Activision have gone back to their Call of Duty roots. After the modern warfare of CoD 4 the series returns to World War 2 to cover the US assault of the Pacific Islands and the Russians push from their homeland all the way into the heart of Berlin.
After the success of CoD 4 many had expected “CoD 5” to be more of the same, attacks in the Middle East or at least a story based in today’s theatre. While I totally understand where these opinions are coming from The second World War in CoD’s eyes has not been fully completed (even after completing this title) and as a result I would class this more as CoD 3.5 rather than a continuation of the franchise.
While World at War may be a jump back in the Call of Duty timeline it certainly isn’t a jump back in game engine. As with CoD 4 everything is beautifully rendered and mechanically identical to the previous outing. With the outright brutality of the Pacific and Russian campaigns in reality, Treyarch have done everything possible to throw equal levels of harrowing moments and the horrors of World War 2 into the game as is physically possible. You start in the shoes of US private Miller on Makin island. Having been captured by the Japanese the game cuts right into an interrogation scene as you see 2 fellow officers lashed to a post outside a cabin being beaten while your closest comrade refuses to give the information being asked and is promptly burned by a cigarette to the face and then has his throat slit by a guard. While you do not see the cut itself the mood is set by seeing the blood spray up the adjacent wall. Just as it seems to be your turn you are rescued by Corporal Roebuck (voiced brilliantly by Kiefer Sutherland) and then thrown straight into the action.
Throughout the story you will repeatedly switch between Miller and the other main character Petrenko who has an equally tense opening to the game. Here you start in Stalingrad after the rest of your unit has been executed by German troops. In a scene that marks an almost perfect reconstruction of a scene from Enemy at the Gate you are among a pile of dead or dying comrades in a fountain. German troops pass and one decides to take his machine gun and finish the soldiers around you that are still hanging on to life by a thread. Once the threat has passed and you start to move you are quickly introduced to Sergeant Reznov (voiced by Gary Oldman) who like you has been faking death. Reznov is a sniper but due to his damaged hand can not do the job properly so you are enlisted into his hunt for the cause of the massacre, one General Amsel. Reznov teaches you quickly in the art of sniping and you then dart from building to building in search of Amsel.
As with other CoD titles your NPC companions are the driving force giving you orders throughout each mission. Roebuck plus a host of other fellow soldiers guide you all the way from your rescue on Makin all the way to Okinawa and the completion of the US campaign and Reznov and the unfortunate Private Chernov drive you through the Russian campaign from Stalingrad to the Reichstag itself. However these allies also provide one of the most annoying parts to the game….AI. The enemy AI in certain situations will send a single or multiple soldiers running after you, while the rest of the time your comrades will happily shoot down wave after wave of enemy soldiers without a thought it is these select few enemies that become seemingly invisible to everyone else and happily breeze past every other soldier on route to you while your allies stand rooted and let them whoop you senseless while you are in a cover position focusing on everything in front of you. With just how insanely difficult this game can be as you ramp up the difficulty setting this can quite easily result in 10-20 minutes work of inching from cover to cover to trigger a checkpoint being completely ruined…and that’s another thing!!! While I appreciate each game will have trigger points in which to carry on each section it can be VERY annoying having to be the only unit that can advance the rest of your group by continually putting yourself in harm’s way. Is it really that difficult to program a game to allow you to use suppressing fire on an encamped unit and a fellow NPC then driving forward and triggering the next sequence? Instead you are greeted by having to run into the open, continually drawing the fire of every enemy, while the rest of your allies stand some distance behind simply to stop the endless wave of respawns.
As already mentioned as you work your way through the campaign you will jump between being a US Marine and a member of the Red Army. The switching between characters as well as the cuts between missions are done via a blend of animated cut scenes spliced with actual WW2 footage. These scenes are also narrated by Roebuck or Reznov and accompanied by stats from the war to truly drive it’s horrors home such as US Marine survival rate during the Pacific campaign. However whereas with previous CoD WW2 outings you switch between characters and cover a short time span so the main campaign may only cover a matter of days or weeks World at War jumps your character forward between missions by months and years. As a result much is left untouched and leaves very little scope for future development in any potential releases. For example Stalingrad was a hellish encounter in reality that saw fighting last months from German invasion pushing the Russian forces back building by building to the Volga before the Red Army surrounded the city and effectively starved the Germans into submission. When hitting Stalingrad on my first play through I fully expected most of the Russian campaign to be based entirely in Stalingrad as you fight for survival and then see the tide turn and push against the remaining desperate Nazi forces. However a short sharp mission (although brilliantly done) and you jump forward years to Seelow Heights and the last great obstacle between the Russian forces and Berlin. By missing out the tank battles of Kursk and the major see saw battles at Kharkov much of the war on the Eastern front has been missed. Whereas in the case of the Pacific campaign you jump from Makin to Peleliu and on. Major offensives such as Iwo Jima, Saipan and Manilla all remain untouched not to mention the huge possibilities for naval missions.
