Fallout 3 opens with the birth of your character, you go through a relatively long prologue through the years upto the point where you're forced to get out of the secluded protection of the vault. It grounds your character in the setting in an organic way, more so than any other Bethesda in my opinion. Which is why I find it funny that I felt least connected to the setting and my character of this game than any other.
These games have always have always had a theme-park design to them, sandbox with toys to play around for you. But if you decide to meet the games half way, acknowledge the limitation and roleplay within the confines of the sandbox, they can be some of the most immersive experiences in gaming. But here I felt really hard to connect myself to the world. The writing and the quest design lacked the extra oomph for me to get immersed in the characters and their struggles. The main story is supposed to be deeply personal to the PC, but the none of the main characters have enough depth to make you care. It felt more like playing an outside observer briefly looking into the stories of the people in this worlds and way too happy to kill some mutants and raiders. It really was like being in a theme park.
This is not to say I didn't have fun with it, the labyrinth of DC metro aside exploration is a lot of fun like all Bethesda games. There are a lot of attractions in this theme park, both quantity and variety. The comically evil choices also makes more sense with that perspective. I even got used to the janky gunplay after a while, it's oddly satisfying blowing up meat bags with bullets. That's why the positive rating here. Still, this is probably my least favorite Bethesda game.
These games have always have always had a theme-park design to them, sandbox with toys to play around for you. But if you decide to meet the games half way, acknowledge the limitation and roleplay within the confines of the sandbox, they can be some of the most immersive experiences in gaming. But here I felt really hard to connect myself to the world. The writing and the quest design lacked the extra oomph for me to get immersed in the characters and their struggles. The main story is supposed to be deeply personal to the PC, but the none of the main characters have enough depth to make you care. It felt more like playing an outside observer briefly looking into the stories of the people in this worlds and way too happy to kill some mutants and raiders. It really was like being in a theme park.
This is not to say I didn't have fun with it, the labyrinth of DC metro aside exploration is a lot of fun like all Bethesda games. There are a lot of attractions in this theme park, both quantity and variety. The comically evil choices also makes more sense with that perspective. I even got used to the janky gunplay after a while, it's oddly satisfying blowing up meat bags with bullets. That's why the positive rating here. Still, this is probably my least favorite Bethesda game.