This game is (almost) literally unplayable on PC, with constant crashes and bugs plaguing it at every step.
However, it's very strong in how it shifted Fallout's gameplay style. The earlier Fallouts had a skewed trimetric perspective, whereas Fallout 3 is first/third person.
The Capital Wasteland is frankly very ugly. Visually, things look mostly the same. Everywhere you look, everything is grey. My fiancée insists it is green, but he is wrong- it is grey.
This does serve to make the areas that are not grey pop out and seem more distinct, but considering that the vast majority of the map does not share that distinctiveness, it's not a worthwhile trade.
The DLC areas are visually distinct and, in my opinion, are much better to look at than the main game.
Combat is very basic. A famous note for Fallout 3 is that despite some weapons having sights, guns do not use them. All of your aiming is done via reticle.
VATS is interesting and sometimes useful for wiggly targets and low accuracy weaponry.
Skill checks are very fun to have, and it's nice to be able to change how something works out because of skills that you've obtained. The speech system is a % chance based off of the speech skill and a character's charisma, which imperfectly resembles Fallout 1/2's speech system.
The story for Fallout 3 is okay. Without spoiling too much, you leave the vault you grew up in to pursue your father who left without a word. You continue the chase once you get out, and end up playing a role in changing the wasteland for better or worse.
Aside from the main story, many aspects of earlier Fallout exist in Fallout 3.
-The Enclave, primary antagonist of Fallout 2, has a presence in Fallout 3.
-The Brotherhood of Steel has a chapter in the Capital Wasteland.
-Super Mutants, different from Fallout 1/2, are present and 'procreate' by submerging people in FEV to mutate them.
-Ghouls!
I have very specific criticisms of each, but I can only get into Super Mutants without spoiling everything else.
Super Mutants in Fallout were equally dangerous and mysterious, and are the result of a plan created by a FEV mutant named The Master. Most of the first Fallout is played without us knowing much about The Master, the Super Mutants, or the Children of the Cathedral.
In Fallout 3, Super Mutants were undermined and removed from being interesting villians. They are all very stupid and very violent. They kill some creatures and hang them in netted flesh bags to eat later, and haul humans off to be transformed into Super Mutants.
Newer lore would attribute this distinct difference in 'breed' to which strain of FEV they were changed by, but this basically contradicts what The Master's discovery in how radiation affected mutations. Most infections with FEV were not successful and resulted in the subject dying, but in Fallout 3, the Super Mutant population is sizeable despite their FEV supply running low.
To explain further, FEV was made more widespread and less concentrated when they added Super Mutants to Fallout 3. The writers also went off of the story angle that Super Mutants everywhere were created when they were submerged in FEV, when this was a process unique to The Master.
Overall, I'd say that Fallout 3 is a good game and is very important for how it set the standard for new Fallout games. It'd just be better if it were actually playable on PC.
However, it's very strong in how it shifted Fallout's gameplay style. The earlier Fallouts had a skewed trimetric perspective, whereas Fallout 3 is first/third person.
The Capital Wasteland is frankly very ugly. Visually, things look mostly the same. Everywhere you look, everything is grey. My fiancée insists it is green, but he is wrong- it is grey.
This does serve to make the areas that are not grey pop out and seem more distinct, but considering that the vast majority of the map does not share that distinctiveness, it's not a worthwhile trade.
The DLC areas are visually distinct and, in my opinion, are much better to look at than the main game.
Combat is very basic. A famous note for Fallout 3 is that despite some weapons having sights, guns do not use them. All of your aiming is done via reticle.
VATS is interesting and sometimes useful for wiggly targets and low accuracy weaponry.
Skill checks are very fun to have, and it's nice to be able to change how something works out because of skills that you've obtained. The speech system is a % chance based off of the speech skill and a character's charisma, which imperfectly resembles Fallout 1/2's speech system.
The story for Fallout 3 is okay. Without spoiling too much, you leave the vault you grew up in to pursue your father who left without a word. You continue the chase once you get out, and end up playing a role in changing the wasteland for better or worse.
Aside from the main story, many aspects of earlier Fallout exist in Fallout 3.
-The Enclave, primary antagonist of Fallout 2, has a presence in Fallout 3.
-The Brotherhood of Steel has a chapter in the Capital Wasteland.
-Super Mutants, different from Fallout 1/2, are present and 'procreate' by submerging people in FEV to mutate them.
-Ghouls!
I have very specific criticisms of each, but I can only get into Super Mutants without spoiling everything else.
Super Mutants in Fallout were equally dangerous and mysterious, and are the result of a plan created by a FEV mutant named The Master. Most of the first Fallout is played without us knowing much about The Master, the Super Mutants, or the Children of the Cathedral.