Putting AI and missed opportunities aside the game itself reflects the campaigns with a strong sense of realism. The feel of the 2 campaigns is very different. In the case of the Russians it feels very run and gun. You are almost willed to push ever forward at pace and the German forces always feel as if they are fighting for their lives while being on the back foot. Even when you are bogged down working your way through a trench, slowly working your way through a German camp or pushing through the dark underground metro system in Berlin ducking MG emplacements it always feels as if you are pushing closer to your overall goal. The war in the Pacific is a different beast entirely. Fighting is mixed between dense jungle and caves or wide open plains. The feel of this half of the game is especially menacing as you will be ambushed on a number of occasions and in a variety of ways. Your enemies will suddenly pop out of long grass and banzai charge and on a number of occasions you will be shot by a seemingly invisible enemy only to find that there is a sniper hiding in a nearby tree. As a result although you forever push forward you feel the need to be cautious and to check every inch around you before continuing on. As with previous CoD titles short vehicle missions make a return also however only on 2 occasions. In the Pacific you become a gunner on a PBY attacking a Japanese convoy from the sky before turning rescuer and aiding an allied convoy. The Russian vehicle mission is more open as you take charge of a tank forcing it’s way through enemy lines to rejoin the main forces. Both missions are a refreshing break from ground battles however they leave you wanting more and seem to serve only as a minor distraction from the infantry missions.
Weaponry as with all previous titles is accurate to the period as well as accurately modelled. Many of the previous weapons from previous outings return such as the Springfield, BAR and MP40 along with a few welcome additions. The most noticeable is the flamethrower. The flamethrower shows off the length in which the game engine has developed since 3 as you can destroy entire sections of grass and trees . As with mounted guns ammo is unlimited and works on an overheat system. While extremely effective in close quarter combat the inability to fire prolonged bursts forces you to constantly probe or to switch guns. A good thing as it is understandably overpowered. The flamethrower (and molotovs for that matter) are best employed when fighting foes in cover. For example the tree snipers and banzai chargers waiting in the long grass can be completely nullified by use of a quick blast destroying their cover and “burnin’ ’em out” Melee attacks have changed from simple gun stock blows to knives or (if you hold the right type of rifle) a bayonet thrust and in addition to the bazooka at certain stages you can find rifles in which to attach grenades to the nuzzle and use as makeshift grenade launchers.
If there is one thing World at War does excel at it is the multiplayer options. As is the case with all multiplayer shooters the usual capture the flag and death match modes and their variants are all here. However unlike similar titles you can access a number of cooperative modes also. Up to 4 players can work side by side through the entire story mode either as simple helpers or in a competitive mode where points are awarded or subtracted for enemy kills or deaths. This alone can totally sidestep the poor ally AI and make even the most difficult setting enjoyable. For each action you take in multiplayer whether it be competitive or cooperative you are rewarded experience points and “level up” going through each army rank. This is where the game really shines. Each level up as expected opens up new guns as you go however to allow a difference in higher level opponents there are a number of options that come into play. As with unlock able guns as you level up certain perks will over time become available. These perks will range from increased health to tanks reloading faster or bullets doing more damage and each generic class already comes with it’s own preset perks….however CoD allows each player to “create” 5 classes. Effectively this means choosing a primary and second gun as well as grenades and 3 perks. The perks are categorized so noone regardless of level gains a massive advantage by stacking personnel perks by say having 2 types of heavy damage perks. Individuality is pushed even further through the challenge system. This system exists on both coop and competitive but both are entirely different and result in different things. The challenges will be for example kills in a prone position or a set number of kills with a certain weapon. Once that challenge is completed you then gain a bulk of experience and start stage 2 which will then ask for kills with the same gun using headshots. Completing subsequent challenges rewards you with addition parts for each weapon that you master. For instance an MP40 can be equipped with a suppressor that while shortening range will not give away your position on the map when fired. The possibilities are huge and can be tailored to suit each players preferred playing style so while novices will initially struggle with the highly competitive opposition by simply toughing it out you then gain rewards that make each battle a little less daunting.
