Overrated Video Games: Fallout 3

Released By:
Bethesda Game Studios / Bethesda Softworks
Release Date:
October 28, 2008
Released For:
PC / PlayStation 3 / X-Box 360
Genre:
First Person Shooter / RPG

Purchase here.

Usually when a remake has a lot of holdover cache from its PC predecessor, it also arrives on the gaming stage championed by PC fans, some of who hold the game in question in such high regard that their rose colored glasses become blinders, blocking out the skepticism and even-handed temperament that comes with new exposure to an old franchise, now re-forged and repackaged. In some cases, only the intellectual property and slogan branding remain, bolted onto gameplay ill-suited to the original. Still other times, it arrives with such adherence to its outdated game design tropes that it becomes painful to play, especially for those left wondering why so many fans and critics raved as loudly as they did during its release. While all of the above may have not been the case with Fallout 3, its transition from the computer room to the dorm room wasn’t without some bruised spots.

Still other times, it arrives with such adherence to its outdated game design tropes that it becomes painful to play…

Fallout 3 is a reboot of the popular PC role-playing game from the late 90s which was advertised with the sub-heading “A Post-Nuclear Role Playing Game.” These games usually placed the player front and center as the unwitting outcast of an already insular society, forced to contend with the irradiated mutants and cannibalistic brigands of a sun-bleached nation still scorched from the global thermonuclear war several centuries ago. Dark humor contrasts against the weathered retro-futuristic 50s decor, a living counter-argument to the high-minded jingoism which instigated nuclear war in the first place.

The game, which corralled a dedicated following, also spawned a sequel and a couple of spin-offs before studio closings ended any further production on the series. It wasn’t until 2008 that people would become aware of the potential of this series under a new developer, and with a much wider release. On reception, critics loved the game, bestowing high marks for its combat system and adaptable mission structure. The game received many “Best of…” awards, and even several for sound design.

While some of this praise is well deserved, much of Fallout 3 could have been improved if Bethesda had made some pragmatic concessions to those gamers looking for a game with a little more action and a little less item management. The inventory system of Fallout 3 is based on your character’s strength, and takes into account both equipped items and inventory. Depending on a player’s health, they can carry more goods to trade with the help of strength boosting drugs, commonly referred to as “chems.” The major downside is that a player will emerge from every robot bunker or makeshift bandit hideout loaded down with gear, dragging themselves to the nearest waste roaming shop vendor. After trading with a vendor, items can be sold for their equivalent worth in rusty bottle caps, the coin of this realm. That is, if the vendor has any. What ensues is more comparable to a chore, as the player is forced to either abandon enough gear to continue their quest, or hope that they don’t go into chem withdrawal in the middle of the blasted wilderness under the crushing weight of plasma rifles, prison shivs and random bent tin cans, just to be crippled and devoured by fire-breathing ants the size of a small car. As a matter of fact, there is no solution to this problem, and it’s a ritual that continues to this day, from sequel to DLC unto time immemorial.

If bleak humor characterizes the Fallout franchise, then the level of humor and ironic goofiness requisite for a proper Fallout game is severely lacking in Fallout 3. Ironic because the random goofy bits from previous installments served as the cherry on top of the big ‘screw you’ sundae that happens to be everyday life in the Wastelands. Those orphans you saved from slavers that were accidentally returned to a township of cannibals? That’s the Wasteland for you, ha ha. That map to that super laser gun you heard about, killed a man in his sleep over, and then fought through five levels of super-mutants in an underground bunker to get to? Sorry, just a glow-in-the-dark plastic toy from a cereal box. That’s another Monday in the Wasteland for you. With Fallout 3, these moments of goofy strangeness are largely absent, a punch line that has gone un-punched. Playing more than an hour of Fallout 3 becomes a dreary effort in a world without humor, if only gallows humor.

Boring, arid, and antiseptic, Fallout 3 is a game without personality, doomed to mine the same fields of bubble-headed spacemen and rocket car kitsch, picking it clean in the process and much like the scavengers of the long abandoned factories found within. There may be a few true moments of exploration and treasure to be found, but only after hours of fruitless and sometimes misleading progress. There are better ways to spend one’s time.