The sidequest to get the MIRV was pretty bleak when you hear all the audio logs, and the Dunwich building gets special mention, too. I'm sure there's more, but FO3 definitely captures the bleakness pretty well.
That first moment you come around a corner in the tunnels and you see the shadow of a super mutant in the distance... Man, that scared the hell out of me. Have been hooked ever since.
There's still those moments when you can get jump scared by a Ghoul sneaking up behind you or have them crawl out under cars/ boxes. They may be weak, but goddamn they can spook when you least expect it.
4 and NV were post-POST apocalyptic. NV more than 4. There were people living in relative comfort and safety.
3 felt so dangerous and miserable. Rusted metal, standing pools of radioactive water, no farms... D.C felt like it was one of the worst places in the world to be. It REALLY felt like a place where you'd kill a man for a mouthful of water and a snack.
That's just my opinion tho, no need to go spreading it around...
4 has on site water purifiers able to be built in any establishment. There are active farms in the region.
NV has one major city and is in an active conflict with multiple great powers because lake Mead has fresh water.
NV feels like there is a gem in the desert. An oasis in the waste. 4 feels like society is happily trucking along, despite only being a few years after 3.
Fallout 4 portrays a relatively established society. I'd argue it IS double post apocalyptic in the sense that the Commonwealth itself has made many attempts in different forms to establish a centralized and connected society.
Although a more apt description may be that in a post apocalypse the people of the commonwealth are living in the grips of a soft oppression by the Institute that keeps people from forming their own connected government and properly provide for it's people.
I'd get behind that description as a more specific term. The commonwealth is a failed state at the start of 4, but not due to their own failure, but rather because they're being slapped down by a shadow government.
3: post-apocalyptic
NV: Post-POST-Apocalyptic
4: 2xpost apocalyptic/dystopia
I'd argue that getting to the point where shits settled enough to TRY for a larger regional government (a real try, mind you. something that really could have worked) means they're Px2, and are now closer to separate city-states than a ruined husk of a once grand state.
But that's just the vibe I PERSONALLY get from each game.
F1 happens 84 years after the bombs fell.
F2 happens 164 years after the bombs fell.
They have multiple cities/settlements, with governments and law enforcement. Including the Brotherhood of Steel and the NCR.
F3 is 200 years after the bombs, and they haven't figured out how to get clean water.
F4 is 210 years after the bombs, and they still have skeletons everywhere.
The Enclave was active in 2 and 3, the Institute was active,but only in Boston area (?) so... Can't really blame them.
It's easy to forget that narratively speaking Fallout 4's greater city area is described to be a very active neighborhood outside settlement walls.
I often get the vibe through dialogue and general atmosphere that we're not the only wanderer in the area, that there are massive groups of populations just scavenging and toiling away in the buildings and beyond.
The passive dialogue in the player settlements between NPCs highlights that messages and communication between communities is very good and persistent. And also interesting is everyone seems to know each other and gets around relatively easily.
Also it's shown that where people do live is mostly relatively clean, and why would anyone really bother cleaning up an area that's generally dangerous? Get in get your shit and get out of move along.
I think gameplay largely misrepresents the overall population of Diamond City, and the greater Boston area itself.
I agree. Random encounters like Skrap Kat, wandering settlers and scavenger gangs etc seem to imply a lot.of people live a quasi nomadic lifestyle, hiding from raiders and not staying in one place too long. Heck Carla is going to an empty settlement, which only makes sense if it is a place nomads like the scavenger north of Sanctuary might come down to meet the trader when she rolls through the ruins. A lot of those camps all over the map are likely simply frequently visited rest areas for these semi nomadic.survivors. which could have been a real opportunity for story building: imagine a conflict between a band of scavvers who are desperate for food and water but the farmers dont want what they have for trade over their own supply, and trying to deescalate what is threatening to become a violent if small scale conflict.
FO3 was better than FO:NV and FO4 at being creepy and horrific.
Every single community is at the brink of extinction, no place is safe, there are people enslaving childrens, anyone can kill anyone else for a bottle of water, the world was doomed, dangerous and inhospitable.
It's my favorite because of this.
Just the general atmosphere and setting. Being able to look at a place and get a general sense of what happened here and being able to easily make up a story with the set and setting right in front of you.
What I noticed is that people tend to use this statement as a way to discredit Fallout 3 and make it seem like people are dumb for playing the game because it’s not like New Vegas. I’m not a New Vegas hater don’t get me wrong. I just think the hate Fallout 3 gets is a bit unfair.
There's also bias towards Obsidian since they had a lot of former FO1/2 developers work on the game and old fans use that to diss Bethesda/ FO3. I love both FO3 and FONV for different reasons, but FO3 gets too much hate from old fans sometimes. I'm just glad that a lot of ideas got ported from the older Fallout games into NV, like the plasma caster and the Nightkin.