I can’t stop talking about multiplayer without touching on CoD’s new mode. Nazi Zombies!!! Yes that’s right I said zombies. For those players who complete the main campaign you are treated to a cutscene with a crashed pilot being closed in on by a pack on the undead. After the scene finishes you find yourself in a semi destroyed building with barricaded windows and doors and a blood read 1 marker. Rushing from window to window you will eventually see a number of the undead shuffling towards the building and a point counter in the bottom right of the screen. Shooting each zombie awards you with points (more for headshots) After killing a set number you then progress to stage 2 and so on with each level resulting in more zombies that move faster with each round that passes. Should these zombies make it to a window (and they will no matter how good you are) they will then pull off each and every board and then clamber inside the building and chase you. You character is decidedly weaker than in the main story and will die after 2-3 hits. After killing each round of zombies or when you have made enough space you can then repair the openings giving you more time to adjust for the next wave. You start with a pistol and limited ammo however as you move around the room you will see chalk markings on walls in the shape of certain guns or weapons. The points you earn from zombie kills and barrier repairs can be spent to buy these weapons or to refill your ammo. In addition to weapons you can also spend the points to open doors or blockages to other areas of the house. These new areas have substantially better weaponry but also open more routes for the zombies to attack you as well as the attacks still coming from areas you have already been. This mode while limited in size is huge fun . Playing alone is taxing yet enjoyable but to benefit properly from this mode you HAVE to get online and hook up with others
So to sum up the single player game while looking beautiful with it’s CoD 4 engine feels more like an expansion to Call of Duty 3 than a stand alone game. While finally seeing The Pacific War the campaigns don’t feel complete and miss a whole heap of major battle possibilities. The team AI is weak often leaving you to fend off enemies at close range while trying to force yourself to each area of cover and make them push forward and join you but the immense multiplayer saves this game from being simply mediocre.
Graphics 9.5
Sound 9.5
Gameplay Single player 7.5 / Multiplayer 9.0
Playability or replayability 9.0
Overall 8.5
A great multiplayer game let down by it’s solo gameplay. If it wasn’t for unlocking the zombie mode and being able to cooperative play through the campaign replay value would be EXTREMELY poor. After enjoying all previous CoD WW2 titles I’m truly hoping that this is not how Call of Duty’s World War 2 franchise is going to bow out.
Tuesday, 16 December 2008
Monday, 15 December 2008
Fallout 3 Review
Fallout 3 is an incredibly original title in a next gen World seemingly bursting with first person shooters. Whereas most FPS games seem content on having pure carnage and a multiplayer system to please the fans Bethesda have shunned multiplayer for an engaging story, atmosphere you can almost taste and originality by the bucket load.
Fallout 3 is the first in the series to be made by RPG powerhouses Bethesda,after buying the rights from Interplay and is the first true sequel to Interplay’s Fallout 1 & 2. While the original 2 games took the shape of isometric RPGs Bethesda have blended RPG and FPS to great effect in a similar fashion to that of Morrowind and Oblivion. However to pass this game off as simply “Oblivion with guns” doesn’t do Fallout 3 justice.
The game itself takes place in Washington DC in 2277AD some 200 years after an American war with China which resulted in a nuclear war leaving the US in radiated ruin. While most of the population was killed many survived through living in a series of underground vaults, and this is where the main character comes in. You are a resident of Vault 101 which has reportedly been sealed for 200 years. Whilst futuristic in setting the game itself is set in a surreal view of the future from a 1950’s perspective. From the music on the in game radio to billboard designs and vending machines. The unique blend of designs throughout the game works extremely well, so well in fact that switching from an old World War 2 style pistol or rifle to a laser or plasma weapon doesn’t seem out of place at all. Even the architecture is a mix of historic and distant future yet doesn’t feel in any way out of place.
As with most RPGs the first objective is to create your character’s looks, base stats as well as their speciality skills. While Fallout 3 is no different in needing to do this the manner in which it is done is extremely unique. Your character (be it male or female) starts quite literally from the beginning. Having just been born you are treated to a cut scene with your parents. From the dialogue between them you choose your sex, name and via a gene progression machine how your adult self will look. You are then eased into a blend of story, tutorial and character stat creation as your character ages from cut scene to cut scene. Starting as a one year old you learn basic movements and after interacting with a child’s book title “You’re Special” you then set your base attribute points. (Special standing for Strength , Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intellect, Agility and Luck) Flash forward to your 10th birthday and you are introduced to your PIP Boy 3000 which acts as your inventory, stat screen and map as well as being given a BB gun and learning how to attack. A further cutscene sees you reach the age of 16 where you take an aptitude test in the shape of answering a number of quirky questions that decide you characters stronger base skills such as lock picking or Speech. This test can be skipped and the the strengths decided manually to keep repetition to a minimum. A final cutscene brings you to your escape from the Vault after being told your father has left and you are being hunted by the Overseer and Vault security. It is only when the Vault door finally rolls back and you journey outside for the first time that the scale of this game first hits you.
