Oblivion with Guns is Better Then Fallout with Good Graphics

By: Kozar927

With so much controversy and hype surrounding Fallout 3.  One can find themselves asking, Who do I believe?  The Fallout fanboys, the Bethesda fanboys, you Kozar? 
The answer to all of these is a resounding no.  As with any game you just need to play Fallout 3 for yourself before you make a final judgment, but I’ll do the best I can to break the game down for you.

First to answer a few common questions and clear up some misconceptions.

- Is this Oblivion with guns?
Well it is true this game does have more in common with Oblivion then with the first two Fallouts you will soon discover there are also many differences (some for the better and some for the worse).

- If I hate the first two Fallouts will I hate this?
No, not at all. The first two Fallouts played entirely different.  All this game does is share their name, and (to some extent) their story line.

- I never played the first two will I be able to follow the story?
Yes this game is a separate game with a new story line not related to the first two.

Gameplay: 8/10

As with any game the gameplay is the most important feature, so what separates Fallout 3 from the pack?  The gameplay is very deep.  If you haven’t played Oblivion or Morrowind you may not have played a game like this before.  The wasteland is yours to explore, from every major city to every subway station.  Well its true there are many scripted events, such as quests being triggered etc. there is also allot of fun things to find on your own.  You never know what’s in that next abandoned shack or just passed that scrap yard.  This aspect of the game lets me down a little in certain regards.  In Oblivion everything you saw could be visited (with the exception of passing the games borders), this however is not always true of Fallout 3.  Here is a scenario: I emerged from a subway station to find myself located in a town square.  Cool I thought as I was tired of searching for my next quest marker (which was on the other side of DC) in the subways.  I’ll walk the wasteland for a while I thought.  Wrong!  The worldspace is not all on the same... well for lack of a better word... worldspace.  My next quest was in a city to the south so I started to head south only to encounter many buildings blocking my way.  I just figured if I travel further in either direction I would find an opening. Wrong again!  That town square I was in was exactly that.  A square in its own worldspace yet located on the main map.  I though ok so maybe its still in the worldspace just blocked in by wreckage, so I opened the consol and typed in "tcl" to turn collision off and went passed the walls.  Yep dead cells.  All in all this isn’t a major complaint, coming from a game that excels in so many other areas.  The maps huge enough as it is any ways.  Like oblivion anyone is killable (except for the infamous essential NPCs relating to the main story) which makes for a very immersive game.  Whatever you find laying around is fully havocked (physics applied) so you can have fun shooting things off tables and decorating your house with your possessions instead of throwing them in the ol footlocker.  Common guys be creative!

Combat: 10/10

I am more of a fan of immersion and places to explore, as well as arranging your items in a nice house, but I must say a good combat system makes an awesome RPG spectacular.  Well Fallout 3 really knocked my socks off in this regard!  The way I see it the combat system breaks down into three different ways to fight, something for everyone!  First theirs first person combat: This plays like a standard FPS with a few differences.  First off it’s still based on your skills RPG fans so don’t panic.  This works out similar to the system implemented in Mass Effect.  Your shots will sometimes stray off to the sides if your skill in that weapon isn’t too high.  The two reason first person mode suffers for me is the horrible gun textures, and awkward reloading animations (ill get into these later).  Besides those things first person mode will please fans of the shooter genre.  Now you’re just one click away from third person mode.  This mode makes leaps and bounds over oblivions third person combat system which was, for the most part, unplayable leaving fans of an immersive third person experience disappointed (I mean common you spend all your time getting cool armor and you can’t even look at it during fights).  Fallout 3's third person however is very playable and accurate (mostly due to a third person crosshair and an over the shoulder view).  It’s fully possible to watch your characters animations and look at his nice clothing while taking out that super mutant.  Third person reloading animations also look allot nicer and feel real.  You also can’t make out the awful gun textures being that far away from them making third person mode the mode of choice for this player when it comes to real time combat.  Of course nothing is without its flaws.  Third person combat suffers from some problems when you back into a wall and are trying to keep track of the enemy.  The camera turns into some sort of third person/ first person hybrid making it almost imposable to see your target leading to death most of the time.  This isn’t game breaking however, just switch to first person quickly to finish off the badie, just do it quickly and a switch back before you get an eyeful of god awful gun texture.  Last but not least is the infamous combat mode V.A.T.S.  Press the V key and the game pauses highlighting the enemy closet to you and zooming in.  Moving the mouse around will highlight various body parts including: Head, Left arm, Right arm, Left leg, Right leg, and for those feeling really lucky, Gun.  You will notice a percentage next to each body part. Based off your skill in the weapon your using, the range of the weapon (rifle shoots further then a pistol), and your distance from your target that percentage is formed which shows how likely your shots are to connect with the target. Once you pick your body part of choice it’s time to queue up your attacks.  This is based on your AP or action points.  Queuing up attacks uses action points so you’re limited to a certain number of attacks in V.A.T.S.
So you queued up your body parts and hit E, now the fun begins.  The game enters slow motion and you and your opponent exchange shots (or strikes if you’re using a melee weapon).  What do you do during V.A.T.S you ask? Nothing! Sit back and watch. No reason to complain turn based combat fans what more could you want?  So congratulations one of your shots landed! Now what? Now the blood bath begins!  This game isn’t rated M for nothing.  Sure heads explode and limbs sever in real time combat but it doesn’t really register with you until you see it in slow motions V.A.T.S.  If you hold down V you can see a zoomed out picture of all the NPCs in your range and you can click on the one you want to enter V.A.T.S. with.  It’s not without its problems (what isn’t?).  Some people say the deaths in V.A.T.S. are over the top and can be a little ridiculous.  This isn’t always true, but sometimes it’s very obvious.  For example I ran across a dog hell bent on eating me.  So I went into V.A.T.S. and queued up a shot on his head.  Well not only did his head explode into trillions of pieces but his lifeless body launched into the air and flew over 20 feet all the while doing back flips at a speed that probably broke the sound barrier.  A little ridiculous if you ask me however it doesn’t happen enough to break immersion, but when it does it sure give ya a good laugh.  Another complaint that doesn’t bother me at all really is the slow motion in V.A.T.S.  People say it looks stupid, but I think it’s nice if you don’t use it all the time.  I personally use third person as my normal style and then switch to V.A.T.S. for some epic final kills.  As far as combat goes there’s something here for everyone.