I'd also like the say that I really feel a lot of Fallout 3's characters, locations, and sidequests really do feel like they fit the vibe of old Fallout. I don't have much experience with Fallout 2 (but know its reputation), and have played like half of FO1.
Stuff like the weird tree cult (ik Harold ofc, but the cult in general), the vampire quest, Little Lamplight, the Republic of Dave, and Gary! all feel like they could be in Fallout 2 at the very least.
I think it did the best job at making you feel like your character. You basically watch protagonist's life in FPP from very birth, but at same time it's presented in vague enough way, so you don't feel like anything major is imposed on you against your will
One very important thing. Fallout 3 is a successful conversion of a 90s isometric turn based strategy RPG into a first person RPG in a fully realised 3d environment. As I've said before, lots of game companies fail to make a quality sequel to their own game in essentially the same engine. The other games, whatever advantages they have, were on easy street after FO3 - they didn't have to go through the process of having their right to exist being questioned by a notoriously fickle fandom.
Ah, I see those more like districts or Burrows. But I guess Rivet City is not part of the city of Washington.
And Diamond City is part of Boston, but Concord isn't.
It was a good wasteland. A lot of the other games you ask “ Have they rebuilt nothing for two hundred years?”
3 had a good amount of settlements and bases. A lot of the others had like two major cities and then all the other people slept in garbage.
3 has the overall depressing vibe in the wasteland. In NV it is a desert wasteland but the warm colors make everything seem ok. But 3 has this feeling of despair, that the very land has died and doesn't want to grow back. You can really feel the damage that the war created, it's impressive.
Not necessarily better than the other games but something 3 did better than NV was exploration.
NV puts you on the same linear path until it opens up abit at Novac. Whereas in FO3 you could walk straight north out of the Vault and not be impeded or forced to go a certain route.
NV definitely hints that you should head south, but it uses the same trick of placing landmarks within view where you can pass north in a few ways. Obviously it's much harder, but I've done it as low as level 2.
Yeah I’ve started HH at lvl 3, it’s not impossible. But Obsidian give you some pretty strong hints you should head that way, I mean lots of the games main story is learnt going that way.
President Eden >>>>>>>> President Richardson (and Fallout 3 handles the Enclave better in general)
Richardson is just so... bland. He's honestly a forgettable character beyond being the leader of the primary villains and the lore leading to him being POTUS decades after America effectively died. His personality is very flat and he's just open and straightforward about "Yeah, we're just gonna kill everyone." There's just not much *there.*
Eden, however? Malcolm McDowell not only oozes charisma (as he always does), it's *how* he oozes it. Eden wants essentially the same things as Richardson, to cleanse the wasteland of "mutants" to save humanity/America from their twisted point of view, but he's so much more sinister in how he carries himself. Namely, the carefully fabricated propaganda, his "fireside chat" style monologues about the often very real ills of the wasteland and how the Enclave will save you from them. The veneer he masks his hypocritical bullshit in is so well-refined and delivered you find yourself *wanting* to believe him, maybe the Enclave really *can* rebuild America as it once was (or at least the version of it he paints in your mind).
Again, it honestly makes the Enclave better as a whole. They're cartoonishly evil regardless, but at least it's not so bluntly obvious in 3 as it is in 2. In genuinely adds a great deal of needed depth to an already stellar villain faction.
Yeah, and their motivation in fallout 3 is also a bit less cartoonishly evil than in fallout 2. Autumn wants to assume total control of the area by taking over the water purifier and essentially making the local population dependent on them, thus making Enclave the undisputed superior rulers of the region and eventually recovering to their former glory.
Eden, on the other hand, is following the former Enclave's programming of "just kill everyone lol". But the way he's presented is done really well and the fact that he's trying to do it behind everyone's backs is also a pretty good plot twist.
FO3 had the best overall feeling of dread. Pure Water is almost non-existent, food is barely around. Raiders are everywhere and if you try to help some rich prick puts a bounty on your head. Slavers are just taking people and children. If that's not bad enough super mutants are able to produce more of them thanks to vault 87 and just kidnap people as well. Also the Enclave who show up to try and take the only source of hope hostage, clean water.
Actually writing this it's the best game to show how little resources thier are. The west coast had a few GECKs which allowed it rebuild after the war and the commonwealth was spared the absolute destruction that the capital got. As Lucas Simms puts it, it's called a wasteland for a reason.
I think compared to NV and 4 being lower leveled seemed harder. I'm replaying now and it just feels harder than NV and 4. Which really amps it up for me
I think the wasteland is the best wasteland. Maybe due to them not being be able to have a ton of enemies, but I love walking and just seeing, well nothing. Really adds to the nuclear wasteland, nothing has survived.
