Fallout 3 Details

Most PC gamers probably remember the first two Fallout games, released back in the mid-to-late 1990’s. The games were RPGs, set in a post-apocalyptic world filled with radiation hazards, mutants, and multiple endings based on your actions and the time you took to complete them.

Well, despite the original studio going under, the series is continuing (and coming to Playstation 3 as well as PC and Xbox 360 in Fall 2008) thanks to Bethesda Softworks, the same studio that brought the critically acclaimed Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion to the gaming scene back in 2006.

Bethesda is going all out to make Fallout 3 the “truest” Role Playing Game ever made. In fact, the game starts out when your character is born, and you learn the basics through 18 years in “The Vault”, a Bomb Shelter which people have never set foot out of since the two-hour-war 200 years earlier.

Upon your character’s birth, you are shown a character adjustment screen by your masked father, the degree of adjustment and realism is said by Bethesda to be much higher than in Oblivion. After creating what your character will look like at age 19, your father pulls off his mask and looks similar, although not exactly like your design. He then gives you a notepad that says “You’re Special” and you choose your general traits.

Be careful what you choose though, as unlike Oblivion, you cannot be a jack-of-all-trades, and choosing certain main skills can close off entire questlines for you in the later portions of the game.

At about the age of 2, you learn to walk, then at 10 you recieve your first gun and computer wristwatch, to learn the basics of combat and the game’s menu system. At the age of 16, you take an aptitude test which gives bonuses to attributes you seem best fit for and recommends a class for you. Then, at age 19, you venture out of The Vault to find your father who has mysteriously vanished.

Once you walk outside, you see how much destruction was caused by all the nuclear weapons used by the war in 2077 in the parallel universe (which was pretty much destroyed during the equivalent of the real world’s 1950s). Broken-down cars, the skeletal remains of buildings, irradiated litter, and whatever else dismal remains can be in a former warzone.

You can then play the game in either first-person, or a third-person view that is similar to Resident Evil 4’s system. Don’t worry much though, as you can freely switch between the two like in Oblivion. The game will end up having plenty of weapons for you to use, ranging from rifles to lead pipes. That’s not to say that this is a first-person-shooter, though.

Fallout 3 makes use of an innovative battle system that combines pausing time to see your chance of hitting an enemy at pretty much any point of their body, and real-time play. Running and gunning will only end up wasting a ton of your action points, the equivalent of Fatigue in Oblivion, which isn’t good in a game that you actually have to survive in.

Speaking of survival, a big part of Fallout 3 revolves around you trying to survive in the desolate remains of Earth. Weapons begin to wear down over time, and eventually break. Want to regain some health? Food, soda, and water can do that, but make sure to check their radiation levels, as too much radiation will kill you. Radiation is especially bad in water, clean water isn’t very abundant in the world, so at times you’ll have to just drink out of the stagnant water in a toilet. Should an enemy hit you, you don’t just lose health, you get bones broken and skin ripped open. Once this happens, you need to try and get these fixed by either a doctor or a surgeon’s kit fast, as you won’t be able to perform certain actions with them and could very likely die.

In an effort to make Fallout 3 a true role-playing experience, your actions, even to the slightest degree, alter the entire narrative of the game. In order to save some townspeople from a mutant, you might have to sacrifice someone who would have later given you a quest. Without this quest, you might not be able to prevent another nuclear war, which will lead to your death. Ultimately, anything and everything that you do leads to a different outcome, which in turn can lead to one of the dozens of endings that Bethesda hopes to put into the game.

Until then, we’ll have to wait until Fall 2008 for the final game. Feel free to view the teaser trailer below which shows off the game’s engine in its current state:

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