As your eyes adjust to the sunlight you are greeted by a decimated DC. Most of which is just a pile of rubble and the buildings that are still standing are charred and dirty. Unlike most games with their pop up backgrounds Fallout 3 has incredible draw distance. In other words if you can see it…you can visit. After stepping out into the Wasteland for the first time you can just make out the ruins of downtown Washington DC in the distance, outlying towns closer by and an expanse of hilly scorched earth. All of this is your new potential playground as you step from the linear vaults to a true sandbox style game.
Your first natural stop off point is marked by a mass of metal close by that is the settlement of Megaton. A town built around an unexploded atomic bomb by remains of an airfield. Stepping into the town introduces you to Lucas Simms the town Mayor and Sheriff. Dialogue takes the form of multiple choice, some options are basic questions, some will touch of your main mission while others introduce you to karma. Reacting in certain ways to certain people or by doing certain actions your karma alignment will fluctuate. For example you can choose to be polite to Simms, say little or be aggressive all of which result in very different reactions from civility, to caution to a fight that will see the rest of the towns residents make turn on you and attack. Dependent on how far you are prepared to push karma in a certain direction can result in the game giving you a very different experience each time you play. A good idea of how much this game can differ simply by your actions is found right in Megaton. Taking a good or neutral stance which Lucas opens up the possibility to diffuse the bomb in the middle of town. Should you diffuse it you get a big boost is karma, are handed a nice amount of bottle caps (the games’ currency) and keys to an abandoned house in town that becomes your home where you can store items or weapons, change the interior design or rest and recover your health. You can leave the bomb as it is for no gain at all or when walking into the town bar you may come across Mr Burke a sinister guy in a suit and fedora giving off a 1930’s gangster vibe who gives you the option of arming the bomb and destroying the town. This results in not a home in an entirely different area a HUGE drop in karma and Megaton and it’s residents no longer existing (except for the malfunctioning head of the town’s robot deputy laying near the remains of the town). Karma gains or losses aren’t restricted to big gestures such as this however. Simply stealing items of junk, lock picking doors and hacking computer terminals in places you shouldn’t all has an impact. Terrorizing a few members of a settlement can result in other residents fleeing when you approach or attacking you on sight. All of this adds up to a potentially different experience each and every time you play the game through.
Travelling around the Wastes, much like Oblivion is a process of walking to each location to “unlock” it and then using fast travel via your map. The locations can be anything from a park to a multi-storey building, not all of them are mission related but for the budding explorer there are plenty of items to find. While most items are junk that you won’t have any use for other than selling to vendors, it is possible to find a whole host of weapons, armour, health items, stat boosters and even schematics to create weaponry from certain junk items you find. Getting to these items is no cakewalk however, the whole of the DC area is full of a variety of survivors all either enforcing their will on the ruins or simply trying to survive. Whether it be the Mad Max style raiders, the power armoured Enclave, futuristic robots or mutated creatures the area is infested with enemies all out to take you down. How you defend yourself is totally down to choice. Not only do you have a wide range of weapons ranging from baseball bats or sledgehammers through hand guns all the way up to miniguns or personal mini nuke launchers the manner in which you choose to fight is also down to personal choice. Not only have Bethesda allowed the FPS fans to play this game as a straight up shooter they also incorporated a semi turn based combat for those who aren’t into constant action using the VATS system. VATS is engaged by a single press of a button that effectively pauses the game. Your potential targets are then zoomed in on, you are given a breakdown of hit percentages for each part of the body and then use action points to stack commands. Targeting individual body parts can result in anything from instant kills to the crippling of body parts to slow your target or make them drop their weapon. The action points used to do this aren’t limitless however should the target survive it is usually enough to give you breathing space to then shoot from the hip in instant action and get the job done. The difficulty comes in when facing larger groups of enemies how to manage your action points to do the most damage to the group while minimizing potential damage to yourself. The weapons themselves aren’t without problem. Depending on how you play the game ammo for any gun can be hard to come by. Add to that the fact the each weapon or piece of armour you use degenerates with each time it is used you are actively encouraged to use everything you come across. If you find a weapon you prefer using and can find a regular stock of ammo it is possible to repair it using either certain vendors or by repairing it yourself with another version of the same weapon. The amount each item can be repaired is proportional to your ( or the vendors) repair skill, so for instance a vendor may only be able to repair an item to 50% whereas if you work on your repair skill and get it to 100% you can fully repair it and reap the benefit, whether it be increased defence on an armour piece or increased damage from a weapon.