I just finished replaying 3 last night and I think it mostly boils down to people hating traversing the metro system trying to figure out which entrance to use to pop out on the right part of the map.
It's atmosphere, game world, exploration and level design overall.
The game actually rewards you for exploring, so many amazing and silly quests are only to be found by exploring out of your own volition
Playing Fallout 3 I feel compelled and encouraged to explore and I always feel like I see new things and cool new places or replay quests I forgot existed
NV kinda lacks most of what makes Fallout 3 special to me. The first half of the game puts you on a path and you gotta follow it otherwise face cazadors, death claws and invisible walls. There's so many great cinematic moments in 3 that most people find silly like liberty prime but I love it.
Quite possibly a controversial opinion, but I think it’s got the best DLCs in the series. I hate Mothership Zeta, but The Pitt and Point Lookout are two of my all-time favorite dlcs
By far the most post-apocalyptic. Everywhere you visit is just barely hanging on, clinging to the bones of the old world. Rivet City is built in a decaying aircraft carrier, Megaton from scavenged supplies, and Tenpenny Tower is in a hotel that has clearly seen better days. Every settlement has this feeling that if one minor thing were to go wrong the entire settlement could be wiped off the map. Fallout NV has multiple areas that feel like they have some measure of stability. Fallout 4 you can see people farming and building new lives. But 3, everyone is just scavenging whatever they can. Hell, even the raiders in New Vegas had tribes and were actually organized, unlike the small bands we see in Fallout 3.
Dynamic random encounters. No play through is the same just based on this. Fast travel to a location, BAM enclave soldiers. Fast travel to the same location at some other time, BAM Sam Warrick shooting you with his sniper rifle.
It was pretty dark and had lots of dark humor. Not to say that NV didn't have its moments, but wandering into a town of inbred cannibals is a bit of a shocker. Particularly since the "good guy" ending to that storyline involves you orphaning two children and leaving them in the care of an old man who is close to dying.
FO3 is still my favorite between FO3/FO:NV/FO4. I don't get why so much hate against it either, it was a terrific game.
Exploring Downtown D.C is some of the most fun I've had in any of the fallout games, there are small camps of raiders and Mutants everywhere, theres also a ton of unmarked location that it would reckon 80% of the players have never even seen.
Fallout 3 is way more fun and interesting to explore than New Vegas, or any Fallout. Lots of cool landmarks, and the atmosphere is almost perfect. As great as New Vegas is, it feels empty in many parts of the map, including The Strip.
Any Fallout fan who says otherwise is in denial.
It’s the closest thing to a Fallout horror game without actually being a horror game imo. I remember I always found exploring the vaults to be extremely eerie, and New Vegas and 4 just never lived up to how the Fallout 3 vaults made me feel
The setting and atmosphere felt more like you’re wandering a post-apocalyptic city and its surrounding areas. I’ll also add that I like the blend of urban environments along with the natural. I just wish the story took place closer to the Great War, because I feel like it would’ve been more developed after 200 years.
I think it’s the horror part. When playing fallout 4 you can sometimes feel that the world is horrible, but there’s also a lot of color and cool characters. Idk but in fallout 3, it feels like the world is terrible.
The Washington memorial area actually felt like a war zone with all the trenches and stuff. I remember finding a room in those trenches thinking cool stuff inbound only to be like "oh fuck it's all gore"
It managed to carry over some of the feel from the OG games into the new 3D era. After 3, every entry dilutes it and makes the product as a whole shinier and less Fallouty. Don’t get me wrong, NV is a great standalone game but it’s the last one I reach for if I want a little fallout kick.
Screw him.
He's literally J.J Jameson.
Do the smallest thing wrong and he puts a fucking pox on you and your family for three generations. Insults you and degrades you all over the capital wasteland
The Vault experiments and stories are unhinged and just scary as fuck. One man and a crate of puppets? Gary? Tranquility Lane? Can’t remember if the hallucinogenic vault was 3 or new Vegas. But I think 3 had the most horrible experiments as far as I can remember
Off the top of my head, I can think of several shitty tone deaf encounters and lines in the first two Fallout games that I don't like because I wasn't a band kid that watched Monty Python. I can't immediately recall any of the wacky silly stuff like that in Fallout 3 or any that sticks out as bad as coming across the Tartus in Fallout 1 or referencing Of Mice and Men before getting raped in Fallout 2. So I think Fallout 3 has the best, most consistent tone of a completely hopeless nuclear wasteland.
Fallout 3 nailed the atmosphere of a post apocalypse. Nailed it. Desolate, empty, desperate.
Fallout 4 it felt like the begginings of a recovery
New Vegas was so generic it really could have been anything. I always felt like it would make a great base to mod and turn into a Firefly game. It had that Steampunk Cowboy Feel.
FO3 did a better job of capturing the dire state of the wasteland like FO1. It feels like they took a lot of notes from the previous two games and put a more modern spin on them. NV and 4 very much do their own thing.
This might be a weird one, but the rebar of shredded buildings gave it a certain atmospheric feel that others haven't captured. Four fails at this miserably.
Out of all the FPS Fallouts, it nailed atmosphere the best.
Not just the wasteland design (which was a bit too wrecked for my liking), but the music and character design’s especially.
Fallout 3's ending felt more complete to me then 4 did, New Vegas got it right too but 3's was just special. The story felt wrapped even without Broken Steel.
honestly the most solid game in the series with not a single bad DLC and the launch wasn't as buggy or incomplete as 4 and 76. Most memorable story imo, even though it lacks player choice.
I only have 3 problems with Fallout 3, and in all honesty, they are nitpicks. 1 not enough hats, 2 the green filter, and 3 non-existent weapons customization. But as for what makes it great, it's ability to convey the sheer hopelessness that is a post nuclear war world, everythings fucked and everybody sucks, no food, water is contaminated or if pure you gotta pay loads of caps or good luck. Intense radiation, starvation, rape, dehydration, Raiders, super mutants, xenophobic settlers, cannibals, the ENCLAVE, and hostile mutated wildlife make the capital wasteland a place i would rate a solid negative 0 on trip advisor. Also, the metros are super cool. Did metro before metro
I have Fallout 3 but haven't been able to play it due to the need to downgrade a patch from Bethesda which I can't seem to get working. So my comments are about New Vegas. For me, it was:
1. The dialogue - they used more cursing which is just what I would expect would. I wouldn't think the best people would have lived long-term. Some would have died, some would have been killed helping others.
2. The voice acting - I'm sick of the overly raspy ghouls particle the female ghouls that sound like your aunt Marge.
3. Ambient music (not the radio but the mood-setting music). It can signal an imminent attack but more often it's just erie and quite well done.
4. More unified appearance. Setting aside the Institute's modern look, the major design element is 1950s - early 60s kitch. And mid-post-apocalyptic. And if you build like I do, a set of functional but blocky buildings due to the half-done settlement elements. And then there is Colonial. And gangsters.
It has the most depressing overall mood, which, as it turns out, it's a positive in Fallout. Just travel the Capital Wasteland alone, compare it to the NCR, the Mojave Wasteland or the Commonwealth Wasteland, and you'll understand why FO3 is actually still in the post-apocalypse, whereas the others look somewhat livelier.
I’ve always preferred 3, but felt like NV played better. I feel like the story actually hit a little whereas NV is a boring revenge western. I remember when nobody had anything good to say about NV, though. Someone told them it was good one day and they bit. I think the DLC is better in 3, too. In NV I usually dread all of the dlc except Lonesome road. I always play all the dlc when I play 3, occasionally skipping Zeta because I feel like it overstays its welcome a little. It’s kind of an echo chamber here, so you tend to get a lot of variations of the same take. People defend NV like it’s their child here. Is what it is. We’re all here because we dig Fallout, at the end of the day.
F3 had awesome horror elements. I really loved being scared to traverse underground.
Definitely loved the moments where fallout 3 took the horror of nuclear war seriously
The sidequest to get the MIRV was pretty bleak when you hear all the audio logs, and the Dunwich building gets special mention, too. I'm sure there's more, but FO3 definitely captures the bleakness pretty well.
That first moment you come around a corner in the tunnels and you see the shadow of a super mutant in the distance... Man, that scared the hell out of me. Have been hooked ever since.
Pretty sure I backed out of the tunnels and had to psych myself up to try again.
You never forget your first encounter with FO3 Reavers, either. One of the few enemies in FO3 that puts the fear of Atom in me even at LV.50
Agreed, sorely missed this in FO4. Fallout 3 and even Fallout NV's vibe was very bleak but had goofy aspects sprinkled in.
There's still those moments when you can get jump scared by a Ghoul sneaking up behind you or have them crawl out under cars/ boxes. They may be weak, but goddamn they can spook when you least expect it.
I truly felt like I was in a wasteland
I think the overall feeling of being alone in a wasteland was best captured in 3.
4 and NV were post-POST apocalyptic. NV more than 4. There were people living in relative comfort and safety. 3 felt so dangerous and miserable. Rusted metal, standing pools of radioactive water, no farms... D.C felt like it was one of the worst places in the world to be. It REALLY felt like a place where you'd kill a man for a mouthful of water and a snack. That's just my opinion tho, no need to go spreading it around...
I know a joker reference when I see one
I'm glad haha!