In Fallout 3, Super Mutants were undermined and removed from being interesting villians. They are all very stupid and very violent. They kill some creatures and hang them in netted flesh bags to eat later, and haul humans off to be transformed into Super Mutants.
Newer lore would attribute this distinct difference in 'breed' to which strain of FEV they were changed by, but this basically contradicts what The Master's discovery in how radiation affected mutations. Most infections with FEV were not successful and resulted in the subject dying, but in Fallout 3, the Super Mutant population is sizeable despite their FEV supply running low.
To explain further, FEV was made more widespread and less concentrated when they added Super Mutants to Fallout 3. The writers also went off of the story angle that Super Mutants everywhere were created when they were submerged in FEV, when this was a process unique to The Master.
Overall, I'd say that Fallout 3 is a good game and is very important for how it set the standard for new Fallout games. It'd just be better if it were actually playable on PC.
3/5 without mods, 4/5 with mods. It's servicable.
I think, in terms of an being an RPG, Fallout: New Vegas is better. However, what Fallout 3 manages to succeed in is atmospheric storytelling. The Capital Wasteland feels way more interesting of a setting to me than the Mojave Wasteland. And while the main quest isn't anything special, some of the side quests in this game are the best in Bethesda's entire catalog. One of my favorite games ever.
Hardly worked on my system to start even with mods that would help fix issues. On top of that, it really lost the vision of Fallout and made the main story really linear and a lot of events that happen would feel really scripted. Either that or the morality that could be really nuanced and complex in the first game feels really childish here (kill or do not kill). The game also lacks a great deal of originality and retreads Fallout 1's general ideas.
Someday I'll finish that stupid swamp DLC
Worst fallout
The main story in Fallout 3 leaves much to be desired and it could be better in the roleplaying area but it's still a great game with some 10/10 side quests.
a classic
I returned to be evil and get the platinum 12 yrs later. If ever there was a game I should have the platinum for it is this one... and now, it is done.
I returned to be evil and get the platinum 12 yrs later. If ever there was a game I should have the platinum for it is this one... and now, it is done.
When I turn my brain off just a little, I find that this game really isn't so bad.
Fucking dad issues little bitch
Fallout 3 is basically Elder Scrolls slapped with a post-apocalyptic coat of paint. Where it stands out is through its FPS gameplay and unique charms, like the old-timey music, Pip-Boy, and VATS system. It's a fantastic game.
I don't want your mother's ghost haunting me because her only child became a garbage burner.
I had never played Fallout 3. My entry into the Fallout Franchise was Fallout New Vegas. And if you know anything about the discourse surrounding these games, the general consensus is that New Vegas took Fallout 3 and improved on everything that F3 lacked, including the classic RPG chops that Obsidian is known for but Bethesda has never really excelled at.
And I really didnt want that to be the case. Obviously it will always be somewhat unfair to compare a game to the one that came after on the same engine, being able to skip one of the most time consuming aspects of Game development. I really wanted to be able to say that whilst lesser, F3 had its own strengths and the world is big enough for both but good god did that end up not being the case.
Fallout 3 is just Oblivion with Guns, as they say. The long, dull, overlong opening that did not really even make me sympathise for any characters or a struggle or anything was pretty bad but on a first playthrough is even slightly tolerable. The character writing and quest designs seem so dull. The combat is awful, even worse than New Vegas and far too easy. This would be fine usually, the combat in New Vegas kinda sucks too but it had the good core of story and role playing to keep it interesting. I cant speak to the Super Mutants, they are all hostile to me, maybe they explain later if they have some sort of leader like the Master or Tabitha commanding them to shoot humans on sight but I will never know.
Time and time again all Fallout 3 seems interested is combat, combat combat combat. By the time I was 4 hours in in New Vegas I had helped repel a gang from a town, helped a rebelled prison and then double crossed them to ingratiate myself to one of the major factions, learned a lot about the man who shot me, flirted with a Gay quartermaster, gotten my first companion in the form of an alcoholic merchant, had some combat yes, in the form of the various expertly designed and placed gang ambushes and met Caesar's legion in Nipton, and their atrocities.
By contrast 4 Hours in in Fallout 3 I went through a long dull intro, reached Megaton, disarmed a NUCLEAR BOMB with 25 explosives skill, raided a super market filled with raiders for a wasteland guide (that quest was at least semi interesting), did a dull quest about some fire ants and spent fully 25 minutes trying to find the entrance to the stupid chevy chase district (oh silly me, of course you had to use a specific metro station) and everything else was just shooting at everyone and everything.
