Fallout 3 (PC) Review

The journey of the ‘Lone Wanderer’ begins right after exiting his or her mother’s womb, greeted by the voice of Liam Neeson, and inside the fallout shelter known as Vault 101; an intro that eventually sees the protagonist exiting this cosy home in the search for dear ol’ papa somewhere in the Capital Wasteland, which is what Washington DC is now called after a rain of nuclear bombs, and decades of radiation. As opposed to the original, where one gets a brief glimpse of the Vault, in here you get a chance to experience what life was inside these underground shelters. Here’s the thing with it all though: it is boring. Like, more than the already very boring intro of Fallout 2 boring.

In many ways, all Fallout introductions were somewhat boring… apart bar the one in the original, where, after a very brief cut-scene, you are thrown into the wastes to survive, something that manages to leave a much bigger impact, and doesn’t take much time. It’s understandable that Bethesda wanted to make you “connect” with the game world, as well as explain the various mechanics before sending you “out there,” but there’s definitely a very serious reason for the existence of a mod that skips all that. Sadly, the intro also gives the first example amongst many, of how the writing and overall atmosphere of the series has taken a beating.

The Bethesda Fallout instalments play much better than what came before. From exploration, to shooting, to the way the various menus (inventory, map, and so on) work, the first-person perspective is a blessing - but the wasteland of Bethesda is not the wasteland of Interplay, something that has a lot to do with how the developer just gave a Fallout re-skin to Oblivion, instead of trying to recapture the magic of the first instalment, treating it like a separate kind of beast altogether. And it looks dull. Yes, the Great War-torn Capital Wasteland does indeed have a bunch of post-card pretty vistas that are appropriately ruined by said conflict, but the overuse of grey, grey, and even more - greenish - grey, makes everything look identical. This “monochromatic” look is a tradition that even the, admittedly, much better (from a role-playing standpoint), Fallout: New Vegas continued, by adding an orange tint to everything.

Sadly, the real dullness is that this is not the RPG it used to be, as it leans more towards a sandbox survival/exploration kind of deal, rather than an open-ended adventure. Aside from interacting with NPCs to learn about what’s going on or to start quests, the bulk of the experience is about walking around, doing some killing, and collecting stuff. The option to just choose a direction and keep walking towards it is still here, but there’s not much role-playing to be done while at it. Unfortunately, when you do get to role-play a bit, it’s disappointing to say the least, partly because of how weak the writing and, as a result, the available cast of characters can be, but mostly because this doesn’t really understand the concept of choice.

Fallout used to be about deciding who you want to be, and this just isn’t very good at that. Starting with stats, perks, and so on, these don’t make you a different ‘character,’ but a different kind of fighter/explorer. Nevertheless, and despite the overall negativity, it’s important to note that this is actually a good game… but instead of a morally grey world, with believable characters and factions that “have a point,” even if one doesn’t agree with it, here there are simply good and bad guys. Instead of a hostile, post-apocalyptic realm where the outcome of war can be felt in the way humans have reacted to it, here it can be seen mainly in the way the land looks half-destroyed, because the actual denizens of the Capital Wasteland seem to be high on something (Mentats?), as few if any NPCs look and talk like wasteland survivors. Most of them are quirky characters who will put a smile on your face, which is fine for The Elder Scrolls, but not for Fallout.

There are moments of complete darkness in here, sure. This remains a very sad place, but the moment one steps into a populated area to have a talk with somebody, atmosphere and immersion gets thrown out of the window. The wasteland of Fallout 3, where it is mostly you against bad things that are out to get you, is the best part, as it does a better job at world-building, and without a single word uttered. Of course, one could argue that it’s possible to enjoy this by simply approaching it for what it is, not what it could be; as an FPS with a bunch of minor RPG elements. Well, this is exactly why Fallout 4 is so enjoyable. As an RPG it’s the absolute worse in the “pentalogy,” but it works mighty fine as a Skyrim set 5000 years into the future. Long story short: the weakest Fallout installment? Well, there’s always Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel…