FALLOUT 3: RIP 2008-2011
Fallout’s name was mud. Interplay’s original game had been praised upon release in the early nineties and was soon followed up by Fallout 2, developed by in-house studio Black Isle Studios. Both games were still revered as classics, but unfortunately, the tepid Fallout: Tactics, abysmal Brotherhood of Steel and the cancellation of Fallout 3 could only muster defeated sighs from the PC old-timers who remembered the good old days. Worst of all, an audience was growing-- a young audience who asked “What’s Fallout?”
The rights to Fallout were sold to Bethesda for pennies in 2007 when Interplay faced bankruptcy. Fallout 3 was released near the tail-end of 2008 and introduced the series to a brand new market of young console gamers, including myself. When Fallout 3 came out, I had turned 15 only a month or so before and was beginning my freshman year of high school. My best friend Ben got a copy for Christmas and regaled me with stories until I finally picked it up.
Bethesda makes very identifiable open-world games that they have yet to stray from. At the time, the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was their latest, and though much of what I love about Fallout 3 was already being put to use, the medieval setting didn’t mesh with me, and I never played it. “Oblivion with guns” was the popular description for Fallout 3, and the idea of wandering around an open world collecting knick-knacks and weapons made out of garbage had a certain allure to it. The Elder Scrolls had already proven the formula for others, but Fallout 3 was my first taste of the Bethesda open-world RPG.
Luckily for me Fallout 3 had hundreds of hours of content, and I was the right age to get every last bit out of it. The game is full of easter eggs, random encounters, out-of-the-way locations, bugs-- content that can easily be missed by others. With that comes the possibility of seeing parts of the game your friends won’t, and though there is a canonical story, Fallout 3 is about the crazy stories and experiences unique to each person’s playthrough.
Some encounters were there for everyone, such as wandering into a neighborhood of cannibals, finding a vault full of homicidal clones named Gary, and stealing the Declaration of Independence from a robot convinced he is Georgia’s second governor. Others were more unique. Fallout 3 has some notorious bugs which usually end up working out in the game’s favor. While exploring I approached a wrecked bus when it suddenly flew into the air as lasers shot from nowhere. Ben told me about the time he blew up a Protectron so hard it rocketed into the sky. Hours later, a Protectron fell from the atmosphere and slammed into the ground in front of him.
The sheer density of Fallout 3 is hard to overstate. Not only can players’ experiences wildly differ, but there is an enormous amount of weapons, clothing, souvenirs and junk to collect. Half of the fun came from hoarding and displaying my treasures, and like a kid sitting in his fort waiting for enemies who never come, I guarded them. A shotgun under the bed with a box of shells next to it, or a few grenades in the mailbox outside of a house. Mines were laid around the no-man’s land I had claimed as my own. The game’s carry limit meant I was already a walking armory, but the little touches kept me immersed.
I got my money’s worth out of Fallout 3 many times over, clocking 350 hours across a few different characters. Downloadable content freshened up the game and gave me more locations to scavenge, and near the end of its life, when I had done almost everything possible and was eagerly anticipating New Vegas, self-imposed limits, such as only carrying one weapon or just using what I could take off corpses, extended my playtime even further. Eventually New Vegas came out and I voraciously played for a hundred hours or so, but I never liked it as much. Fallout 3 had the advantage of coming first, and it was revolutionary when I first played. The freedom, the customization, the amount of unique content-- I didn't know it was possible, but it was, and it blew me away.
I have wrung every last drop out of Fallout 3. If you have not played it, I can't recommend the game enough, but I can never go back. Fallout 3 is a peak in my gaming history, and I don’t think I’ll ever become so invested in another game again, but that’s okay. The memories will always remain.