Eurogamer Fallout 3 Review: 10/10

[Paulaner]

To summarize, you are saying that combat in Fallout 3 is too easy, right? I have yet to buy the game so I am carefully listening to all the comments.

 

[Mirage]

This damn game keeps crashing on my laptop. Also, I'm kinda losing interest in it as well. Too bad, started out fun.

 

[Tagaziel]

The biggest problem with the setting in Fallout 3 is that it's not convincing for 2277. 2137, sure, but not 2277.

 

[CrazyHarij]

To summarize, you are saying that combat in Fallout 3 is too easy, right? I have yet to buy the game so I am carefully listening to all the comments.

its easier than FO2 which started out REAL difficult right off the bat. Sometimes you'll be acing super mutants with close range shotgun blasts to the face, other times you'll be in the wasteland desperately gorging down any piece of animal meat you can find just to stay alive.
Most robots and enclave troopers are difficult at my level (7). The desolate cities can be tricky, more often than not you get jumped by a band of bad guys.
But you always have creative ways to deal with most problems.

The hunting rifle is very effective in no-VATS at long distance, whereas a good grenade or combat shotgun is great in close quarters. Get the commando perk for a good VATS accuracy boost for your rifles, it's a big improvement.
The assault rifle is damn good, especially when you first find one, but it starts losing effectiveness when you meet heavily armored folks. but by then you should have plenty of grenades and the opportunity to direct the occasional rocket at 'em. It's still great against most simpler enemies like ghouls and wildlife, but you can even use the starter pistol for that, it's surprisingly long-lived.

Just like FO2 you have to rely on food and stimpacks to keep you alive, so when that starts running out on your wasteland romps, the game gets much more difficult. However, a well stocked town is just a fast-travel away, and you can return the same way if you've discovered a town or special area. Making money is usually pretty easy, stock up on conductors, batteries, anything above 30 in value, sell multiples of the weapons you already have.

My character is turning out evil as **** since I like to kill and loot travelling traders, steal anything out of vision from another character, etc. It keeps me reasonably stocked =)

A pretty big bug I found is that if you're in a marketplace with goodies visible on shelves etc, but surrounded by people who'll shoot ya if you steal them in the open, press the right thumbstick (xbox) to pick the item up, carry it out of harms way, then steal it. Still adds negative karma, so with habits like this, expect bounties on your head and some people just outright hating you (I regularly hear radio broadcasts warning about my evildoings, haha). If you raise your sneak skill you can just pickpocket people as well, but I'm focusing on lockpicking, small guns and speech right now. Try the Stealth Boy item for a temporary invisibility cloak (well, sort of) and loot away right out of people's pockets.

Another aspect which makes it feel easier is that it's more forgiving than FO2. If you get crippled or addicted to a drug like Jet or Psycho, you can visit a doctor to heal that or even heal it yourself. That was permanent in FO2. In general I guess you could say that it's made more accessible and not as much of a "hardcore" RPG. If you keep your head in check, don't do anything stupid with grenades, use the most effective weapon for the situation, heal regularly, and keep your distance to hard enemies, you can stay alive for very long periods.

Don't save on items that might be good to use when you need them (stimpack, psycho, ammo, grenades, nuka cola quantum etc), there's usually more of them just around the corner or in the enemies you kill. Buy as much ammo as you can afford.

Oh and yeah, just got the BOS power armor. Yeehaw! My afroamerican wasteland pirate is turning out to be quite the survivor.

Vault 112:

Spoiler

That was weird as hell. Final assignment was fun though =)

End of jefferson memorial:

Spoiler

Was that the president that died when daddy-o pulled the plug??? LOL

 

[Jintor]

Of course all the Fallout 2 goodness will eventaully be modded back in. I hope.

There's quite a few things that I was thinking would be awesome in F3 that weren't carried over, but thank god it's built on the Oblivion engine - it's a modder's delight.

I miss having readable books though. The Tech Museum was great 'cos most of the exhibits were readable.

 

[Bad^Hat]

Just hired it out. Finished the Vault, explored Megaton and a few outlying areas, did about 4 or 5 quests and reached level 4.