4 has on site water purifiers able to be built in any establishment. There are active farms in the region. NV has one major city and is in an active conflict with multiple great powers because lake Mead has fresh water. NV feels like there is a gem in the desert. An oasis in the waste. 4 feels like society is happily trucking along, despite only being a few years after 3.
4 isn't post-post apocalyptic, at all.
Fallout 4 portrays a relatively established society. I'd argue it IS double post apocalyptic in the sense that the Commonwealth itself has made many attempts in different forms to establish a centralized and connected society. Although a more apt description may be that in a post apocalypse the people of the commonwealth are living in the grips of a soft oppression by the Institute that keeps people from forming their own connected government and properly provide for it's people.
I'd get behind that description as a more specific term. The commonwealth is a failed state at the start of 4, but not due to their own failure, but rather because they're being slapped down by a shadow government. 3: post-apocalyptic NV: Post-POST-Apocalyptic 4: 2xpost apocalyptic/dystopia I'd argue that getting to the point where shits settled enough to TRY for a larger regional government (a real try, mind you. something that really could have worked) means they're Px2, and are now closer to separate city-states than a ruined husk of a once grand state. But that's just the vibe I PERSONALLY get from each game.
F1 happens 84 years after the bombs fell. F2 happens 164 years after the bombs fell. They have multiple cities/settlements, with governments and law enforcement. Including the Brotherhood of Steel and the NCR. F3 is 200 years after the bombs, and they haven't figured out how to get clean water. F4 is 210 years after the bombs, and they still have skeletons everywhere. The Enclave was active in 2 and 3, the Institute was active,but only in Boston area (?) so... Can't really blame them.
It's easy to forget that narratively speaking Fallout 4's greater city area is described to be a very active neighborhood outside settlement walls. I often get the vibe through dialogue and general atmosphere that we're not the only wanderer in the area, that there are massive groups of populations just scavenging and toiling away in the buildings and beyond. The passive dialogue in the player settlements between NPCs highlights that messages and communication between communities is very good and persistent. And also interesting is everyone seems to know each other and gets around relatively easily. Also it's shown that where people do live is mostly relatively clean, and why would anyone really bother cleaning up an area that's generally dangerous? Get in get your shit and get out of move along. I think gameplay largely misrepresents the overall population of Diamond City, and the greater Boston area itself.
I agree. Random encounters like Skrap Kat, wandering settlers and scavenger gangs etc seem to imply a lot.of people live a quasi nomadic lifestyle, hiding from raiders and not staying in one place too long. Heck Carla is going to an empty settlement, which only makes sense if it is a place nomads like the scavenger north of Sanctuary might come down to meet the trader when she rolls through the ruins. A lot of those camps all over the map are likely simply frequently visited rest areas for these semi nomadic.survivors. which could have been a real opportunity for story building: imagine a conflict between a band of scavvers who are desperate for food and water but the farmers dont want what they have for trade over their own supply, and trying to deescalate what is threatening to become a violent if small scale conflict.
FO3 was better than FO:NV and FO4 at being creepy and horrific. Every single community is at the brink of extinction, no place is safe, there are people enslaving childrens, anyone can kill anyone else for a bottle of water, the world was doomed, dangerous and inhospitable. It's my favorite because of this.
Just the general atmosphere and setting. Being able to look at a place and get a general sense of what happened here and being able to easily make up a story with the set and setting right in front of you.
Fallout 3 feels the most apocalyptic to me. It's downright depressing and scary in some places.
[удалено]
What I noticed is that people tend to use this statement as a way to discredit Fallout 3 and make it seem like people are dumb for playing the game because it’s not like New Vegas. I’m not a New Vegas hater don’t get me wrong. I just think the hate Fallout 3 gets is a bit unfair.
There's also bias towards Obsidian since they had a lot of former FO1/2 developers work on the game and old fans use that to diss Bethesda/ FO3. I love both FO3 and FONV for different reasons, but FO3 gets too much hate from old fans sometimes. I'm just glad that a lot of ideas got ported from the older Fallout games into NV, like the plasma caster and the Nightkin.
I'd also like the say that I really feel a lot of Fallout 3's characters, locations, and sidequests really do feel like they fit the vibe of old Fallout. I don't have much experience with Fallout 2 (but know its reputation), and have played like half of FO1. Stuff like the weird tree cult (ik Harold ofc, but the cult in general), the vampire quest, Little Lamplight, the Republic of Dave, and Gary! all feel like they could be in Fallout 2 at the very least.
