Articles
Fallout 3 - E3 Hands-On
by Ron Burke
-
The animation system in Fallout 3 is obviously improved over Oblivion, but occasionally it seemed stilted and somewhat unnatural. Is there enough time to polish this rough edge?
-
Brown is the new black. With the landscape being a desolate wasteland, how much brown, rusted brown, copper-tinted brown, and dusty brown can one person take? With only 30 minutes of gameplay, many areas already felt similar.
-
A great deal of work has been put into the Gamebryo engine - the game looks beautiful and incredibly detailed, even beyond that of Oblivion. The weapons look authentic and antiqued, often held together by bandages, tape, or just beaten down like the landscape. Tires, trash, and various other debris dot the landscape. A light wind stirred the hot dust, giving a bit of life to the scene.
-
You could spend a lifetime just scavenging in this game. I found items in cupboards, trash cans, on dead bodies, lying on the floor, in mailboxes, and everywhere in between.
-
The control mechanics map perfectly to a controller. I didn't feel constrained in any way by the 360 interface.
-
The drive to see more is very much present. Time flew by and all I wanted to do was skip the rest of E3 and play the rest of this game. The world is compelling, and I want to see how well the Fallout world is conveyed by this new team.
One of the most anticipated (or hated, depending on your camp - there is very little middle ground here folks) titles coming this year is Fallout 3. At E3 I got the opportunity to sit down with completely unfettered access to the game for 30 minutes. Let me restate that - I got to play the game for only 30 minutes. Now, as any good journalist knows, 30 minutes isn't enough to cull true impressions, but it is certainly a fork full - you'll have a good idea whether this is the dish for you or not pretty quickly, even if you can't make that decision definitive at this point. Our demonstration begins in Vault 101. When nuclear war struck, the forward-thinking few citizens who believed the Leave It To Beaver-style ads from Vault-Tec were sealed behind a massive steel door. It is here that you are expected to build your life, for, as the intro says, "It was here you were born. It is here you will die because, in Vault 101, no one ever enters and no one ever leaves". Obviously something changed in the Vault for our first hands-on glimpse of the game begins facing the open vault door. Making our way outside we are greeted by the blisteringly bright light of the sun - this is likely our first encounter with the life-giving star. Unlike the movie spoof "Blast from the Past", this nuclear war was very real, rendering building and borough alike into melted piles of twisted steel and slag. The distant horizon is dotted with the shattered remains of Washington DC. Purposely avoiding the nearby city of Megaton (we saw that last year), We made our way to a nearby home that looked relatively abandoned. Popping through the doorway (and a very short load sequence) we find that we've entered someone's home uninvited. The woman inside, none too pleased to see us, demands to know who we are. Since we only had 30 minutes of gameplay time I chose a more taunting approach and made her upset. Pulling a pistol from her belt, she immediately fired off a few rounds at me. It turns out that my fashionable blue Vault 101 jumpsuit is more about conformity and comfort and less about stopping incoming lead. It was time to get up close and personal with V.A.T.S.
V.A.T.S.
At E3 last year we were introduced to V.A.T.S., which stands for Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System - the quasi-turn based combat mechanic introduced to bridge the gap between the traditional 2D previous titles and this new 3D re-imagining for the franchise. For those uninitiated with the term 'turn based', this essentially means that your units pick their moves, including shooting or walking, and then execute them. When you've completed your moves, the other team gets the same opportunity. It creates a back-and-forth combat style that doesn't require any sort of First Person Shooter skills.
Back to Fallout 3, for those who have played any first person or third person shooter (you can play from either perspective and switch at will) you'll know what to expect - a fairly standard combat mechanic. It is when you decide to go more tactical that things get fun. Since we were playing on the Xbox 360 (or at least using the controllers) a simple tap of the Right Bumper gave us a look at V.A.T.S. Immediately stopping the action and zooming in on a nearby enemy, we were given a grid over the various body parts that could be targeted, as well as the accompanying percentage chance that we'd succeed. Distance, weapon quality, and skills appeared to play a heavy role in determining these numbers. Getting back to our hostile resident, I targeted her chest and fired away with a rifle that I'd picked up in the Vault. Doing only minimal damage I dodged behind the nearby door jam and waited the few moments necessary to recover my action points. The homeowner spewed bullets and hate my direction, but as she stopped for a moment I charged around the corner, initiated V.A.T.S. and sent her brain hurtling back through the back of her head with a few well-placed headshots. While classic Fallout fans will lament the loss of the eye and groin areas as targets, there is no doubt that the 'Bloody Mess' perk was alive and well here. Looting her ragdolled corpse, I picked up a leather vest and some sunglasses. Just as in previous Bethesda-powered titles, the clothing items disappeared from the corpse and now draped over my shoulders nicely. I quickly exited the back of the house (without loading!) and made my way towards the nearby "Springfield Elementary". Dodging the dilapidated nuke-powered cars and various playground implements, I entered what looked like the entrance to the gym. Unfortunately for me, this area makes a great hiding spot. I say unfortunate as I was immediately beset by a gang of ruffians. Taking down one was fairly easy as I targeted his hand to disarm him, and then beat him to death with a pipe I had found near the door (you can assign and quickly select items using the D-Pad) - it was his buddy who picked up his friend's weapon that posed the problem. As the numbers began to become increasingly unfavorable for me, I decided to back out and give another area a quick look as my time began to wane. Before the approaching end of my time hit however, I jotted down some notes on the Pip-Boy 3000.