First impressions: Boring. Flat. Bland. Artificial. :|

There was one moment that caught me off guard, though (minor spoilers ahead). I met the guy in Megaton who asks you to blow the place up, and instead decided to report him to the Sheriff (I was moving towards good karma anyway, even though I went out of my way to be an asshole in the Vault). So the Sheriff goes to arrest the guy, but instead gets a few pistol rounds in the back, and bomb guy tells me to watch my back as well.

Whatever, I think, the Sheriff was an asshole anyway. I grab his sweet coat and hat right off of his still-warm corpse, as well as his house keys, to which no one in the saloon protests. The coat has good stats, so I equip it and head over to his house to see if there's anything decent to loot (who needs karma anyway?). Instead I find his now-orphaned son there, who says to me, completely out of the blue, "you may wear his badge, but you're not my father!"

Nifty.

 

[Tagaziel]

The assault rifle is damn good, especially when you first find one, but it starts losing effectiveness when you meet heavily armored folks. but by then you should have plenty of grenades and the opportunity to direct the occasional rocket at 'em. It's still great against most simpler enemies like ghouls and wildlife, but you can even use the starter pistol for that, it's surprisingly long-lived.

Hahahahahaha, no.

Boost your small guns to 75 and use the Chinese assault rifle. Fun for the whole family.

The game is seriously unbalanced in this aspect - I dropped supermutants for half of the game with my .32 hunting rifle.

Another aspect which makes it feel easier is that it's more forgiving than FO2. If you get crippled or addicted to a drug like Jet or Psycho, you can visit a doctor to heal that or even heal it yourself. That was permanent in FO2.

Only Jet was a permanent addiction, the rest went away with time.

Doctor-assisted adiction removals are stupid.

End of jefferson memorial:

Spoiler

Was that the president that died when daddy-o pulled the plug??? LOL

...

That's the stupidest idea I've ever read regarding Fallout 3 experiences, hands down.

Pray tell, why would the President go into the wastes? That was an anonymous Enclave colonel with a cool trenchcoat I really want to have.

 

[Kyorisu]

I just use my Wazer Wifle in real time and standard guns in Vats.

 

[Jintor]

Combat. Shotgun. To the face.

Works every time, bar none. Oh, except for Murklaps. Damn those crab-people. Possibly the most annoying enemies alive.

I found a super sledge! \o/

 

[VirusType2]

A pretty big bug I found is that if you're in a marketplace with goodies visible on shelves etc, but surrounded by people who'll shoot ya if you steal them in the open, press the right thumbstick (xbox) to pick the item up, carry it out of harms way, then steal it.

If I remember, in Oblivion, you can repeatedly bump into stuff to knock it out of view and then steal it.

But, what took the cake was in Morrowind, you could steal 1 inexpensive item, and it would get the store owner to attack you, then just easily kill him, and everything in the store was now yours. And you just got a measly charge for petty theft. So you immediately go to the guard and pay him 1gp and your are in the clear, now you could loot the store.

Of course, you lower the amount of store owners to sell the stuff too.

 

[Jintor]

Assault is a MAJOR CRIME!!!1!!1!

/edit Fighting back when being attacked for a minor crime constitutes assault.

 

[Dalamari]

The game is seriously unbalanced in this aspect - I dropped supermutants for half of the game with my .32 hunting rifle.

Then boost the difficulty?...

 

[VirusType2]

Assault is a MAJOR CRIME!!!1!!1!

/edit Fighting back when being attacked for a minor crime constitutes assault.

Thanks for the correction. it's been several years.

still, assault was pretty small crime compared to stealing everything in the store or 1st degree murder.

... especially when most of them had enough money in their little lock box to cover the cost of the charge by itself, not to mention all the goods you can sell. And some store owners had a couple pieces of top level armor.

 

[Tagaziel]

Then boost the difficulty?...

Why? Problems with balance aren't fixable by the difficulty slider. Fallouts had excellent balance at all difficulty combinations and weapons progression.

While Fo3 is good and expands the world in a better way than I expected, the lack of variety in guns is annoying. I want my 14mm SIG-Sauer.

 

[CrazyHarij]

...

That's the stupidest idea I've ever read regarding Fallout 3 experiences, hands down.

Pray tell, why would the President go into the wastes? That was an anonymous Enclave colonel with a cool trenchcoat I really want to have.

