moonscented's review of Fallout 3.

Guess my memories of this will have to do. Just hasn’t aged as well as I’d hoped. Not so much it’s gameplay, that was already outdated by the time it released, so the general fan base I’d say has probably already looked passed that. Every dialogue option is simple and goofy, it’s either overly heroic and obnoxious, or vaguely evil. It’s never something witty or logical, it’s never funny or sincere, feels like a 12 year old wrote most of it. The characters have such dramatic conclusions to their stories but never once do I actually care for them, mostly due to my interactions with them being limited to deciding which way I wanna tell this person the ONLY info I can give. I can’t lie to them, trick them or betray them. It’s all the same overly helpful toddler book shite. I know this comes off as aggressive, I used to love this game and it seems like I’m shitting all over it. I’d be willing to look passed most of the issues I have with dialogue or RPG mechanics if this world was half as developed as I remember. I’m not sure what the choice was for this, but this entire map just does not let you breathe, for even a second. Every hill you climb will have ghouls, deathclaws, Yao guai, or rad scorpions just on the other side. You cannot walk in this world for longer than 30 seconds without some kind of annoying confrontation with multiple enemies. I wouldn’t mind this if there was smarter logic behind it, or at least a few minutes to let me take in the atmosphere between, but it’s non sense. Why is there a robot in the forest fucking with me? Why is there ONE scorpion on this high way? Why is a mirelurk in the god damn mountains?? What I love about NV’s map is how carefully spawns are placed. There’s notoriously dangerous areas on the map, you will be told by signs or from NPC’s, that the quarry is full of deathclaws, or the canyons north of Goodsprings are infested with the worst of the Wastelands irradiated insects. It doesn’t throw shit at you for no reason, some raiders in a camp or a canyon ambush at most. Fallout 3’s map feels like it was designed with the idea that it can’t trust me to enjoy it without giving me something to shoot at or something to shoot me. The locations are still interesting on their own, I still think Megaton and Rivet City are great and memorable locations. Megaton specifically being such a wonderful introduction to society as it is in this world. Rusty, and barely held together by welded metal and the work it’s residents have to put into it everyday. DLC is also very messy. I’d say The Pitt and Point Lookout are the only ones actually worth any time, and they’re also to this day probably my personal favorites of any Fallout DLC. Broken Steel is just an extension of its already boring story and characters, Anchorage has no actual effect on the world around it, and Mothership Zeta is just a bloated mess of content surrounding one event in the original game world that WAS interesting before they put so much meaning behind it. Zeta is so bad I decided I wouldn’t finish it after the first five minutes of starting. Listen, all that said, I still adore the memory I have of this game. This was my first real exposure to giant open worlds outside of GTA, I think I took from this what many took from Oblivion. I’ll always treasure that, but revisiting this game felt like visiting an old relative that I don’t connect to anymore, that’s trying so hard to be what I remember them being, but it’s mostly just awkward. And kinda sad. NV still the goat.