Fallout 3

Well, I finished my first run through Fallout 3 last night... it's a pretty good game, from what I've seen, but there were a couple of minor things that stop me from giving it an unreserved "go get it".

First off, on the off chance you don't know anything about the game... it's a computer RPG played from a first-person perspective, where you emerge from a survival shelter (called a Vault in-game) some 200 years after a nuclear war has laid waste to the Washington D.C. area. The main storyline involves you looking for your father, who fled the Vault shortly before you did, and getting entangled in his business. More specific than that... well, I won't say much, because I'm not one for spoilers... except for a couple of those minor irritants I mentioned earlier.

Hm... since I can't seem to go for a whole paragraph without mentioning those irritants, maybe they're not so minor. So, let's get them out of the way. In terms of game mechanics, the underlying system used is a mixed level/skills system... you earn experience to gain levels, at which point you get extra health and points to add onto your skills, along with Perks, another little bonus to help make your character something other than a cookie-cutter creation. This is all fine and well, except that you hit a wall at level 20... you just stop accumulating experience entirely. Now, I understand this to some degree... the designers wanted to keep the end-game difficulty "in scale", I'm sure... but, in my case, it also cut short my game. A surprisingly large world is given to you to explore, and I'm just the sort to do that, but, by that point in the game, I had plenty in the way of coin, equipment, and ammunition... the level progression was the last "tangible" benefit that separated me from being an explorer/adventurer and a tourist. I mean, if you've maxxed out your level in a single-player game, then you know that there is nothing out there that can stand before you... and to me, that's just plain dull.

That level issue is a forgivable annoyance... less forgivable is a trick that the designers played in the main storyline, not once but at least twice. They broke the spirit and, in one case, the letter of the rules of their own game in order to make the storyline go the way they intended. The first such involved requiring a particular weapon to be used to defeat a creature... in a game based on characters having multiple ways to get around problems based on the skills they possess, which might not include much in the way of skills with that weapon. The second involves the end game, where (at least in the path I took) the story dictates that you die in a radiation-saturated room (think Star Trek II, but without the special effects)... this in spite of the fact that I had hoarded nearly every radiation-blocking/curing drug I came across, and pretty much every doctor in the game (of which there are several) is capable of "flushing your system" of said radiation.

So, it's a game with some flaws... and I don't know how the console versions play, but I know it strained my (admittedly aging) game computer greatly... to the point that I even had to turn off Xfire in order to keep it running relatively smoothly. On the other hand, I'm seriously considering jumping back in and giving it another run... I was rather the goody two-shoes last time, and could stand to take a more rascally turn at it. As such, I know I'm getting my money's worth out of it... if you have the time and inclination for this sort of game (and you likely know if you are already), then give it a go.