**** you too =) I was asking because my friend was playing and I just heard this southern talking man with enclave troops and a lot of influence. Hahaha

The game is seriously unbalanced in this aspect - I dropped supermutants for half of the game with my .32 hunting rifle.

Haha, same here. It's just funny because when I was starting to play FO2, the first thing a friend say "Get rid of the hunting rifle as soon as possible".

Fallouts had excellent balance at all difficulty combinations and weapons progression.

No it hadn't. It was just real damn hard until you got enough ammo and pwer armor. It was good at throwing you that "little fish in big pond feel" because even the starter enemies were apt at killing you.

 

[Kyorisu]

Why? Problems with balance aren't fixable by the difficulty slider. Fallouts had excellent balance at all difficulty combinations and weapons progression.

You sir are a moron. How the hell are you able to judge what easy or normal is as an experienced player. Are you daft? It's balanced fine.

 

[unozero]

Why? Problems with balance aren't fixable by the difficulty slider. Fallouts had excellent balance at all difficulty combinations and weapons progression.

While Fo3 is good and expands the world in a better way than I expected, the lack of variety in guns is annoying. I want my 14mm SIG-Sauer.

if you don't like the game plz stop spamming,I agree that it's not a true fallout3 though...

 

[CrazyHarij]

meeting president eden:

Spoiler

lol he's a robot

FO2 was outbalanced at alot of points by the way. The "gifted" perk was a given unless you deliberately wanted to make the game more difficult. The "karma beacon" perk did absolutely nothing, literally. luck was pretty much useless to spend points in, in this game you need 6 for the mysterious stranger perk, damn I wish I chose that =) Intelligence is pretty useless in FO3 though, it seems, unless you're going for a tech wiz. I thought it influenced dialouges as much as it did in FO2.

 

[Cornerstone]

I always enjoyed the struggle you face early in the Fallout 1 & 2. It really makes you feel like the wasteland is a deadly place and takes some work to survive. Fallout 3 doesn't have that and on top of that the wasteland isn't.

I miss the days when your character could die in video games.

 

[Kyorisu]

Put the difficulty on very hard and start again (no swapping now you have good gear).

It really makes you feel like the wasteland is a deadly place

Makes me feel like I'm playing a game with bullshit hard enemies. Doesn't work for everyone you see.

 

[knut]

I always enjoyed the struggle you face early in the Fallout 1 & 2. It really makes you feel like the wasteland is a deadly place and takes some work to survive. Fallout 3 doesn't have that and on top of that the wasteland isn't.

I miss the days when your character could die in video games.

I disagree. I thought the game was very hard from the get-go. I was constantly out of ammo and health but then I was out in the cities rumbling with the Super Mutants and ammo-gobbling Centaurs. I died many a times by bandits out there.

 

[Reginald]

Had a really guilty moment while playing. Games have always made me feel emotions such as joy, guilt, fear etc. Quite a few of the enforced moral choices in games make me feel guilty too, such as the Dark Brotherhood in Oblivion, but this is the first game that ever made me feel truly guilty due to my own action. If that makes sense.

I found an old woman selling a few things down by the river. She was anxiously awaiting the return of her grandsons who were out hunting. She was nice to me and gave me some useful information. If she could have, she'd probably have offered a cup of tea. I was seriously injured though so I... oh god... I broke into her house and stole a couple of Stimpaks. And I got a little greedy. I found some more Hunting Rifle ammo. I left her some whisky though as payment.

But as I went outside, her dead body was lying on the floor by her little table. Raiders had killed this sweet old woman. Probably because they followed me to this little house. And I could have protected her if I hadn't been so dishonest. I mourned over her body for a bit, then chased down the raider that killed her. I followed him without him knowing and he led me to an abandoned shopping mall. He went inside. I went inside.

I killed every last mother****er in that place. They paid for the death of that sweet old woman.

I did consider going back to her house and waiting for nightfall to see what her grandson's reactions would be. But I couldn't bear to face them. Best they just assume it was all down to Raiders and not me as well.


Also, anyone find this game more scary than games that are supposed to be really scary? The unpredictability. And the fact that you can hide from enemies. It's all right if you know you have to kill them, but in games where you can avoid being found, it adds to the terror.

