Fallout 3: Back to Wasteland or another cliche 3D game?

Fallout 3 is finally out. I always liked Fallout series - even wrote walkthroughs and strategy guides for game magazines. I think I played Fallout Tactics too but don't remember if I finished it or not. Anyway, Fallout series set a very definite milestone for us hardcore RPG fans. How can we hate an adrenaline-pumping survival experience in a post nuclear war world - filled with monsters, giant mutants, metal armor-wearing gun slingers, dogs and people living in devastated villages?

But just like some old but good game companies like Looking Glass Studio and Sirtech, Black Isle Studios and Interplay Entertainment couldn't make a sequel after Fallout 2. So we waited over 10 years to see Fallout 3 coming out, developed by Bethesda Softworks. Oh yes. they're the guys who made Arena, Daggerfall, Morrowind and most importantly, Oblivion. And I've heard some rumors saying Fallout 3 might end up being a pseudo-FPS game similar to Oblivion. Hmm. Interesting.

To see what it's like I wanted to try Fallout 3 myself. Installation was smooth, but I can hear some hiccups in the BGM in the opening screen. After I began the game it was gone but could still hear poping noises in BGMs. A little annoying, but not deadly. I can live with that. A patch or two will do.

So far I fought my way through couple of towns and metro. Framerate is always smooth and this is impressive because I set almost all graphic options as 'high' at 1920x1200. Considering I'm using Intel E6750 CPU (Conroe) with a rather old GeForce 8800GTS (old 320MB version) this isn't bad at all. But maybe this is due to Gamebryo engine Bethesda's using. And I think some old NPCs' faces look like a paper doll's. Oh, one more thing. NPC's movement and facial expression is very limited and feels like I'm talking in front of a robot just like in Oblivion.

But one really good thing - probably I can use the word "best" here - is extremely short loading time. Compared to recently released games, Fallout 3's loading time is almost nothing. Hitting the Quick Load button will bring your saved game almost instantly. Even when you first load your save after launching the game there's very little wait. I guess Bethesda tweaked and optimized a lot of stuff in Oblivion engine. It's really impressive and I mean it. If this is the merit of reusing a rather old game engine, some of practical gamers who appreciate short loading time will prefer it to having really graphics with forced long loading time.

When you first come out of Vault 101, you'll be overwhelmed by the first scenary of Wasteland. Because this is probably the thing you've been dreaming for 10 years if you're a big fan of Fallout. But that feeling goes away in a few hours and all terrains and buildings start to look alike. And some buildings will do frustrate you because you can't enter them - they're just decoration. You do get that vacant and lost feeling in Wasteland of Fallout 3 though.

Combat might look simple and straightforward but if you haven't played Oblivion it may be difficult for you. Fallout 3 looks like a FPS game but it's not. Most of weapons you'll get in this game (especially if you haven't played over 10~20 hours) are not really powerful or useful and scarcity of ammo will drag you too. For instance, in Normal difficulty you have to spend more than 10~20 10mm bullets to kill a Fire ant soldier. So it even feels like Thief series - where you may kill guards or bad guys like a righteous warrior but just sneaking behind them and landing a critical blow silently will do the job better. Of course you can use VATS to aim at specific body parts to crush your enemies more easily.

As for stats and perks, they work almost the same way they did in Fallout 1/2. I read some gamers saying stats (INT for example) doesn't work like previous Fallout though. I don't care - I just don't have time to play with stats and perks. I just pick the right ones and move on. That's the way to survive in this hostile environment I guess. One skill I'd like to emphasize is repairing. Since this is a post nuclear war world and things that are almost new are hard to come by, you have to fix weapons and armors by combining same items. It is possible to bring them to merchants to get them fixed but it will cost you. Repairing by combining is also useful in getting rid of worn items: most items mean weight in Fallout 3 and there're a lot of them.

Now, let's take a look at all-new Pip-boy 3000. It is cool and well-made but I wish I could use a lot of left-out hotkeys to access some of its features with more ease. I just don't like hitting 2 or more keys to bring out the screen I need. And item management is somewhat similar to 'Mess' Effect (Item Management Mess!!) and I hate it. Most of items have to be dropped to the ground if you want to see what they look like. And I don't believe there's an option to sort items by their weight. I'm in pretty early stage but I constantly have to throw out a lot of them just because I'm carrying too much. And I really miss those small red buttons in old Pip-boys...

So, is this game like Oblivion? Partly, yes. Bethesda Softworks even put Oblivion-styled BGMs in and I can't say I like them. If you think this game as 'an officially modded Oblivion with Fallout theme', then it really feels like it. You run/jump slow and you can't really fight like a real macho man because this game isn't a FPS. But if you want a Fallout sequel made with comtemporary technology I don't think you can find another game to substitute Fallout 3. I know it's missing something and it's hard to rub out looming feeling of Oblivion-reloaded, but you don't want to re-install your old copy of Fallout 1 or 2 again when 3 is out there, do you?

Verdict: 4 out of 5

Pros:
Finally, back to Wasteland! Whoa!
Top Hollywood actor's voice acting
Many armors and weapons to play with
A lot of perks for players with sophisticated taste
Dogmeat

Cons:
A lof of limited area / empty buildings ruin immersion
Slow motion effect in VATS doesn't seem always necessary
Very limited facial expression and robot-like movement of NPCs
Some Oblivion-like BGMs

Well, here I begin.

Recently I've been feeling some urge to write something in English - and since most of my favorite games, movies and TV shows are in English I think it is good to have an English blog to share my view on those fun-filled thingies.

I do have a blog in Korean (http://blog.naver.com/mrnoface) but it's just good and more exciting to have more readers and exchange opinions on those rather addictive subjects. And yes, because of my peculiar and capricious taste, I don't think most of Koreans can understand what I'm talking about. I mean, who cares about Dominic West's personal history (he was the main charactor in HBO's The Wire) or squad-based games like Jagged Alliance/UFO series 'altogether' in Korea? IMO, this is not because of race or nation: the sheer number of people who will have access to my blog and understand my posts matters.

Most posts will be focusing on various contents I enjoy everyday and I'll add something else as I feel the need. So here we go...