More than anything, Fallout 3 is far too wasteland-y for its own good. This is a world where the bombs dropped centuries ago, people should already be in the process of having rebuilt SOMETHING. Where are the farms? I didnt see any. "The water is irradiated, no crops would grow" then they'd all be dead mate, there would not realistically be enough blamco mac and cheese lying around for hundreds of years. Even beyond the incoherence of the world building its just DULL, a world filled with raiders, orcs, monsters etc without interesting settlements beyond a handful is a boring world. Its a world filled not with characters but target practice. And again, the combat sucks, so its not even compelling on the level that a Stalker Game would be (which even that had better RPing).
Ill admit I did not get very far, maybe this game has good things to offer but whatever they are, they're certainly not apparent in 4 hours of playtime, and I have much better things to get on with. What a slog.
Edit: Also worth mentioning the Bethesda brand Random Encounters TM. Unlike finely crafted combat encounters designed to be interesting and challenging you just suddenly get hit with a random encounter of three cows or radroaches or whatever, utter Filler
Edit 2 : In Columbo Voice : "Oh and just one more thing", this game has really insulting sound effects/melodies. Like when you leave the vault after the intro thats good enough on its own, but they dont trust you to feel that on your own so they add a cringe inducing little (I think its called leitmotif or something like that? might be the wrong term) jingle so you feel awe. A bunch more obvious, tell-you-how-you-feel sounds that insult your intelligence
And I really didnt want that to be the case. Obviously it will always be somewhat unfair to compare a game to the one that came after on the same engine, being able to skip one of the most time consuming aspects of Game development. I really wanted to be able to say that whilst lesser, F3 had its own strengths and the world is big enough for both but good god did that end up not being the case.
Fallout 3 is just Oblivion with Guns, as they say. The long, dull, overlong opening that did not really even make me sympathise for any characters or a struggle or anything was pretty bad but on a first playthrough is even slightly tolerable. The character writing and quest designs seem so dull. The combat is awful, even worse than New Vegas and far too easy. This would be fine usually, the combat in New Vegas kinda sucks too but it had the good core of story and role playing to keep it interesting. I cant speak to the Super Mutants, they are all hostile to me, maybe they explain later if they have some sort of leader like the Master or Tabitha commanding them to shoot humans on sight but I will never know.
Time and time again all Fallout 3 seems interested is combat, combat combat combat. By the time I was 4 hours in in New Vegas I had helped repel a gang from a town, helped a rebelled prison and then double crossed them to ingratiate myself to one of the major factions, learned a lot about the man who shot me, flirted with a Gay quartermaster, gotten my first companion in the form of an alcoholic merchant, had some combat yes, in the form of the various expertly designed and placed gang ambushes and met Caesar's legion in Nipton, and their atrocities.
By contrast 4 Hours in in Fallout 3 I went through a long dull intro, reached Megaton, disarmed a NUCLEAR BOMB with 25 explosives skill, raided a super market filled with raiders for a wasteland guide (that quest was at least semi interesting), did a dull quest about some fire ants and spent fully 25 minutes trying to find the entrance to the stupid chevy chase district (oh silly me, of course you had to use a specific metro station) and everything else was just shooting at everyone and everything.
More than anything, Fallout 3 is far too wasteland-y for its own good. This is a world where the bombs dropped centuries ago, people should already be in the process of having rebuilt SOMETHING. Where are the farms? I didnt see any. "The water is irradiated, no crops would grow" then they'd all be dead mate, there would not realistically be enough blamco mac and cheese lying around for hundreds of years. Even beyond the incoherence of the world building its just DULL, a world filled with raiders, orcs, monsters etc without interesting settlements beyond a handful is a boring world. Its a world filled not with characters but target practice. And again, the combat sucks, so its not even compelling on the level that a Stalker Game would be (which even that had better RPing).
Ill admit I did not get very far, maybe this game has good things to offer but whatever they are, they're certainly not apparent in 4 hours of playtime, and I have much better things to get on with. What a slog.
