Ouch, not impressed by the combat in Fallout 3

By snide October 30, 2008 60 Comments

Giant disclaimer: I've only played an hour and a half or so of Fallout 3. This is just a quickie impression.

There is little in the way I can describe my absolute love for the Fallout games. For a turn-based RPG nut like myself there are very few moments in gaming where I was more happy then when I was messing with my pip-boy. I loved the setting, the humor, the story  and the general breadth of the game. What I loved the most about the series though at the end of the day was the combat. So much so that I consider Fallout: Tactics, the combat focused later game in the series, one of my favorite games of all time. Yes, you heard me right, I love Fallout: Tactics.

So, as you can imagine I've had some big expectations of the game. I was actually very pleased Bethesda got the rights to the brand because I very much enjoyed Morrowind and Oblivion. Morrowind specifically gave me goosebumps when I'd walk into a new town for the first time. Things couldn't be any better...

Today I purchased Fallout off Steam even though I knew I couldn't really play the game heavy until the weekend. The intro level is ok, it reminds me a lot of Oblivion, and to be honest everything about this game feels like Oblivion. That's ok I guess, we knew that coming in. Then I got to the combat... and the cockroachs (are you serious Bethesda, just make them fucking rats why don't you)!

...
...
...

VATS is horrible. Real time aiming with real time missing, even though you are pointing at something is horrible. I know it's an RPG, remember, I'M THE RPG GUY, but sheesh, this is just a tad silly. I'm very very afraid not only will I not like Fallout, but I'm worried this combat system will bother me so much, that I'll become an old man and bitch about the better days of gaming. The days when PC games were released with PC interfaces, not consolified, dumbed down, big font style menus. And the days when an AP system was for... you know... deciding how many things you could accomplish in a turn.

What this game needed if it HAD to be in 1st-Person was a combat system ala Wizardry 8. For those that didn't play that game (many did not) you moved your party of players (all 6 of you I believe) as if you were 1 person in a FPS view. When you'd encounter an enemy, the game would switch to turn-based mode and would play the same as any other TBS game, with the action taking place in the view of that character.

This mish-mash in between shit is very bad. The real time version sucks, and the paused version sucks.

On a positive, the world is obviously Fallout and I could see myself playing through the game even if the combat continues to be this horrible, but right now I'm pretty scared I'm witnessing my worst fears.

I'll report more later, but if you're looking for an RPG vet's opinion... right now I'm a little worried.

60 Comments