Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition (PC, 2009)(w/ UUF3 patch)
Graphics-7.5 Sound-8 Control-7.5 Challenge-6/7* Story-7
Level Design-7** Frustration-6.5 Fun-7 Originality-6.5
Overall Score-7
*See spikes, hard mode
**Sometimes closer to an 8 but sometimes a 6
+
Some cool perks (Animal Friend and Mister Sandman - sadly they don't see that much use, Contract Killer - become a hitman against good people (although kinda weird that the employer would care about that; there's also a good guy version called Lawbringer where you take out evil people though for some reason it pays less), Paralyzing Palm - unarmed attack w/ 30 sec stun, Nuclear Anomaly - at 20 HP or less you'll erupt into a nuclear explosion)
Pretty creative intro gameplay (play through snapshots of your early life in your home vault - 1 yo, 10 yo, 16, )
Very good VA overall
Subtitles toggle, FP and TP view (over the shoulder) toggle
Repair is a bit more involved (choose which items in your inventory to sacrifice for repairs). It's also more of a requirement here unless you're doing a pacifist run as you'll have to switch weapons pretty frequently without it
Action Points work like a stamina bar of sorts - if you let the bar charge up you can attack quickly several times in a row while also aiming better using the VATS system (pauses the game for a bit while you pick who and what part of them to attack like in the prequels; when not using VATS aiming feels a bit like the early game in Deus Ex meaning you'll miss from time to time even if you aim well)
Decent map system (zoomable local maps which you can also place markers on (but not name them or place multiple ones), shows sub area exits and some topography, 2D - Daggerfall's dungeon maps were 3D (sometimes makes it harder to orient yourself in buildings with multiple floors), no color coding unlike in Daggerfall)
More detailed environments and the draw distance is huge
Can listen in on enemy and NPC conversations without seeing the people involved and raiders taunt you when you're nearby in an indoors environment
Can push NPCs (some can push you as well)
Good AI in some ways (enemies can go pick up a weapon that was dropped by another enemy during combat as well as run away to get help from nearby enemies or just to flee though this happens pretty rarely)
Some good environmental storytelling (the springvale school, various ruins and your "tribe"'s reaction to some of them in notes, the signs outside of vault 101, the chinese army remnants turning into ghouls, etc)
Fast travel to visited locations (would've been even better if you could fast travel more like in Wing Commander though - there there's an auto-pilot cutscene until you run into danger, a vehicle could've been another option, could've been combined with HP regen from solar powered perk to save time while getting that benefit). The time it would take to run to your destination is still wasted and you can't fast travel on the world map from an indoors location
Some memorable locations (Super Duper Mart (the guard robot which turns on you if you hang around since you have no ID, the sudden raider reinforcements, finding several new weapons), Megaton, Rivet City, parts of vault 106 (it's just a bit too long), boobytrapped path towards the vampires' hideout, outcast outpost - fight alongside NPCs (also get to pick a team and your loadout for the second simulation mission+call for reinforcements between segments if someone dies although the execution could've been better), parts of point lookout (ritual grounds, the mansion, herzog mine), republic of dave, vault 112 besides the rushed aftermath, fight against the enclave alongside the brotherhood and a giant robot, last part of the UFO segment (distribute power between shields and weapon like in the GB Star Trek game for example, get attacked during the battle and fight alongside the others who helped you get there), )
Some memorable characters (some of the robots ("Be a soldier, not a civie! Have some juice and suck it up!"), Lucas, Moira, the enclave radio and eyebots propaganda+John Henry Eden (Enclave president), Desmond, Reilly, Griffon the ghoul salesman)
Can get a house as a quest reward (can change the theme of the furnishings as well as add an infirmary (free clinic), jukebox, laboratory (detox or create a drug), nuka-cola vending machine and a workbench (craft custom weapons that you've acquired a schematic for from found component parts (optional element of the game), can auto-gain all schematics at lvl 26 w/ the Warmonger perk), Fawkes - mutant companion)
Cool how NPCs warn you when you're looking at their stuff or sneaking around in their house
Main stats sometimes also affect dialogue choices if they're high enough (high STR can let you threaten people for example). You're notified by the stat being mentioned in brackets next to the choice
Very good weapon variety, Good trap variety
Decent lockpicking mini-game (guessing passwords to terminals if you don't have a high enough science skill isn't that interesting though)
Great art direction overall when it comes to the environments
Difficulty options (higher modes make you do less damage and take more but also gain more exp) which can be tweaked on the fly
Can map items to number keys 1-8 - hold number key and click the item in the menu
See the value in caps of each item in your inventory (while it would make more sense if you gained this knowledge through experience it's a nice convenience feature considering the encumbrance mechanic)
Can drink from most water sources (though you'll get radiated)
More developed and interesting stealth: Can use sneak attacks for a guaranteed critical hit (in Fallout 2 you needed the silent death perk to do double damage from behind while sneaking; Baldur's Gate?). Can also grab and drag dead bodies away from view which is useful since they make enemies who see them cautious (causing the player to be in a Caution state rather than a Hidden state, meaning they don't get the critical hit)
Ammo press in The Pitt (converts any ammo type to another - can also use scrap metal to create ammo)
The Pulowski Preservation shelters
Some good satire although it tends to be relegated to terminal notes here (consumerism/greed jab in relation to the info on the US exiting the UN for example, LOB Enterprise's bureaucracy)
Some good quests (The Replicated Man, survival guide in that there are optional objectives, mansion holdout at point lookout, Jiggs' Loot puzzle, the main Pitt quest besides it glitching out a bit for me (most slaves acted as if they hadn't been freed)) and some very good ones (velvet curtain - decent puzzles)
Some interesting enemies (stealthed enemies, tanks, sentry bot)
Can blow up cars
Some cool weapons and gear (missile launcher, gauss rifle - knockback effect (very overpowered though in that you can stun lock even behemoths, sniper rifle and magnum (scope aiming, the unique Victory SR also provides knockback), mini-nuke - fat man ammo; ghoul mask - keeps feral ghouls friendly, prototype medic power armor - automatically generates and injects you with Med-X when needed+it talks to you, tesla cannon - knockback+lingering electrical damage+splash damage)
Flashlight (hold TAB for a bit)
Strong+slow attack for melee weapons (hold down the button)
Very large world for how detailed it is
8 companions (most have a karma requirement) - can team up only with one humanoid or robot companion and dog meat at the same time which is much more limited than in the prequels (in Fallout 2 you can have 5)
Pretty substantial in-game epilogue/post-game (get to take out an Enclave base and do some minor optional quests; not much of a difference from taking out the Enclave and finishing the water purification quest though although I suppose it fits the universe better)
From Fallout 1/2:
Multiple solutions to problems/quests (hacking (some control over defense robots for example or other kinds of weapons like a pulse that kills nearby ants), morally good or bad path, stealth, lockpicking and stealing, persuasion including intimidation and trading, combat, can even become a slaver/trafficker) - hard level gating (skill points) to being able to even attempt to interact with certain objects in Fallout 3. At some points such as the turtledove detention camp or at vault 87 you can find an alternate route into a building
Detailed character creation via the SPECIAL system: 7 main stats/attributes (get 5 free points to distribute at creation and can decrease any stat to 1 to redistribute its points). Each main stat affects a linked secondary stat +certain skills+which perks can be gained (strength - carry weight+melee damage+melee weapons, perception - compass/enemy radar distance+energy weapons+explosives+lockpick (also lets you notice one or more hidden containers), endurance - HP+time under water+poison & radiation resistance+big guns+unarmed, charisma - speech check modifier+barter+speech, intelligence - skill points gained per level+medicine+repair+science, agility - action points (do more in a "turn") and small guns+sneaking, luck - crit chance+all skills (minor); endurance+luck also affect unarmed dmg)
-13 skills (skill points can be kept for later spending if you want)
-89 perks (including DLC ones, 82 in F2; these have main stat requirements) from Fallout 1-2
-Choose your sex, race, facial features via a pretty detailed editor (although you can't go that crazy with proportions, includes a randomize option), name). Can respec after exiting the beginning vault
Good sense of vulnerability when exiting vault 101 (here it's also cool how the twist about your birthplace is unexpected and the game really doesn't care how the player character feels about it, the radiation threat is also a bit more present, mirelurk observer quest if you do it the hard way)
Multiple destructible parts/locational damage on enemies and yourself (aiming lets you slow down enemies (hit the legs), lower their accuracy (head), make them drop their weapon (arms), can aim at (or accidentally hit) weapons and destroy them during combat), cause knockback (sometimes happens when hitting the torso/main body), ). Can also choose which body part to apply a healing item to here
Gear shows on your avatar
Can wait or sleep to make time pass faster (some events or buildings aren't available at certain times of day) - can't rest anywhere (outside of combat and some towns) here though unlike in Fallout 1-2
Get hunted by bounty hunters if your karma/rep is low
Can place explosives into people's inventories while pickpocketing (here you can also use an exploit where you plant a better item (higher DR/higher damage value) into someone's inventory and then leave and re-enter the area. The NPC will equip the item with the highest stats and then you can steal the item they were using before - or you can steal the ammo to a ranged weapon to have them unequip the weapon)
Can use any item container as a stash since the items stay where you put them
Fight alongside NPCs at some points (mutants encounter at Fall Church, )
+/-
Very non-linear structure after exiting the home vault (no timers here generally although there are a few time sensitive events such as the ghouls quietly murdering the humans in Tenpenny Tower within a week's time if negotiating a truce; for the rangers rescue and some other quests the game makes it seem like you're on a timer but you're not)
Save anywhere (many slots, can't manually name the saves though unlike in the prequel). Auto-saves when moving between sub areas or indoors/outdoors
Playing as a girl has a minor advantage in that the Black Widow perk (+10% damage to opposite sex enemies) is much less situational, since most enemies are male
Level 30 level cap (not enough - you'll easily hit it way before finishing all quests/exploring all marked locations)
Gain a perk every level here
Can't choose your starting age since you always start as a 1 year old and quickly grow until 19 before starting the game proper
First aid and doctor were combined into medicine, Traps was split into explosives and repair (and you can pretty easily disarm mines early on, could've been cool if it was used for setting up more advanced traps), Steal was merged into sneak, Gambling is based on luck here,
Your main stats matter less here (means you can get away with 1s in 2 stats, **)
No body proportions editor during character creation
Some of the perks are simply traits from previous games with the negative effect removed
Some missables that aren't based on stats (on PC it's easy to cheat them into existence though): https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/939932-fallout-3/58935614
The sound mixing could've been better in that you can hear people talk around you while interacting with a specific NPC (more realistic but the game could've lowered the other voices a bit more for clarity)
Can't engage in interactive dialogue with some NPCs (good in the sense that it might get exhausting to have long conversations with every NPC and that it wouldn't be realistic for everyone to have something important to say so cutting the interaction saves more time)
Slow walking speed (can auto-move with Q) and running is a bit slow as well - can use a console cheat to increase your running speed though. Agility seems like it should affect this (at least combined with more endurance) but doesn't - LStewieAl's Tweaks mod adds toggles for AGI affecting jump height and movement speed
Heavier armor makes you move slower - not countered by higher STR? It also makes your footsteps louder, making you easier to detect (loudness is affected by total weight, not just the equipped armor) unless you have the Silent Running perk
Quiz-style selection of skills (feels kind of random but you can change them if you're not happy with the result by talking to the teacher after the GOAT test)
Some level scaling on enemies and gear (toned down compared to Oblivion, could've been more harsh for certain quests if you do them much later than you're expected to)
Enemies here and there which exist only to be fought for exp and items or avoided (which ones you'll face is influenced by the karma system to some degree). These and generic NPCs respawn after a few days (every 73 in-game hours, not the case for named enemies and NPCs). Would've been cool if you could negotiate even with raiders with enough CHA/Speech/Barter
Can't haggle (Ys 1, Magic of Scheherazade, Monkey Island, Ogre Battle)
Some "magic" gear - sometimes random stat bonuses from gear such as a cape that increases Perception by 1
Weird how it's easier to hit a human enemy's head than the torso
No perks require STR 6 or more
Mysterious Stranger would be better if it didn't clash with Grim Reaper's Sprint which restores AP after a kill w/ VATS - it's still kind of OP though
Some unintentionally funny moments such as a Brahmin running right into a fight with super mutants and the mutants proceeding to focus only on killing it, or corpses spazzing out (I once saw one get stuck to a ceiling as well)
Kind of silly how you can learn how to "become a vampire" (hematophagy - feed on blood) but not suffer any negatives from it
Weird how Dream Crusher (talk Moira out of writing the survival guide, -50% chance of all enemies getting a crit+30% discount+Moira's Repair skill raises by 18% to 72% and some karma loss which you can easily restore anyway) is better than Survival Guru (minor stat bonuses and a karma boost) while also being less work
Can't blow up wooden walls and fences
No locational damage in melee without the Tweaks mod
No romance options (besides Bittercup, sort of, but it doesn't amount to much and she's a comic relief character)
Blocking doesn't work that well as you still take considerable damage
No super stimpacks here - it gets a bit silly using 5-10+ stimpacks in a battle later on unless you really invest in Medicine
Some but not enough examples of NPCs reacting to what you're wearing/holding (lucas simms' son in megaton comments when you wear his dad's duster and hat, the brotherhood outcasts at the outpost recognise you in their armor (what's funny is they go back to treating you like a caveman if you're in superior armor), jericho notices your vault suit, sarah lyons notices you wearing power armour)
The gauss rifle knockback sometimes doesn't work despite a clean hit - intentional?
