Much like my feelings towards Country & Western music, I can't say I'm a real fan of Role Playing Games. Somehow they always felt like one really good game stretched out over 60 or more hours with a lot of wandering and chatting used to fill in the time. Still as a large fan/addict of video games in general, I try to keep expanding my horizons when it comes to video game media. This time it's the turn of RPGs, and since I'm going to ease myself into a new genre of gaming the sub-genre may as well feel similar to many other games I've played before, and so it'll be a Western RPG. Also I have a fondness for Mad Max movies so the sub-sub-genre will be apocalypse. I also liked the colour of the box.......and it was on sale.
As previously mentioned, Fallout 3 is a western RPG. You can tell because the character customisation screen won't let you have 3 foot tall hair or a sword you could feasibly surf on. Other clues include the game mechanics feeling a lot like the director's cut of Half-Life 2. The basis of which is essentially a First Person Shooter with lots of ideas from other games glued on to help pad out the experience. You can flip between 1st and 3rd person view, repair your weapons, collect pieces of old junk to build new ones, dress up your character, pause time during combat and talk the hind leg off a cast iron donkey. Most are well balanced and play nicely with the whole game experience. Some though, throw the illusion of a mass of potential at you while actually stealing away precious time you could have used for further orienteering. For instance, wrestling with over 30 facial sliders just so you can prowl the wastes as Mel Gibson will feel pretty futile after spending umpteen hours starring at the back of his head. This is mitigated somewhat by flashes of the road warrior’s expressionless mug just before you fire off a few rounds in V.A.T.S. But would it really have been too much to ask to see yourself during conversations? V.A.T.S is a much more unique and useful addition, used to carefully add a thin slice of turn based strategy. Pausing time to allow the player to select which of their foes extremities they'd like turned into a shower of claret through a voyeuristic slow mo. Gory it may be, but along with a recharging meter that depletes when used, it does vary your tactical options from, point cursor and hold down fire until dead.
Tactics and careful planning, as with many RPGs, should be foremost on your mind when playing Fallout 3; it certainly has been with the developers. Before your character has even learned to walk you must balance points across 7 separate abilities, including, strength, intelligence, charisma and endurance. You might be forgiven for thinking maxing out these in particular will make you a sure fire hit with the ladies. But, their effects on your stats are more complex, demanding careful consideration to tune to the way you like to play. Simpler, perhaps in noticeable effect, but no less in the decision making process are the seemingly abundant perks available when levelling up. Most being quite inventive, such as Lawbringer, which allows you to sell the finger of any good character you kill, to the more straight forward Iron Fist, which, well, does exactly what it says on the tin. Limiting the amount you can actually activate makes them deliciously difficult to choice from and will certainly to add to the replay value. Perks are also affected by a particular buzz feature of modern gaming, will you be good or evil. Player’s moral choices are, perhaps unfortunately, always boiled down to where you sit on a sliding scale of good and evil. And the same is true here. Combined with the state of the NPCs karma they will either, like, dislike or behave indifferent towards you. In a game this complex and vast it seems like nitpicking to really highlight, especially as no game I can think of derives any more depth from such a feature, nor can I think of any practical way to either. But it does fulfil it's purpose, to create a more believable world in order to immerse the player into the game, and their derriere in the sofa for as long as possible.
There is much more on offer here to suck your brain into this virtual reality. They say the first bite of a meal is with the eye and for better or worse many snap judgements of games are based on their visuals. Fallout 3 should fare fairly well on such first impressions as from the beginning the detail and sharp textures, most noticeable on the faces of NPC's, are very impressive. Not to the mention the jaw dropping moment as your overloaded optic nerve tries to digest the expansive vista on your first trip out of the vault. Elsewhere this immersion is handled more delicately with the very informative radio stations. Acting in multiple roles to dole out clues about hidden quests, relaying your deeds to the masses and serving up some swinging 50's band music to liven up the loneliest trudges across the wastes. Unlike, say, GTA4, there is just not the content for a game of this scale, and they quickly become repetitive. Hand in hand with the with a script of conversions you could wallpaper the Albert Hall with, the main task of submerging you further into the world of Fallout, is absolutely accomplished.
The only question left then, is Fallout 3 worth spending a significant portion of your adult life playing? Well, I have test for games so demanding of your free time; after playing for a few hours does it make you try to forcibly ignore your bodily functions? In all honestly, yes. Fallout 3 is worth playing because it makes me wish I never had to eat, sleep or go to toilet ever again.
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