Fallout 3: GOTY

Much like Morrowind and Oblivion before it, Fallout 3 GOTY Edition is the typical Bethesda re-release of last year’s model with all the new downloadable content, and patches straight on the disc. Of course “game of the year” is pretty subjective, but for me Fallout 3 WAS the game of the year in 08. It managed to capture the addictiveness and living world of Oblivion, but also provide a narrative and the much more personal experience that previous Bethesda RPGs were lacking.

I spent countess hours on the initial Fallout, and so when news of the GOTY edition came, I was ecstatic. The 5 dlc packs were originally released as 360 exclusives and were slowly released over the several months. While we had to wait much longer for the first pack, the PS3 content packs came out much quicker, only within the last couple weeks did we get all 5 for $10 a piece. The GOTY edition includes all 5 packs for $60 so it’s a pretty good deal.

Since this is a review for the GOTY edition and not just the DLC, I’ll start from the beginning.

Fallout 3 is the latest installment in the Fallout series. The series takes place in various locations across North American, in an alternate future where the US was nuked. Before the bombing a company called Vault-Tec built tons of underground bomb shelters called vaults that were fully equipped to support human life after the bombs fell. It’s now several hundred years later and this history leads to a very interesting landscape. Technology has only evolved as necessary. Which is to say only in weapons, and a few scientific endeavors. Everything else in the landscape is pre-war technology. The country itself is completely devastated. There are barely any stable buildings left, all the water and food is radiated, and almost all wild life and plants are gone.

What makes Fallout 3 such an amazing experience is that within this barren landscape is a vibrant and living open world. Each location has its own story to tell, and it does it very passively. As you come across abandoned houses, and installations, you explore each searching for items; you can learn a lot about the location and people who lived/worked there.

The wasteland also has several “towns” created where the left over humans gather together. These are usually in well protected areas, or they are constantly under threat. There’s plenty to be scared of including raider and slaver gangs, mutated insects and animals, super mutants, mercenaries, traps, or radiation. The wasteland is a harsh place and you’ll learn that early on.

Fallout 3 has changed drastically from the series previous titles, much to fans dismay. It’s no longer an isometric RPG, with turn based combat. It’s built using the same engine as Oblivion, and is an open world 3d real time combat game. Its gameplay is completely different. What is not different is the atmosphere, story, items, etc. While the game plays completely different it still captures everything that made the Fallout series so memorable.

One feature of Fallout 3 that was inherited from Oblivion was the level scaling feature. All enemies are roughly the same level as you, and while I generally hate that feature in other RPGs (*cough* FF8), it works really well for an open world environment like this. There’s no need to worry about where you’re allow and not allow to go yet, and it allows you to do the quests in any order. It also keeps the games challenge quite constant, which is until you learn enough about the world and get enough weapons/ammo to smoke everything!

Fallout 3 takes place in what’s left of Washington, known as the Capital Wasteland. Years after all the vaults were sealed a signal was sent out to let vault dwellers know that it’s safe (or as safe at it will ever be…) to come out. All vaults opened except for vault 101. The dwellers of 101 believe that the area outside is completely uninhabitable and have never left. You play a citizen of 101, and your father flees the vault without warning. With no other option you escape after him, and the game’s main quest is to track your father down and learn why he left.

Along the way you can choose to be good, evil, or neutral. A lot of games promise a feature like this, but rarely deliver. To date, I think Fallout 3 offers the best moral system (yes, even over Mass Effect). The decisions you have to make REALLY affect the course of the game. The world is totally affected by your actions, and the effects ripple in some amazing ways.

As you explore the capital wasteland, most of your actions will earn you experience points. Everything from pickpocketing, to killing an enemy will get you some exp, though the majority you earn will be from quests.

Aside from the main quest, there are a ton of side quests to do. They are very cleaver and fun quests, and most importantly each one has several ways to accomplish the goal. Most quests have 4 or more different solutions, and it really adds to the feeling of the open world where you can do whatever you want.

