This is the impression off of neogaf forums. fallout 3 is basically oblivion with guns. the setting is pretty life-less, real time shooting sucks so you have use VATS all the time, and just doesn't stack up to previous fallout games.
right, I managed to get hold of the game for £50 tuesday evening and I have been playing solidly.. and i mean solidly for 4 days and here are my impressions, bear in mind i am a HUGE fallout 1+2 fan, and I put 110hours into Oblivion and the expansion, collecting all achievements;
I sat down to this game eagerly excited, but doubtful that the game would be good, after all for all extensive purposes this was a completely bastardised version of a game I adored. In a way it pleasantly surprised me, and in another way it totally let me down.
The game is essentially Oblivion. The view, the conversations, the map, compass, etc. Theres alot here which was instantly familiar. I've put in an insane number of hours in this game for such a short period, taking time to do as many sidequests as possible. It should be noted that all major quests have an achievement, while this may seem fantastic, you soon realise just how few quests there are, especially as the story line consists of many small quests. What is worse is just how many of these quests are the same. The storyline has you on a quest to save the world, or at least give it a kick up the arse on its way to being saved and is much better than the main storyline for Oblivion, and Liam Neesons voice is fantastic and a pleasure to listen to, but the side quests are really quite disappointing. Almost every single quest is a go here, kill everyone in sight, bring item back quest. What is even more annoying, is for the most part you are traveling to the same old places, either burnt out factories or underground metro tunnels, which not only reuse assets over and over, but lack any sort of level design.. they just simply exist room to room. I have not actually finished the main story for one simple reason, the game has no free roam once it is beaten. I am at the very end, with literally a final battle away from seeing the credits roll but I refuse to finish until I have cleared up more quests and explored more. From what I have heard the endings, no matter which you end up with, are massively disappointing, and I have no idea how DLC will work when there is an endgame.
The game is very much a shooter. Unlike previous Fallouts, Melee is COMPLETELY unnecessary, do not waste a single point of your stats on it. IMO all your stats at the start should be put into Speech, Small guns and Lockpick as they give you the best results. In real time, you won't find a worse shooter, and third person mode is quite possibly the worst thing EVER, but VATs gives you a (overpowered) good feel, even if it is quite wasted (I have gotten all the way to the end of the game only targeting the head or torso). You receive more Experience for real time combat, but its only deserved because real time combat feels like Stevie Wonder with a gun, failing to hit a target 5 inches in front of you. There is a huge emphasis on combat, which is unlike Fallout. In Fallout 2 I completed the game killing maybe 100 things, mainly radscorpians. So far in my Fallout 3 game I have killed over 500 things, not including the hundreds my partner has killed. The number of enemies are also very few in number, I must have killed 200 Super Mutants alone, and while the gore is amusing for the most part (especially with bloody mess perk) it can get boring fighting the same old enemies over and over, with only really Mirelurks requiring a strategy to kill.
A major annoyance in Oblivion was the 3 voice actors they used, over and over. Fallout 3 has alot more voice actors, and they are alot better (Although the guy from Oblivion still voices a few minor characters in the same voice). Like I said, Liam Neesons voice is great and its very rare you find two characters who sound the same, apart from the Ghouls who it seems all use the same voice actor. This is especially noticeable in the Ghoul town, where everyone you speak to sounds the same.
The game is still filled with little bugs and glitches; if you pick up an item off a table all the other items will shake around, just like Oblivion, and one of my quests is completely broken and is unable to be completed, which is a real pain in the arse. My partner often gets completely stuck in motion, or lost and hits a 400x speed sprint to catch me up (incidentally my partner is not Dogmeat, I went the entire game without finding him). General things like loading are fine and not at all over the top, and provide you with information as you load like number of Stimpacks used, Locks picked, etc.
The game is based very heavily on Karma. Most major quests will give you good or bad options, for one example a woman asks you to do 9 quests for her to fill in a book. You can do every quest for experience and good karma, or you can, using a high speech skill, tell her shes an idiot and shouldnt waste time on a book losing you karma but saving you from doing 9 fetch quests and unlocking an achievement for you instantly. Essentially for most quests though, the Karma doesnt really have enough consequences other than earning you more money for doing the bad thing.
The map is huge, at first it looks tiny on your Pip Boy, but when you actually go walkabout you realise how big it is. Sadly, as big as it is, it is massively empty and disappointing. There are very, very few numbers of towns with unique NPCs and huge numbers of useless areas that offer very little except scenery you have already seen over and over. The entire game seems, from number of enemies, to similar assets and plain wasteland, to be too big for its boots. The game would have been alot better if the map was half the size with less filler and more things to do.
Theres so much to talk about, and I really feel like im on Fallout overload from playing so much (I have Dead Space sitting here begging to be played), but ultimately this is a good game but by no means GOTY probably because it feels so similar to Oblivion, although this is just my opinion. Is it a worthy Fallout game? No, I dont think it even comes close to the charm, grittiness or atmosphere of the original Fallouts, but if you take it as an Oblivion expansion then you realise it is a great game, worthy of being in your collection.