Can max out your main stats at lvl 30 here (choose the perk Almost Perfect and all stats lower than 9 are raised to 9. Then collect the 7 SPECIAL bobbleheads, raising each main stat by 1; not that unbalanced since stats matter less+you have to hold off on using the bobbleheads for so long and you've basically finished the game at that point)
Sniper Rifle probably should've been upgradeable considering the somewhat rare ammo and the special rifles which are as accurate from afar. There are a couple of unique ones but they don't quite make the standard one obsolete (Victory causes knockback but has a lower crit chance+costs more AP per use, Reservist's has a 3 bullet magazine)
Can't directly kill children here (can still kill Timmy in the simulation indirectly)
Can't launch the missiles at fort constantine
Siding with the enclave for the main quest is a comically evil choice rather than it having either a selfish or ideological motivation behind it (or having warmed up to the Enclave through interacting with them)
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Some control/interface issues (no mini-map - the semi-realistic style and high detail make it a bit harder to read the environment so you'll want to use the map more, have to scroll down to see more than three dialogue choices and the menus don't wrap around, can't name map markers nor place more than one in a single area (Ultima Underworld 1992, System Shock 1994), there's sometimes a bit of a delay to the slow motion/kill cam cutscenes after an attack has been made when using VATS - sometimes funny but gets a bit annoying (Tweaks mod adds a skip hotkey for this), can't examine items/mechanics/stats in the pip boy menu, can't see the stats of a piece of gear while choosing which piece to sacrifice for repairs, can't save the point allocation for later when leveling up - Zelda II 1987, no message log (there is a quest log with sub objectives but it's not very descriptive, for some quests you pick up an audio log which can be played back again later), no Info mode (see Daggerfall; for identifying buildings without checking the map - could've just been tweaked so you had to have walked up to the building once or learned about it from someone), a bit annoying how if you press against a low obstacle and jump you might not jump at all while if you build some momentum you can jump over the obstacle - especially considering how many low obstacles get you temporarily stuck when you move into them, sometimes it looks like you can crawl below something when you can't - changed by True Crouching in Tweaks mod, no "tell me about" or barter buttons during all dialogue - Fallout 1, some delay before you can go back out of VATS mode after going into it, VATS sometimes shows a percentage to hit as normal even if there's no line of sight - should show 0% instead, can't see on a weapon/armor if it's better or worse than what you currently have equipped - added in Tweaks mod, sometimes can't shoot/attack via VATS when right in front of an enemy, some hit detection issues when enemies move around slopes or obstacles - can make them get stuck or teleport a short distance, Tri-beam laser rifle seems to miss a lot when using VATS and the gatling laser and mini-gun also seem less efficient overall in that mode, can't see a companion's stats or permanent gear+have to use VATS to check their HP)
Not enough control over how companions act in battle and what they're carrying (also can't issue orders from afar like in MechWarrior 2 or Wing Commander)
Immersion breaking aspects and plot oddities (very strange how you can punch your dad to death without him even reacting during the 16 yo intro segment - or punch Stanley outside his office to death without him getting up and moving away/attacking you/others reacting, can walk around in your underwear without anyone reacting to it, some NPCs say the exact same sentence or word over and over, closing the door to your birthday party doesn't make it harder to hear the people inside, the gameplay pausing pop-ups from several gained quests when exiting vault 101 and being notified that the level cap was increased thanks to a DLC, can't shatter nuka cola bottles with gun shots, Lucas the megaton sheriff walking right into you from behind while saying hello (also pushing you a bit), "have you seen my father, a middle aged guy?", funny how you can wake sleeping people and have them quickly and stiffly stand at attention only to tell you to go away and then go back to sleep, can't keep talking to the brotherhood captain at Falls Church after helping him rescue their initiate, can't even talk to the brotherhood outcasts near the scrapyard - they just treat you like you're a homeless person (but you can still make use of them to fight the nearby enemies), strangely lax securit in Rivet City despite their reputation and all the guards, can't talk to the Big Town residents about moving somewhere safer, being able to kill Zimmer without a reaction from people around you but then not being able to take the stuff in his room without a karma loss, a few invisible walls in urban areas, can't save McCraw after the simulation mission (he either dies, disappears or goes hostile; also weird how the outcasts outside don't react to the rebellion and how Specialist Olin doesn't react to the situation if saved), doors with a torn off top half that can't be opened or sometimes not even interacted with, weird lack of effect from making Dave lose the election besides him leaving (it would also make more sense if you could break into the ballot box with hs key and ahd to replace one of the votes for him), the freed slaves at the temple of the union all dream of restoring a monument to Abraham Lincoln - can't talk to them about moving to Rivet City or Megaton, a super mutant near the washington monument with a crippled leg from a sneak critical (also hit the other leg) could still run and lunge attack just fine, missiles and mines should also cause some knockback or stun on mutants, weird how there's no reaction to friendly mutant Fawkes by NPCs, little lamplight in general and how you can't really ask them much about how things ended up that way nor try to talk to them about Big Town or places like Rivet City, weird how your companions are ignored when you get captured by the enclave+paladin Cross automatically goes back to the Citadel and then is hard to find again, can't talk to elder Lyon about the modified FEV virus if you've talked about retaliating against the enclave first (until you finish the battle quest with his daughter), can't tell the overseer and Amata some importants things after returning to the vault later such as how your dad was working on the water purification project or (if you've done that) how you've taken out the enclave president or joined up with the brotherhood - the homefront quest always ends with you being exiled unless you destroy the vault's systems which is the bad thing to do, if you make everyone but the overseer escape vault 101 by destroying its systems the enclave later tracks Amata down and gets the location from her before killing her - why didn't they do it to you earlier besides for the sake of the player feeling like a hero? (unless they had great intel but then they should've been able to get the purifier code from you), the kid in the UFO knowing how everything works - I expected a twist where she was an alien turned good or something, can't suggest moving elsewhere or getting outside help to the people in the Pitt after freeing them)
Kind of rushed walking with spirits/mind control quest after the holdout segment (doesn't make sense that not even Jackson has a clue considering the cult is pretty much a front to sell fruit via Tobar, weird how Nadine is both completely unaffected by the tribe and can talk with you openly inside the cathedral itself about what's going on (would've been better if you had to help her escape and the tribe was more suspicious and controlling+if Tobar was more of a threat to her (you can even just leave him trapped in the boat's engine room for the rest of the game) - especially since there's no reason for her to be waiting around for the player before confronting Tobar), too convenient how the player is completely unaffected by losing part of their brain, the hallucination sequence would've been more effective if the events were based on what you had done so far in your journey through the game), the first meeting with Calvert as a brain hologram feels underdeveloped - why would anyone side with him after knowing so little and with how he acts?)
Dialogue after reuniting with your dad feels kinda rushed (first off there's not enough dialogue about the simulation at vault 112 (a pretty traumatic experience, also weird how the game justs says "not authorized to use the tranquility lounger" after that part - although if you went along with braun/betty's requests in the simulation you would know that none of them could be saved it could've been possible to convince him to talk more about the GECK through speech/charisma), second you can't really talk about what you've been doing in-between your dad leaving the vault and you finding him (at least he does react positively to having helped Megaton when at the Memorial rotunda but that's not much), the dialogue with Dr. Li temporarily sounds like you've never met before when you first get back to Rivet City after finding your dad, the last scene with your dad could've been more impactful as a cutscene and if he wasn't so calm, it's weird how he sens you alone into the tunnels below when there are super mutants and how the project purity team didn't prepare better for an attack by the enclave (considering the securit at Rivet City and the commonwealth visiting there), )
Some of the main stats aren't that useful (Charisma* opens up mostly useless perks and gives starting bonuses to Speech and Barter which you can compensate for by having a higher intelligence and you can still get them to 100% w/ 1 CHA (which is also the maximum unlike in the prequel), Perception only affects the enemy radar secondary skill (which it seems you can work around by sneaking since there's a warning if you're about to get caught, or sometimes through musical cues) but also explosives+lockpick+energy weapons (a bit odd) and a few dialogue options (you'll want 6 for the better crits perk), STR isn't that useful beyond 6 or so unless you're specializing in melee - it's mainly for a bit of convenience and you can eventually have party members carry stuff for you+strong back perk gives a better boost)
No traits (F1-2, these were interesting in that there was always a pro and a con to each one even if some were clearly better than others)
Limited interactivity in a few ways (can't throw most objects (such as the ball in the first segment or fire extinguisher tanks), can't examine objects or parts of the environment like in a classic Adventure game, can't climb relatively low obstacles nor can you develop climbing skills or use a tool to climb walls/steep cliffsides - climbing was well implemented if a bit overpowered in Daggerfall+the game teases you with it in the first simulation mission where your ally can do it)
The game loses a bit of personality from having low INT matter less in that with a character with 1 Intelligence you simply sacrifice some conversation options and some skill points, while in Fallout 1-2 the dialogue becomes a completely different and sometimes very funny experience
Missing two skills from Fallout 2 - Throwing (grenades fall under explosives instead), Outdoorsman (affected being able to control random encounters in F2; negative effects of bad encounters, dehydration and rockfalls in F1+some control over encounters but the enemy encounters aren't as dangerous there)
Stats can't go above 10 or below 1 here regardless of equipment, chems or ailments - less crazy but a bit less fun
Various near useless perks (Here and Now - level up again, infiltrator (7 PER; one more shot at picking a lock after a failed force lock attempt - lockpicking is easy and you can just reload?) and Computer Whiz (INT 7; can just exit the terminal and try again) - the exception would be a no reloads playthrough I guess, most skill bonus perks since you can gain them easily anyway - oddly it's all you have access to besides intense training (main stat increase) and swift learner (which isn't worth it unless maybe if you're rushing through the game but there is also some level scaling) until level 4, Tougness becomes a waste in the late-game due to some armor making you reach 85% dmg resistance and the game capping it there, Commando (two-handed guns) is overall better than Gunslinger (one-handed), Explorer since you can just look up a complete map online, master trader and barter since Scrounger (more ammo) exists? - then again there's the ammo press in The Pitt, Life Giver doesn't give enough of a bonus to HP, Devil's Highway - just do bad stuff, Nerves of Steel? (only +1 AP per 10 seconds), party boy, deep sleep and rad absorption since you get them so late, solar powered is situational at best)
Stealing from people that the game considers "good" causes negative karma even if you weren't noticed (weird in that Moriarty (makes you pay 100-300 to learn about where your father went and runs a brothel) and a group of cannibals/vampires (including a guy who ate his parents) are considered good). Also weird how killing some people is fine even if they currently pose no threat, such as the guy who wants the "package" at Marigold station, or looting a "good" person's body after someone else killed them is fine (sheriff Lucas).
Strange how using VATS lets you zoom in on enemies without a scope while aiming without it (right click) barely zooms in at all (can use a scope while using a sniper rifle at least)
Dated animation for human characters (pretty stiff, sort of expressionless faces and bodies, NPC eye movement and facial expressions generally don't follow the tone of what a character is saying, weird how some NPCs don't look at you at all when talking to you)
Some trial & error (get locked into paying 300 to learn where your father went if you say no to paying 100 and then keep talking about it, some mechanics (hold R/reload to holster weapon, can wait 3 in-game days to reset a hostile town's aggressive behavior towards you), can get infinite skill books for Big Guns by going to the Bethesda Ruins (East Office) and having this area's enemies respawn time after time, the quest near Megaton where you learn about and tell a homeless kid about his dead father feels feels odd in that you can't discuss a place for him to stay before doing something about the fire ants which isn't quite clear - also if you convince the Mayor of Little Lamplight to take care of Bryan Wilks (kid whose father died) then you're locked out of letting him stay with Vera which is the better option, Dogmeat appears to be hostile when you find him in the scrapyard but is a companion like in the prequels - also becomes near invincible if you level up a bit beforehand, you're probably not going to pick up the preserved pre-war books before they become relevant to collect as their value is very low, the orbital strike during the post-game quest)
Not enough dialogue options with various named NPCs (it would make sense if you could ask more people about the vault or your father for example, )
Disarming the bomb in Megaton could've been more interesting if not more challenging (you just click disarm and the game checks if you're skilled enough)
Can't use medicine on yourself to heal here (this even made you gain some exp in the prequels) - crippled limbs can be healed with a single stimpack here, also making Adamantium skeleton near useless
Odd proportions on some kids (big heads)
Can't use the in-game cameras (Wind Waker)
Sometimes uneven difficulty (dips: ant queen unless you use the safe spot - stand next to her, fairly easy Super Mutants at lvl 5+ (falls church), operation anchorage (the allied AI is also a bit glitchy+you can't order them around during combat (see MechWarrior 2 or Wing Commander for example) - only tell them to go ahead or wait behind before each segment and the latter doesn't even work; it might've been too easy as part of the parody of corridor shooters but in that case it could've been shortened a bit and the outcast brotherhood aspect of this DLC fleshed out a bit more), the mutant behemoth in the capitol building - just go to a side room and it can't reach you, the enclave base unless you rush through the story; spikes: some parts of point lookout i you go there early, super mutant overlords and behemoths, some of the feral ghouls at hazmat disposal site)
Some tedious aspects (no fast travel within sub areas/locations+can't use it if overencumbered (which is any weight beyond the limit - should've been that you take more time traveling instead; Tweaks mod allows for running and jumping using action points as in Fallout 76)+plenty of dead space at times, minefield town - too hard to spot some of them, the hard level gating (skill points) to being able to even attempt to interact with certain objects in Fallout 3 tends to lead to backtracking since the requirements are quite high even for early areas (otoh it's more realistic that they wouldn't scale based on proximity to the vault/being accessed early game) - there could've been a bit more leeway besides some stat boosting w/ drugs (they don't stack) such as being able to attempt lockpicking at the risk of breaking the lock more easily, it sometimes looks like you haven't fully explored an area on the local map when in reality the path is blocked by a train or landslide, kinda slow bootup - sometimes faster for some reason, drug addiction being permanent although once you get a laboratory it's no longer an issue, spongy enemies at point lookout area unless you go there much later than you can, can't ask people at the same location where a certain NPC is, drawn out UFO segment for the most part - if it had about 30% fewer enemies and switches it would've been really good , backtracking into and out of the Citadel lab, overly drawn out in-game epilogue in some ways - the fetch quests)
Can't side with the raiders, super mutants (at Falls Church for example) or talon company mercs (at the scrapyard for example) even if your karma is low. Can at least befriend one super mutant
Tenpenny isn't an interesting minor villain (cartoonish motivation and lack of nuance)
Can't blow up doors/locks with explosives (without a mod)
Can't lock or fully barricade doors
No drivable vehicles
The DC area doesn't have enough enemy/hazard variety
Keep finding skill books of the kind that would raise a skill that you've already maxed out - could've swapped the others of that kind for a random skill that you haven't maxed out yet after maxing it out OR let you use them on your companions OR made them worth more money
Can't talk to companions about what you're currently doing or where you are and they don't comment much on places (Cross sometimes says she's been where you're currently at but it seems like a random line that gets repeated - for example she said it when I was at vault 87 near the GECK) - the one exception seems to be asking them to sacrifice themselves near the end which only works without casualties on Fawkes, Charon and RL-3
Kinda lame main ending (still images montage using in-game graphics, shows you wandering alongside Meatdog whether you did or not, not much mention of what you did besides the main quest - unlike the prequels)
Notes:
-Original version is from 2008
-Includes all DLCs
-Played using the Updated Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch (so Unofficial Fallout 3 ESM Patcher, Fallout Anniversary Patcher, FOSE, Command Extender as well) which fixes bugs and makes the game run better. It also restores some cut content ("Cut content is reviewed/restored only if fixable and able to blend into the game perfectly"; one example is the gray matters perk from point lookout)
-*CHA 7 is required for the Cherchez la Femme dialogue with Corporal Betsy to initiate but it does nothing, and to pass the speech check for the Boomer kids, but you you only gain some fame (required to advance in the Volare! quest?)
-Get a +10% experience boost for 12 hours after sleeping for 8h in an owned or rented bed (well rested status)
-Did maybe 85% of quests
Bugs/weird stuff:
-NPCs can talk to you through walls (the "Those" quest kid near the beginning). Can also interact with certain item containers through walls
-In a few cases an enemy would act almost like normal during my VATS attack (vs a mole rat and later some ghouls)
-Sometimes it looks like you can clearly shoot through a tighter space but when using VATS you end up hitting the obstacles near where you're aiming instead
-Enemy and NPC AI is sometimes stupid (occasional pathfinding issues where an NPC gets stuck until pushed (happened already during the intro gameplay for me), can end up falling off a higher path and dying, at one point an enemy put away their gun at a weird time, the reaction radius of enemies that are meant to be in a group could've been a bit bigger, groups sometimes shoot each other from behind during combat, sometimes gets stuck on a lower obstacle like a table if you stand on the other side - mirelurks, fairly often lets you move back and forth between cover and being in the open while shooting towards the wall instead of timing its shots better or moving forward, even if you tell a companion to wait they will move towards enemies that are attacking you and ignore the request - this can screw up trying to use mines)
-The slow motion camera sometimes glitches out a bit
-Can be caught stealing at a person's house, upsetting them and making them ask you to leave, then enter dialogue with them and during that dialogue they act like nothing happened
-Couldn't walk up one of the slopes near Falls Church unless I walked backwards
-Under the memorial some of the mirelurks wouldn't react to my presence
-Bug where the game thinks you've asked Preston about the escaped android when you haven't (it's not an option, triggered when asking about Pinkerton)
-Bug where certain NPCs would be in fleeing mode when they weren't supposed to be (traders on the path towards rivet city, dukov's party girls?, guy who tries to rob you outside of super duper mart but you can tell to fuck off)
-You'll sometimes drop a corpse while dragging it
-Crashed a few times (twice when clicking done after a level up, forcing me to log out of windows to regain control over the computer)
-Sometimes VATS glitches out a bit and makes you move the camera around to make the body part targets appear
-Hannibal wouldn't show up near the memorial
-Occasionally glitchy hit detection for grenade blasts (once threw one into a van with raiders, killing the others but not damaging the one I targeted at all)
-The adult in little lamplight just disappeared after I went to vault 87
-At Cryo lab in the UFO, Elliot wouldn't follow me in there which made it so that some switches couldn't be pressed - had to use the console to unlock a door
-Sometimes buggy hit detection when using the Gauss Rifle (can go right through a deathclaw standing in front of you)
-The deathclaw scrambler didn't work for me (the game suddenly said the quest was completed while in Olney - never got to free the deathclaw with a helmet SE of Olney)
-Couldn't free Clover from Paradise Falls
Level Design-7** Frustration-6.5 Fun-7 Originality-6.5
Overall Score-7
*See spikes, hard mode
**Sometimes closer to an 8 but sometimes a 6
+
Some cool perks (Animal Friend and Mister Sandman - sadly they don't see that much use, Contract Killer - become a hitman against good people (although kinda weird that the employer would care about that; there's also a good guy version called Lawbringer where you take out evil people though for some reason it pays less), Paralyzing Palm - unarmed attack w/ 30 sec stun, Nuclear Anomaly - at 20 HP or less you'll erupt into a nuclear explosion)
Pretty creative intro gameplay (play through snapshots of your early life in your home vault - 1 yo, 10 yo, 16, )
Very good VA overall
Subtitles toggle, FP and TP view (over the shoulder) toggle
Repair is a bit more involved (choose which items in your inventory to sacrifice for repairs). It's also more of a requirement here unless you're doing a pacifist run as you'll have to switch weapons pretty frequently without it
Action Points work like a stamina bar of sorts - if you let the bar charge up you can attack quickly several times in a row while also aiming better using the VATS system (pauses the game for a bit while you pick who and what part of them to attack like in the prequels; when not using VATS aiming feels a bit like the early game in Deus Ex meaning you'll miss from time to time even if you aim well)
Decent map system (zoomable local maps which you can also place markers on (but not name them or place multiple ones), shows sub area exits and some topography, 2D - Daggerfall's dungeon maps were 3D (sometimes makes it harder to orient yourself in buildings with multiple floors), no color coding unlike in Daggerfall)
More detailed environments and the draw distance is huge
Can listen in on enemy and NPC conversations without seeing the people involved and raiders taunt you when you're nearby in an indoors environment
Can push NPCs (some can push you as well)
Good AI in some ways (enemies can go pick up a weapon that was dropped by another enemy during combat as well as run away to get help from nearby enemies or just to flee though this happens pretty rarely)
Some good environmental storytelling (the springvale school, various ruins and your "tribe"'s reaction to some of them in notes, the signs outside of vault 101, the chinese army remnants turning into ghouls, etc)
Fast travel to visited locations (would've been even better if you could fast travel more like in Wing Commander though - there there's an auto-pilot cutscene until you run into danger, a vehicle could've been another option, could've been combined with HP regen from solar powered perk to save time while getting that benefit). The time it would take to run to your destination is still wasted and you can't fast travel on the world map from an indoors location
Some memorable locations (Super Duper Mart (the guard robot which turns on you if you hang around since you have no ID, the sudden raider reinforcements, finding several new weapons), Megaton, Rivet City, parts of vault 106 (it's just a bit too long), boobytrapped path towards the vampires' hideout, outcast outpost - fight alongside NPCs (also get to pick a team and your loadout for the second simulation mission+call for reinforcements between segments if someone dies although the execution could've been better), parts of point lookout (ritual grounds, the mansion, herzog mine), republic of dave, vault 112 besides the rushed aftermath, fight against the enclave alongside the brotherhood and a giant robot, last part of the UFO segment (distribute power between shields and weapon like in the GB Star Trek game for example, get attacked during the battle and fight alongside the others who helped you get there), )
Some memorable characters (some of the robots ("Be a soldier, not a civie! Have some juice and suck it up!"), Lucas, Moira, the enclave radio and eyebots propaganda+John Henry Eden (Enclave president), Desmond, Reilly, Griffon the ghoul salesman)
Can get a house as a quest reward (can change the theme of the furnishings as well as add an infirmary (free clinic), jukebox, laboratory (detox or create a drug), nuka-cola vending machine and a workbench (craft custom weapons that you've acquired a schematic for from found component parts (optional element of the game), can auto-gain all schematics at lvl 26 w/ the Warmonger perk), Fawkes - mutant companion)
Cool how NPCs warn you when you're looking at their stuff or sneaking around in their house
Main stats sometimes also affect dialogue choices if they're high enough (high STR can let you threaten people for example). You're notified by the stat being mentioned in brackets next to the choice
Very good weapon variety, Good trap variety
Decent lockpicking mini-game (guessing passwords to terminals if you don't have a high enough science skill isn't that interesting though)
Great art direction overall when it comes to the environments
Difficulty options (higher modes make you do less damage and take more but also gain more exp) which can be tweaked on the fly
Can map items to number keys 1-8 - hold number key and click the item in the menu
See the value in caps of each item in your inventory (while it would make more sense if you gained this knowledge through experience it's a nice convenience feature considering the encumbrance mechanic)
Can drink from most water sources (though you'll get radiated)
More developed and interesting stealth: Can use sneak attacks for a guaranteed critical hit (in Fallout 2 you needed the silent death perk to do double damage from behind while sneaking; Baldur's Gate?). Can also grab and drag dead bodies away from view which is useful since they make enemies who see them cautious (causing the player to be in a Caution state rather than a Hidden state, meaning they don't get the critical hit)
Ammo press in The Pitt (converts any ammo type to another - can also use scrap metal to create ammo)
The Pulowski Preservation shelters
Some good satire although it tends to be relegated to terminal notes here (consumerism/greed jab in relation to the info on the US exiting the UN for example, LOB Enterprise's bureaucracy)
Some good quests (The Replicated Man, survival guide in that there are optional objectives, mansion holdout at point lookout, Jiggs' Loot puzzle, the main Pitt quest besides it glitching out a bit for me (most slaves acted as if they hadn't been freed)) and some very good ones (velvet curtain - decent puzzles)