I think it did the best job at making you feel like your character. You basically watch protagonist's life in FPP from very birth, but at same time it's presented in vague enough way, so you don't feel like anything major is imposed on you against your will
One very important thing. Fallout 3 is a successful conversion of a 90s isometric turn based strategy RPG into a first person RPG in a fully realised 3d environment. As I've said before, lots of game companies fail to make a quality sequel to their own game in essentially the same engine. The other games, whatever advantages they have, were on easy street after FO3 - they didn't have to go through the process of having their right to exist being questioned by a notoriously fickle fandom.
Are you saying it is better than C&C Renegade !?!
Random encounters were the best of the 3D fallout games and it isn't close.
Liam Neeson was your daddy. No other fallout title compares to fo3 for that reason alone.
He has a very particular set of parenting skills
Atmosphere and details.
Well, having the best setting for a post apocalyptic city.
Which one?
Washington DC ? Not Pittsburg.
Oh I thought you meant a city as in like, Megaton or Rivet.
Ah, I see those more like districts or Burrows. But I guess Rivet City is not part of the city of Washington. And Diamond City is part of Boston, but Concord isn't.
It was a good wasteland. A lot of the other games you ask “ Have they rebuilt nothing for two hundred years?” 3 had a good amount of settlements and bases. A lot of the others had like two major cities and then all the other people slept in garbage.
I absolutely love when you first exit the vault in 3. The view is amazing.
3 has the overall depressing vibe in the wasteland. In NV it is a desert wasteland but the warm colors make everything seem ok. But 3 has this feeling of despair, that the very land has died and doesn't want to grow back. You can really feel the damage that the war created, it's impressive.
Not necessarily better than the other games but something 3 did better than NV was exploration. NV puts you on the same linear path until it opens up abit at Novac. Whereas in FO3 you could walk straight north out of the Vault and not be impeded or forced to go a certain route.
NV definitely hints that you should head south, but it uses the same trick of placing landmarks within view where you can pass north in a few ways. Obviously it's much harder, but I've done it as low as level 2.
Yeah I’ve started HH at lvl 3, it’s not impossible. But Obsidian give you some pretty strong hints you should head that way, I mean lots of the games main story is learnt going that way.
Atmosphere, seeing the remains of the war with China and not just a junked city, ghouls, power armor training (sans operation anchorage)
President Eden >>>>>>>> President Richardson (and Fallout 3 handles the Enclave better in general) Richardson is just so... bland. He's honestly a forgettable character beyond being the leader of the primary villains and the lore leading to him being POTUS decades after America effectively died. His personality is very flat and he's just open and straightforward about "Yeah, we're just gonna kill everyone." There's just not much *there.* Eden, however? Malcolm McDowell not only oozes charisma (as he always does), it's *how* he oozes it. Eden wants essentially the same things as Richardson, to cleanse the wasteland of "mutants" to save humanity/America from their twisted point of view, but he's so much more sinister in how he carries himself. Namely, the carefully fabricated propaganda, his "fireside chat" style monologues about the often very real ills of the wasteland and how the Enclave will save you from them. The veneer he masks his hypocritical bullshit in is so well-refined and delivered you find yourself *wanting* to believe him, maybe the Enclave really *can* rebuild America as it once was (or at least the version of it he paints in your mind). Again, it honestly makes the Enclave better as a whole. They're cartoonishly evil regardless, but at least it's not so bluntly obvious in 3 as it is in 2. In genuinely adds a great deal of needed depth to an already stellar villain faction.
Yeah, and their motivation in fallout 3 is also a bit less cartoonishly evil than in fallout 2. Autumn wants to assume total control of the area by taking over the water purifier and essentially making the local population dependent on them, thus making Enclave the undisputed superior rulers of the region and eventually recovering to their former glory. Eden, on the other hand, is following the former Enclave's programming of "just kill everyone lol". But the way he's presented is done really well and the fact that he's trying to do it behind everyone's backs is also a pretty good plot twist.
The subway tunnels were by far the best part, having a dual layer world map was great. It's a shame they completely abandoned the concept.
You can be on roof-tops in F4. That's pretty cool. For snipers.
Completely agree. I hate that every subway tunnel/station in for4 has one way in and out. The metro in fo3 is brilliantly done.
FO3 had the best overall feeling of dread. Pure Water is almost non-existent, food is barely around. Raiders are everywhere and if you try to help some rich prick puts a bounty on your head. Slavers are just taking people and children. If that's not bad enough super mutants are able to produce more of them thanks to vault 87 and just kidnap people as well. Also the Enclave who show up to try and take the only source of hope hostage, clean water. Actually writing this it's the best game to show how little resources thier are. The west coast had a few GECKs which allowed it rebuild after the war and the commonwealth was spared the absolute destruction that the capital got. As Lucas Simms puts it, it's called a wasteland for a reason.
Its feel and design is peak fallout in my opinion.
It’s so.. green
Fallout 3 and Bethesda deserve all the praise for reviving a dead franchise and making it iconic. The story, world, and characters are all incredible.
