I didn’t play the first two Fallouts, they were turn-based RPGs. Fallout3 is a real-time first-person RPG, like Oblivion. Except during combat you can use a “VATS” system to aim and fire for you. Gameplay-wise, Fallout3 is a lot like Oblivion, but set in a post-apocalyptic alternate future where the 1950’s vision of the future came true. You can go pretty much anywhere you want, it’s really fun to explore the wasteland.
Fallout3 is not scary, except maybe a little when you’re in subway tunnels with the ghouls. Nothing much jumps out at you.
To be fair, you could pretty much do that in FO2 as well. It took you 4 AP to access your inventory and then you could go hog wild. Heck, with the Quick Pockets perk, it would only take 2 AP, which meant every time you reload you can also toss in a quick trip to the inventory with no additional cost.
Generally disappointed in the inability to place items in F3. In Oblivion, you could manipulate items laying around. So I had the best hideout evar, rooms full of stacked swords, mad scientist tables full of potions, mortar, scrolls. Bedroom with clothes laid in the bed. You get the idea.
In F3, my damaged garden gnome collection just lays in a pile in the corner. The best I could do was kick them all there.
True, but it’s a bit like trying to light a cigarette while wearing boxing gloves. My gnome resides happily upside down on the mantelpiece, but I daren’t try putting anything else next to him for fear of knocking him over.
Imagining a mutant trying to pull a plunger off his face has made me happy all day.
Wasn’t it the same in Oblivion, though? I don’t remember. Though I don’t think we’ll have to wait long after the G.E.C.K. is released to see mannequins and other add-ons for decorating your home.
Oh, and I took your suggestion to the Bethesda forums. There was already a request for sucking plungers, so I added to it, including control-z’s wish for some voice acting. We’ll see what happens.
The twitch factor is low-medium, depending on how you play, and VATS helps greatly. Reducing the difficulty will also make combat more survivable. If you wanted to, you could make a really sneaky character, then creep around and bushwhack enemies from long range. Your first hit while hidden gets a rather sizable bonus.
Besides combat, the main chores are trading, inventory management, and the lockpicking and hacking minigames. Quests are pretty well defined, with lots of notes and map markers (perhaps too many) to keep you from having to write things down.
It’s less like a pure shooter than Bioshock is, and not as much a pure an RPG as Knights of the Old Republic or the original Fallouts. Not that either of those is a pure end-member example of these genres.
Some of the game takes place outdoors, or in fairly well lit interiors, so there is less of a monotonous dungeon crawl vibe than Bioshock. Also, there are friendly or neutral areas that you are completely safe in, and if you are outside you can nearly always ‘fast travel’ to one to take a breather if things get too intense. There are very few, if any ‘cat scares’. Instead, there are quite a few ‘oh shit’ moments, where you suddenly realize things are more perilous than they looked. For instance, walking up to a metro station entrance that you’ve been to a dozen times before, only to turn the corner and find a few well armed mercenaries hanging out.
There is quite a lot of gore-enemies fly apart into meaty chunks and sprays of blood far more readily than in real life, and there are lots of dimembered corpses, especially around raider camps. I don’t know if any of that counts as scary, though.
The emotion it is most likely to provoke is a wee bit of sadness. It’s kind of a bummer at times to see how this silly, optimistic ‘world of tomorrow’ future got blown to pieces.
Being that you’ve never played the originals, a lot of the complaints you’ve seen will be irrelevant, which may be a good thing. The game rewards exploration and a lot of fun can be had just wandering around finding stuff and watching the inhabitants of the wasteland do their thing.
To be honest, there are a few scary places, but they’re pretty well advertised as such. One exception off the top of my head is
Vault 106. Really more weird than spooky, but more unannounced than the Dunwich building, IMO.
Other than that, nothing really. If you also keep an eye on the compass/radar part of your HUD and frequently look to the sides you should never be ambushed. I would definitely give it a go.