Working on skills can be done in 2 ways. As you kill enemies, pick locks and hack computers you are given experience points. As you accumulate points and level up you are then given a pool of points to distribute into your various skills. Each of the skills also has a corresponding rare book that gives small boosts that can be found all over the Wasteland. As a result if you are prepared to search long and hard it is entirely possible to have a number of skills hitting the maximum 100 points. Each time you level not only are you treated to a pool of attribute points you are also awarded a list of perks from which to choose. Depending on how you attribute your points and whether you are playing as a good or bad character these perks can vary completely and each perk can give further skill boosts or add other possibilities as to how you play the game. For example should your sneak skill be high enough when you hit a certain level you will be allowed to choose the Mr Sandman perk. This perk turns you into somewhat of an assassin and allows you to murder humanoids in their sleep with a single click or risk of drawing attention to yourself as opposed to shooting or clubbing them and possibly not getting a one hit kill or causing enough noise to arouse attention. Other perks such as Lady Killer/Black widow allow your character attacking bonuses against members of the opposite sex as well as opening extra dialogue options in some situations. The potential perk combinations are huge and with only a single choice per level until you reach the level 20 cap it is a question of deciding which would benefit you more with each level you raise. Even having all of your perks selected the chances are you will hit certain points in the game where you wish you had chosen something else just to have a slightly easier pathway through certain situations.
So how can Fallout 3 be summed up?
Graphically the game is an absolute treat. From character modelling to game environments everything is extremely well drawn and rendered. No small detail has been overlooked at all from the designs on junk and boxes to the nuclear winds whipping the wispy clouds through the sky at breakneck speed nothing has been left to chance. Even the small details on the enemies isn’t missed. From the radiated scars to the makeshift armour on the 30ft tall Mutant Behemoths. I’ve heard many a game critic speak of next gen gaming’s various shades of brown and grey and while this game is no different in that aspect it is the colours that fit to the theme. There are splashes of colour to be found but all has been faded as you would expect after 200 years of laying derelict and uncared for. Without question the most colourful touches to this game are from explosions in particular of the nuclear variety where there sudden blinding flash and subsequent mushroom clouds are again dealt with in jaw droppingly great detail.
Soundwise Bethesda have been very subtle. Each weapon strike has it’s own sound and a sound that is totally believable. Baseball bat swings and hits sound like baseball bats sings and hits. Handguns sound like peashooters compared to shotguns or rifles. Explosions sound like they do damage. However just with the graphics it is the small audio touches that despite being easy to miss all make for that authentic experience. Brushing against a table with a bottle on it is greeted by the sound of a bottle toppling and rolling in synch to the animation and the growl or shout of an enemy will change in volume depending on how close they are. When it comes to music the game is dominated by the radio stations and while the DJ chatter between songs does become repetitive it does accurately reflect how you are progressing. In the instance of Galaxy News Radio DJ Three Dog will report on things you have done throughout the game. Should the in game radio not be your cup of tea there is also subtle ambient music that doesn’t dominate the gameplay but will adjust from gentle melody to a more up tempo tune when you are under threat. Voice acting is also extremely well done. Unlike with Oblivion where you hear the same voice spouting the same lines for a wide range of characters here each person or enemy feels individual.
Gameplay? Having the choice of playing the game as an all out FPS or as a tactical shooter is a masterstroke. While the VATS cut scenes may not always be spot on the switching between the 2 styles is pretty much faultless. Add to that the huge options in skills and perks as well as the karma alignments and then replay ability is significantly increased. For those who want to search every inch of the Wasteland there is easily a solid 80 hours of gameplay available on one play through and for the achievement lovers out there exploration and replay is an absolute must to rack up the 50 available. The learning curve is also well balanced. The further you travel from Vault 101 the more dangerous the enemies and the bigger the groups.
All this being said there ARE bugs in this game I found my game crashing on a handful of occasions but the autosave function put paid to any great loss of progress. On occasions dead bodies just go into a wild epileptic fit or decapitated heads can jig around or circle endlessly which. There are also a couple of occasions where certain enemy types will sudden skyrocket without reason. However these occasions are few and far between and do not take away from what is a truly excellent title.
Graphics 9.5
Sound 9.5
Gameplay 10
Playability 9.5
Overall 9.5
Simply put a must buy for all FPS,RPG or adventure types out there. The gameplay is solid enough to hold out on it’s own while the storyline is engaging and huge range of options allows for great replay value.There are bugs but they don’t dampen the experience. The lack of a multiplayer game will upset some however fitting that option into this title would be an incredibly difficult task.
Fallout 3 is the first in the series to be made by RPG powerhouses Bethesda,after buying the rights from Interplay and is the first true sequel to Interplay’s Fallout 1 & 2. While the original 2 games took the shape of isometric RPGs Bethesda have blended RPG and FPS to great effect in a similar fashion to that of Morrowind and Oblivion. However to pass this game off as simply “Oblivion with guns” doesn’t do Fallout 3 justice.