Pip-Boy 3000
Your inventory and skills are handled by the excellently modeled Pip-Boy 3000. Pulling your character's arm in front of your face, you can see clothing changes occur underneath the device. The wrist-mounted computer is a fantastic visual blend of new technology mixed with some of the most archaic technology you can find. At the bottom there are several options to choose from, including your status (how much radiation you've ingested, etc.), the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. tab (Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck, just as it was in Fallout 1 and 2.) which shows your character's stats as well as a short description of what those stats modify, and the Skills tab which gives players a look at their chances of achieving an objective such as picking a lock or a character's proficiency in using small arms. In addition to those three, there is also a Perks and General section. The Perks system is slightly different than the Skills system as it provides players a method to augment their character's skills in a way that fashion a sort of class for them. For instance, the Master Thief perk might grant you a bonus to picking locks, but a Comprehension perk might give you a 150% increase in effect for reading a skill-boosting book. A Demolition Expert is savvier in the ways of being a good sapper, meaning their explosives (mines, grenades, dynamite, etc.) always go off properly. General keeps track of various stats such as how long you've been playing and how many people or creatures you've killed.Three orange lights at the bottom give you three more selection options to select Stats, Items, or Data. The Stats section is the entirety of the items I described above. The Data section allows you to save, load, and quit your game. Your inventory is handled by the Items button, with several subtypes that you can use to further sort.
Poor Unfortunate Souls
Putting my Pip-Boy 3000 away I resumed my trek across the shattered landscape. I rounded the corner of a relatively large convenience store and heard Pete Hines question why a Deathclaw would be in this area as I backpedaled and fired off rounds at the snarling beast. Scoring a lucky headshot I took the creature down only to see the extent of what it had done. Several dead NPCs were strewn around the area, some missing legs or arms. It was a gruesome scene, but I chose to see the bright side, looting their bodies of their no-longer-needed possessions. Now armed with a pump-action shotgun, I decided to see what other provisions I could nab from the grocery store.
I'm not sure what sort of gang convention is going on in this area, but I found out that, like the school, this was a popular hideout. Sneaking up on a patrol that was walking along the makeshift bridges over the top of the grocery aisles, I leveled my enemy with a single blast to the back, sending her flying into a nearby pillar. With the enemy turning their attention to me, I backpedaled and used a nearby column to provide a bit of protection as I used V.A.T.S. to carefully dispatch my enemies. As I took on the half-dozen enemies in this area, I began to really appreciate the ability to pause the action and reflect by using the V.A.T.S. system, and I was surprised at how well it fit into the hack-and-slash Gamebryo engine from Oblivion.Searching a nearby thug I found a key. It appeared to be for a cabinet or a safe, but rather than use it I tried out the lockpick minigame. Showing a large tumbler on my screen, I was able to use a small lockpick and a screwdriver to open the latch and work the tumblers. As my skill checks failed I busted lockpick after lockpick. Unfortunately I never got to see what was in the box as I glanced over my shoulder in real life and found that I was alone in the room.
All too quickly Pete came by to let me know that it was time to go. I appreciate the fact that he kicked me out last. Handing me my very own bottle of Nuka Cola and a Viewmaster with 3D images from the game, I exited the booth and immediately thought "Uh...what happened?” Somehow time had warped and 30 minutes felt more like 5.
Reflections in the Wasteland
That evening I was talking with the team about what I had played and poring over my hurried notes. There were a few things that concerned me, and a great many things that knocked my socks off. Here are some of my notes in legible format and in no particular order:
Conclusions?
It's really hard to make any level of buying decision based on a 30 minute gameplay run, much less draw any 'conclusions', but I do applaud Bethesda for giving us free reign to simply run around and do whatever we wanted, rather than forcing us in to a pre-made demo. Is Fallout 3 a FPS? Is it an RPG? Yes, to both, but figuring out what ratio goes with that statement is hard at this point. Bethesda has done an incredible amount of work on this title, and I think that most Fallout fans will be very pleased for several reasons. First, a healthy company now owns the IP which all but ensures its continued life. Second, the team has clearly worked their ass off trying to capture the feel of the original Fallout titles to translate into this 3D free-roaming world. Based on the 110 hours it took me to complete Oblivion, we've seen far less than 1% of the game. Judging now would be premature at best, but I have to admit that I like what I see so far. We'll all get to judge for ourselves when the game ships on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC this Fall.-- Ron Burke, Director of Gaming Trend
-