So you are telling me that I’ve have been stock-piling plungers and saving up to buy the Rock-it Launcher Schematics and the plungers aren’t going to make sucky noises and stick to people when I shoot them?
Crap. $60 down the drain.
Just kidding, (kind of*) but out of curiosity has anyone built/used the Dart gun? There are darts everywhere and I’m wondering if it is even worth saving them and building the weapon.
I built it, the basic model cripples the legs of just humanoids, I believe. I guess it could be handy for keeping melee-weapon wielding attackers from closing in on you so fast while you shoot his buddies. But it really doesn’t seem to slow them down that much. However I now have some improved dart gun plans that include a poison gland from a scorpion, so I’m interested in trying that.
Oh, I don’t care about body parts, only things that sneak up on me and gibber. Especially if it’s, you know, always waiting for it to happen. Like the entirety of Bioshock.
The Dart Gun is absolutely worth building, though you’ll likely never use up anywhere near all the darts you find.
Not quite true.
[spoiler]What I posted above regarding the Shishkebab is true for all custom made weapons. You will always get the same weapon, regardless of how many schematics you own. The only difference is in the condition of the weapon when you first build it (or for the explosives, how many you get). All Dart Gun schematics require the same parts: toy car, surgical tubing, paint gun and radscorpion gland. Furthermore, since the crippling damage is special damage it shouldn’t change depending on the condition of the weapon. I have never, regardless of weapon condition, had a hit fail to cripple the legs of the target.
Besides all that, it does decent damage over time, and I believe the effects stack.[/spoiler]
Dart gun allows you to “run & gun” Deathclaws and (bears - can’t remember their name). Works on melee mutants, too, but they’ll chuck grenades at you.
Time to take a break from Fallout moment:
Just started working at a new client. As I’m walking through the office, I see someone with a bobblehead clearly on their desk. My first impulse - to go pick up the bobblehead. I didn’t, but I did pause for a heartbeat or three.
[spoiler]Ah, maybe so. I have schematics for v.3 and it says “Now improved 20% By adding Radscorpion poison to the darts that can be found in most ruined houses and stores, the Dart Gun makes for a stealthy and surprisingly lethal little toy.”
I was assuming from that text that the poison was added for v.3, but I guess it makes sense that it was in v.1 as well because that’s what makes the target’s legs quit working.[/spoiler]
I suspect those texts were written before the final version, and that it was originally intended that each weapon in fact be upgradeable. That would have been quite awesome.
I had to go find the plunger place again. The directions are spoilered below:
Start at the Chryslus Building. Head south to the big road and turn left, to the west. Walk past the trailer to a small bridge. At the north base you’ll find a door to Shelter.
I think you mean the “Yao Guai.” Frankly I assumed they were mutated Spotted Hyenas from the D.C. zoo that have successfully propagated themselves. I like them quite a lot :). Much more interesting than deathclaws, which I don’t quite get ( the origins of them, that is ).
OK, I have my first version of my “Fallout 3 Expansion/Fallout 4 Wish List”; I’m assuming the level cap is going to be raised, so that’s a given:
Bows and/or crossbows, for players wanting to play extra sneaky.
Blowguns/Tranquilizer guns for quests that require the capture of a live target.
Quests that require the capture of a live target
More custom-built weapons.
Better upgrades for custom weapons from adding schematics (instead of just starting condition).
Plungers that stick when you shoot them from the Rock-it Launcher, dammit!
Perks that open up the possibility of targeting eyes or the crotch on certain enemies, when applicable. Maybe it requires the Sniper perk as a prereq or something.
Vehicles!
High repair skill and/or high weapon skills should retard the degradation of weapons significantly.
Schematics (or molds or something) that would allow a player with high enough repair/science skill to melt down scrap metal and forge ammo.
A homing beacon I can put on Dogmeat so I can find him when I forget where I last left his furry butt.
