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Fallout 3 takes place after a nuclear war has taken place; there was nuclear fire and radiation as expected, but as it turns out, it wasn't the end of the world, after all. It was, instead, a prologue to a new period... the world was destroyed, but "war... war never changes," as the in-game intro narrative states.
In Fallout 3, to avoid the devastation, people went into hiding in underground fallout shelters called, "Vaults." The people escaped into these vaults and waited for the threat to subside and the radiation to die down a bit, then they all returned to the surface to begin life anew. Except for "Vault 101." Vault 101 never opened. Their motto? "No one ever enters, no one ever leaves."
You were born in Vault 101. You expect to die there as well. The main part of the game occurs when you are 19 years old, but there are flashback sequences where you make some decisions back in your "formative" years that affect your character. (Nice touch, that.) You go about daily life underground, helping your father in his science lab until one day he disappears. He's left Vault 101 and you need to know why, so you have to find your way out, as well. Once out, you'll have to fight through a strange and harsh terrain, avoiding mutated freaks who want to kill you for food - or amusement - and trying to find life-giving water... preferably with a reasonably low level of radiation...
Fallout 3 can be played in first- or third-person perspective, and features the fast-paced action of an FPS, with the deeper planning and thinking required in RPGs. For example, you can target an enemy and shoot them, but you can also use your "Pip Boy" personal digital assistant (on steroids) to assist your targeting; it provides you with a graphic overlay that indicates your probability of hitting certain parts of an enemy as well as the condition (health percentage remaining) of each body part. This "Pip Boy" device is actually pretty pivotal to the gameplay; it's used for enhanced targeting, to recharge your character and to re-allocate skills. Since the Pip Boy is used throughout the game, a lot of time was spent on getting the look of it right. It was said that the Pip Boy actually has more shaders than any other element in Fallout 3. Just in flipping around in the screens of the Pip Boy, it's easy to believe. There is even an occasional (random) screen-roll effect.
Interesting notes about your "father figure" in the game is that the part is voiced by Liam Neeson and his appearance is based on the appearance of your character - it's basically a "DNA projection" of your character, but older.
The entrance to Vault 101 is what has become the "Capitol Wasteland" - and you can explore this post-apocalyptic version of Washington D.C. - you can even go off into the distance and explore the Washington Monument close up, for example.
The presentation that was given was a walk-through of a demo - it was an interactive play-through of some of the first of the game, presented in a theater fashion, so I didn't get any hands-on experience, but it seems that:
- Experience is given for completing missions and finding cities and new locations in the game
- Water restores your health, but may be contaminated with radiation - and radiation build up in your system can cause bad things to happen.
- The world is overrun with human-sized ants. Hungry human-sized ants.
- Attacking an ant's antennae can disorient him, causing him to attack whatever's close. If you do this, don't be the closest thing to him.
- If a Megaton bomb should fall and not go off, the locals are likely to see this as a sign and worship it and build a city around it... and lower property values.
- Games with licensed music from the 40's can have a really, really cool feel to them.
- This game has a little bit (Read LOTS) of blood and gore. It is not going to be rated "E for Everyone."
- When your weapons can be consumed in the process of upgrading other weapons by using them for parts, it tends to balance out the gameplay as far as the weapons stockpiling is concerned.
- The atomic war in question was, evidently, with China.
- People who look kinda like "Storm Troopers" are good.
- People who look kinda like the "Toxic Avenger" are bad.
Fallout 3 features: - "Mr. Handy" (snide robot from earlier in the series)
- Visual Density, pushing the 360 hardware, using the Oblivion Engine
- Physics, even in the stair-climbing animations. No, really.
- 20 licensed songs from the 40's. (No, really.)
- Good targeting and effects
- Good skin shading
Fallout 3 is slated to launch in Fall, 2008. |