Some interesting enemies (stealthed enemies, tanks, sentry bot)
Can blow up cars
Some cool weapons and gear (missile launcher, gauss rifle - knockback effect (very overpowered though in that you can stun lock even behemoths, sniper rifle and magnum (scope aiming, the unique Victory SR also provides knockback), mini-nuke - fat man ammo; ghoul mask - keeps feral ghouls friendly, prototype medic power armor - automatically generates and injects you with Med-X when needed+it talks to you, tesla cannon - knockback+lingering electrical damage+splash damage)
Flashlight (hold TAB for a bit)
Strong+slow attack for melee weapons (hold down the button)
Very large world for how detailed it is
8 companions (most have a karma requirement) - can team up only with one humanoid or robot companion and dog meat at the same time which is much more limited than in the prequels (in Fallout 2 you can have 5)
Pretty substantial in-game epilogue/post-game (get to take out an Enclave base and do some minor optional quests; not much of a difference from taking out the Enclave and finishing the water purification quest though although I suppose it fits the universe better)
From Fallout 1/2:
Multiple solutions to problems/quests (hacking (some control over defense robots for example or other kinds of weapons like a pulse that kills nearby ants), morally good or bad path, stealth, lockpicking and stealing, persuasion including intimidation and trading, combat, can even become a slaver/trafficker) - hard level gating (skill points) to being able to even attempt to interact with certain objects in Fallout 3. At some points such as the turtledove detention camp or at vault 87 you can find an alternate route into a building
Detailed character creation via the SPECIAL system: 7 main stats/attributes (get 5 free points to distribute at creation and can decrease any stat to 1 to redistribute its points). Each main stat affects a linked secondary stat +certain skills+which perks can be gained (strength - carry weight+melee damage+melee weapons, perception - compass/enemy radar distance+energy weapons+explosives+lockpick (also lets you notice one or more hidden containers), endurance - HP+time under water+poison & radiation resistance+big guns+unarmed, charisma - speech check modifier+barter+speech, intelligence - skill points gained per level+medicine+repair+science, agility - action points (do more in a "turn") and small guns+sneaking, luck - crit chance+all skills (minor); endurance+luck also affect unarmed dmg)
-13 skills (skill points can be kept for later spending if you want)
-89 perks (including DLC ones, 82 in F2; these have main stat requirements) from Fallout 1-2
-Choose your sex, race, facial features via a pretty detailed editor (although you can't go that crazy with proportions, includes a randomize option), name). Can respec after exiting the beginning vault
Good sense of vulnerability when exiting vault 101 (here it's also cool how the twist about your birthplace is unexpected and the game really doesn't care how the player character feels about it, the radiation threat is also a bit more present, mirelurk observer quest if you do it the hard way)
Multiple destructible parts/locational damage on enemies and yourself (aiming lets you slow down enemies (hit the legs), lower their accuracy (head), make them drop their weapon (arms), can aim at (or accidentally hit) weapons and destroy them during combat), cause knockback (sometimes happens when hitting the torso/main body), ). Can also choose which body part to apply a healing item to here
Gear shows on your avatar
Can wait or sleep to make time pass faster (some events or buildings aren't available at certain times of day) - can't rest anywhere (outside of combat and some towns) here though unlike in Fallout 1-2
Get hunted by bounty hunters if your karma/rep is low
Can place explosives into people's inventories while pickpocketing (here you can also use an exploit where you plant a better item (higher DR/higher damage value) into someone's inventory and then leave and re-enter the area. The NPC will equip the item with the highest stats and then you can steal the item they were using before - or you can steal the ammo to a ranged weapon to have them unequip the weapon)
Can use any item container as a stash since the items stay where you put them
Fight alongside NPCs at some points (mutants encounter at Fall Church, )
+/-
Very non-linear structure after exiting the home vault (no timers here generally although there are a few time sensitive events such as the ghouls quietly murdering the humans in Tenpenny Tower within a week's time if negotiating a truce; for the rangers rescue and some other quests the game makes it seem like you're on a timer but you're not)
Save anywhere (many slots, can't manually name the saves though unlike in the prequel). Auto-saves when moving between sub areas or indoors/outdoors
Playing as a girl has a minor advantage in that the Black Widow perk (+10% damage to opposite sex enemies) is much less situational, since most enemies are male
Level 30 level cap (not enough - you'll easily hit it way before finishing all quests/exploring all marked locations)
Gain a perk every level here
Can't choose your starting age since you always start as a 1 year old and quickly grow until 19 before starting the game proper
First aid and doctor were combined into medicine, Traps was split into explosives and repair (and you can pretty easily disarm mines early on, could've been cool if it was used for setting up more advanced traps), Steal was merged into sneak, Gambling is based on luck here,
Your main stats matter less here (means you can get away with 1s in 2 stats, **)
No body proportions editor during character creation
Some of the perks are simply traits from previous games with the negative effect removed
Some missables that aren't based on stats (on PC it's easy to cheat them into existence though): https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/939932-fallout-3/58935614
The sound mixing could've been better in that you can hear people talk around you while interacting with a specific NPC (more realistic but the game could've lowered the other voices a bit more for clarity)
Can't engage in interactive dialogue with some NPCs (good in the sense that it might get exhausting to have long conversations with every NPC and that it wouldn't be realistic for everyone to have something important to say so cutting the interaction saves more time)
Slow walking speed (can auto-move with Q) and running is a bit slow as well - can use a console cheat to increase your running speed though. Agility seems like it should affect this (at least combined with more endurance) but doesn't - LStewieAl's Tweaks mod adds toggles for AGI affecting jump height and movement speed
Heavier armor makes you move slower - not countered by higher STR? It also makes your footsteps louder, making you easier to detect (loudness is affected by total weight, not just the equipped armor) unless you have the Silent Running perk
Quiz-style selection of skills (feels kind of random but you can change them if you're not happy with the result by talking to the teacher after the GOAT test)
Some level scaling on enemies and gear (toned down compared to Oblivion, could've been more harsh for certain quests if you do them much later than you're expected to)
Enemies here and there which exist only to be fought for exp and items or avoided (which ones you'll face is influenced by the karma system to some degree). These and generic NPCs respawn after a few days (every 73 in-game hours, not the case for named enemies and NPCs). Would've been cool if you could negotiate even with raiders with enough CHA/Speech/Barter
Can't haggle (Ys 1, Magic of Scheherazade, Monkey Island, Ogre Battle)
Some "magic" gear - sometimes random stat bonuses from gear such as a cape that increases Perception by 1
Weird how it's easier to hit a human enemy's head than the torso
No perks require STR 6 or more
Mysterious Stranger would be better if it didn't clash with Grim Reaper's Sprint which restores AP after a kill w/ VATS - it's still kind of OP though
Some unintentionally funny moments such as a Brahmin running right into a fight with super mutants and the mutants proceeding to focus only on killing it, or corpses spazzing out (I once saw one get stuck to a ceiling as well)
Kind of silly how you can learn how to "become a vampire" (hematophagy - feed on blood) but not suffer any negatives from it
Weird how Dream Crusher (talk Moira out of writing the survival guide, -50% chance of all enemies getting a crit+30% discount+Moira's Repair skill raises by 18% to 72% and some karma loss which you can easily restore anyway) is better than Survival Guru (minor stat bonuses and a karma boost) while also being less work
Can't blow up wooden walls and fences
No locational damage in melee without the Tweaks mod
No romance options (besides Bittercup, sort of, but it doesn't amount to much and she's a comic relief character)
Blocking doesn't work that well as you still take considerable damage
No super stimpacks here - it gets a bit silly using 5-10+ stimpacks in a battle later on unless you really invest in Medicine
Some but not enough examples of NPCs reacting to what you're wearing/holding (lucas simms' son in megaton comments when you wear his dad's duster and hat, the brotherhood outcasts at the outpost recognise you in their armor (what's funny is they go back to treating you like a caveman if you're in superior armor), jericho notices your vault suit, sarah lyons notices you wearing power armour)
The gauss rifle knockback sometimes doesn't work despite a clean hit - intentional?
