Dark Arrow on 22/7/2009 at 10:41

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I have been considering about buying Fallout 3 ever since it came out, but I wanted to wait for the price to drop and to hear what people think about it.

So what is your opinion? Is this a game one should buy? Apparently a GOTY version is soon coming to the stores.

Some things I would like to know:

1. How much violence is in this game? Can you tone it down? I don't mind seeing violence in videogames, but I prefer no to see limbs flying every time I pull the trigger.

2. Can the main quest be completed without killing anyone/humans? I understand that Fallout 1 had that possibility (never got to play Fallout 1).

3. Are there any flaws in the game?

4. I understand that the game uses the same (or similar) engine that was used in Oblivion. What annoying features/flaws are in this game aswell? Is the leveling completely ruined as in vanilla Oblivion?

5. I enjoyed playing Fallout 2 as the environment was quite interesting. Does this game have the same spirit?

6. Length of the game? Main quest? Is the rest of the game over or under 100 hours long?

7. Is the story interesting? Are there any books as in TES? Any background story of the world that can be found lying somewhere and waiting to be found? Or is this game more of a gun-enemy-shoot type? Is there any depth in the story? I always enjoyed reading in Morrowind. The backround books are the thing which kept me going a couple of times through the main quest.

8. Is there any replay value? By this, I'm given the option to make different choices in the game, but does the game still keep your interest after finishing for the first, the second and the third time? I am currently playing through my n'th time of Morrowind and I still find new stuff (probably because I usually get bored at some point and restart the game).

9. Action. Is fighting tedious as it was in vanilla Oblivion after leveling up? Vats seems interesting, but I'm not sure whether the idea works i reality. Does it work, or is it useless?

Matthew on 22/7/2009 at 17:54

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Or if you quite like Fallout 2 and don't mind the setting being a bit different.

Matthew on 22/7/2009 at 18:10

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Gotcha! Hey, this trolling business isn't so hard after all.

Dresden on 23/7/2009 at 06:32

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I say get the PC version. I've put so much time into this game it's disturbing. 200+ hours easily. You'll want mods so you can take out some of the more annoying and bewildering things (bonus xp in higher difficulty? wtf). You can also download some very nice texture mods if you've got a good PC.

1. There's a lot yeah. It fits the harsh setting, though limbs are way too eager to seperate from their hosts.

2. Nope. I mean theoretically you probably could but it'd be tedious and not fun at all. They weren't nearly as clever with diplomacy as the FO1 devs and there aren't any disguises.

3. There's a lot of balance flaws. The game is way too easy unmodded. They give you 90% damage reduction and +15 crit chance (IIRC) while in VATS.

4. Leveling is nearly the same as in FO1 but you get a perk every level now. Which again, makes the game too easy.

5. Yep, and TBH I think I like DC better except for FO2's New Reno.

6. Whole game is easily 100 hours.

7. Some people don't like the story. I think it's fairly good. There's no readable books.

8. Replayability is comparable to Morrowind but there's usually 2 or 3 ways to complete a quest. The locations are better than Morrowind or Oblivion though because they put a lot more thought into them.

9. It works. It works too well really. Like I said, VATS can make the game easy. (http://www.wegame.com/watch/Fallout_3_VATS_Montage_2/) But it does look cool.

PeeperStorm on 23/7/2009 at 07:46

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One important point to mention is that the developers carried over their "go anywhere and do anything at any character level" philosophy from Oblivion. As a result there's never going to be a point during the main quest, and only a few points at any other time, where you say to yourself something like "Gah! Super Mutants! I'd better wait until I'm tougher before I go there." Instead you'll say "Super Mutants? Sure, I can take 'em, even though I'm only 2nd level." A result of this is that it's very, very, very easy to accidentally skip about 1/3 of the main quest by exploring in the wrong direction or talking to the wrong person. There's damn few higher difficulty areas to discourage you from doing that. If you wanted to skip over stuff in Fallout 2 you had to know what you were doing and work at it.

No. At one point you'll eather have to kill people directly, or cause their deaths indirectly.

If you don't bother with any side quests at all, I'd estimate that you can probably complete the main quest in about 15 hours.

The text data disks that you pick up in the game tend to be about 4 sentences long. Nothing like the complete short stories that were in Morrowind. And the setting is fairly shallow. Also, the main quest wasn't at all compelling for me because it required chasing after someone that I just didn't give a rat's ass about.

For me the replay value came mainly from 1) there being a lot of places to explore, and 2) not being able to make a character that was satisfying to play, causing me to restart many times to try out alternate character builds.

VATS might have potential, but as is it's just too easy to rack up headshots. You almost never have a reason to target anything else, the main exception being that it's fun to target enemy grenades before they can throw them.