Story: 9/10

One of Oblivion major complaints was that the story was awful.  Personally I agree with that, but it didn’t bother me as an immersion player because when I play good sandbox RPGs I like to make my own story which is easiest when one isn’t prevalent.  Well people who avoided this genre because they like their game to have a good story rejoice!  Fallout 3 has a very good story line for an open world RPG with so much freedom.  Without going into too much detail the story doesn’t block your immersive experience by letting you do it whenever you want etc. so if you’re like me and don’t prefer allot of story your fine here to, just don’t follow it religiously, and do it when you need a break from wondering the wastes.

Graphics: 6/10

Sadly you’re getting a real mixed bag in this department.  This is coming from my SLI pc which ran everything on highest settings.  I’ll start by saying the lighting is wonderful!  The HDR is ages above Oblivions and the LODs are slightly improved (bar a few LOD mesh errors my friend brought to my attention) as well.  Textures on faces and overall look of the NPCs are stunning.  Out in the wastes at around 12 O clock noon the game looks stunning due to the games ability to present millions of horrible textures into a very good looking overall picture.  Seriously Beth, why did you do this?  Take a look at a texture, anyone of them.  Looks like the only thing from Fallout 1 they wanted to emulate was the textures.  Go into first person and take a look at your gun.  It’s enough to make ones hair stand up.  Oblivion unmodded has much better textures.  I guess this is understandable however.  They wanted people with PCs less than $1000 to be able to run it.

Camera: 9/10

Most games suffer from the same old camera problems, I am pleased however to report Fallout 3's camera has improved tenfold over Oblivions.  Third person over the shoulder view is awesome.  If you don’t like how far to the left your character is just zoom out the wheel.  I however recommend keeping him slightly to the left because this makes third person combat allot easier.  The one problem I have here is the fact that the camera sometimes zooms out when you didn’t want it to.  Oblivion suffered from this as well.

Sound: 9/10

Its sound what’s to say? Plays out of my surround sound system fine and sound amazing.  I always turn off music in games to add to immersion so I can’t review that but the radio is allot of fun to play with :)

Inventory and other Misc. Stuff: 7/10

The pip boy is a very immersive and unique way to manage your inventory.  The only problem I have is the lack of a character view.  I loved to try on clothes and not have to unpause to see what they look like.  Another minor complaint I have it the lack of clothing options.  The broke the TES formula by making your two mix and match clothing options to be head and body.  Big mistake Beth.  I don’t want outfits I want to go out with my clothes not matching sometimes. Oh well, mods will fix things like this I suppose.

I know I didn’t touch on the first two Fallouts mostly because this isn’t a review of them, but I will take this time to say this game is nothing like them.  it might as well not even been called Fallout. In all honesty the Fallout games weren’t even fun for their time.  They’re not immersive it all their basally RTSs.  So if you’re hoping for a sequel to Fallout look somewhere else if you want to play a sequel to Oblivion that improves upon the formula in every way then this is for you.

All in all this is shaping out to be one hell of a memorable game.  If you’re like me and are still playing Oblivion after 3 or so years then this game will be your companion for years to come.

As its problems go don’t forget mods.  That’s what kept Oblivion going for so long.  The things people did with that game is amazing and as soon as CS is released you can expect the same here.  If the bad textures are stopping your purchase don’t let it. Qarl will be around soon to fix that up :) (Fingers crossed)

With official DLC and the imminent mods, this game will definitely hold you over till the release of The Elder Scrolls 5 and beyond.

Final Score: 9/10
-Kozar927