The game itself takes place in Washington DC in 2277AD some 200 years after an American war with China which resulted in a nuclear war leaving the US in radiated ruin. While most of the population was killed many survived through living in a series of underground vaults, and this is where the main character comes in. You are a resident of Vault 101 which has reportedly been sealed for 200 years. Whilst futuristic in setting the game itself is set in a surreal view of the future from a 1950’s perspective. From the music on the in game radio to billboard designs and vending machines. The unique blend of designs throughout the game works extremely well, so well in fact that switching from an old World War 2 style pistol or rifle to a laser or plasma weapon doesn’t seem out of place at all. Even the architecture is a mix of historic and distant future yet doesn’t feel in any way out of place.
As with most RPGs the first objective is to create your character’s looks, base stats as well as their speciality skills. While Fallout 3 is no different in needing to do this the manner in which it is done is extremely unique. Your character (be it male or female) starts quite literally from the beginning. Having just been born you are treated to a cut scene with your parents. From the dialogue between them you choose your sex, name and via a gene progression machine how your adult self will look. You are then eased into a blend of story, tutorial and character stat creation as your character ages from cut scene to cut scene. Starting as a one year old you learn basic movements and after interacting with a child’s book title “You’re Special” you then set your base attribute points. (Special standing for Strength , Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intellect, Agility and Luck) Flash forward to your 10th birthday and you are introduced to your PIP Boy 3000 which acts as your inventory, stat screen and map as well as being given a BB gun and learning how to attack. A further cutscene sees you reach the age of 16 where you take an aptitude test in the shape of answering a number of quirky questions that decide you characters stronger base skills such as lock picking or Speech. This test can be skipped and the the strengths decided manually to keep repetition to a minimum. A final cutscene brings you to your escape from the Vault after being told your father has left and you are being hunted by the Overseer and Vault security. It is only when the Vault door finally rolls back and you journey outside for the first time that the scale of this game first hits you.
As your eyes adjust to the sunlight you are greeted by a decimated DC. Most of which is just a pile of rubble and the buildings that are still standing are charred and dirty. Unlike most games with their pop up backgrounds Fallout 3 has incredible draw distance. In other words if you can see it…you can visit. After stepping out into the Wasteland for the first time you can just make out the ruins of downtown Washington DC in the distance, outlying towns closer by and an expanse of hilly scorched earth. All of this is your new potential playground as you step from the linear vaults to a true sandbox style game.
Your first natural stop off point is marked by a mass of metal close by that is the settlement of Megaton. A town built around an unexploded atomic bomb by remains of an airfield. Stepping into the town introduces you to Lucas Simms the town Mayor and Sheriff. Dialogue takes the form of multiple choice, some options are basic questions, some will touch of your main mission while others introduce you to karma. Reacting in certain ways to certain people or by doing certain actions your karma alignment will fluctuate. For example you can choose to be polite to Simms, say little or be aggressive all of which result in very different reactions from civility, to caution to a fight that will see the rest of the towns residents make turn on you and attack. Dependent on how far you are prepared to push karma in a certain direction can result in the game giving you a very different experience each time you play. A good idea of how much this game can differ simply by your actions is found right in Megaton. Taking a good or neutral stance which Lucas opens up the possibility to diffuse the bomb in the middle of town. Should you diffuse it you get a big boost is karma, are handed a nice amount of bottle caps (the games’ currency) and keys to an abandoned house in town that becomes your home where you can store items or weapons, change the interior design or rest and recover your health. You can leave the bomb as it is for no gain at all or when walking into the town bar you may come across Mr Burke a sinister guy in a suit and fedora giving off a 1930’s gangster vibe who gives you the option of arming the bomb and destroying the town. This results in not a home in an entirely different area a HUGE drop in karma and Megaton and it’s residents no longer existing (except for the malfunctioning head of the town’s robot deputy laying near the remains of the town). Karma gains or losses aren’t restricted to big gestures such as this however. Simply stealing items of junk, lock picking doors and hacking computer terminals in places you shouldn’t all has an impact. Terrorizing a few members of a settlement can result in other residents fleeing when you approach or attacking you on sight. All of this adds up to a potentially different experience each and every time you play the game through.