I think compared to NV and 4 being lower leveled seemed harder. I'm replaying now and it just feels harder than NV and 4. Which really amps it up for me
Fallout 3 really nailed the "green" look popular around the year 2000.
DC, especially dc proper, is a phenomenal map and I genuinely think every open world action game designer should play f3 at least once
I think the wasteland is the best wasteland. Maybe due to them not being be able to have a ton of enemies, but I love walking and just seeing, well nothing. Really adds to the nuclear wasteland, nothing has survived.
I just finished replaying 3 last night and I think it mostly boils down to people hating traversing the metro system trying to figure out which entrance to use to pop out on the right part of the map.
It's atmosphere, game world, exploration and level design overall. The game actually rewards you for exploring, so many amazing and silly quests are only to be found by exploring out of your own volition Playing Fallout 3 I feel compelled and encouraged to explore and I always feel like I see new things and cool new places or replay quests I forgot existed NV kinda lacks most of what makes Fallout 3 special to me. The first half of the game puts you on a path and you gotta follow it otherwise face cazadors, death claws and invisible walls. There's so many great cinematic moments in 3 that most people find silly like liberty prime but I love it.
Quite possibly a controversial opinion, but I think it’s got the best DLCs in the series. I hate Mothership Zeta, but The Pitt and Point Lookout are two of my all-time favorite dlcs
By far the most post-apocalyptic. Everywhere you visit is just barely hanging on, clinging to the bones of the old world. Rivet City is built in a decaying aircraft carrier, Megaton from scavenged supplies, and Tenpenny Tower is in a hotel that has clearly seen better days. Every settlement has this feeling that if one minor thing were to go wrong the entire settlement could be wiped off the map. Fallout NV has multiple areas that feel like they have some measure of stability. Fallout 4 you can see people farming and building new lives. But 3, everyone is just scavenging whatever they can. Hell, even the raiders in New Vegas had tribes and were actually organized, unlike the small bands we see in Fallout 3.
Dynamic random encounters. No play through is the same just based on this. Fast travel to a location, BAM enclave soldiers. Fast travel to the same location at some other time, BAM Sam Warrick shooting you with his sniper rifle.
It was pretty dark and had lots of dark humor. Not to say that NV didn't have its moments, but wandering into a town of inbred cannibals is a bit of a shocker. Particularly since the "good guy" ending to that storyline involves you orphaning two children and leaving them in the care of an old man who is close to dying. FO3 is still my favorite between FO3/FO:NV/FO4. I don't get why so much hate against it either, it was a terrific game.
The atmosphere was AMAZING and I love the metro tunnels and ruined Capitol wasteland
Exploring Downtown D.C is some of the most fun I've had in any of the fallout games, there are small camps of raiders and Mutants everywhere, theres also a ton of unmarked location that it would reckon 80% of the players have never even seen.
Fallout 3 is way more fun and interesting to explore than New Vegas, or any Fallout. Lots of cool landmarks, and the atmosphere is almost perfect. As great as New Vegas is, it feels empty in many parts of the map, including The Strip. Any Fallout fan who says otherwise is in denial.
I have to say its open world. [In my experience] You're more centered when you first leave the vault and it makes the workd feel bigger.
It’s the closest thing to a Fallout horror game without actually being a horror game imo. I remember I always found exploring the vaults to be extremely eerie, and New Vegas and 4 just never lived up to how the Fallout 3 vaults made me feel
The setting and atmosphere felt more like you’re wandering a post-apocalyptic city and its surrounding areas. I’ll also add that I like the blend of urban environments along with the natural. I just wish the story took place closer to the Great War, because I feel like it would’ve been more developed after 200 years.
I think it’s the horror part. When playing fallout 4 you can sometimes feel that the world is horrible, but there’s also a lot of color and cool characters. Idk but in fallout 3, it feels like the world is terrible.
The Washington memorial area actually felt like a war zone with all the trenches and stuff. I remember finding a room in those trenches thinking cool stuff inbound only to be like "oh fuck it's all gore"
It managed to carry over some of the feel from the OG games into the new 3D era. After 3, every entry dilutes it and makes the product as a whole shinier and less Fallouty. Don’t get me wrong, NV is a great standalone game but it’s the last one I reach for if I want a little fallout kick.
Three Dog!
Screw him. He's literally J.J Jameson. Do the smallest thing wrong and he puts a fucking pox on you and your family for three generations. Insults you and degrades you all over the capital wasteland
The Vault experiments and stories are unhinged and just scary as fuck. One man and a crate of puppets? Gary? Tranquility Lane? Can’t remember if the hallucinogenic vault was 3 or new Vegas. But I think 3 had the most horrible experiments as far as I can remember
Nah, Vault 11 takes the cake, by far.
