Fallout shelters are great, aren’t they? They’re always packed to the brim with awesome canned foods and powdered milk. What more could you possibly hope for? Not much, except for an awesome videogame to occupy your time. I had the chance today to test the latest installment to the Fallout franchise, Fallout 3. Developed by Bethesda, Fallout 3 utilizes a vast world much like that of Elder Scrolls with the exception of a nuclear holocaust instead of lush forests. I’ll get this out of the way right now – I am unable to discuss load screens, quest directives, achievements (irrelevant for us), and perks. I am allowed to talk to you guys about pretty much everything else, unfortunately that ends up being very minimal considering I only had 24 minutes to fool around with the game.
One of the things you’ll probably notice right away once the game is loaded is that the attention to small details and texture work is absolutely phenomenal. I was immediately blown away by how realistic concrete looked, with cracks snaking through the roughly textured surface. I had to travel a short ways before entering into the full blown world that Fallout 3 offers, but once I was standing atop a hill, the view was breathtaking and actually had me in disbelief. For those of you who felt Oblivion gave gamers a vast world to explore, Bethesda has taken it an entire step forward with Fallout 3.
Unlike in Oblivion, Fallout provides its onlookers with an amazing draw distance that stretches as far out into the horizon as possible. I couldn’t actually grasp how far out it went. I’ve never seen anything like it. Moving around and checking out the area, I was also deeply overwhelmed with how great buildings were rendered. A nuclear attack had truly just taken place. From the very small dust particles (particle effects in general are incredibly well done) to the atmosphere around you, Fallout 3 capitalizes on creating a realistic landscape that accurately displays the vast emptiness and lack of life within the world.
While some people may be taken aback by the overall scale of this title, true fans of gaming will be able to appreciate everything it has to offer in terms of the exact look and feel of the title. None of this would even matter though if the game itself was broken and had poor gameplay, correct? In lieu of that statement, let me give you a run-down of some of the well-implemented gameplay elements and features .
First off, I’d like to point out that using your L1 button will enable you to choose between the standard First-Person Shooter view or the Third-Person Shooter option. This is a nice touch and allows fans of each genre to truly decide which view is best suited for them. Once you have that planned, you’ll want to check out your pip-boy item to see what kind of options you have at your disposal. From the pip-boy, you’ll be able to check out how many people you’ve killed, locks you’ve picked, and a ton of other stats that are kept within your player menu.
The stat skills work a lot like they did in Oblivion without the entire “sword/bow” weapon system. Fallout provides you stats for melee, large guns, lock-picking, handguns and other variety of skill sets that will help you customize your character to your playing style. You’ll also be able to check out your special stats as well. These include such things as endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility and more. These are the basic pip-boy menu options that you can check out to see how your character is progressing thus far.
Continuing on the menu interfaces, I’d like to discuss what happens once you level up. Upon leveling up, a screen will appear alerting you of your achievement and directing you to allocate a certain amount of points into certain areas. While all of this may be standard, it brings you one step further afterwards and allows you the chance to pick another “style” of play to use. An example of this is “Lady Killer,” which gives you 10% more damage when you’re killing women. Don’t get the wrong idea, Bethesda isn’t trying to put the bludgeoning of women into the limelight, you’ll also have the chance to pick a skill like “Little League MVP” where your melee damage will be increased.
These were the only menu items I had the chance to check out, so now it’s onto the true gameplay experience. Now, personally, this is where I feel the game proves that it isn’t all glamor, smoke and mirrors. Fallout 3’s gameplay shines just as bright as, if not brighter than its atmosphere. Although this sounds like a flawless preview, I’d like to point out that the sensitivity of the cross-hair was something I disliked. It didn’t seem as “controllable” as I’d like it to be, but I didn’t see anywhere to adjust that. This obviously made targeting enemies a bit more difficult than it should have been, however with the option to change sensitivity, this will become a non-factor.
The coolest thing about Fallout 3 without question is the ability to zoom in and scan your intended target before you start shooting. If you tap R1, your camera will zoom straight to the nearest target on screen. If you’d like the target to the left or right, you simply tap left or right with your analog and it’ll sail across to the next available option. Once you’ve finally found the enemy you’re looking for, you’ll be able to see what percentage you have of hitting a certain section of its body. Depending on how probable the percentage it, you’ll choose which part to fire at and how many shots you’d like to take (from a maximum of four). At this point, you’ll click X and the game will move into a slow bullet-time like state where you can watch your shot float majestically through the air into its intended target.
Yes, this looks as cool as it sounds. I actually shot the head off of a giant ant from a great distance utilizing this tactic. Watching the head explode in a marvel of green ooze was beyond stunning and amusing to boot. This small, simple addition ended up working wonders for the game’s presentation and overall enjoyment level.
Prior to that encounter, I had the chance to go toe-to-toe with three bad guys one after the other in an abandoned school. While everything looked amazing, it was a difficult battle for me because I couldn’t aim my reticule properly due to sensitivity. This enabled me to check out how the stimulation packs work however. By tapping up on the directional pad, you’ll be able to restore your health via these easy-access packs. Due to this, I was effectively able to dispatch these evil doers in Fallout fashion with a couple of shots to the face and a bunch of lead to the body (even once they were down and out, I’m sadistic).
Much like in Oblivion, you’ll be able to loot their bodies and pick up important items to help you along the way. I’d also like to mention that you’ll also run across not only giant ants, but mutated rodents as well. These pesky animals are fun to bring down and offer up some delicious meat often considered a delicacy in many areas of the world.
Joking aside, Fallout 3 was an experience I will never forget and truly helped my E3 experience reach a level of greatness I wasn’t anticipating. Though I am a huge fan of LittleBigPlanet, I have a strong feeling that Fallout 3 is going to unanimously take Game of the Year honors over titles like Resistance 2, Metal Gear Solid 4, and LittleBigPlanet. I realize that’s a bold claim, but talk to me about it in 2009, because it won’t seem so strange by then.