gergroy

User Score
9.5

Presentation - 9.5
Gameplay - 9.0
Value - 10

Fallout 3 takes place in a post apocalyptic world.  You control a character that grew up in in a vault.  You get a few glimpses of your character as he or she is growing up.  Each stage represents a different tutorial on the game mechanics.  It works really well.

Eventually you get out of the vault and the world you are presented with is to be honest, amazing.  The level of detail is beyond anything else out there.  The world has become a wasteland, and you just happen to be in the area that use to be washington D.C.  You will see all the famous landmarks and how they have been warped and changed over the years.  Once out in the open, you are free to do pretty much whatever you want.  There is a main quest you can follow, and tons of sidequests.  The amount there is to do is daunting, but it is all very entertaining.

Ok, now that we know kind of what the game is about, let me break it down for you.

Graphics:

The graphics in this game are top notch.  Everything looks really good with the textures jumping right out at you.  One of the more impressive things in the game is how you can pretty much see everything in the distance.  I remember when I was playing oblivion I would get really annoyed because all the grass and bush's would appear about 20 feet in front of me, but beyond that it would all look plain.  Here, you don't really see that much pop in, which might be because it's just a giant wasteland, which brings me to my second point.

The art style.  I think the art style often has more to do with how people percieve the graphics in a game and fallout doesn't dissapoint.  The apocalypse has obviously taken it's toll on Washington D.C.  Everything is crumbling or destroyed, and the designers of this game have done an excellent job of fitting that all together into a world that humans can enjoy and interact with.  You will get a kick out of seeing the jefferson monument, or the washington monument in their dilapidated and mutant infested versions. 

Graphics overall:  10

I can't find any fault with the graphics in this game, nothing but good.

Sound:

Sound is another area that Fallou 3 delivers on.  They have some great voice talent, like Liam Nielson, that deliver great dialogue.  I can't think of a single time that I was annoyed by a voice in this game, which is something that happens quite a bit in RPG's.

The music in this game was also really good.  It did it's job perfectly.  You felt intense and on guard when the music kicked into gear that meant you had an enemy gunning for ya.  They also had great mood music for when you were just walking around. 

Sound overal: 10

Don't think they could have done any of the sounds better.

Story:

This maybe the weakest part of the game.  There are tons of different quests in this game that all are pretty amazing and fun.  However, the main quest was fairly lackluster.  It's not bad, it's better than most games, but it was over pretty fast.  I never really felt as compelled by the main quest as some of the side quests, which is not how it should be. 

On the bright side however, while the main quest is short, that isn't all there is to the game.  There are hours upon hours worth of sideqests.  So the game can last a very long time.

Story overal:  8

Overall, I think the main storyline was dissapointing, which is what I would mainly judge the story of a game on.  I know they designed the game to be completly wide open so you can do whatever you want, but if you just did the main quest you could probably beat the game in 15-20 hours.

Gameplay:

The gameplay in this game is awesome.  It's a real time RPG, but it has an option where you can break it down and basically make it into a turn based with a system called VATS.  This gives it a level of versatility that games like mass effect or knights of the old republic don't have. 

 The guns in this game are awesome as well.  There are all sorts of variety that you can buy, pick up, or even make.  For example, you can make a gun called a rock-it launcher, which will catapult pretty much anything you are carrying at your enemies.  With this gun, it actually makes sense to go around and steal all those plates, statues, coke bottles, or whatever as you can use them as amo for your gun.

One problem with the gameplay, though, is that if you don't use VATS then it actually is pretty hard.  The hit detection is very picky and you don't seem to get as much umph to your shots.  As just a 3rd person shooter the game is actually fairly mediocre. 

Overall Gameplay: 9

Gameplay is great, the vats systems is ingenius.  There really isn't anything more satisfying then blowing the head off of a super mutant.  However, if you try to play the game without using the vats sytem, it can be pretty frustrating.

Overal: 9.5

The game is awesome, it has great graphics and sound.  The gameplay is great, and only suffers from when you try to play the game without using vats.  The main story is kind of shallow, but the game offers so much content that it makes up for it.  I highly recommend this game.