Phew.
edit: just regarding the system, I played on the 360, the frame rate was very smooth throughout, apart from two areas but I think it was chugging because i had too many saves. The game froze on me 3 times, but only once required a reboot of the console. If you are worried about the 360 version, don't be.
I sat down to this game eagerly excited, but doubtful that the game would be good, after all for all extensive purposes this was a completely bastardised version of a game I adored. In a way it pleasantly surprised me, and in another way it totally let me down.
The game is essentially Oblivion. The view, the conversations, the map, compass, etc. Theres alot here which was instantly familiar. I've put in an insane number of hours in this game for such a short period, taking time to do as many sidequests as possible. It should be noted that all major quests have an achievement, while this may seem fantastic, you soon realise just how few quests there are, especially as the story line consists of many small quests. What is worse is just how many of these quests are the same. The storyline has you on a quest to save the world, or at least give it a kick up the arse on its way to being saved and is much better than the main storyline for Oblivion, and Liam Neesons voice is fantastic and a pleasure to listen to, but the side quests are really quite disappointing. Almost every single quest is a go here, kill everyone in sight, bring item back quest. What is even more annoying, is for the most part you are traveling to the same old places, either burnt out factories or underground metro tunnels, which not only reuse assets over and over, but lack any sort of level design.. they just simply exist room to room. I have not actually finished the main story for one simple reason, the game has no free roam once it is beaten. I am at the very end, with literally a final battle away from seeing the credits roll but I refuse to finish until I have cleared up more quests and explored more. From what I have heard the endings, no matter which you end up with, are massively disappointing, and I have no idea how DLC will work when there is an endgame.
The game is very much a shooter. Unlike previous Fallouts, Melee is COMPLETELY unnecessary, do not waste a single point of your stats on it. IMO all your stats at the start should be put into Speech, Small guns and Lockpick as they give you the best results. In real time, you won't find a worse shooter, and third person mode is quite possibly the worst thing EVER, but VATs gives you a (overpowered) good feel, even if it is quite wasted (I have gotten all the way to the end of the game only targeting the head or torso). You receive more Experience for real time combat, but its only deserved because real time combat feels like Stevie Wonder with a gun, failing to hit a target 5 inches in front of you. There is a huge emphasis on combat, which is unlike Fallout. In Fallout 2 I completed the game killing maybe 100 things, mainly radscorpians. So far in my Fallout 3 game I have killed over 500 things, not including the hundreds my partner has killed. The number of enemies are also very few in number, I must have killed 200 Super Mutants alone, and while the gore is amusing for the most part (especially with bloody mess perk) it can get boring fighting the same old enemies over and over, with only really Mirelurks requiring a strategy to kill.
A major annoyance in Oblivion was the 3 voice actors they used, over and over. Fallout 3 has alot more voice actors, and they are alot better (Although the guy from Oblivion still voices a few minor characters in the same voice). Like I said, Liam Neesons voice is great and its very rare you find two characters who sound the same, apart from the Ghouls who it seems all use the same voice actor. This is especially noticeable in the Ghoul town, where everyone you speak to sounds the same.
The game is still filled with little bugs and glitches; if you pick up an item off a table all the other items will shake around, just like Oblivion, and one of my quests is completely broken and is unable to be completed, which is a real pain in the arse. My partner often gets completely stuck in motion, or lost and hits a 400x speed sprint to catch me up (incidentally my partner is not Dogmeat, I went the entire game without finding him). General things like loading are fine and not at all over the top, and provide you with information as you load like number of Stimpacks used, Locks picked, etc.
The game is based very heavily on Karma. Most major quests will give you good or bad options, for one example a woman asks you to do 9 quests for her to fill in a book. You can do every quest for experience and good karma, or you can, using a high speech skill, tell her shes an idiot and shouldnt waste time on a book losing you karma but saving you from doing 9 fetch quests and unlocking an achievement for you instantly. Essentially for most quests though, the Karma doesnt really have enough consequences other than earning you more money for doing the bad thing.
The map is huge, at first it looks tiny on your Pip Boy, but when you actually go walkabout you realise how big it is. Sadly, as big as it is, it is massively empty and disappointing. There are very, very few numbers of towns with unique NPCs and huge numbers of useless areas that offer very little except scenery you have already seen over and over. The entire game seems, from number of enemies, to similar assets and plain wasteland, to be too big for its boots. The game would have been alot better if the map was half the size with less filler and more things to do.
Theres so much to talk about, and I really feel like im on Fallout overload from playing so much (I have Dead Space sitting here begging to be played), but ultimately this is a good game but by no means GOTY probably because it feels so similar to Oblivion, although this is just my opinion. Is it a worthy Fallout game? No, I dont think it even comes close to the charm, grittiness or atmosphere of the original Fallouts, but if you take it as an Oblivion expansion then you realise it is a great game, worthy of being in your collection.
Phew.
edit: just regarding the system, I played on the 360, the frame rate was very smooth throughout, apart from two areas but I think it was chugging because i had too many saves. The game froze on me 3 times, but only once required a reboot of the console. If you are worried about the 360 version, don't be.
Last edited by painey : Yesterday at 07:51 PM.
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