Like any other game, earning experience allows you to gain levels. The original game had a level cap of 25 but the GOTY edition raises that to 30. Which is great, because you’ll definitely hit 25 long before you’re done everything (even without all the add on content).

Your main 7 stats don’t increase per level (there are a couple ways to increase them otherwise though). What does increase, are your skills. With each level up you get a set number of skill points to spend, and you also get to choose a perk. The perks are VERY cool, and will completely change how you play the game. Some simply increase your stats, accuracy, resistance to radiation, etc, but others have some very cool effects. Some of the cooler perks will allow animals to help you, increase the gore level, perform special actions, add additional dialogue options, unveil all the locations on your map etc.

So the wasteland seems like an impossible place to survive in. Luckily you have one item that will make life more manageable. Your PipBoy 3000 is a tool that goes on your characters wrist and does EVERYTHING. It’s the iPhone of the 23rd century, and includes features such as: first aid, inventory management, flashlight, automapping features, quest log, radio tuner, and assisted targeting.

Combat in Fallout 3 at its most basic, plays out like any other first person shooter game. Fallout provides tons of different guns and melee weapons. There’s pistols, rifles, shotguns, laser guns, missile launchers, mini nukes, grenades, mines, knives, clubs, brass knuckles, etc. Where the game steps away from the FPS style combat is with its VATS system.

This auto assisted targeting system pauses the game and allows you to use your action points to determine which enemies to hit and where. The game will switch to a cinematic view while your character makes the shots you input. If you run out of points you have to wait a short while for them to replenish, but you can always just fire away in the meantime. The system adds a lot of strategy and some really cool looking shots to the game. You can choose to aim for the head, body, arms, legs, or weapon to disable your opponent in any way you wish. It really sets the combat apart from other game.

Much like Fallout 2, when Fallout 3 launched it was the buggiest game this generation. I can’t even begin to describe the amount of issues I encounter, and I refused to play it until a patch was released. Several patches later, and I very rarely encounter an issue now. GOTY seems to be a very stable release. While I can’t comment on the expansions here I’ve played for over 30 hours and only experienced one or two minor bugs. So if you were put off the original for that reason, know that it’s no longer that bad. There are still some minor issues that creep up, but all in all it’s acceptable. Just save frequently, just in case.

Really Fallout is a game that bends genres. It’s an FPS, RPG, Adventure game all wrapped up in one, and it does all three of those things REALLY well. With all the work that went into creating the world, the game really is greater than the sum of its parts. I think everyone should give Fallout 3 a chance… if you can deal with the occasional bug.

Operation: Anchorage

Operation: Anchorage is the first DLC for Fallout 3, the quest can be taken as soon as you leave vault 101. If you have the DLC installed, or are playing the GOTY edition, you’ll get a message that your pipboy has found an Outcast Distress signal. You can listen in on the signal through the radio, and select this mission from your quests tab.

The mission begins with you entering an area nearby a Brotherhood Outcasts base. They are having some trouble with super mutants, so you can help them out, or not. Afterwards, you are invited into the base. If you haven’t learned to use power armor from the Brotherhood of Steel yet, you can learn here, which is a nice benefit if you take this quest early on in the game.

In the base you’ll learn that the outcasts are here because there is a sealed room full of weaponry and other technology that they want. The problem is that the room can only be opened by completing a simulated training mission. Only characters that have a pipboy can interface with the simulation machine (so just you and other vault dwellers). Get through the mission and you’ll get your share of goodies from the room, death means death so even though it’s a sim save often.

The simulation takes place before the war that turned the world of Fallout into what it is today. You play an American soldier who is part of a group that’s trying to take Anchorage, Alaska back from the Chinese army that’s invaded it.

Being a simulation you can’t use any of you items for this mission, but your levels and perks still apply. It’s hilarious to see the mysterious stranger show up in a simulation! The game starts you off with a silenced pistol, and you have to shoot or sneak your way in. Along the way you’ll find assault rifles, sniper rifles, grenades, mines, and the awesome new gauss energy rifle.