Edit: Also worth mentioning the Bethesda brand Random Encounters TM. Unlike finely crafted combat encounters designed to be interesting and challenging you just suddenly get hit with a random encounter of three cows or radroaches or whatever, utter Filler
Edit 2 : In Columbo Voice : "Oh and just one more thing", this game has really insulting sound effects/melodies. Like when you leave the vault after the intro thats good enough on its own, but they dont trust you to feel that on your own so they add a cringe inducing little (I think its called leitmotif or something like that? might be the wrong term) jingle so you feel awe. A bunch more obvious, tell-you-how-you-feel sounds that insult your intelligence
full review: https://medium.com/@pr0thean/lets-talk-about-fallout-3-2008-1254b364e01b
TLTR: As I grow older, I realize my favorite games don't need to be the best written, the best graphically. Perhaps Fallout 3 isn’t the best in the series, but it’s my favorite. It strives to do what it wanted to do, to make a love letter to a series it grew up with also. It falls short at times, it tries many new and old things. It’s funny, lonely, depressing, broken, and at times, unremarkable. This game is a love letter to the series. It might not be special, but there would be no more Fallout games without it. It’s not the best Fallout, but I love it regardless. It’s my Fallout, and it might not be your favorite Fallout, but it’ll always be yours too.
TLTR: As I grow older, I realize my favorite games don't need to be the best written, the best graphically. Perhaps Fallout 3 isn’t the best in the series, but it’s my favorite. It strives to do what it wanted to do, to make a love letter to a series it grew up with also. It falls short at times, it tries many new and old things. It’s funny, lonely, depressing, broken, and at times, unremarkable. This game is a love letter to the series. It might not be special, but there would be no more Fallout games without it. It’s not the best Fallout, but I love it regardless. It’s my Fallout, and it might not be your favorite Fallout, but it’ll always be yours too.
Que jogo chato!! Tedioso até demais, mas pensei que ia ficar melhor quando saísse do Bunker... Mas só piorou, tudo bem que eu carrego meio mundo de coisa, MAS POR QUE O PROTAGONISTA TEM QUE ANDAR TÃO LENTAMENTE?? ANDA MAIS RÁPIDO INFERNO!!! Ele anda tão lento que não me dá vontade nenhuma de explorar o que o jogo tem a oferecer, progressão muito lenta e a história e os mistérios não me cativaram, poderia até ficar melhor com o passar da gameplay, MAS O PROTAGONISTA NÃO GOSTA DE CORRER QUE NERVOSO
a deathclaw had a giant boner and hit me in the face or some shit
New vegas sola.
seria melhor não ter pai
Eat the baby
Apesar dos bugs, o jogo é bom.
I AM TOD HOWARDS STRONGEST WARRIOR I AM FALLOUT 3s STRONGEST SOLDIER
Fun game
as much as i loved this game as a kid I have to admit it is kinda trash. Everything is just ripped straight out of the og fallouts (Enclave, Super Mutants, etc.) It also goes against everything in Fallout 2 where society is already somewhat rebuilding itself.
Let's go sunning
It's so good for you
Let's go sunning
Beneath the sky of blue
Greet the sun every morn
Feel as free and happy as the day you were born
Let's go native
Sun your cares away
Be creative
Learn to live and play
Pretty flowers need the sun
This applies to everyone
Life's worth living
When nature's giving
Happiness to everyone
So let's go sunning
It's so good for you
Let's go sunning
Beneath the sky of blue
Greet the sun every morn
Feel as free and happy as the day you were born
Let's go native
Sun your cares away
Be creative
Learn to live and play
Pretty flowers need the sun
This applies to everyone
Life's worth living
When nature's giving
Happiness to everyone
So let's go sunning
this game fucking sucks.
I finished this a few weeks ago but haven't gotten around to reviewing it yet because I'm Still playing it lol. I played this for the first time in 2022, and it blew my mind honestly. I find the world so interesting, and I absolutely love wandering around, finding places, and discovering their story with the clues left around. It also caters well to different playstyles. If you want an easy time and just wanna explore, just bring a companion or two around and maybe just depend on VATS. If you want an actual shooter experience you can also have that. A lot of people hate the quality of the story, but I didn't mind it much. It's not really what I was playing for. I'd give this game a 5 if it weren't for how tedious it sometimes felt to deal with bugs/crashes in addition to the pathing of the npc companions LMAO they can't traverse as well as MC so a lot of the time they will disappear for days on end. Bugs aside, I love this game if it's not obvious.
"did full playthrough plus all dlc's. so much fun! i just wish that
there was way less game crashes. i had to wait a day so that
my ps3 could handle the final dlc without crashing or freezing.
Over all though, this game was beyond amazing and the
story/gameplay had me wanting to keep playing!"
there was way less game crashes. i had to wait a day so that
my ps3 could handle the final dlc without crashing or freezing.
Over all though, this game was beyond amazing and the
story/gameplay had me wanting to keep playing!"
Not as good as New Vegas. but better than 4.
Ahhhhh Something in the way
I can't believe that I played 2 games in a row that I can write an essay all about its shortcomings and achievements to make it objectively good or bad, but can't formulate overall if it's a good game