Can max out your main stats at lvl 30 here (choose the perk Almost Perfect and all stats lower than 9 are raised to 9. Then collect the 7 SPECIAL bobbleheads, raising each main stat by 1; not that unbalanced since stats matter less+you have to hold off on using the bobbleheads for so long and you've basically finished the game at that point)
Sniper Rifle probably should've been upgradeable considering the somewhat rare ammo and the special rifles which are as accurate from afar. There are a couple of unique ones but they don't quite make the standard one obsolete (Victory causes knockback but has a lower crit chance+costs more AP per use, Reservist's has a 3 bullet magazine)
Can't directly kill children here (can still kill Timmy in the simulation indirectly)
Can't launch the missiles at fort constantine
Siding with the enclave for the main quest is a comically evil choice rather than it having either a selfish or ideological motivation behind it (or having warmed up to the Enclave through interacting with them)
-
Some control/interface issues (no mini-map - the semi-realistic style and high detail make it a bit harder to read the environment so you'll want to use the map more, have to scroll down to see more than three dialogue choices and the menus don't wrap around, can't name map markers nor place more than one in a single area (Ultima Underworld 1992, System Shock 1994), there's sometimes a bit of a delay to the slow motion/kill cam cutscenes after an attack has been made when using VATS - sometimes funny but gets a bit annoying (Tweaks mod adds a skip hotkey for this), can't examine items/mechanics/stats in the pip boy menu, can't see the stats of a piece of gear while choosing which piece to sacrifice for repairs, can't save the point allocation for later when leveling up - Zelda II 1987, no message log (there is a quest log with sub objectives but it's not very descriptive, for some quests you pick up an audio log which can be played back again later), no Info mode (see Daggerfall; for identifying buildings without checking the map - could've just been tweaked so you had to have walked up to the building once or learned about it from someone), a bit annoying how if you press against a low obstacle and jump you might not jump at all while if you build some momentum you can jump over the obstacle - especially considering how many low obstacles get you temporarily stuck when you move into them, sometimes it looks like you can crawl below something when you can't - changed by True Crouching in Tweaks mod, no "tell me about" or barter buttons during all dialogue - Fallout 1, some delay before you can go back out of VATS mode after going into it, VATS sometimes shows a percentage to hit as normal even if there's no line of sight - should show 0% instead, can't see on a weapon/armor if it's better or worse than what you currently have equipped - added in Tweaks mod, sometimes can't shoot/attack via VATS when right in front of an enemy, some hit detection issues when enemies move around slopes or obstacles - can make them get stuck or teleport a short distance, Tri-beam laser rifle seems to miss a lot when using VATS and the gatling laser and mini-gun also seem less efficient overall in that mode, can't see a companion's stats or permanent gear+have to use VATS to check their HP)
Not enough control over how companions act in battle and what they're carrying (also can't issue orders from afar like in MechWarrior 2 or Wing Commander)
Immersion breaking aspects and plot oddities (very strange how you can punch your dad to death without him even reacting during the 16 yo intro segment - or punch Stanley outside his office to death without him getting up and moving away/attacking you/others reacting, can walk around in your underwear without anyone reacting to it, some NPCs say the exact same sentence or word over and over, closing the door to your birthday party doesn't make it harder to hear the people inside, the gameplay pausing pop-ups from several gained quests when exiting vault 101 and being notified that the level cap was increased thanks to a DLC, can't shatter nuka cola bottles with gun shots, Lucas the megaton sheriff walking right into you from behind while saying hello (also pushing you a bit), "have you seen my father, a middle aged guy?", funny how you can wake sleeping people and have them quickly and stiffly stand at attention only to tell you to go away and then go back to sleep, can't keep talking to the brotherhood captain at Falls Church after helping him rescue their initiate, can't even talk to the brotherhood outcasts near the scrapyard - they just treat you like you're a homeless person (but you can still make use of them to fight the nearby enemies), strangely lax securit in Rivet City despite their reputation and all the guards, can't talk to the Big Town residents about moving somewhere safer, being able to kill Zimmer without a reaction from people around you but then not being able to take the stuff in his room without a karma loss, a few invisible walls in urban areas, can't save McCraw after the simulation mission (he either dies, disappears or goes hostile; also weird how the outcasts outside don't react to the rebellion and how Specialist Olin doesn't react to the situation if saved), doors with a torn off top half that can't be opened or sometimes not even interacted with, weird lack of effect from making Dave lose the election besides him leaving (it would also make more sense if you could break into the ballot box with hs key and ahd to replace one of the votes for him), the freed slaves at the temple of the union all dream of restoring a monument to Abraham Lincoln - can't talk to them about moving to Rivet City or Megaton, a super mutant near the washington monument with a crippled leg from a sneak critical (also hit the other leg) could still run and lunge attack just fine, missiles and mines should also cause some knockback or stun on mutants, weird how there's no reaction to friendly mutant Fawkes by NPCs, little lamplight in general and how you can't really ask them much about how things ended up that way nor try to talk to them about Big Town or places like Rivet City, weird how your companions are ignored when you get captured by the enclave+paladin Cross automatically goes back to the Citadel and then is hard to find again, can't talk to elder Lyon about the modified FEV virus if you've talked about retaliating against the enclave first (until you finish the battle quest with his daughter), can't tell the overseer and Amata some importants things after returning to the vault later such as how your dad was working on the water purification project or (if you've done that) how you've taken out the enclave president or joined up with the brotherhood - the homefront quest always ends with you being exiled unless you destroy the vault's systems which is the bad thing to do, if you make everyone but the overseer escape vault 101 by destroying its systems the enclave later tracks Amata down and gets the location from her before killing her - why didn't they do it to you earlier besides for the sake of the player feeling like a hero? (unless they had great intel but then they should've been able to get the purifier code from you), the kid in the UFO knowing how everything works - I expected a twist where she was an alien turned good or something, can't suggest moving elsewhere or getting outside help to the people in the Pitt after freeing them)
Kind of rushed walking with spirits/mind control quest after the holdout segment (doesn't make sense that not even Jackson has a clue considering the cult is pretty much a front to sell fruit via Tobar, weird how Nadine is both completely unaffected by the tribe and can talk with you openly inside the cathedral itself about what's going on (would've been better if you had to help her escape and the tribe was more suspicious and controlling+if Tobar was more of a threat to her (you can even just leave him trapped in the boat's engine room for the rest of the game) - especially since there's no reason for her to be waiting around for the player before confronting Tobar), too convenient how the player is completely unaffected by losing part of their brain, the hallucination sequence would've been more effective if the events were based on what you had done so far in your journey through the game), the first meeting with Calvert as a brain hologram feels underdeveloped - why would anyone side with him after knowing so little and with how he acts?)
