Truth be told, I was kind of astonished when the credits rolled. "That's it?"
Fallout 3 feels like an earnest attempt at the impossible task of not only revitalizing the Fallout franchise but doing so for a much bigger audience on console in the form of an FPS action game; It practically never sticks the landing, but there might be just enough charm and just enough excuses that it isn't the worst game in the world.
Is it janky? Sure. Is it buggy? Definitely. Is it ugly? It may be the ugliest game I've ever played. But, is Fallout 3 nonetheless a good video game?
Also, no.
Yet there's something I either admire or feel sympathetic about when it comes to Fallout 3. The game fails to propose any interesting ideas, maintain any convincing atmosphere for very long, or pose any riveting moral dilemmas, but the worst emotion that the game stirs within me is a meager "Oh ok I guess". There are enough novel moments and characters that while I'm not particularly emotionally invested in anything, I'm stimulated enough to just keep on going anyway. Call that the Bethesda magic, I guess.
Breaking out Fawkes, exploring all 12 square feet of the black-and-white CRT VR world, and yes, even the intro where you grow up in the vault all have a novelty factor where it feels like there is an effort to provide more cinematic storytelling in lieu of, well, having good writing or quest design. Often in conversations with NPCs I will have exhausted every dialogue option without ever managing to be allowed to ask the questions I as the player actually want or need to know - Annoying from the perspective of trying to become immersed in a roleplaying game, but also functionally a roadblock fairly frequently when the in-game quest log and map is so poor and scarce on anything useful.
I also appreciate Bethesda's efforts to translate some of the game mechanics into this new 3D space - Something they could have just as easily avoided altogether. VATs, like everything else in the game, suffers from a lack of polish, but is a cool addition both in its own right and as a way to bridge the gap between the Real-Time-With-Pause action points system of old with the rinky dink shooting of 2008 gamebryo Bethesda. While not every perk is created equal in power nor intrigue, I found myself always looking forward to which new ones I had access to while leveling up. Many returning in-universe brands and items from Fallout 1 and 2 and their 1950's americana McDonalds-ization also help with making this game world cohesive with those previous titles as well as offering a solid sense of visual identity in an otherwise hyper-muddy game, and is even helped along with new additions like the various oldies radio stations that really sell the setting.
All of this to say that the word I keep coming back to when thinking about all the things Fallout 3 does right is "Novelty". In 2008 for the journeyman cRPG fan, maybe there wasn't a whole lot of novelty to be found - There certainly is nothing to be found in Fallout 3 that the original game doesn't already do better after all - but Bethesda placed all of the correct bets as to which columns really mattered for a new Fallout game for a console audience coming off of Oblivion - Surface level aesthetics, dialogue writing that, let's face it, was being graded on the curve of "Xbox 360 Video Game in 2008", and an extremely narrowed story scope that doesn't ask or even want a whole lot from the player. Maybe it is piggy backing off of all the successes of Interplay's time with the franchise, and maybe the cost of this approach is an utterly unremarkable game when removed from the context of its own history.
So, yeah. That really was it. The sheer success of what feels like a product that could never truly find its footing or purpose for existing is a testament to the power of novelty. For Fallout 3? I can give it a pass. Frankly, I enjoyed this game more than I ever did Fallout 2, even as someone who became enamored with the first game. I think for the rest of Bethesda's tenure with the franchise, I am inclined to be far less forgiving of meandering about without purpose while parading around the corpse of a once excellent game.
Fallout 3 feels like an earnest attempt at the impossible task of not only revitalizing the Fallout franchise but doing so for a much bigger audience on console in the form of an FPS action game; It practically never sticks the landing, but there might be just enough charm and just enough excuses that it isn't the worst game in the world.
Is it janky? Sure. Is it buggy? Definitely. Is it ugly? It may be the ugliest game I've ever played. But, is Fallout 3 nonetheless a good video game?
Also, no.
Yet there's something I either admire or feel sympathetic about when it comes to Fallout 3. The game fails to propose any interesting ideas, maintain any convincing atmosphere for very long, or pose any riveting moral dilemmas, but the worst emotion that the game stirs within me is a meager "Oh ok I guess". There are enough novel moments and characters that while I'm not particularly emotionally invested in anything, I'm stimulated enough to just keep on going anyway. Call that the Bethesda magic, I guess.
Breaking out Fawkes, exploring all 12 square feet of the black-and-white CRT VR world, and yes, even the intro where you grow up in the vault all have a novelty factor where it feels like there is an effort to provide more cinematic storytelling in lieu of, well, having good writing or quest design. Often in conversations with NPCs I will have exhausted every dialogue option without ever managing to be allowed to ask the questions I as the player actually want or need to know - Annoying from the perspective of trying to become immersed in a roleplaying game, but also functionally a roadblock fairly frequently when the in-game quest log and map is so poor and scarce on anything useful.
I also appreciate Bethesda's efforts to translate some of the game mechanics into this new 3D space - Something they could have just as easily avoided altogether. VATs, like everything else in the game, suffers from a lack of polish, but is a cool addition both in its own right and as a way to bridge the gap between the Real-Time-With-Pause action points system of old with the rinky dink shooting of 2008 gamebryo Bethesda. While not every perk is created equal in power nor intrigue, I found myself always looking forward to which new ones I had access to while leveling up. Many returning in-universe brands and items from Fallout 1 and 2 and their 1950's americana McDonalds-ization also help with making this game world cohesive with those previous titles as well as offering a solid sense of visual identity in an otherwise hyper-muddy game, and is even helped along with new additions like the various oldies radio stations that really sell the setting.
All of this to say that the word I keep coming back to when thinking about all the things Fallout 3 does right is "Novelty". In 2008 for the journeyman cRPG fan, maybe there wasn't a whole lot of novelty to be found - There certainly is nothing to be found in Fallout 3 that the original game doesn't already do better after all - but Bethesda placed all of the correct bets as to which columns really mattered for a new Fallout game for a console audience coming off of Oblivion - Surface level aesthetics, dialogue writing that, let's face it, was being graded on the curve of "Xbox 360 Video Game in 2008", and an extremely narrowed story scope that doesn't ask or even want a whole lot from the player. Maybe it is piggy backing off of all the successes of Interplay's time with the franchise, and maybe the cost of this approach is an utterly unremarkable game when removed from the context of its own history.
So, yeah. That really was it. The sheer success of what feels like a product that could never truly find its footing or purpose for existing is a testament to the power of novelty. For Fallout 3? I can give it a pass. Frankly, I enjoyed this game more than I ever did Fallout 2, even as someone who became enamored with the first game. I think for the rest of Bethesda's tenure with the franchise, I am inclined to be far less forgiving of meandering about without purpose while parading around the corpse of a once excellent game.