Also keep your eye out for intel briefcases. There are 10 in total, most hidden behind locked doors that are easy to miss. If you collect all 10 you’ll get a bonus perk “covert ops” when you complete the mission.

You can also no longer loot corpses. There are ammo dispensers all over the place that will refill your ammo for common weapons, and usually some grenades, mines, and energy cells around as well. You can only pick up one of those at a time and have to be dead on it to do so, which makes grabbing all the items quite a pain.

There’s no searching containers for loot. In fact, you can’t interact with almost anything, except the occasion shiny red objects like a couple of computer terminals.

There aren’t any more stimpaks either. There are several healing stations through the sim that will instantly restore your health to full, and you can use them as often as you want.

The enemies are Chinese soldiers and these komodo dragon troops who have camouflage and look like Grey Fox from Metal Gear Solid. They are very fast and completely invisible except for a small outline, and you can’t target them with VATS until you shoot them first to de-cloak them for a second.

The second half of this mission is a little more strategic. All your items are removed, and you’re allowed to choose from several equipment packs. You’re also in charge of a squad of solders. You can choose 3 solders types help you out as you try to complete two main objectives. Using a nearby computer you can choose your troops from a decent selection including: infantry, snipers, missile launchers, grenadiers, etc. You can tell the group which objective to meet you at and go in alone first, or have them come in with you. They do a good job, but it’s a little annoying because they don’t regain their health in between objective so any wounded troop you have to dismiss and request reinforcement from your squad leader. If you want to replace your squad, you can’t use in initial terminal again, you have to do it one at a time.

The mission is over once you clear out the storage room back in the outcast base. There are a TON of great items in it, including the new Gauss Rifle, the Chinese shock sword, a stealth suit, and a new set of power armor. The rewards are really worth while.

Overall Operation Anchorage is a fun side quest for Fallout. It takes about 2-3 hours to play through and find all the intel. It really focuses on combat, and there’s not much else to it, but being somewhere other than the capital wasteland is a nice change of scenery and pace.

The Pitt

The Pitt is the second expansion for Fallout 3 and the majority of it takes place in an area outside of the capital wasteland. To start the quest, check out the Outcast Radio Signal, and then make the related quest active. The first checkpoint is at the very north of the wasteland. Here you’ll find a character being attacked by several slavers. He tells you he’s from a far away place called the Pitt where slaves are taken to work in the mill. They are treated poorly and all sick because of the conditions. He wants to free the slaves from the rulers, but needs your help.

You access the Pitt through a train tunnel in the north west of the map. The new environment is nice and fairly large with quite a few areas to explore. If you want to know where “the Pitt” is, just look up at the sign as you cross the huge landmined bridge.

The game tells you several times to make sure you’re prepared before entering, but in actuality you’ll want to come in with as little baggage as possible. Drop a lot of your unnecessary items, weapons, and armor off at your home before starting the quest.
Upon entering the slaver camp, you’ll be stripped of all your weapons and items. As you advance through the quest you’ll start to pick up a ton of new stuff, so when you get your original items back at the end, you’ll likely have to make several trips to move all your loot back to the wasteland.

The quest includes some various gameplay elements. There’s a collection quest, several arena battles, and finally an all out war with some very serious moral choices.

The quest itself only lasts about 2 hours but there’s some lasting value after that. There’s an optional side quest where you have to find 100 steel ingots. Most are easily found (it just takes a while) but a couple are very tricky. For each 10 you find, you’ll get a wicked reward from a character nearby. You’ll get a lot of your best armor and weapons in this quest here. Also you can always return to the pitt area at any time. There’s an ongoing quest to bring certain items back from the wasteland for caps, and you’ll get access to a machine which converts ammo into other types of ammo so you can always stock up on your favorite bullets.

The biggest downside of the Pitt is that the bugs have returned. While the main game and Operation Anchorage have been pretty good for bugs (aside from some minor issues and the occasional freeze), you’ll want to save often in the Pitt. It freezes often and there a lot of other minor graphical, and gameplay related bugs. It’s still not as bad as Fallout was when it originally launched, but it’s not nearly as polished as the main game is now.

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