So, the autumn gaming season is finally upon us, and damn does it show. This fall is packed with big game releases like Guitar Hero: World Tour, Dead Space, Fable 2, Gears of War 2, Little Big Planet, Resistance 2, and Far Cry 2. So with all of these big name releases, it's easy to look over one beautiful gem: Fallout 3.
Fallout 3 is a sequel to a decade-old game series that hasn't seen a true sequel in 10 years. With Bethesda taking the reigns this time around, Fallout 3 bursts onto the scene with a big bloody impact. It perfectly captures the post-apocalyptic, retro-50s, black humor atmosphere of the previous games, while bringing it into the next generation of gameplay and presentation. It's an amazing, open-world experience where your decisions have a true impact on the world around you.
Fallout 3 doesn't advertise about the importance of choice in this game, but I've yet to play a game where your decisions have such an effect on the world and the way people see you. There's an effective karma system that plays an important part, but that's just the surface.
Here's an example: When helping a character complete a survival guide, I instead chose to use my speech craft abilities to convince her to give up. I got experience points and completed the quest, but she went from being the happiest person in town to being absolutely distraught. I've never felt so guilty about a decision I've made in a video game before. She gave me a discount on repairs and weapons now, but it was because she didn't have to spend her time on the guide anymore, guilting me while helping me. I later blew up the entire town by activating an atomic bomb. The entire town, gone. Because of me. I went back to the ruins, and there was the same girl, but now she had mutated because of radiation. I killed her dreams, I destroyed her town, turned her into a mutant, and she STILL gives me a discount on items.
Then I went on to Tenpenny tower. It was a very well-kept establishment; the richest part of the wasteland. The inhabitants were all very snobbish and rich, and all adorned in pre-war clothing. They were having a trouble with ghouls (mutated humans) trying to get in. So I decided to take care of it. Instead of killing the ghouls, I convinced the residents of Tenpenny tower to let them move in. All seemed well, and I felt like I did the right thing. I came back a day later, and the ghouls had killed all of the humans. Their mangled bodies were piled up in a storage room. Oops.
Fallout 3 is an amazing, open-world game where your choices have a serious effect on the world around you. It's not a superficial system, and is rarely even advertised by the creators. It's a game with a perfect atmosphere and an entertaining combat system. It's better than Oblivion was in just about every way and still manages to be a true successor to the Fallout series.
So that was my two cents. Anyone else here play Fallout 3 at all yet?