I should probably start by admitting that I had in fact never played a Fallout game before in my life. I knew absolutely nothing about Fallout, other than what the title Fallout implies. I only got interested in Fallout when I heard Bethesda were behind the latest one, as my memories of Oblivion came to mind. I figured if it was anything like Oblivion, or its standard, it would be a good game. I didn't get what I expected, and here are my thoughts on the game after completion.
-I should say let's try and avoid any unnecessary comments should you not agree with my opinions.-
The game starts in the underground Vault 101, this section acts as a tutorial level for the game, and it also serves as the character creation. You start with the usual things like giving yourself a name, gender and hair style, and then select your initial attributes and skills. Following this you then get to interact with some family and friends and get a feel of the combat. This section of the game is fairly short and probably the least interesting part of the game. It does serve its purpose however, and even know I didn't like it I can't say there was anything wrong with it other than being a bit boring. The Vault as a whole does an alright job setting up the story, feeding you some basic information, and giving you a reason to leave the Vault. It's only when you do finally leave however that the game really starts.
I was impressed by the sheer scale and detail of the environments, and I found myself able to just look around without purpose, admiring the ruined city buildings. But sadly other than that everything else in the game seemed to be a disappointment. The combat was adequate but very repetitive, and the equipment system just became an annoyance. I could never get over the fact weapons seemed to wear at an insane speed and I found myself constantly having to double back to have them repaired. I eventually ended up just dropping any worn guns in favour of the enemies as that was the only way to save time. I mean even if you used the repair skill yourself it still wasted time, and considering the combat was nothing special it became hard to take. Also, while I praise the wasteland itself the character models had some problems that have carried over from Oblivion. The biggest of them all was the fact your character didn't interact with the environment properly and always looked like he was skating over it rather than walking. This in turn meant that the third person view was never used. Other than that the odd iffy animation was really all I noticed, and thankfully the NPCs personalities were interesting enough that any graphical problems could be overlooked.
I have no intention of rambling on for too long so I'll get to my main problem with the game; length. Fallout 3 has a very short story compared to most RPGs and unless you spend time completing every side mission as well you're looking at a 12-15 hour game at best. I myself did complete every side mission, but found the most were too short. I would honestly have to say I enjoyed some of the side missions more than I enjoyed the main story, and I thought the main story was actually pretty poor. It's the setting itself that makes Fallout 3 a good game and everything else only brings it down. If you strip away or replaced the setting you would be left with a average game with a dull story. I'm sure the story could have been more, had it not been so short, and all it would have taken was some more length and depth and I probably would have liked it. As it is though, there just wasn't enough to get me interested.
In the end, I liked Fallout 3. I know I've pretty much complained about the few issues I had with the game but at the same time I still enjoyed it. I'm not sure what exactly I aimed to achieve with this post, but I think my main point is that I don't believe it's as good as Oblivion, or as good as some reviews claim. This to me is a game that clearly had more potential but poor choices and an average story leave it falling short of the mark. All I can say is better luck next time Bethesda.
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