The Legacy of Fallout 3

This game is such an oddball amongst the Fallout franchise that it gets tons of deadpan criticism about how Bethesda has betrayed Interplay in turning it from classic isometric RPG into a 3D first-person shooter with some RPG elements like Deus Ex. Finding out the hard way meant having to play through the game to its mediocre conclusion and gameplay system that, while lacking in certain details, is still addictive enough even for the most loyal of Fallout fanboys. There are certain details that must be discussed before a person lets loose his raging bile duct and start ranting all over again about Fallout 3 and why it was supposedly inferior to its predecessors.

The year 2007 signaled the resurgence of PC gaming, which was the perfect time for such a game to come out years after Fallout 2. When the game did come out, it was such a hit in the mainstream market that it totally overshadowed whatever qualms the old fans had and was hailed as one of the best games ever made in recent history. For the record, it had so many good features that whatever bad ones it had, they were mostly negligible for most people.

Remember that we are trying to objectify a subjective experience in this whole affair. That is why we must play Fallout 3 in two different ways — as a newbie and as a Fallout veteran. When Fallout 3 was first announced, there was much speculation as to how the previous two games could be improved. However, when the teaser trailers came out with gameplay footage, mixed reactions resonated throughout the world as Bethesda stood their ground, undaunted about such a gamble as they felt absolute confidence with the formula they came up with.

As a newbie, you can see that it is such a visually appealing experience, especially with the VATS system that plays a slow motion of precision shots. The visuals are well-balanced in both aesthetics and smoothness. The soundtrack that could be heard over the in-game radio station sets the tone quite effectively and makes people of today’s generation like the classics of mid-20th century.

For Fallout veterans, it is a bastardization of the previous two games and the very concept of a post-apocalyptic world brought on by a nuclear holocaust by turning it from an easily observable and organized view of the world into the first person, which violates every bit of what isometric games represent. All in all, it’s like how old timers complain about today’s music.

As an apologetic for everything both sides have thrown to the other with great vengeance and furious anger, it should be said that Fallout 3 is a good game that does have its flaws, but has set the standard for creating an open-ended environment. Bethesda’s signature game design has crossed over from the Elder Scrolls franchise to this game with pretty good results. The Capital Wasteland has got to be the best open world ever made for any game, exceeding even those of Grand Theft Auto 4 and others. If it is better than The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, no one can really tell for sure, but it sure is the most unforgettable.

Perhaps the only real qualm that can be raised without question is the statistic “Agility”, but that is a discussion for another time.

Article from Gamersyndrome.com

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