"War never changes." That is the tagline from Fallout 3's ad campaign, promising a game laden with post apocalyptic chaos. It's soon into the game that you understand this isn't just a tagline. Everything in the game revolves around war and its place in human nature. Its plot is a mash-up of countless sci-fi movies that have explored this theme. Start with a thick base of Mad Max-style anarchists in studded leather, add a dash of machines-gone-wild flavor(ala the Terminator or Matrix series) and finish off with some totalitarian baddies that look like Storm Trooper rejects, and you've got yourself a veritable cornucopia of futuristic dystopia. And the developers earn kudos for being able to incorporate these elements with a sly wink and a nod, and not seem too derivative.
The game is set in an alternative future, in which the cold war was never defused and the arms race led on into the 21st century, eventually ending in nuclear war. You find yourself born in a huge underground bomb-shelter society, led by a cult-like leader who bans access to the outside world. Needless to say, when your father mysteriously disappears, your fortunes lead you to venture out into said outside world - bleak, sandy and desolate populated by graveyards of gutted buildings, mutated rodents, and occasional roving robots that look like B9 from Lost in Space. Resources are scarce, and factions still wage war over scrap electronic parts and clean water. Your goal is to find your father, but it's no spoiler to say that you eventually end up helping to save the world.
At its nuts and bolts, this is a pretty standard RPG. The game engine is very similar to that of Oblivion, the developers' hit RPG from a few years back, and though it's taken out of the high fantasy world, most of the elements translate pretty directly. Instead of magical potions, you have performance enhancing steroids and super-caffeinated "Nuka Cola". Instead of enchanted plate armor and magic wands, you have laser pistols and electrically powered metal suits. And many of the chores are the same, such as quests that require you to kill X amount of giant rats.
What really carries this game, however, is the storyline. Your role begins literally as your character begins. You open your eyes as a baby, and your character learns to crawl as you learn the controls. The message is clear that this game is aimed toward immersion. You're not role playing as the main character, you ARE the main character. Though the game might feel to linear for true RPG nuts, the main story has an epic grandeur that sweeps you across miles of creatively imagined game world, as you explore the hollow monuments of Washington D.C. and it's many colorful (and sometimes disgusting looking) inhabitants.
With a game area so large, one expects new locations to start having a generic, cut and paste quality. Amazingly, however, almost every corner of the map has a hand-tailored feel, with its own entertaining subplots. If you stumble across one area, for instance, you will find a camp of renegade humans who have caged a 20-foot tall super-mutant. You can skip this area completely if you wish; it has no relevance to the plot, but it's hard to resist sneaking into the camp and setting the behemoth free, and watching him send his former captors flying with his meaty mutant paws.
There are some drawbacks to the game. The graphics have a shabby, dreary look, fitting with the theme. As in most RPG's, some of the quests can feel tedious and chore-like, and the voice acting can be a little corny. Still, it's a highly polished RPG experience overall. Monsters level up as you do, so combat always retains a challenge no matter how beastly your character becomes. There is a deep range of character skills and attributes that allow for a nice level of customizability: standards (weapons proficiency, lock picking) and some quirkier ones (lady-killer, for example, allows you to do more damage to women baddies and also charm the pants off female NPC's.) Some nice little kitschy extras include recipes to make your own weapons out of electrical scrap parts, such as converting a leaf blower into a garbage launcher that shoots empty soda bottles at your foes. And for the true kitsch experience, you can even buy a house and decorate it in 50's suburban art deco.
The messages in the game can be a little grim, examining the link between fear, control and war. The evocation of the 50's bomb shelter mentality parallels today's climate. People want to live in their insulated, utopian illusions of security. The only way to create this security is to go underground, lock the door to any outsiders and throw away the key, or just nuke the hell out of anybody that's not you. The game does offer a measure of optimism, however. Human weaknesses and insecurities can be overcome with a little courage and valor. Maybe it's true that war never changes, but people can.