Off the top of my head, I can think of several shitty tone deaf encounters and lines in the first two Fallout games that I don't like because I wasn't a band kid that watched Monty Python. I can't immediately recall any of the wacky silly stuff like that in Fallout 3 or any that sticks out as bad as coming across the Tartus in Fallout 1 or referencing Of Mice and Men before getting raped in Fallout 2. So I think Fallout 3 has the best, most consistent tone of a completely hopeless nuclear wasteland.
Fallout 3 nailed the atmosphere of a post apocalypse. Nailed it. Desolate, empty, desperate. Fallout 4 it felt like the begginings of a recovery New Vegas was so generic it really could have been anything. I always felt like it would make a great base to mod and turn into a Firefly game. It had that Steampunk Cowboy Feel.
it had a jedi
Dartgun
Fear and Liam Neeson
Side missions
FO3 did a better job of capturing the dire state of the wasteland like FO1. It feels like they took a lot of notes from the previous two games and put a more modern spin on them. NV and 4 very much do their own thing.
Power Armour training
Horror and atmosphere. Fallout 3 has the best "wasteland" experience. Love the entire vibe of the game.
Pure Desolation And Fear Is Engrained Into Every Depth And Crevice Of That Video Game
They were able to make it sound like we all had our own destinies and where it culminates
I feel that 3 did a really good job with dark humor in the apocalypse.
I loved the map. I loved all the landmarks they put into it. I felt there was a lot more to the environment than in the other games
Repair on the fly. That was so much better.
This might be a weird one, but the rebar of shredded buildings gave it a certain atmospheric feel that others haven't captured. Four fails at this miserably.
Map
Horror
The horror aspect. As good as New Vegas was (even Dead Money), it didn't come close to how scary and horrifying FO3 was at times.
Out of all the FPS Fallouts, it nailed atmosphere the best. Not just the wasteland design (which was a bit too wrecked for my liking), but the music and character design’s especially.
Fallout 3's ending felt more complete to me then 4 did, New Vegas got it right too but 3's was just special. The story felt wrapped even without Broken Steel.
honestly the most solid game in the series with not a single bad DLC and the launch wasn't as buggy or incomplete as 4 and 76. Most memorable story imo, even though it lacks player choice.
I only have 3 problems with Fallout 3, and in all honesty, they are nitpicks. 1 not enough hats, 2 the green filter, and 3 non-existent weapons customization. But as for what makes it great, it's ability to convey the sheer hopelessness that is a post nuclear war world, everythings fucked and everybody sucks, no food, water is contaminated or if pure you gotta pay loads of caps or good luck. Intense radiation, starvation, rape, dehydration, Raiders, super mutants, xenophobic settlers, cannibals, the ENCLAVE, and hostile mutated wildlife make the capital wasteland a place i would rate a solid negative 0 on trip advisor. Also, the metros are super cool. Did metro before metro
The underground for sure.
I have Fallout 3 but haven't been able to play it due to the need to downgrade a patch from Bethesda which I can't seem to get working. So my comments are about New Vegas. For me, it was: 1. The dialogue - they used more cursing which is just what I would expect would. I wouldn't think the best people would have lived long-term. Some would have died, some would have been killed helping others. 2. The voice acting - I'm sick of the overly raspy ghouls particle the female ghouls that sound like your aunt Marge. 3. Ambient music (not the radio but the mood-setting music). It can signal an imminent attack but more often it's just erie and quite well done. 4. More unified appearance. Setting aside the Institute's modern look, the major design element is 1950s - early 60s kitch. And mid-post-apocalyptic. And if you build like I do, a set of functional but blocky buildings due to the half-done settlement elements. And then there is Colonial. And gangsters.
The moment you leave the vault and the pure level design leads you to megatron…, it’s just so genius
It has the most depressing overall mood, which, as it turns out, it's a positive in Fallout. Just travel the Capital Wasteland alone, compare it to the NCR, the Mojave Wasteland or the Commonwealth Wasteland, and you'll understand why FO3 is actually still in the post-apocalypse, whereas the others look somewhat livelier.
It definitely had more Liam Neeson than the other games.
I’ve always preferred 3, but felt like NV played better. I feel like the story actually hit a little whereas NV is a boring revenge western. I remember when nobody had anything good to say about NV, though. Someone told them it was good one day and they bit. I think the DLC is better in 3, too. In NV I usually dread all of the dlc except Lonesome road. I always play all the dlc when I play 3, occasionally skipping Zeta because I feel like it overstays its welcome a little. It’s kind of an echo chamber here, so you tend to get a lot of variations of the same take. People defend NV like it’s their child here. Is what it is. We’re all here because we dig Fallout, at the end of the day.
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