It's always a bad sign when a game feels like it takes more of its identity from its developer than its series. The first two Fallout games are uncompromising in their complexity. They feature rich, layered characters fighting for causes that are understandable, flawed and, above all, human. Their combat systems and traversal mechanics work because the games are so good at directing your attention towards the stuff that matters. The ending of 1 is one of the pinnacles of video game storytelling, the highwayman in 2 is one of the best quest rewards ever included in a game. Meanwhile, in Todd Howards house, the Elder Scrolls games have always been inching their way towards quality rather reluctantly. They feature a lack of tuning and mechanical weaknesses aplenty, and this game was probably doomed the second it got into Bethesda's grubby hands.
What made the world of Fallout special back in the 90's was its deep understanding of motivations, consequences and the workings of the human mind. Here in 3, your moral compass is dictated by a popup on the HUD that tells you its good to kill guys you've never met before in broad daylight, they were gonna do something bad later anyway. Meanwhile you'll get lynched in seconds for picking up a fork. I really didn't expect the game to take such a distressingly black-or-white stance so early on, but the problems appear during the opening, which is also way too long. This lack of depth continues to plague the entire rest of the game, up to and including the ending, which is its own can of worms. There is a grand total of one (1) character that feels like a living breathing person (Moira, for the record), and the plot regularly refuses to let you forge your own journey the way I was getting used to with the previous installments.
It's not just in the writing department Fallout 3 disappoints though, the game design can't keep up either. The concrete nature of the world and the freedom you have to explore it means you're never really given any sense of purpose or direction. Your goals never feel like more than markers you walk towards in a straight line, and the quests feel gamified in a degrading sort of way. This problem is amplified by the world being totally devoid of life, landmarks and mysticism. There is nothing pulling your attention towards interesting things except the compass bar at the bottom, and that creates extremely stagnant traversal. Even the gameplay minutae suffers. The importance of the different stats are scaled back, resulting in a frustratingly inconsequential character creator. And my god are the repair and speech skills so fucking annoying. The weapons degrading makes all weapons appear useless on first inspection, and the simplistic dialogue structure is perhaps the biggest insult to Fallout in this entire game.
Overall, Fallout 3's biggest sin is how much it strays from what makes Fallout Fallout, without substituting anything of its own. It falls behind in characterwork, in plot progression and pacing, and, most egregious of all, even the gameplay. The latter of which is most baffling considering the time gap between 2 and 3, but it's ultimately the thematic depth which dooms this game, or the lack there of. Its focus is more on the bloody kills and trashy shooter action, and it doesn't even nail those parts. And the ending fucking sucks man, how did anyone ever approve of this, what the fuck.
What made the world of Fallout special back in the 90's was its deep understanding of motivations, consequences and the workings of the human mind. Here in 3, your moral compass is dictated by a popup on the HUD that tells you its good to kill guys you've never met before in broad daylight, they were gonna do something bad later anyway. Meanwhile you'll get lynched in seconds for picking up a fork. I really didn't expect the game to take such a distressingly black-or-white stance so early on, but the problems appear during the opening, which is also way too long. This lack of depth continues to plague the entire rest of the game, up to and including the ending, which is its own can of worms. There is a grand total of one (1) character that feels like a living breathing person (Moira, for the record), and the plot regularly refuses to let you forge your own journey the way I was getting used to with the previous installments.
It's not just in the writing department Fallout 3 disappoints though, the game design can't keep up either. The concrete nature of the world and the freedom you have to explore it means you're never really given any sense of purpose or direction. Your goals never feel like more than markers you walk towards in a straight line, and the quests feel gamified in a degrading sort of way. This problem is amplified by the world being totally devoid of life, landmarks and mysticism. There is nothing pulling your attention towards interesting things except the compass bar at the bottom, and that creates extremely stagnant traversal. Even the gameplay minutae suffers. The importance of the different stats are scaled back, resulting in a frustratingly inconsequential character creator. And my god are the repair and speech skills so fucking annoying. The weapons degrading makes all weapons appear useless on first inspection, and the simplistic dialogue structure is perhaps the biggest insult to Fallout in this entire game.
Overall, Fallout 3's biggest sin is how much it strays from what makes Fallout Fallout, without substituting anything of its own. It falls behind in characterwork, in plot progression and pacing, and, most egregious of all, even the gameplay. The latter of which is most baffling considering the time gap between 2 and 3, but it's ultimately the thematic depth which dooms this game, or the lack there of. Its focus is more on the bloody kills and trashy shooter action, and it doesn't even nail those parts. And the ending fucking sucks man, how did anyone ever approve of this, what the fuck.