ESRB: Mature
Manufacturer: Bethesda Game Studios, ZeniMax Media Inc.
GCRating: 5
Stats: Single Player, Trophies, FPS-ARPG, Open World Awesomeness - Karma Based Story
Story: Alternate Universe - what if after WWII Americans kept to the ideals of the 1950's? Then the Chinese finally dropped the big one in 2077, and THEN 200 years later, post Apocalyptic America, the horrors of surviving a nuclear Holocaust are evident in every fiber of every living thing in the D.C. area, now renamed the "Capital Wastelands" which honestly is an accurate description. Luckily you, the player, are born in a Vault, safe from the horrors of the outside for 19 years. Your father has been the driving force in your world up until the point where he leaves the vault. And of course you go after him, stumbling out into the world for the first time in your life - from that moment on, you choose everything you do. You can go after your father, you can just help ppl in the area, or choose to shoot first and ask questions later... Every choice gives you good/bad xp effecting how ppl approach you, and what options you have when they do. This is a first person shooter which was radically different from Fallout 2 which was an overhead god-like game (that I never played btw) but the decision to go FPS really boosted the sales according to sources I've read about this game, so good for you Bethesda!
Review: I am all about Fallout. I love it. Its brilliant, it's immense, it's exactly what they say it is. You choose everything, you can be anyone you want - there truly is no "right" way to play this game, and the replay value of it is endless bcs each choice you make effects the story drastically. For those of you who just like shooting games, there is plenty of shooting here, big bad baddies at every turn, human and mutated animal alike, altho I wish you didn't HAVE to shoot the dogs. Yeah I have a thing about that - I don't care if they aren't REAL - the puppy cries when you kill them break my heart. :p Yeah shutup. The innovative V.A.T.S system is very cool and easy to learn and implement. Very quickly you will be blowing baddies heads away in Kill Bill style gore and guts. Awesome.
Other then the great story and the innovative integration of good/bad karma, the graphics were stylized - and the VO was decent. The usage of the Pipp Boy was easy to get into to manage your extensive collection of 'stuff' you pick up on your travels. Its hard to know what's important and what's not at first but after you know - its all good. I love how during the game you get a 'house' where you can store your stuff - I'm a collector, and love managing the money and items - and can spend hours just doing that... and have. :) The post apocalyptic inhabitants are well designed, plausible and unique. If you've ever wondered what post apocalyptic America would be like, this game comes pretty damn close to the vision. Ok so you say, graphics are good, game play is good, storyline is... good, and replay is good, so why did you give it a 5? Well friend, bcs the game is riddled with glitches. From twitchy dead baddies to down right freezing up - a lot - not to mention gun jams and falling through the ground, to black 'webbing' that suddenly fills the sky - its like the glitch fairy was angry at Bethesda and gave this game an extra dose!
Likes: VATS, stuff collecting, HUGE map with SO many missions, and health regeneration (you have to eat and drink to live)
Dislikes: Glitches
Great review. I agree that the glitches got to be a little much....unfortunately they failed to fix that in New Vegas. Oh well....still an awesome game.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I would add to this is, although it is truly massive and you can do whatever your little heart desires.....your actions don't actually affect the outcome of the story. As it were...no matter what you choose to do ultimately leads you to the same ending. Little disappointing, but with massive amount of gameplay...one really can't complain. Over a 100hrs in (wow...that's a lot when you write it out..)and not even close to completing all the missions or obtaining all the trophies!