Also, does any one else find the hacking mini-game the most confusing thing in the world? I understand it, but I'm damned if I can figure it out. Must have been locked out of about 20 terminals due to my complete inability to find the right word. My brain obviously doesn't work in that way. Any tips?

 

[CrazyHarij]

My character is turning into a fulltime cannibal sniper. Greatest perk ever =)

Okay, game finished. Ending was good, nothing special, but true to the atmosphere of the game. A good recap of your story, and an important decision..

Spoiler

Sent the bitch right in there! Haha

Want to replay and explore more asap, this run was abit of a mess.

 

[Tagaziel]

Also, anyone find this game more scary than games that are supposed to be really scary? The unpredictability. And the fact that you can hide from enemies. It's all right if you know you have to kill them, but in games where you can avoid being found, it adds to the terror.

VATS. Sure, I was scared when I faced Supermutants with only a hunting rifle. Until I found out how fast they drop.

Also, does any one else find the hacking mini-game the most confusing thing in the world? I understand it, but I'm damned if I can figure it out. Must have been locked out of about 20 terminals due to my complete inability to find the right word. My brain obviously doesn't work in that way. Any tips?

Quicksave before hacking.

It's mastermind. Remeber, the number of correct letters refers only to CORRECTLY PLACED letters.

 

[Top Secret]

I find the feral ghouls a little creepy...

 

[Mirage]

Want to replay and explore more asap, this run was abit of a mess.

Would you say it was a Bloody Mess? Heh...heh...eh

 

[Tagaziel]

**** you too =) I was asking because my friend was playing and I just heard this southern talking man with enclave troops and a lot of influence. Hahaha

I love you too Harr.

I loved that scene. The guy was badass.

No? *shoots the girl* Now?

Haha, same here. It's just funny because when I was starting to play FO2, the first thing a friend say "Get rid of the hunting rifle as soon as possible".

I always stuck with it. Especially in FO1.

No it hadn't. It was just real damn hard until you got enough ammo and pwer armor. It was good at throwing you that "little fish in big pond feel" because even the starter enemies were apt at killing you.

It was if you kept your wits about yourself and didn't wander off in random directions with a deathwish.

if you don't like the game plz stop spamming,I agree that it's not a true fallout3 though...

I already said I like the game.

FO2 was outbalanced at alot of points by the way. The "gifted" perk was a given unless you deliberately wanted to make the game more difficult. The "karma beacon" perk did absolutely nothing, literally. luck was pretty much useless to spend points in, in this game you need 6 for the mysterious stranger perk, damn I wish I chose that =) Intelligence is pretty useless in FO3 though, it seems, unless you're going for a tech wiz. I thought it influenced dialouges as much as it did in FO2.

What? Luck was damn important to get Sniper - critical hits galore.

Also, Gifted is not really that important - you can ignore it and focus on developing skills. That's about 260 skill points saved by not taking Gifted.

 

[Shamrock]

Quicksave before hacking.

It's mastermind. Remeber, the number of correct letters refers only to CORRECTLY PLACED letters.

I don't save before hacking, but I do exit it when I only have 1 try left, and I still don't know what word it is, but if you forget that you only have one attempt left, and you go about and mess it up, then you should have saved.

So my advice is to SAVE before you do it if you can't remember. I've already got it etched in my mind to exit if I'm not even close to the word.

 

[Jintor]

Hacking is great fun, although I don't know why it works the way it works. Put it down to timeline divergence.

 

[Steven]

I got it today. Let me use a Dead Space comparison: Fallout 3 is to previous Fallouts as mutated tentacle infants are to healthy human newborns. Meaning, it's malformed, but the Fallout is more or less (moar liek less) recognizable.

The gameplay is enjoyable, if basic, the FPS mechanics are really sketchy and the writing is pretty good. It's not PS:T, but it will do.

The animations are horrible, as usual in Beth's titles, the world is so condensed it's not even funny (you can see nearly the entire game world from the Vault exit), the art style is fairly consistent (but has it's stupid oddities like GIGN tactical armour in the Vault), the Vault is pretty nice.

Low res textures are horrible. As are malformed humans.

Does anyone else want to strangle Moira Brown?

Anywhoo.

As a standalone game, 7/10 - it's enjoyable, if severely unpolished.

