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The views and opinions expressed in this review reflect the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of PHS, PSD, or the Poudre Press.
Fallout 3 and time haven't been the best match. While it had its critics at release, for the most part, it was met with high praise. For many, their first experience with the franchise was also helped by the game's accessibility being released not just on Microsoft Windows, but the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The game was also a complete genre shift from previous titles, going from a CRPG to an action RPG. The latter genre is a more casual gateway into the genre as a whole.
Fallout 3 being a departure from the typical genre would end up being one of the game's greatest flaws. Switching up the genre in your game franchise isn't inherently bad and can be done well, in the cases of Resident Evil 4 and Grand Theft Auto 3. In this case, it almost feels more as if the genre shift came from Bethesda Game Studio's desire to make Fallout in their own style, more accurately they would re-model their previous game "The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion" into a fallout themed action RPG, hence the common sentiment that Fallout 3 is mere "Oblivion with guns" and although a joke it does make for an accurate statement to the games greater similarities to other Bethesda titles rather than the Fallout franchise
Fallout 3 is not only flawed in regard to previous entries but to future ones as well. Now one can understand that it would be difficult for Bethesda Game Studios to use knowledge from events yet to occur but it is good to point out details from a modern consumers perspective. Fallout New Vegas would come out a mere two years after 3 and while published by Bethesda, the development team behind it was that of Obsidian Entertainment. Obsidian was composed of a good portion of original Fallout developers from Black Isle Studios (Fallout 2). Fallout New Vegas captures a lot of what was missing in 3, examples being the more deep and branching main quest, a greater thematic consistency, and significantly better character writing.
Bethesda's 2015 entry into the series, Fallout 4, would also improve Fallout 3's exploration and gameplay loop with reworked and much smoother combat mechanics as well as less copy/pasted environments. This brings the question to mind as to how Fallout 3 is yet still regarded as one of the better Fallouts when it falls so behind in many aspects. However, I've failed to mention many of Fallout 3's stronger elements. First is the incredible atmosphere and environment design. Many locations such as the downtown Washington D.C. area or the desolate wasteland have such a cruel but lonely atmosphere, juxtaposed by the multiple enemy encounters that can occur. The soundtrack only adds to the piece with harsh industrial tracks as well as lighter more eerie ones. Fallout 3's depiction of a nuclear wasteland while not accurate to the timeframe in which the game takes place, (basically, it doesn't make much sense for society to still be in such a state of dysfunction 200 years after the nukes dropped) is still an incredible work of fiction
Beyond what little there is to say in the way of Fallout 3's achievements, the game's legacy and the nostalgia of fans is more or less what it amounts to today. Fallout 3 is far from the masterpiece video game that many would tell you and its title as the game of the year of 2008 I find it astounding when I think even a game like Lego Batman of the same year feels better approached and executed.
My name is Gunner Farrell, and you should expect articles about gaming on this column. You can imagine considering I chose gaming as the focus of my column, that I am quite of interest in the genre.
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