by Jack Merridew

Created on: May 27, 2011   Last Updated: April 10, 2012

Smash the concepts of what a game can be before you read this review; Fallout 3 will not conform to them. Fallout 3 is a brilliant hybrid of Doom inspired first-person horror, Grand Theft Auto sandbox adventure, and Fable inspired moral choices. Fallout 3 does not redefine what a game can be; it refines.

ELABORATE STORYTELLING

Straying toward the unconventional, the bold ambition of the game becomes evident the moment you are "born". Your vision is blurry, and bright lights and crowded bodies become the scene of a hospital room delivery. Your father ponders out loud what type of person you will develop into, and announces to everyone in the room your gender once it is selected. The scene soon deteriorates into chaos, however, as your mother begins to die from birthing complications. After this hysteria, you advance in years in several cut-scenes, the most interesting of which is an awkward birthday party curiously involving all of your future adult enemies. You learn that the vault you call home is actually a massive emergency bunker that has lain impregnable for hundreds of years underground. Gradually you begin to learn the nature of your sheltered existence, and that an adventure is waiting outside the gray corridors of the vault.

MATURE FOR A REASON

The day finally comes when your beloved father decides to defect and escape the vault entirely, which the Overseer - the purveyor of the phrase: "We live in the vault, and die in the vault" - does not take kindly to. Rushing to prevent a similar incident with you, he sicks the Vault's security on your character; and thus, the violence begins. Fallout 3 will either appall or delight you with its blatant bloodletting. Sick and horrific dismemberment is a prevalent theme in this game, and is hard not to engage in. Within minutes the player may either escape the vault having only harmed a few security members, or having massacred the entire vault with a baseball bat and pistol; either way, escape becomes the end-goal, and is ultimately achieved.

OPEN-ENDED GAMEPLAY

Outside the vault, you are instantly blinded by the first glint of sunlight you've ever seen. As the glory fades, you behold the landscape in front of you: a blasted hell ravaged by nuclear war. Diving into this miserable wasteland is gratifying, and you'll find yourself searching every twisted mailbox, and every irradiated water source on your quest for cool trinkets. Weapons abound in this game,

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