After what seems like an eternity -albeit a very fun eternity- I have completed Fallout 3 to the point where I don’t care anymore. I have all the achievements, so as far as I’m concerned it’s 100%ed. I could have gone back to do all the quests, but I needed to get me into some Skyrim.
But Fallout 3 was huge, and amazing! So I guess I should write up a few final words before I shelve it forever.
It took me just under a month’s time to power through the game, and I think my game clock says something like 80 hours. Which is not too bad! The reason I hesitated from starting the game in the first place is because I kept hearing how you could easily rack up over 100 hours, and that’s before the DLC packs. I suppose you could scribble in an extra couple hours for all the time I lost because of deaths and crashes, but it’s still not 100.
I enjoyed the game in the way I think a lot of people did: wandering aruond the wasteland aimlessly. Yes, I did have drive to complete the quests, but that was just for the little achivement pops. I found it far more satisfying to just prowl about, seeing whatever there was to see. Sometimes I’d end up somewhere I definitely was not supposed to be yet; I fell many times at the hands of super mutants because you shouln’t be tangling with super mutants at level 3. It was still fun though, because either I’d get to enjoy the challenge of sneaking through a dangerous area unseen or I’d just set off in the opposite direction. Exploration really was its own reward.
The low point, I think, was the DLC. I probably would have been satisifed playing the main game to its completion, but they were sitting on my console and the achievements weren’t very demanding. It may have been good that I did them out of order, too. I accidentally got beamed up into Mothership Zeta while wandering around, and while the DLC itself got boring less than halfway through (go down this hall, shoot X number of aliens), the Alien Desintegrator I walked away with made everything after it a breeze. I have no qualm with overpowered weapons.
Point Lookout was easily my favourite, and I’m sad that all the DLC wasn’t structured the same way. As great as it was to have a whole new map to explore with several quest lines to follow, I really just liked when the mansion blew up. That was awesome and totally unexpected. (Sorry if I spoiled it, two and a half years later.) I think this was the only DLC that didn’t provide me with a cool new toy. The double-barreled shotgun is strong, but isn’t as efficient as the combat shotgun.
Operation: Anchorage was kind of bland, but the unbreakable armor I earned from it is swell. Broken Steel was pretty ho-hum too until I got the Tesla Cannon. I don’t know why I’d ever want to use another weapon.
The Pitt was cool, and fudged with my personal morality system. Do I ignore the plea of the slaves or kidnap a baby? Ideally I’d have liked a way to free the slaves without stealing “the cure,” but I was not given such an option. There was no way that I was going to kidnap a baby, even in a video game, and even for the greater good. The way I see it is that the “evil” lord of the Pitt is trying to turn things around, trying to make a city that doesn’t rely on slavery. Things will get better there. I did the right thing.
I think the thing that surprised me about Fallout 3 is how front-loaded the difficulty is. Maybe it’s just because I didn’t start following the story quests until I’d been playing for about 25 hours, but it seems like I spent a lot of time dying and hurting for ammo early on in the game. By the time I made it to Rivet City I was a mostly unstoppable killing machine with thousands and thousands of bullets. Perhaps it was also because I was playing on the easy difficulty. It takes absolutely nothing away from the game, so why not?
So now that I’ve checked the second item off my wishlist, the obvious next step would be to start up Fallout: New Vegas, right? Really, I think I’ve had my fill of wasteland for a while. It’s time for something greener.
Skyrim, though I’ve only spent a few hours with it, has already been just as enjoyable. Again, exploring has been its own reward. Of course, I’m not going to complain when I’m also rewarded with a new bow or a chest full of gold. I can definitely see myself getting deep into this one.