I don't know what it was about Fallout 3, but nearly everything about the game turned me off. Ugly environments, disgusting animations, and some of the most mind-numbingly boring combat I've ever experienced made my time with the game headache-inducing. While the scope of Fallout 3 is admirable, ultimately, it ends up hurting the game. Such wonderful features as repetitive scenery, game-killing bugs, and a whole lot of frustration with the “survival” aspect that Bethesda implemented had me wondering what all the fuss was about. While Fallout 3 isn’t bad, there is far too much credit being given to what is undoubtedly an overrated game.
The analogy that Fallout 3 is essentially “Oblivion with guns” is true to an extent, considering that F3 uses the same engine that Oblivion ran on in 2006. Back then however, the Oblivion engine was revolutionary in its own right, delivering gorgeous environments that seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see. Due to the recent release of home consoles, the lackluster animations and occasionally muddy textures were forgiven in favor of the impressive environments for the time. Fallout 3 attempts to emulate that same awe-inspiring feat with its expansive wasteland, but despite having an improved frame rate and some higher-resolution textures, the engine isn’t capable of being as graphically stunning as it once was. Whether or not this is due to the difference in environmental objectives, or just the effect of technology becoming obsolete at its insanely fast-paced rate doesn’t really matter, especially when we’ve seen other open-world games do graphics so much better. GTA IV managed to render a near replica of New York City with relative ease, and that game was much more populated with NPCs than Fallout 3 is. Either Bethesda got lazy and decided to work off of its existing accomplishments, or they felt that the wasteland environment was respectably suited for the Oblivion engine. That’s not the point, though. What does matter is that Fallout 3 is not a game that looks or feels like a next-gen game, which brings me to another interesting point.
You better like a whole lot of gray and brown.
When classifying Fallout 3, it’s hard to really shoehorn the game into a single genre. Is it an FPS? An RPG? Fallout 3 is frequently described as being a hybrid of both genres, but it isn’t a fantastic or even great game in either of them. As an FPS, Fallout 3 is clunky, ugly, and anything but action-packed or tactical. The VATS system is pretty cool, but unfortunately it becomes a “search and destroy” tool for players as they roam the wasteland, mindlessly tapping RB to get the jump on any upcoming enemies. As an RPG, the game fares a bit better, but the clunky inventory management and limited level system make the player feel like he/she is being denied the right to become a certified badass. As a matter of fact, for the first few hours, Fallout 3 keeps you on a very tight leash. Despite the Capital Wasteland’s expansive look and the game’s inherent desire for you to explore every nook and cranny that it has to offer, you can’t even dream of reaching a new area without being decimated by Super Mutants. It’s not that Fallout 3 is a hard game (although it’s not easy either) it just suffers from mixed signals. The game seemingly encourages you to get out in the wasteland and explore, but then decides to make you throw your controller in frustration as you waste every round you’ve just managed to scavenge into the obnoxious baddies scattered throughout the world.
Yawn.
This is one of the reasons why the presentation of Fallout 3 is so hit and miss. While the story is truly original and interesting, there are so many gameplay elements that serve to hinder that strength. For the first 5 or so hours (purely story-wise), you are following your dad from city to city, only to find that he’s moved on to somewhere you’ve either already been or a city that seems to be miles away. Bethesda intends for this element to increase the suspense and anticipation of finally finding your dad (whom Liam Neeson voices wonderfully I might add) but it only makes the experience feel contrived and forced. Rather than getting a new hint at every city, it would’ve been much more beneficial to have sprinkled these events much farther apart throughout the course of the story. What this results in is a fantastic concept dumbed down to make it painfully apparent what your next step needs to be. While a sense of direction and progress in an open-world, story-driven game is critical, it should be more of a nudge than a shove.
More than anything, Fallout 3 is a game that suffers from an identity crisis. While it alienates the hardcore Fallout fans for its sharp departure from typical Fallout games, it also attempts to appeal to those who enjoyed Oblivion. Some of those players might be enjoying the game right now, but many others who found Oblivion to be an engrossing game with a world that you could lose yourself for hours in have already tried their hand at Fallout 3 and moved on. Is Fallout 3 a disaster? Not by any means. Is it deserving of all the GOTY awards it received last year? Not by a long shot.
-Adriaan Noordzij
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