As a Fallout spin-off, 8/10, it does capture the atmosphere and flavour (so far).

As a Fallout SEQUEL... 2/10. It simply isn't a Fallout sequel.

So 2/10 from a proper Fallout fan. I think I'll borrow it from my friend instead of buying it. Unless Fallout 3 is a step forward in making games more like an interactive and atmospheric painting, and less like light entertainment, then it really isn't a Fallout game. Being a Fallout sequel it should at least be at a Mafia (the game)/original Fallout standard in this respect.
But who knows, maybe I will find it to be up to scratch when I actually play it.

Maybe they'll get there some day.

 

[Reginald]

Does anyone have any hints? Would writing it all down work? Or is there some mental process that you can go through? I just sat in front of a terminal for about 45 minutes, constantly reloading because I failed every time through not finding the right word. I've never had this much trouble with what should be a relatively easy logic puzzle...

I dread the harder terminals.

 

[Jintor]

I don't really know, but trying to click words that have many similar letters is generally the safest way to go. Remember to shut down the terminal before you run out of tries. Some of the nonsense characters will highlight a whole string of nonsense characters - click them, they'll remove some of the dud words without using up a try.

 

[Kyorisu]

Look for opening and closing brackets on the same line (you'd know this if you read the manual) they can remove duds and replenish guesses.

e.g.

like this

<123>
{123}
[123]
(123)

not like this
[123
456]

or this
[123[
]123[

etc

Look for similar words there are usually two or more groups of them. Say there are 7 letters and you pick a word from one group of similar looking words and get 2/7, in that case ignore them all and try the other group. As you get closer to 7/7 or however many letters it's gets easier as you have fewer words with letters in the same location.

 

[Shamrock]

I don't really know, but trying to click words that have many similar letters is generally the safest way to go. Remember to shut down the terminal before you run out of tries. Some of the nonsense characters will highlight a whole string of nonsense characters - click them, they'll remove some of the dud words without using up a try.

Look for opening and closing brackets on the same line (you'd know this if you read the manual) they can remove duds and replenish guesses.

e.g.

<123>
{123}
[123]
(123)

not
[123
456]

WUT TUH VUCK!

Really?! This helps tenfold! Thank God for you HL2.netters.

 

[Acepilotf14]

Been playing for about 28 hours now, having a lot of fun. It's a pretty good game grizzly, you heartless bastard, just accept it. The VATS wasn't nearly as boring as you said it would be, especially with bloody mess. It just feels like it needs more quests, I already feel like I've done everything. Random encounters and little non-quest dungeons are pretty fun, though. Exploring is a whole lot funner than oblivion, and so is leveling. Screw you haters, I liked it.

I also want to strangle Moira.

Spoiler

I made President Eden explode himself.

 

[Jintor]

I don't know why people don't like her. She's awesome, if tremendously naive. BUT WE'RE WASTELANDERS, WE CAN HANDLE IT

 

[Acepilotf14]

I ONCE BIT A GIANT RADSCORPION TO DEATH, RAWRAWRAWRWR.
rawr.
I ARE WASTELANDER.

 

[Tagaziel]

Been playing for about 28 hours now, having a lot of fun. It's a pretty good game grizzly, you heartless bastard, just accept it. The VATS wasn't nearly as boring as you said it would be, especially with bloody mess. It just feels like it needs more quests, I already feel like I've done everything. Random encounters and little non-quest dungeons are pretty fun, though. Exploring is a whole lot funner than oblivion, and so is leveling. Screw you haters, I liked it.

I ALREADY ****ING SAID THAT YOU GOD DAMNED SON OF A MALFORMED MOLERAT.​

Do you staple opinions into your brains or what?

I also want to strangle Moira.

Spoiler

I made President Eden explode himself.

Oooh. I want a piece of that.

Both actually.

 

[Krynn72]

Hey Mikael, take more things personally plz. You realize he wasnt talking about you in specific right?

Also Mikael, lets get a final word in on this. From what you expected of the game from before release, is it better, worse, or on par with how you thought it would be.

 

[Top Secret]

He has already stated several times that it is better than he had thought it would be, but it is not a true Fallout successor.

Pretty similar to how I feel.

Good game.

Not good Fallout.