The videogame I'm talking about is Fallout 3, the post-apocalyptic open-world role-playing first-person-shooter (or PAOWRPGFPS for short) set in the Washington, DC area in the year 2277.
Fancy seeing you here...
Many hear 2277 and roll their eyes, remembering nothing but the uber-sleek depictions of our future. No, this game is not trying to recreate a world cut out of the Star Wars universe. Part of the beauty of the game (aside from the breathtaking vistas that greet the player throughout) is the ambience of a world whose music, clothing, and language ceased to change sometime in the 1950s. Although nuclear war didn't cover the world until 2077, forcing those who could afford the privilege to hide in underground communities called "Vaults", burnt-out cars closely resembled the '50s T-birds and Bel-Airs, old-school Rhythm and Blues and crooning rock n' roll are prevalent, and leather jacket & faded jeans are the popular fashion.
Anyway, the reason I play video games, aside from the occasional football or racing game, is to enjoy a good story. It's the same reason I love a good book, movie, or TV show. And in this respect, Fallout 3 is a stunner, with an intricate mythology, incredible attention to detail, and a world populated with hundreds of characters with personalities, daily schedules, and opportunities for interaction. The game begins with your birth, and through the brilliantly designed scenes that follow, you build your character and learn the mechanics of the game. Upon birth, depending on your choice, your father-a doctor-announces the arrival of a boy or girl, and you are given the name of your choosing. You learn basic movement and object manipulation by crawling around, reading colorful books, and playing with toys as a cooing baby. The first nineteen years of your life in the Vault pass by in short segments as you learn about your wrist-mounted Pip-Boy (the in-game menu where you track your inventory, skills, health, and quest information-it's an amazingly immersive element of the game), take an aptitude test in which you unknowingly tell the game how you plan to play, and learn to shoot the BB gun you get for your 16th birthday.
The introductory part of the game culminates when, sometime in your nineteenth year, you awake to find out your father has left the safety of the Vault (in the two hundred years since the dropping of the bombs, no one has entered or exited the Vaults for fear of exposure to the ruined wasteland outside). Your father's research assistant has been killed, and the Vault authorities are coming to find you. With help from a lifelong friend, you escape the Vault police and venture out of the Vault to track daddy down.
At the moment you leave the Vault, you are greeted by a fantastic view of the barren ruins of Washington, DC, and although it may seem unlikely, every inch of what you see is fully explorable. The training wheels are taken off, and the player is left entirely to their own devices. You are given minor clues as to where the search for your father might start, and you can pursue these, which will lead you through the game's main quest. Or, if you decide that the ramshackle houses and derelict, wartorn elementary school to your west seem more interesting, you are free to explore. One should travel cautiously, however-the wasteland is crawling with feral animals, wandering Raiders who live to terrorize and plunder, mercenary groups who will either be friendly or hostile, and dangerous mutants. The actions of the game's inhabitants depends largely on your choices throughout the game, which carry long-reaching consequences as you progress: do-gooders will no doubt attract the ire of power-hungry men eager to place bounties on your head, while nefarious acts will earn you mistrust among the law-abiding citizens found in the game's numerous cities and smaller settlements.
Megaton, built around an undetonated bomb, is the first site in your search for your father.
With so many opportunities for conflict throughout the 15-20 hour main storyline (and the potantial 100's of hours of supplementary content-seriously, there's so much crap you can do which have no bearing on the main story, but which flesh out the world and provide opportunities for you to gain experience, wealth, and better equipment), the game gives you the tools to survive. Weapons range from handheld melee types (brass knuckles, baseball bats, or the homemade "Shishkabob", made from a lawnmower blade, propane tank, and other parts-it essentially constitutes a flaming sword that is great fun), to pistols, hunting & assault rifles, energy-based weapons, and even missle launchers and grenades. Attract a group of enemies with a couple of stray shots, plant a homemade mine around the corner, then watch the firework as the aggressors round the corner to fight. Good times, good times. My two favorite weapons were the Fat Man, which shot rarely-found miniature nukes (don't use on enemies within 50 yards of yourself-the blast is big!), and the homemade Rock-It Launcher, an endlessly entertaining contraption which shoots the random junk that litters the game. Cups, cutting boards, dinner plates, bent tin cans, clipboards, pre-war money, pool balls, and other otherwise useless junk suddenly becomes powerful ammo, allowing the player to save their 5.56 mm and .32 rounds for tougher conflicts.
Aside from the weapons used, Fallout 3 also gives players another useful tool in combat: VATS-the VaultTec Assisted Targeting System. While the player always has the option of fighting in the standard FPS style, gunning away on their own, they may also push a button to engage VATS. This pauses the action, focuses on the enemy, and (depending on things like character stats, distance, angle, and weapon) displays pecentage-based chances of hitting the enemy in the selected part of the body. One can choose to aim at the torso, head, limbs, or even the weapon they carry. This carries with it awesome potentialities. Is that mutated Deathclaw too fast and strong to be engaged in a close fight? Target its leg and cripple it, reducing it to a slow hobble while you keep a safe distance to finish the job (mines are great for this, too). In the mood for some ultra-violence? Take a raider's arm off and let them run away until they bleed out (not that I ever did that-I played the quintessential noble hero). If there are multiple enemies in range, a flick of the left stick switches between them, while the right stick allows targeting of specific body parts. Depending on how many Action Points the character has, the player can use VATS to line up a string of multiple targeted shots. Once the sequence of actions has been selected, tap the A button, and the action ensues in a slow-motion, cinematic feel as the hero takes the shots the player has selected. It's a great system, and one that displays the game's role-playing leanings.
I'd rather you didn't get so close.
Despite its fast-paced shooting mechanics, Fallout 3 is a role-playing game. Puzzles, enemies, and quests offer opportunities to increase one abilities, and the grand majority of actions are dependent on these statistics. A higher Barter rating results in higher earnings and lower prices from merchants. Sneak ratings determine how well you can stealth around without an enemy noticing you (a good Sneak and Pickpocket rating give you the opportunity to take things from opposing characters, as well as plant a live grenade in their pocket if you want-how cool is that?!). Strength determines how much junk you can carry before you are overburdened and fatigues. Higher skills allow players to hack computer terminals and pick locks...and the list goes on and on.
The Pip Boy interface organizes everything you need to know.
I've got to stop. It's a great game, with a wonderful storyline of betrayal & redemption, a wealth of content to be discovered, and a sly, humorous commentary on '50s patriotism and culture in America. Long playtime is made manageable by the ability to save anywhere, anytime, so there's none of the frustration of having to wait for a save point before turning the game off. It's sensitive, hilarious, horrifying, and hugely entertaining, sometimes within the same few minutes of play. Play it the way you want, go where you want to go, treat others however you like (just beware the consequences!), and have a good time. Despite a couple of nagging shortcomings (stiffly animated characters run into each other, occasional lack of appropriate responses to player actions from the AI-controlled characters), Fallout left me very impressed, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good story.
