Summary [9.8 out of 10]

Bethesda’s take on the Fallout series re-imagined as a spiritual successor to the Elder Scrolls series, Fallout 3 looks a bit suspect on paper.  It seemed kind of like Bethesda was just trying to shoe horn the series into an already familiar mold to take the easy way out. As it turns out, the game is brilliant and builds on all the strong points of both series and very little of the weak ones.

My pick for best game of 2008, Fallout 3 is in danger of becoming my favorite RPG full stop.

The Great

• The graphics are gorgeous. Character models look great and the environment is stunning. Even the more ridiculous monsters look so good they don’t take you out of the game.

• The V.A.T.S. system rules. I was very skeptical about it going in when I read previews. The system, which stands for Vault-tec Assisted Targeting System, freezes the action to allow the player to target specific body parts on an enemy. The ability to disable an arm or leg in between standard run and gun tactics adds a ton of tactical options and makes each encounter completely unique. Integration is flawless and makes combat interesting and exciting.
• Incredible depth: There is so much to do here and so many ways to do it that it makes for one of the richest video game experiences available. The options available on what to do, where to go, how to get there and how to do whatever is you are doing are so expansive you are never left wanting for more.
• Almost limitless replay value: Because of the aforementioned depth, you can play through the game several times and never have the same experience. Watching someone else play their character is like watching a different game altogether thanks to the abundance of choices and the consequences of those choices. There is so much content and so many different branching choices, it is impossible to see it all in one or even two play throughs. And you will actually WANT to see it all.

• The controls and UI are very intuitive and keeps you from being bored to tears by menus and from throwing your controller across the room in frustration. You are never taken out of the experience by having to fight the interface or the controller.

The Good

• The main quest is decently fleshed out and intriguing. It isn’t spectacular but it compels you to keep moving forward and I actually cared at the end of the day. You have the now standard multiple outcomes but none feel tacked on or like a cheat.
• Side Quests are worthwhile: This can go either way in most RPGs and while Fallout 3 has far fewer official side quests than Oblivion or Morrowind, they are much meatier and more substantial than anything either of those games had to offer. There are several ways to attack the quests, to get them and to follow them up. Like the main quest you can accomplish these in a variety of different ways and they beg for repeat plays to see how each option plays out.

• Interaction with NPCs: the conversations with non-player characters is dynamic and fun. Essentially a streamlined take on Mass Effect’s branching conversation system, Fallout 3 offers a good, bad and neutral way to talk to people in keeping with the game’s karma system. What is nice is that through speech feats and interesting conversation options you don’t think about making the correct karmic choice for your character and it feels a lot more like you are actually having a conversation. Some of the speech options are pretty funny and you can talk your way right out of doing certain quests or fights if you choose to do so.
• Inventory management: It is pleasantly easy and flawlessly implemented. The hot key set up makes switching guns and equipment very quick and menu aspect is straight forward.
• Perks and leveling: The Perks system goes a long way to customizing your character and further tailoring your character to your play style. Having base attributes, skills and perks allows you to make your character exactly what you want him or her to be and does so in a very intuitive way.

The Bad

• The level cap: 20 comes way to early and when you are first starting out, it skews how you build your character because you think you have more time to boost stats. You can correct this in future play throughs, but your first character is hosed. Also, you get to 20 a lot sooner than you should and all you can do to improve is to find bobbleheads and skill books which gets annoying if you have pumped up a stat or skill only to find that they don’t stack above 10 or 100. The level cap should be raised in a future expansion.
• The end is the end: You can’t play past the ending which means you have to do whatever it is you want to do in the game before the end of the main quest. This is annoying and while it promotes multiple play throughs, the game would have benefited from letting you continue. Apparently this will be changed in a future expansion which makes me annoyed they didn’t just do it to begin with.

The Ugly

• The Ghouls: So gross looking you can almost smell the rotting flesh.

Conclusion [9.8 out of 10]

Calling a game a masterpiece is really sort of ridiculous nowadays as that term is thrown around a lot but in the case of Fallout 3 the term is apt.

It offers up hours and hours of content, tons of replay, an interesting story, intuitive user interface and combat and looks wonderful. When the worst thing that you can say about a game is that it ends, that is all you really need to say about the rest of it.