Review: Fallout 3 (PS3)

The setting of Fallout 3 is fantastically realised, a futuristic post nuclear doomsday scenario. Outside Vault 101 is still classic 1950’s Americana, or what’s left of it to be precise, smelted in the heat of the mushroom clouds. Indoors, society has remained in limbo, developing its own futuristic retro style. When war broke out the population headed underground to ride out the storm and preserve the human race. As the main character your find yourself growing up in the safety of this underground vault, receiving education and wondering just what is left up top. Contact with the outside world is non-existent and children are selected and groomed for positions within the facility. Your life it seems is set out before you with little chance of freedom or any expression outside the system rules.

This initial vault setting serves its purpose as a training mode, allowing you to come to terms with the huge range of options Fallout 3 offers. A few key moments from your young life are displayed, with your father taking prominence. Unlike Bioshock this retro setting is only the opening act of an epic adventure. It is no surprise that you break out to find your dad, and leave behind the vault lifestyle once and for all. Certainly an initial criticism is that more wasn’t made of this vault environment, allowing more relationships to be fostered, or skills acquired. Instead in the heat of youthful anger, you go topside.

As the landscape remains unknown to vault escapees, you spend the first few hours establishing your immediate surroundings. The barren landscape is home to many mutant monsters oversized by radiation, but thankfully not to Godzilla proportions. Human scavengers also exist; some friendly, others more interested in killing you for any possessions. These are loosely divided into gangs, with some being far more powerful than others, while some pursue their own version of religion. Camps also exist and can be manned by friendly hosts or those engaged in human slavery. It is up to you how such situations are treated and what sides you will take.

Fallout 3 relies on experience to move you through the character levels. As you grow and progress, new skills and options can be selected. So for instance, if you prefer to fight rather than use stealth or hacking, then you can tailor your character in this fashion. Yes, in a roundabout way the influence of these enhancements is clearly from Bioshock. This does bring a little more interest to encounters than seen previously in Oblivion. However the actual combat system is still in need of work, as whether in a third or first person perspective, it remains slow, cumbersome and a poor relation to the grand scope shown by the quests and options Fallout 3 offers.

The character interaction is not as in-depth as Gamestyle hoped for, your range of questions is limited and responses are even more constrained. It is possible just to ask every option in turn, until you receive the information or response you require. In comparison to the visual representation onscreen, the AI and interactions with these individuals is not up to par. There is a huge range of quests available and you are always stumbling across some previously unknown location or treasure, when you hit the road.  The first few hours are excellent, but soon you become bogged down in tiresome side missions and the need to please various residents when all you really want to do is reach some form of conclusion.

Technically Fallout 3 has a great deal going for it, despite the fog and environmental pop-up; you can appreciate these shortcomings given the scope of the project. It is the other problems that include freezing and bugs that really annoy. The animation is also terrible, plus how slowly your character moves on foot. While it is possible to immediate jump to discovered locations, the majority of the game is spent walking around. Despite the landscape being ridden with old cars and motorbikes. Where is the Oblivion horse when you need it? Sadly this PS3 version, unlike its Xbox 360 cousin won't be receiving any downloadable content.

Bethesda with Fallout 3 has been incredibly ambitious and this is welcomed by Gamestyle. Yet the final product has been injured by this ambition, by having too many options and locations, the quality is spread thin and the lack of restrictions can daze some players. In essence it is difficult not to argue with the sentiment that it is a larger Oblivion in a futuristic setting. Fallout 3 is severely obese with temptations and pickings for players. Size is not everything unlike the Deus Ex series, the range of possibilities have not been managed to a positive effect. Fallout 3 is an epic mess, the video game equivalent of Dune that will bore a select few and divide many more besides.

Rating: 7 / 10

Words by Jason Julier