems mentioned above don’t start becoming noticeable until the later stages of the game, and by that point, you’ll have explored much of the available world. Exploration, something Bethesda clearly does well as evidenced by previous games Morrowind and Oblivion, is a major draw for the game. It’s enormously fun and entertaining to explore a bombed-out and ruined metro D.C. area, even if you start to realize all the subway tunnels and blasted office builds end up looking pretty much the same.

The short answer is that if you enjoyed the gameplay in Oblivion, you will probably enjoy the gameplay in Fallout 3. Many of the elements between the two games are similar or identical – both games feature a “class-less” system, both games have a significant emphasis on exploration, and both feature similar menu systems and NPC interactions.



[b]Performance

Fallout 3 runs on a modified version of the Gamebryo game engine, which was also used for Bethesda’s earlier, similar game Oblivion, set in their Elder Scrolls universe.

The Gamebryo engine functions well and looks very pretty, and is capable of rendering very large outdoor areas and handling indoor areas with equal grace – an extremely important feature for a game that features quite a bit of both, and the audio is well-done for the most part. While the version of the engine used in Oblivion had wonderful, stable performance, the same is unfortunately not true for Fallout 3. Fallout 3 suffers from numerous performance-related issues, mostly revolving around sub-standard framerates, and occasionally in-game commands (such as firing a weapon or activating an object) can be subject to surprisingly long delays, even if there are no other signs of performance loss. Prior to earlier patches, the game was also prone to constant, frequent crashes, though these appear to have been largely cleared up with the most recent patch.

Another, more troubling issue, is that Fallout 3 itself seems to just plain not work with some systems – a friend of mine bought the game when it was selling for half off on Steam and was simply unable to get the game to run on his system at all, even after hours spent consulting technical support FAQs and even some time spent on the phone talking with live tech support. My friend runs Windows XP 64-bit, however, which may be a source of problems – my understanding is that he’s had issues with all Games for Windows LIVE games, though it’s possible it’s he who’s at fault.

Speaking of Games for Windows LIVE, we arrive at yet another sticking point. It’s no secret that Microsoft wants to get in on some of the action that Valve’s combined content-distribution-and-DRM service, Steam, is getting, and they clearly have some experience with Xbox LIVE. Where Steam succeeds, however, Microsoft appears to be failing. Games for Windows LIVE is every bit as intrusive as Steam is unobtrusive, and the platform was recently victimized by severe stability issues – and customer support during this time was handled almost entirely by volunteers, rather than official Microsoft representatives. There were numerous cases of players purchasing the Downloadable Content available for Fallout 3 (which will be covered in the next section) and either not receiving the files at all, or being unable to get them to function properly once they did… and Microsoft refused to provide refunds or any significant help beyond standard copy-pasted responses, which typically indicated the user as being the source of the problem. Classy.

Of all the myriad problems that prevent this game from receiving a high rating, its performance issues are its greatest drawback – if you’re even able to get the game running, it’s very likely that you’ll be running it at much lower settings than you’d run other, similar games just to maintain a high, consistent framerate.



[b]Longevity

Being built on the Gamebryo engine, Fallout 3 has lent itself very readily to the pre-existing Oblivion modding community, resulting in an active and vibrant modding community for Fallout 3, with numerous high-quality mods already out, and some professional-quality total conversions rumored to be in the works – foremost among these are an adaptation for Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 franchise and another for Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series of novels.

For the base game itself, you can still count on a minimum of 30-50 hours of gameplay time, especially if you see all the sights and complete all the many quests – while it looks small on the map, the playable area of the game is huge, and the official DLC packs for the game add even more real estate to explore, destroy, and conquer. Many people will enjoy playing just to wander around a nuked Washington, D.C. and see the sights, and the character creation system, while effectively neutered by “console-ization”, still remains reasonably deep and just creating characters can be fun.

Speaking of official DLC, there are five official addons for the game: Operation Anchorage, which casts you as a member of the United States’ special ops during the battle for Anchorage, Alaska against the Chinese; The Pitt, in which you take a ride north to visit the Pittsburgh of the post-apocalyptic future; Broken Steel, which continues the game from the end of the original main quest, and raises the level cap from 20 to 30; Point Lookout, which has you heading south to coastal Maryland to fight mutated hillbillies and investigate Chinese intrigue; and Mothership Zeta, which has you explore a crashed alien spacecraft. These DLCs are available at any time during the game, are compatible with most (if not all) mods, and can be added or removed at will. They can be bought from Games for Windows LIVE for 800 Microsoft Points each, which comes out to a little under $10 apiece.

Beyond the DLC, official support for the game from Bethesda Softworks remains strong, and new patches are still being produced to fix errors or bugs. While the game itself does still have the occasional fatal crash, Bethesda has been pretty good about getting patches out in a timely manner, and their customer service is good. Assuming the game works for your system, you can expect to get decent treatment from Bethsoft.

While official support for Fallout 3 is strong, the real draw – and source of the game’s damned near infinite replayability – is the modding community. Chances are, if you can think of it, someone’s either made it or might be willing to make it. New skins for NPCs and weapons, entirely new content, mods to add content from the old games in, new quests and locations… the possibilities are nearly endless, and the Gamebryo engine handles it all magnificently.



[b]TEAMPLAYER RATING – 78

While the longevity of Fallout 3 is unquestionable, and the gameplay is solid, the game is hamstrung by poor performance and a dumbing-down of the core gameplay that made the previous two titles in the series great.



((I have screenshots ready for the game, but I'm not sure where to put them and was hoping for some advice. Right now, they'd just be placed in somewhat randomly, used to break up large chunks of text.))

[DJ Ms. White]

Try and think of what's going on in the pictures and if that matches to parts of the text somehow.

[PizzaSHARK!]

Images have to be uploaded to the TTP image gallery, right? How do I use them from there? Is there a particular format or certain dimensions they need to be in?

[Adsartha]

You drop the URL into an image tag the same way you would with Photobucket. And yeah, about 400x600 is usually a good size for articles. More adjusting can be done in the article tool itself if need be. No need to worry about jpg/png/whatever else, though.