War, war never changes (PART 2)

Fallout 10/10

This score is about how well the game sits in the idea of Fallout, and how well it represent the idea presented in original ones. And thus, this was the most difficult score to determine.

First of all, the world is very well designed. It seems that the developers have truly studied how the world would lookd after nuclear attack. The first minutes outside the Vault reminded me of the pictures from Hiroshima after the bomb. The details are all there, which would be expected from the technology available today. Heck, there is even partially destroyed house, and when you entered the house you could find two blackened skeletons in bed, clearly showing that they died quickly while sleeping, just like people in Hiroshima did. So, you actually have the feeling that you are exploring the world after nuclear war.

Secondly, the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system, skills and perks. The actual S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system hasn't changed at all, all the abilities are still there and the meaning of each has stayed the same, of course though adabted to new real time system with V.A.T.S.

The ammount of skills has been reduced, which at first seemed like blasphemy to hardcore Fallout fans. But in the end, it hasn't bothered me at all while playeing the game. Each skill has it purpose, each covering it's own special field. So, if you want to heal yourself, you raise the Medical skill, as in old Fallouts you had to raise two different skills. The only complaing about skills I have is that even though the game promotes free character design, some skills are almost necessary if you want to survive the game well enough. Lockpicking is one of such skill. Most of the doors and containers are locked, and there is no way to open them without lockpicking skill.

The perk system is the one that faced most changes. In old Fallouts, you got one perk every 3 (or every 4, depending on the traits you chose at the beginning of the game) levels. In Fallout 3, you get new perk every level. At first couple of levels, the pool of choice is rather limited, and thus I usually chose Intense Training perk, which allowed me to increase one ability by one point. But on the other hand, as the maximum ammount of levels character can gain is 20, it's understandable that you get perk every level.

I know I already covered dialogues in Gameplay section, but as it's considered as important part of the Fallout, I decided to make better review of it here. First of all, the style of the dialogues are similiar to old Fallouts. NPC says something, and you get list of response lines to choose from. And unlike many have feared, the answers from your character aren't only couple of words long, but longest I have seen so far was three lines. The content of dialogues are quite similiar to old Fallouts, though the black humor which was present in old Fallouts isn't so visible in Fallout 3. But hey, at least we didn't get the stupid dialogue system used in Oblivion! Also, at times you have to actually think what response you select, as the result of conversation may is dependable on what you say. So, luckily my fears towards dialogue system was unneeded.

Result 9,6/10

So, what's my, long time Fallout hardcore fan, opinion about Bethesda's Fallout 3? Well, first of all, I have to say that I would rather take old 3rd person isometric Fallout than FPS Fallout. But perhaps that's just nostalgic side of me speaking. But if I had to imagine Fallout in firs person view, it would be just like the what Bethesda published. Of course, there is some things that bugs me, but most of them are minor ones, something that hopefully will be fixed in next Fallout. Fallout 3 is far, far better than I expected, mostly because of the crap called Oblivion. But Bethesda did show me that they are worth of developing legendary Fallout games.