Fallout 3
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ESRB:
Blood and Gore,Intense Violence,Sexual Themes,Strong Language,Use of Drugs
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks Genre(s): Role Playing Game Home Page: http://fallout.bethsoft.com/
Combat - Loose Limbs & Enough Blood V.A.T.S. in action - aim for the head, thank you. Fallout 3 is M-rated for many reasons. One is the combat system that uses liberal amounts of blood and severed body parts to entertain. Combat initially appears to work like any first-person shooter, but Fallout 3 doesn't dismiss it's turn-based heritage and the main way to fight is by using V.A.T.S. - the Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System. V.A.T.S. is effectively a "real time with a pause" combat system. You have a constantly replenishing pool of Action Points and you can freeze time at any moment to enter the V.A.T.S. mode. Enemies show up with target areas and your chance to hit (and the projected damage) is shown as you choose where to aim. Depending on your stats and the weapon used you can queue up to 5-6 shots in one go. Once you commit to an attack, the combat plays out in slow motion - and very often blood and severed limbs will fly. I can't blame Fallout 3 combat as being too realistic, but the Havok engine gets properly abused to provide some entertaining ragdoll physics. In case you ever get tired of the slow-motion mayhem, there is an option to turn off the excessive slow-motion gore.
If the target refused to die after your first round of V.A.T.S. combat, you can either continue firing in real time or take cover and wait for your APs to regenerate for another barrage of V.A.T.S.-assisted fire. At first it feels a bit clumsy, but it seems that the enemy usually "plays along" with the system. It rarely charges you if you duck for cover and the overall flow of combat works very well - fire off some shots, take cover, fire off some shots... falling back a bit if needed. It's not flawless and there are some issues, but more about those later on. Guns, Drugs, Ammo...The selection of guns is quite impressive and there are plenty of special one-off weapons to find for those who enjoy the exploration aspect of the game. Some are rewards from quests, some you get to build from miscellaneous junk (you just need a schematic first) and some can be found in specific locations throughout the game. Ammo is often in short supply and while you can slowly dump the weakest guns as you level up, at any given time you'll end up using 5-6 different weapons simply because you can't possibly find enough ammo for the best weapon you have on hand. Guns tend to degrade over time and you can either repair them by using additional copies of the same gun as spare parts or by paying to NPCs for repair services. At first the repair costs feel astronomical and it's easier just to ditch a broken weapon and get a new one. Over time you get enough money to pay for the repairs and that allows you to keep all the unique guns in service. Armor works the same way and as a nice touch your stealth ability depends on your wear - put on a full set of Power Armor and you'll find out that while the damage reduction is nice, everyone will hear you from a mile away. Big guns, mostly the missile launcher and the handy shoulder-launched nuclear bomb should be saved for special targets that are too tough for small arms, and unsurprisingly ammo for these weapons can be hard to come by. Fallout 3 does reward the obsessive searcher who goes through every box and locker with all kinds of consumables, including rare ammo, medical supplies, oddball junk and performance-enhancing drugs.
The "glorification" of drug use actually almost got the game banned in some parts of the world and it's the reason why Morphine actually got quickly renamed to "Med-X" late in the development. Last I heard, Fallout 3 is actually unavailable in India due to it's content. Not due to the drugs, but the fact that Bethesda was somewhat uneasy about the possible reaction in the local press as there are some mutated two-headed cows in the game... and for Indians, cows are Serious Business. Beautiful UglinessFallout 3 presents the rusted ruins of the civilization very well, considering that it's using the same Gamebryo engine as Oblivion did. What was a high-tech engine back in 2006 could be considered outdated today. It's impressive how well the engine is used and the great visual design helps a lot. The graphics of Fallout 3 are, above anything else, consistent and well thought-out. Just like in Oblivion, you can play either in first-person mode, or in over-the-shoulder third-person mode. I personally found the game to work best in first-person as that way you won't be constantly reminded about the issues with the character animation. Whichever mode suits you, the game is playable either way. Fallout 3 also gets thumbs up for proper widescreen support and while the FOV is a bit narrow and console-style, it can be cured with a simple .ini file edit. The game is also not that much of a first-person shooter and narrower view bothered me only when playing on a 4:3 display. Even the UI is done right for a multiplatform game - works fine on the consoles, yet doesn't incite nerd rage with PC gamers and scales nicely as you bump up the resolution.
I could complain about minor details with the visuals that look a tad dated and when compared to something like Crysis or Far Cry 2, Fallout 3 looks a bit blocky, but it's all mostly irrelevant. The visuals are easily good enough, and they support a great game that doesn't need the latest tech to present the story. Besides, there's plenty to do for even the latest hardware - just bump up the detail and draw distance if you have the hardware. Just like with Oblivion, the charm of the world comes from the feel of realistic open spaces where you can actually go and walk to any landmark you see in the horizon and find out that it most likely has some interesting story attached to it.
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