Fallout 3

This weekend, we did quite a bit of spring cleaning. It was reminiscent of my last bout with spring-ish cleaning (it might have been winter-break-ish), that had me taking quite a haul into the local GameStop for trade-in credit. I ended up having an absurd amount of money, and I preordered Bioshock 2 with it, but I also picked up a couple games, and among them Fallout 3.

I'm not really a huge first-person-shooter (FPS) kind of guy. In general, it scares the crap out of me when all of a sudden there's a huge monster on my side eating me, and I move the wrong way and end up wasting a clip of hard-to-find bullets into the ceiling. My only real experience in the genre was Goldeneye for N64, and I'm afraid I never really played another since... However, after picking up, and playing the hell out of, Bioshock, I was willing to give another one a shot.

Fallout 3 had received rave reviews, and was even the Game of the Year. I was only a couple years late to the party (typical, actually, for my gaming habits).

The Fallout series is set in a distopian future, wherein conflict over resources between the United States and China culminates in nuclear conflict. Fallout 3 is set in the Washington, DC Metroplex, now called The Capital Wasteland, which has been savaged by nuclear fallout. Those that survived the rain of atomic fire did so in underground vaults.

I was immediately impressed by the immersion. I felt part of this unknown world, and had a lot of drive to explore every nook and cranny of my "home," Vault 101. The game sends you eventually out of the vault, and the Wasteland is magnificently huge, and overwhelming. The game certainly gives me some options on where to go and why (there is a general, large story arc), but it's entirely possible to do almost whatever you want. This is a great deal different from most of the games I'd played to this point, where you could take two hallways down to the same path, but didn't have an entire world to distract you between objectives.

Unfortunately, my first playthrough was slightly downhill from there. My inexperience with basic concepts of aiming, and over-utilization of V.A.T.S. (a system in which the game will aim at, and shoot, enemies for you; but is limited by your Action Points), led to early death at the hands - or rather, the mandibles of a town-full of fire breathing, giant, radiated ants.

I gave up on the game from there, and resigned to play other games in my queue. However, the draw of the initial immersion, stilted by ant-death, still tugged at my core. I put Fallout 3 back in, turned the difficulty down to psychotically easy, and gave it another go.

I'm really glad I gave Fallout 3 a second chance, which it richly deserved. My own ineptitude was really no reason not to play what a lot of people had agreed was an awesome game. While not granting you to shoot lightning out of your non-dominant hand, this FPS did have quite a few RPG elements: as you best enemies, or complete quests, you gain experience which increases your proficiency with weapons, or stealth, or communication, or ability to maintain armor. Before long, I started getting the knack of the system and was able to mow through the previously feared Fire Ants with a Minigun.

You can develop into quite a badass in the game as well. This only makes sense, seeing as your father is voiced by Liam Fucking Neeson. Your proficiencies are never really game breakers, but the basic travel and exploration become a little less terrifying when you know you can riddle a Super Mutant full of bullets before he even gets within swinging distance.

The game has a system of Karma. Doing good things, like saving slaves, increases your Karma, whereas stealing things or massacring an entire town-full of people. Karma does determine which ending is revealed to you, as well as trophy acquisition. I have been conditioned by society to play nice and not murder and steal from every NPC I come across, so getting the "evil path" trophy was a bit of a challenge.

Fallout 3 has great replayability. I have long since received a platinum trophy in the game. It's my fifth playthrough, and I'm still noticing aspects I hadn't before. A lot of the initial "what's over this hill" exploration fantasy is done, but it's still just as exciting to play through the main story and myriad of side quests.

The Game: Fallout 3.

The Cost: Available for XBox360 and the PS3, used for about $15. But do yourself a favor and go ahead and get the Game of the Year edition, which has all of the DLC included. It'll only set you back a couple extra dollars.

Worth It? I've played the game all-the-way through four times. Each playthrough probably took between 30 and 40 hours. The net result is about $0.15/hour of entertainment.

Best Parts: The replay value is astronomical, and the game is incredibly immersive and engaging.

Worst Parts: It can kick your ass if you're as green to FPS games as I am. Consider turning down the difficutly until you get the hang of things.

Overall: Fallout 3 continues to reign as one of my favorite games, if you have any interest at all in exploring the war-torn D.C. ruins, be sure and grab this gem and give it at least one playthrough.

Bonus! Zack Finfrock, who I find to be amazingly attractive, did a fan video set in the Fallout universe, which is great for a chuckle.