3/5 ★ – summercomet's review of Fallout 3.

I think, for Bethesda's first bout with the Fallout series, it isn't bad. For all intents and purposes, it's actually impressive with what they managed to do with an IP full of dense lore and a game engine that's held up by toothpicks and peanut butter. I was more interested in how Bethesda would handle their own IP given Obsidian's fantastic attempt with New Vegas but though it isn't as good, Fallout 3 still does pretty good work expanding the series to 3D. Especially given the fact that the game was obviously rushed, the important parts of the game was great and still pretty noteworthy to try. The gunplay is translated pretty well from 2D and keeps a lot of the intricacies that they had introduced while modernizing it for a 3D landscape for easier navigation. VATS works as you would expected, guns feel like they're from an RPG, and skills are nicely developed. I liked the durability system but dear Christ I use like 6 magazines and the gun explodes, I understand that it's an apocalypse but no way it breaks this easily. Locations are well designed to match the gloom and doom aesthetic that the game tries to provide which I actually appreciate especially coming from New Vegas' more cheery and colorful vibes. There's a lot of environmental storytelling and great lore and loot to find and the map is pretty full to explore. The issue with exploring however, arises very quickly when you realize how barren and desolate this wasteland actually is besides the city areas. This makes things feel so repetitive, boring and lazy and while I understand that it may have been the direction they were trying to go for, having 30 radio tower pylons and abandoned factories as POIs were so mind-numbing. New Vegas solved this by having actual POIs with stuff to do while Fallout 3 was mostly full of filler loot and maybe the occasional lore bite and maybe, maybe if you're blessed, an unmarked quest. They definitely could've just reduced the map size or increase the density of it. The companions and notable NPC interactions were great and I was genuinely enjoying talking to people, learning all about them and how they factored in this world. Maybe it was just a Fallout thing or maybe I'm weird but these types of interactions are a great part of playing Fallout. The story was also interesting too and left a lot of great impact while playing. It was interesting given the choices, decisions, and characteristics that we were able to build and seeing them interact like a domino effect. In terms of my issues of the game they're mostly technical and administrative. Specifically on how the game runs like absolute ass but it can be a bit excused because of the age of the game and the fact that it was a gigantic non-linear 3D RPG. The thing I can't forgive though, is the fact that the game is NOT FINISHED AT ALL. This is an actual worse problem than New Vegas in that the game glitches so awful sometimes. Knowing how much content we missed as well makes it such a sad retrospective and makes it one of the best disappointments I've ever played. I wished I could've experienced what could have been but the final product was still pretty decent.