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Review: Definitely use that gift card on Fallout 3
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Back in the 90’s, the Fallout series was one of the most creative games on the PC. Now more than 10 years later, the third game in the series makes its debut on consoles. But the great thing about Fallout 3 is that you don’t have to play any of the previous games to really know what’s going on as it stands alone.
The game takes place in 2277; 200 years after a nuclear war basically destroyed the world. You begin as a vault dweller. A vault dweller is a person basically born in raised in a fallout shelter designed to protect humans from nuclear war. The game shows your birth and you get to play as a toddler, tween, teenager, and then a young adult. Of course, all of those moments happen while you live in the vault. But one morning as a young adult, you’re awakened by sirens and alarms and you’re informed that a family friend is dead and you’re father has left the vault – a no-no in the vault dweller world. Being that everybody in vault thinks that you’re involved somehow, you escape the vault as well, with hopes of finding your dad to find out what’s going on.
After your eyes adjust to being outside, you take a good look at the environment and see probably a good idea of what the world would look like if it was destroyed by nuclear war. Bombed out buildings and cars lining deserted streets, wild animals looking for food and water, and humans fighting over anything worth any value.
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The game is an excellent mix between a role playing game and a shooter. You’re given a set of Special Stats - Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck – where you’re given the ability to customize your character. You’re also given a skill set ranging from a weapons expert and scientist to hand-to-hand combat master to a hacker. You start off with three skills you’re exceptional at and throughout the game you earn experience points to add to any special skills you want. It’s really a superb system because it allows you to play the game in a variety of ways which offers decent replay value. Regardless of what skills you choose, they will all be useful in certain points of the game.
The currency in the game is bottle caps. You use caps to buy everything from weapons and armor to health items and other gear. You also do the side quests for caps and sell items you find for caps. And sometimes you’ll have to drop a couple of caps to get information on the whereabouts of your father.
Speaking of side missions, there’s a plethora of them to do. You’ll be required to do some of them to move the game’s story forward, get a bunch of caps, or get an important item that you need. Regardless, they’re just as fun as the main missions. Sometimes a mission could be as simple as delivering a letter for someone or as difficult as finding a child’s father.
Although the combat can be compared to a shooter, one of the best aspects of the game’s system is the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System (VATS). While you can zoom and shoot with the triggers like any normal shooter, you can also activate the VATS with the RB. VATS pauses the action and allows you to aim at specific parts of your enemy and the percentage chance of you hitting them there. Depending on how many action points you have, you can take multiple shots at the head, torso, legs, arms, or even the weapon in their hand, which all happens in slow motion. It’s a very cool, fun feature, especially if you’re low on health.
Fallout 3 is all about exploration and adventure and there’s so much in it that you’ll be occupied for days. Although you can probably beat the game in about 20 hours, there will still be so much to do and see. There will still be towns to be explored, missions to embark on, and adventures to be had. If you need to trade in a game or you have a gift card burning a hole in your wallet, this is the game to use it towards.
Q’s Rating: 5 out 5
UGO: A+
Video Gamer: 9 out of 10
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