So you like wastelands, do you? Well, you haven’t seen one like this! With such a creative, ambitious, and open world, there is nothing you can’t do. Ah yes, you heard me right: One more amazing open world that you can explore and create your own story in.

Story:

Fallout 3 starts you off in Vault 101, an underground bunker built by the Vault-Tec corporation, to protect the American population from the Nuclear War of 2077. In this alternate history, the culture never evolved from the 1950s. So everything in the game has this weird, sci-fi ’50s theme to it. As you begin the game, you live in the vault where your mother died during your birth, and your father now is your caretaker by himself. Then, on your 19th birthday, you are awoken by your friend, Amata. She tells you that your father has left the vault and he is the first one to ever do so. Then you go on your journey in the wasteland to find your father.

Gameplay:

Fallout 3 is an open world, role-playing survival/first person shooter. A prominent part of Fallout is the endless customization. Every play through you do, you can have a different dynamic experience due to the karma system. In a nutshell, in the karma system, every decision you make, good or bad, will affect the outcome of the game and how other people interact with you. Also, you get to choose your attributes, or S.P.E.C.I.A.L. This stands for Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. Each point you put into one, it levels up 3 certain skills. For example, lockpick, explosives, and small guns. That’s just a few of the many skills there are. The special attribute, Luck, will put half a point into each one of the sub class attributes. There are over 90 weapons in the game from melee to extreme long range. Here is a trailer so you can see just what we mean: Click this link to see the gameplay from Fallout 3.

Music and Graphics:

Considering the time frame of the game itself, and the time of the release (October 28, 2008), the graphics are not to the standard of today. However, they are pretty good for the time it was released. Bethesda was never really known for making good graphics, but nevertheless they were pretty good. The music however, considering the game’s setting, is very good. Most the music is on the various news stations you can get in game. They play the iconic patriotic songs such as Yankee Doodle and ’50s songs such as Mighty, Mighty Man by Roy Brown. The only problem is some of the songs can get repetitive, but still catchy and fun to listen to while exploring.

Downloaded Content and Bonus:

Obviously with such an expansive world and beloved franchise you have to have some downloadable content right? Well you are right! These include Operation: Anchorage, The Pitt, Broken Steel, Point Lookout, and Mother-ship Zeta. All for $9.99 each on the Xbox marketplace, and only $4.99 on the Steam marketplace, where it frequently goes on sale.

Verdict:

Overall this is one of our favorite games of all time and with the release of Fallout 4 just around the corner, we are even more excited than usual. Our overall rating is a 9.5. A very solid game that we recommend to all fans of role-playing or survival games. We will be playing Fallout 4 when it comes out this week and will have a review for you early next week.