Travelling around the Wastes, much like Oblivion is a process of walking to each location to “unlock” it and then using fast travel via your map. The locations can be anything from a park to a multi-storey building, not all of them are mission related but for the budding explorer there are plenty of items to find. While most items are junk that you won’t have any use for other than selling to vendors, it is possible to find a whole host of weapons, armour, health items, stat boosters and even schematics to create weaponry from certain junk items you find. Getting to these items is no cakewalk however, the whole of the DC area is full of a variety of survivors all either enforcing their will on the ruins or simply trying to survive. Whether it be the Mad Max style raiders, the power armoured Enclave, futuristic robots or mutated creatures the area is infested with enemies all out to take you down. How you defend yourself is totally down to choice. Not only do you have a wide range of weapons ranging from baseball bats or sledgehammers through hand guns all the way up to miniguns or personal mini nuke launchers the manner in which you choose to fight is also down to personal choice. Not only have Bethesda allowed the FPS fans to play this game as a straight up shooter they also incorporated a semi turn based combat for those who aren’t into constant action using the VATS system. VATS is engaged by a single press of a button that effectively pauses the game. Your potential targets are then zoomed in on, you are given a breakdown of hit percentages for each part of the body and then use action points to stack commands. Targeting individual body parts can result in anything from instant kills to the crippling of body parts to slow your target or make them drop their weapon. The action points used to do this aren’t limitless however should the target survive it is usually enough to give you breathing space to then shoot from the hip in instant action and get the job done. The difficulty comes in when facing larger groups of enemies how to manage your action points to do the most damage to the group while minimizing potential damage to yourself. The weapons themselves aren’t without problem. Depending on how you play the game ammo for any gun can be hard to come by. Add to that the fact the each weapon or piece of armour you use degenerates with each time it is used you are actively encouraged to use everything you come across. If you find a weapon you prefer using and can find a regular stock of ammo it is possible to repair it using either certain vendors or by repairing it yourself with another version of the same weapon. The amount each item can be repaired is proportional to your ( or the vendors) repair skill, so for instance a vendor may only be able to repair an item to 50% whereas if you work on your repair skill and get it to 100% you can fully repair it and reap the benefit, whether it be increased defence on an armour piece or increased damage from a weapon.
Working on skills can be done in 2 ways. As you kill enemies, pick locks and hack computers you are given experience points. As you accumulate points and level up you are then given a pool of points to distribute into your various skills. Each of the skills also has a corresponding rare book that gives small boosts that can be found all over the Wasteland. As a result if you are prepared to search long and hard it is entirely possible to have a number of skills hitting the maximum 100 points. Each time you level not only are you treated to a pool of attribute points you are also awarded a list of perks from which to choose. Depending on how you attribute your points and whether you are playing as a good or bad character these perks can vary completely and each perk can give further skill boosts or add other possibilities as to how you play the game. For example should your sneak skill be high enough when you hit a certain level you will be allowed to choose the Mr Sandman perk. This perk turns you into somewhat of an assassin and allows you to murder humanoids in their sleep with a single click or risk of drawing attention to yourself as opposed to shooting or clubbing them and possibly not getting a one hit kill or causing enough noise to arouse attention. Other perks such as Lady Killer/Black widow allow your character attacking bonuses against members of the opposite sex as well as opening extra dialogue options in some situations. The potential perk combinations are huge and with only a single choice per level until you reach the level 20 cap it is a question of deciding which would benefit you more with each level you raise. Even having all of your perks selected the chances are you will hit certain points in the game where you wish you had chosen something else just to have a slightly easier pathway through certain situations.
So how can Fallout 3 be summed up?
Graphically the game is an absolute treat. From character modelling to game environments everything is extremely well drawn and rendered. No small detail has been overlooked at all from the designs on junk and boxes to the nuclear winds whipping the wispy clouds through the sky at breakneck speed nothing has been left to chance. Even the small details on the enemies isn’t missed. From the radiated scars to the makeshift armour on the 30ft tall Mutant Behemoths. I’ve heard many a game critic speak of next gen gaming’s various shades of brown and grey and while this game is no different in that aspect it is the colours that fit to the theme. There are splashes of colour to be found but all has been faded as you would expect after 200 years of laying derelict and uncared for. Without question the most colourful touches to this game are from explosions in particular of the nuclear variety where there sudden blinding flash and subsequent mushroom clouds are again dealt with in jaw droppingly great detail.
Soundwise Bethesda have been very subtle. Each weapon strike has it’s own sound and a sound that is totally believable. Baseball bat swings and hits sound like baseball bats sings and hits. Handguns sound like peashooters compared to shotguns or rifles. Explosions sound like they do damage. However just with the graphics it is the small audio touches that despite being easy to miss all make for that authentic experience. Brushing against a table with a bottle on it is greeted by the sound of a bottle toppling and rolling in synch to the animation and the growl or shout of an enemy will change in volume depending on how close they are. When it comes to music the game is dominated by the radio stations and while the DJ chatter between songs does become repetitive it does accurately reflect how you are progressing. In the instance of Galaxy News Radio DJ Three Dog will report on things you have done throughout the game. Should the in game radio not be your cup of tea there is also subtle ambient music that doesn’t dominate the gameplay but will adjust from gentle melody to a more up tempo tune when you are under threat. Voice acting is also extremely well done. Unlike with Oblivion where you hear the same voice spouting the same lines for a wide range of characters here each person or enemy feels individual.
