Fallout 3 Review

Lets address the elephant in the room first so I can get it out of the way. The Begin Again modpack changes the original experience in a few areas. I am obviously transparent about how I tackled the game but some gamers might claim that adding iron sights or sprinting kills the classic Fallout 3 experience. I disagree. Do upscaled textures and modern settings completely change the video game? No they just let the original vision shine without the clunkiness. So does the Capital Wasteland actually hold up? Lets start with its strongest asset before we get to the cracks in the armor.

The World: The Capital Wasteland

I am an avid enjoyer of apocalyptic worlds and I am not exaggerating when I say that this wasteland is one of the strongest and most atmospheric open worlds I have ever explored. It is immersive in so many ways whether it be the grassy patches of nature reclaiming small shacks or the dark creepy tunnels filled with mutants and environmental dangers.

I have seen claims of the game being empty and I cannot disagree more. You could enter a random building in downtown DC and find some weird collars on a bunch of super mutants. Upon fighting your way to the lower floor you discover an aggressive scientist. After reading through his logs you realize he was conducting rogue experiments. This is what I consider great worldbuilding. It is not a quest and it is not marked but it still makes the wasteland feel alive. It offers small interactions that hold no deep lore meaning but execute apocalyptic depth perfectly. Even the famously hated metro system becomes enjoyable to crawl through with simple additions like map zoom.

The Narrative: Story and Quests

The main story is a classic Good vs Evil trope. You are the messiah and the Enclave are the villains. It is extremely simple but it works as a vehicle to get you moving. Where the game shines is the side content. I tracked down androids in The Replicated Man and decided the fate of a talking tree in Oasis. I navigated the politics of Tenpenny Tower and sided with the slaves in Head of State.

The writing in these side quests has a dark humor that defines the franchise. I am not mad that the main quest is a bit bland because I find this frequent in great RPGs so I can easily let it slide. I will say the ending was extremely abrupt. Even with the Broken Steel expansion it feels underwhelming.

Gameplay: Why Begin Again Matters

If the world is the soul of Fallout 3 the gameplay was always its broken leg. This is where the modlist does the heavy lifting. By porting the game into the New Vegas engine we finally get a modern experience that wont make players ragequit.

It sounds like a small tech detail but it changes everything. In 2008 combat felt like a dice roll where you pointed your gun and prayed. Now it feels like a modern shooter. Popping a raiders head from 20 meters away with a rifle feels earned rather than lucky. The stability deserves a mention too. I played for dozens of hours and I can count the crashes on one hand. For a Bethesda game that is a miracle.

The DLCs: The Good, The Bad and The Aliens

Since I played the Game of the Year Edition I have to mention the DLCs because they are a great deal.

• The Essential The Pitt: This is where morality gets uncomfortable in the best way possible. It captures the core of Fallout better than anything else.

• The Highlight Point Lookout: This is Fallout at its creepiest. The swamp vibe is unmatched and it leans into the horror elements that Bethesda does so well.

• The Rest: Mothership Zeta and Anchorage are nothing more than corridor shooters that overstay their welcome. They are worth the loot but that is all.

The Shortcomings: World Logic and Writing

Despite my praise I have to be honest. If you stop to think about the logic for more than five seconds it starts to fall apart. My biggest gripe is the timeline. The game takes place 200 years after the bombs fell yet the Capital Wasteland looks like the war happened last Tuesday. People are somehow still scavenging 200 year old grocery stores for food. Why is there a town built around an active nuclear bomb like Megaton when perfectly good houses are five minutes away? The game prioritizes the rule of cool over internal logic.

The writing also suffers from a lack of nuance. The morality system is frustratingly binary. You are either a saint who donates water to beggars or a cartoon villain who nukes towns for fun. Additionally the main quest forces a specific emotional connection on you regarding your father. If you do not actually connect with that character the entire driving force of the narrative feels like a chore.

The Verdict

Returning to the Capital Wasteland was a risk. I was worried that nostalgia was doing the heavy lifting and that the reality would be a clunky mess. I was wrong. Fallout 3 is not just a museum piece. It is a genuinely great open world RPG that holds its own against modern titles. If you have never played it or if you haven't touched it in 15 years because you are afraid of the jank go download it and step out of the Vault.