Sometimes non-violence is the best path to conflict resolution; other times incinerating mutated creatures into piles of ash with a laser pistol does the job.Over the past couple months I've been busy with school, but have also been taking the time to write some video game reviews for my paper at school, The Index. The reviews are bit more formal, and brief than many of the ones on this blog, but I've considered it an exercise in moderation, if you will. Sometimes we all need to step outside of our normal comfort zone, expose ourselves to different styles of writing, and getting back to more mainline journalism has been...an experience.
I've gotten the chance to review both Fallout 3 and Dead Space, specifically, and I figure before I attempt to write some new material for this blog over break, I'd best upload both of those. I've also taken the liberty of releasing the "Director's Cut" edition of both. This is a fancy way of saying that, while I have my editor's final cut in print form, I don't have the actual text files. Ah...well...I can pride myself in saying that the version that went "to print" didn't have many changes required.
So, without further ado, here is my Fallout 3 review:
It’s a classic gamer’ nightmare; a pedigree franchise finding its way into the hands of a new developer, having to make the transition to next-gen consoles. After all, for every mind-boggling success (Retro Studio’s Metroid Prime, Ubisoft Montreal’s Prince of Persia) there’s the butchering of a previously wonderful franchise (Atari’s Alone in the Dark). Thankfully, I can assure you that Bethesda’s recent release, Fallout 3 firmly falls into the latter category with flying colors…provided those colors are “irradiated glow green” and “tetanus inducing rust.”
Fallout 3, for one who has lost all sense of the obvious, is the third installment in the classic post-apocalyptic Fallout series. Unlike recent Mad Max-esque titles like Gears of War or Resistance: Fall of Man, Fallout doesn’t have things “going south” for America via a spaceship fleet of ‘roided up E.Ts. Instead, it goes the Dr. Strangelove route of mutually assured destruction in the year 2077. Those who have the forethought to not join the Marie Curie fan club end up in government contracted fallout shelters called “vaults.”
"Say hello to my little...err...drastically oversized steampunk firearm!" You yourself begin the game 200 years after the nuclear war as an infant in Washington D.C.’s Vault 101, one that, unlike the remaining vaults, was never meant to be opened. From here the introduction of the game has you progressing through several key moments in your life leading up to your nineteenth birthday. In a clever fashion, the selecting of your characters looks, skills, and particular aptitudes are skillfully implemented into this introductory narrative, unlike Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, which merely overwhelmed you in deciding all of this from the get go, without providing any sense of narrative backstory for your character. That being said, at the age of nineteen, your father leaves the vault for unsaid reasons, and, being blamed for his disappearance, you follow in pursuit.
If it sounds open-ended, that’s because…it is. Your character’s look, abilities, morality, clothing, weapons, sidekick, living quarters and fate among other things are all left up to you. Want to be a mohawk-donning fellow who enjoys a nice three-piece suit and the right to bear laser-fueled arms? Have at it! Care to throw on some riot gear on top of a wonderful mullet, and go to town with brass knuckles? The choice is yours! Those who are accustomed to the customization system of the Elder Scrolls series will feel right at home.
That is, until they find themselves in combat. Unlike the clunky, very less-than-gratifying, hit-or-miss combat system of their previous titles, Bethesda’s Fallout 3 utilizes a new hybrid combat mechanic called V.A.T.S., which stands for Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System. Think of it as a half shooter, half turn-based RPG. See, in the middle of a sortie, bringing up V.A.T.S. will freeze the action, and highlight your target, allowing you to specifically hone in on whichever limb and/or vital organ you think they could make just fine without, allowing the less than “twitch-happy” RPG crowd to fully utilize their carefully crafted characters skill. To those who thought they were getting to play Half Life and not Final Fantasy VIII, worry not; V.A.T.S. utilizes an “action points” system that prevents the feature from being over utilized.
Don't be overwhelmed by the diagram above; V.A.T.S. is really this simple: use it, or you will die...a lot. Even if you are good at FPS titles, I would still advise using it.Graphically, Fallout 3 impresses. For a game with so much customization, you almost expect to see a dip in the graphical fidelity, but the textures are well-detailed, and character models are certainly a step up from the lifeless zombies one was forced to interact with in Oblivion. The art design is unparalleled, however. Think 1950’s suburbia and a “Keeping up with the Joneses” unbridled materialist style of advertising meets nuclear induced blight. Vibrant billboards for “Super Bomb Cereal” stand behind a single swing set, with nothing but cracked roads and char-broiled trees for miles. There’s something darkly comical, and yet frighteningly real about the future posed by Fallout 3. Populations rise and fall, empires come and go, but consumerism reigns supreme. The soundtrack, like in Bioshock, is composed of largely old 40’s and 50’s tunes, and the sound effects are extensive, no two weapons sound alike, the voice talents (including Liam Neeson, Ron Perlman, and Malcom McDowell) do not go unutilized.
Don't be fooled by the speed blur, Fallout 3 is a beautiful game, and an epic one at that, one could watch their slo-mo replays of violent acts...err...justice...over and over and OVER again.
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