Gameplay? Having the choice of playing the game as an all out FPS or as a tactical shooter is a masterstroke. While the VATS cut scenes may not always be spot on the switching between the 2 styles is pretty much faultless. Add to that the huge options in skills and perks as well as the karma alignments and then replay ability is significantly increased. For those who want to search every inch of the Wasteland there is easily a solid 80 hours of gameplay available on one play through and for the achievement lovers out there exploration and replay is an absolute must to rack up the 50 available. The learning curve is also well balanced. The further you travel from Vault 101 the more dangerous the enemies and the bigger the groups.
All this being said there ARE bugs in this game I found my game crashing on a handful of occasions but the autosave function put paid to any great loss of progress. On occasions dead bodies just go into a wild epileptic fit or decapitated heads can jig around or circle endlessly which. There are also a couple of occasions where certain enemy types will sudden skyrocket without reason. However these occasions are few and far between and do not take away from what is a truly excellent title.
Graphics 9.5
Sound 9.5
Gameplay 10
Playability 9.5
Overall 9.5
Simply put a must buy for all FPS,RPG or adventure types out there. The gameplay is solid enough to hold out on it’s own while the storyline is engaging and huge range of options allows for great replay value.There are bugs but they don’t dampen the experience. The lack of a multiplayer game will upset some however fitting that option into this title would be an incredibly difficult task.
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
What's in the pipeline?
Ok so after 10 years of planning things are finally starting to fall into place.For those of you that know me through Youtube you will no doubt have seen (or at least noticed) my GTA 4 guide videos.Although I made them for your benefit there was more reasoning behind it.
You see I've been gaming since the early 80's and like most gamers I've always wanted to get into the industry to some degree.After spending a crappy month pulling pints in a pub followed by 7 years of working my backside off for a company that cares more about it's public image than treating it's employees fairly I finally made the decision to take the chance and go for it.As a result I've spent the last year or so putting together business plans and going through course after course to make my dream a reality.
This blog is "phase 2" of my plan of having my review site.Before I hear the whole "You won't get success from a blogspot if you want to review professionally" Let me explain.I've sorted something that will eventually fund a professional site (i'm not going to go into details but rest assured it is totally legal) but in the meantime I want somewhere other than just youtube where I can explain what is going on,what I am working on as well as posting my reviews,opinions and updates on any guides while the rest of the business takes shape.Once the site is up and running this blog will then become my behind the scenes area.Where you will get a look into how hard it is breaking into the industry and find out a little more about what goes on from day to day....I may end up doing an mmo diary here also.Yes Yes I know big bad Bensonrecon with his hours and hours worth of GTA videos,20 a day cigarette habit, goatee, hoodies and baseball caps is a closet LOTRO fan! What the hell we all have a damn cross to bare!
I'm also looking into other ways of getting you all involved too.Which I'll get into at a later date but there's no doubt that everyone that reads/watches or comments will all have the oppurtunity to contribute in whatever way they want (or don't) as time goes on.
Anyway I'm gonna stop as I really should be doing better things with my life at gone 4:30am for those who don't like reading I'll be doing more with my youtube channel,etc alongside this so you can keep up to speed with what's going on.Thanks for taking time to read this and thanks to everyone that has shown me support over the last few years.
You see I've been gaming since the early 80's and like most gamers I've always wanted to get into the industry to some degree.After spending a crappy month pulling pints in a pub followed by 7 years of working my backside off for a company that cares more about it's public image than treating it's employees fairly I finally made the decision to take the chance and go for it.As a result I've spent the last year or so putting together business plans and going through course after course to make my dream a reality.
This blog is "phase 2" of my plan of having my review site.Before I hear the whole "You won't get success from a blogspot if you want to review professionally" Let me explain.I've sorted something that will eventually fund a professional site (i'm not going to go into details but rest assured it is totally legal) but in the meantime I want somewhere other than just youtube where I can explain what is going on,what I am working on as well as posting my reviews,opinions and updates on any guides while the rest of the business takes shape.Once the site is up and running this blog will then become my behind the scenes area.Where you will get a look into how hard it is breaking into the industry and find out a little more about what goes on from day to day....I may end up doing an mmo diary here also.Yes Yes I know big bad Bensonrecon with his hours and hours worth of GTA videos,20 a day cigarette habit, goatee, hoodies and baseball caps is a closet LOTRO fan! What the hell we all have a damn cross to bare!
I'm also looking into other ways of getting you all involved too.Which I'll get into at a later date but there's no doubt that everyone that reads/watches or comments will all have the oppurtunity to contribute in whatever way they want (or don't) as time goes on.
Anyway I'm gonna stop as I really should be doing better things with my life at gone 4:30am for those who don't like reading I'll be doing more with my youtube channel,etc alongside this so you can keep up to speed with what's going on.Thanks for taking time to read this and thanks to everyone that has shown me support over the last few years.
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