War never changes...

Sunday, November 16, 2008

At least that's what the narrators of the Fallout rpg series says.

With the advent of it's 3rd sequel Fallout has yet again been made into a masterpiece of an RPG. Having disappeared for more than a decade the Fallout series was realeased on the last week of October this year; bigger and meaner than ever.

The old company that made the Fallout series, Black Isle, sold it's rights to rpg giant, Bethesda, the makers of Elder Scroll IV: Oblivion after the former became bancrupt during the first years of the millenium. Now Besthada has modified the Fallout franchise in a mix of an rpg slash fps game, a very promising combination to say the least.

Fallout's background tells the story of an alternate timeline. A what if when world war 3 occurs and nations began firing nuclear weapons upon each other (Namely USA vs. China as Fallout 3 graphically showed along the course of the game). In this parralel universe the United States of America built huge nuclear bomb shelters called vaults where hundreds of Americans live to tide away the nuclear holocaust.

After a few decades of living the vault dwellers resurfaced only to see a wartorn country which was aptly called the wasteland. The vault dwellers came into contact with other survivors and also has to contend with mutated lifeforms such as the Super Mutants, large humanoids which are mutated by the super soldier FEV virus, the Ghouls, which are irradiated humans with degenerate flesh like those of a zombie, mutated animals like the deadly Deathclaws and mutated giant insects which includes radscorpions, rad roaches and nast looking army ants that spews fire.

New factions have also arisen like the scientific Brotherhood of Steel, a paramilitary organization dedicated in collecting technological relics of the past as well as of the future.

They symbolize the knights in shining armor in an apocalyptic dark age as they walk across the wastelands in their majestic power armor.

Another is the Enclave, which was the remnants of the United States government, whose sole purpose is to reclaim and, once again, control the whole country by any means necessary.

As I mentioned Bethesda changed the gameplay of the original Fallout and turned it into a hybrid first person shooter slash role playing game concept. The old turnbased system was swaped with V.A.T.S. (Vault-tec Assisted Targeting System) which helps the player attack the different limbs of enemy targets (and also pauses the game) by spending action points. After doing V.A.T.S. the animation then slows down, matrix style, and automatically attacks the target until all the action points are spent. Quite an intriguing style of gameplay to use if I say so myself.

Bethesda's concpept of a grisly post-apocalyptic wasteland in a three dimensional world is also a sight to see. They have shown how low the human race could ever be without order and sanity. You'll be surprised to see the raiders come to life as you enter their houses and see half eaten and rotting human carcasses strewn across the room.

The first time I saw a scene like that I almost puked and got so enraged I shot all the raiders inside the abandoned elementary school that I accidentally entered.

It seems every human being in the game got twisted in some way or another and adjusted to the horrors of the wasteland as they see fit. Can anyone say survival of the fittest? Bethesda has really captured the psychology behind the world of Fallout.

There are some rants though although minor ones at that. Fallout 3's player doesn't have his own car like in Fallout 2 although you can have your own house and design it with rather interesting choices. Not a really a bother since you can access different locations automatically (i.e. you don't have to walk anymore) when you have reached for the first time.

Monsters and enemies are limited to a few. You could probably classify them with your fingers but then again they are very challenging (well... almost) to contend with.

The same goes with the weapons and armors. The heavy weapons seems limited to a few items and my favorite gun the bozar from Fallout 2, seems to be missing.

Some locations are also hard to access. If you're the type who'll easily get lost I suggest you don't wander around Washington D.C. without checking the waypoints in your Pipboy 3000 (which at times doesn't help you at all).

Dogmeat is still there (what would Fallout be without its mascot?) and old time favorite factions the Brotherhood of Steel and the Enclave.

Surpisingly Bethesda hired good actors for the voices of the lead NPC players like Liam Neeson as the father of the protagonist and Malcom McDowell (Mr. Zimmerman of the tv series Heroes) as the voice of the new Enclave president.

Even my favorite supporting actor, Ron Perlman (of Hellboy fame among others) as the voice of the narrator of Fallout 3.

All in all Fallout 3 is a great game to play and if I have to recommend one RPG game right now this would be it. With it's large map and countless quests Fallout 3 will leave you playing hundreds of gametime hours looking at the horrors and marvels of the capital wasteland as you wander about in a world turned into hell.

And as ol Ron says: "War... war never changes..."