Dialogue after reuniting with your dad feels kinda rushed (first off there's not enough dialogue about the simulation at vault 112 (a pretty traumatic experience, also weird how the game justs says "not authorized to use the tranquility lounger" after that part - although if you went along with braun/betty's requests in the simulation you would know that none of them could be saved it could've been possible to convince him to talk more about the GECK through speech/charisma), second you can't really talk about what you've been doing in-between your dad leaving the vault and you finding him (at least he does react positively to having helped Megaton when at the Memorial rotunda but that's not much), the dialogue with Dr. Li temporarily sounds like you've never met before when you first get back to Rivet City after finding your dad, the last scene with your dad could've been more impactful as a cutscene and if he wasn't so calm, it's weird how he sens you alone into the tunnels below when there are super mutants and how the project purity team didn't prepare better for an attack by the enclave (considering the securit at Rivet City and the commonwealth visiting there), )
Some of the main stats aren't that useful (Charisma* opens up mostly useless perks and gives starting bonuses to Speech and Barter which you can compensate for by having a higher intelligence and you can still get them to 100% w/ 1 CHA (which is also the maximum unlike in the prequel), Perception only affects the enemy radar secondary skill (which it seems you can work around by sneaking since there's a warning if you're about to get caught, or sometimes through musical cues) but also explosives+lockpick+energy weapons (a bit odd) and a few dialogue options (you'll want 6 for the better crits perk), STR isn't that useful beyond 6 or so unless you're specializing in melee - it's mainly for a bit of convenience and you can eventually have party members carry stuff for you+strong back perk gives a better boost)
No traits (F1-2, these were interesting in that there was always a pro and a con to each one even if some were clearly better than others)
Limited interactivity in a few ways (can't throw most objects (such as the ball in the first segment or fire extinguisher tanks), can't examine objects or parts of the environment like in a classic Adventure game, can't climb relatively low obstacles nor can you develop climbing skills or use a tool to climb walls/steep cliffsides - climbing was well implemented if a bit overpowered in Daggerfall+the game teases you with it in the first simulation mission where your ally can do it)
The game loses a bit of personality from having low INT matter less in that with a character with 1 Intelligence you simply sacrifice some conversation options and some skill points, while in Fallout 1-2 the dialogue becomes a completely different and sometimes very funny experience
Missing two skills from Fallout 2 - Throwing (grenades fall under explosives instead), Outdoorsman (affected being able to control random encounters in F2; negative effects of bad encounters, dehydration and rockfalls in F1+some control over encounters but the enemy encounters aren't as dangerous there)
Stats can't go above 10 or below 1 here regardless of equipment, chems or ailments - less crazy but a bit less fun
Various near useless perks (Here and Now - level up again, infiltrator (7 PER; one more shot at picking a lock after a failed force lock attempt - lockpicking is easy and you can just reload?) and Computer Whiz (INT 7; can just exit the terminal and try again) - the exception would be a no reloads playthrough I guess, most skill bonus perks since you can gain them easily anyway - oddly it's all you have access to besides intense training (main stat increase) and swift learner (which isn't worth it unless maybe if you're rushing through the game but there is also some level scaling) until level 4, Tougness becomes a waste in the late-game due to some armor making you reach 85% dmg resistance and the game capping it there, Commando (two-handed guns) is overall better than Gunslinger (one-handed), Explorer since you can just look up a complete map online, master trader and barter since Scrounger (more ammo) exists? - then again there's the ammo press in The Pitt, Life Giver doesn't give enough of a bonus to HP, Devil's Highway - just do bad stuff, Nerves of Steel? (only +1 AP per 10 seconds), party boy, deep sleep and rad absorption since you get them so late, solar powered is situational at best)
Stealing from people that the game considers "good" causes negative karma even if you weren't noticed (weird in that Moriarty (makes you pay 100-300 to learn about where your father went and runs a brothel) and a group of cannibals/vampires (including a guy who ate his parents) are considered good). Also weird how killing some people is fine even if they currently pose no threat, such as the guy who wants the "package" at Marigold station, or looting a "good" person's body after someone else killed them is fine (sheriff Lucas).
Strange how using VATS lets you zoom in on enemies without a scope while aiming without it (right click) barely zooms in at all (can use a scope while using a sniper rifle at least)
Dated animation for human characters (pretty stiff, sort of expressionless faces and bodies, NPC eye movement and facial expressions generally don't follow the tone of what a character is saying, weird how some NPCs don't look at you at all when talking to you)
Some trial & error (get locked into paying 300 to learn where your father went if you say no to paying 100 and then keep talking about it, some mechanics (hold R/reload to holster weapon, can wait 3 in-game days to reset a hostile town's aggressive behavior towards you), can get infinite skill books for Big Guns by going to the Bethesda Ruins (East Office) and having this area's enemies respawn time after time, the quest near Megaton where you learn about and tell a homeless kid about his dead father feels feels odd in that you can't discuss a place for him to stay before doing something about the fire ants which isn't quite clear - also if you convince the Mayor of Little Lamplight to take care of Bryan Wilks (kid whose father died) then you're locked out of letting him stay with Vera which is the better option, Dogmeat appears to be hostile when you find him in the scrapyard but is a companion like in the prequels - also becomes near invincible if you level up a bit beforehand, you're probably not going to pick up the preserved pre-war books before they become relevant to collect as their value is very low, the orbital strike during the post-game quest)
Not enough dialogue options with various named NPCs (it would make sense if you could ask more people about the vault or your father for example, )
Disarming the bomb in Megaton could've been more interesting if not more challenging (you just click disarm and the game checks if you're skilled enough)
Can't use medicine on yourself to heal here (this even made you gain some exp in the prequels) - crippled limbs can be healed with a single stimpack here, also making Adamantium skeleton near useless
Odd proportions on some kids (big heads)
Can't use the in-game cameras (Wind Waker)
Sometimes uneven difficulty (dips: ant queen unless you use the safe spot - stand next to her, fairly easy Super Mutants at lvl 5+ (falls church), operation anchorage (the allied AI is also a bit glitchy+you can't order them around during combat (see MechWarrior 2 or Wing Commander for example) - only tell them to go ahead or wait behind before each segment and the latter doesn't even work; it might've been too easy as part of the parody of corridor shooters but in that case it could've been shortened a bit and the outcast brotherhood aspect of this DLC fleshed out a bit more), the mutant behemoth in the capitol building - just go to a side room and it can't reach you, the enclave base unless you rush through the story; spikes: some parts of point lookout i you go there early, super mutant overlords and behemoths, some of the feral ghouls at hazmat disposal site)
Some tedious aspects (no fast travel within sub areas/locations+can't use it if overencumbered (which is any weight beyond the limit - should've been that you take more time traveling instead; Tweaks mod allows for running and jumping using action points as in Fallout 76)+plenty of dead space at times, minefield town - too hard to spot some of them, the hard level gating (skill points) to being able to even attempt to interact with certain objects in Fallout 3 tends to lead to backtracking since the requirements are quite high even for early areas (otoh it's more realistic that they wouldn't scale based on proximity to the vault/being accessed early game) - there could've been a bit more leeway besides some stat boosting w/ drugs (they don't stack) such as being able to attempt lockpicking at the risk of breaking the lock more easily, it sometimes looks like you haven't fully explored an area on the local map when in reality the path is blocked by a train or landslide, kinda slow bootup - sometimes faster for some reason, drug addiction being permanent although once you get a laboratory it's no longer an issue, spongy enemies at point lookout area unless you go there much later than you can, can't ask people at the same location where a certain NPC is, drawn out UFO segment for the most part - if it had about 30% fewer enemies and switches it would've been really good , backtracking into and out of the Citadel lab, overly drawn out in-game epilogue in some ways - the fetch quests)
Can't side with the raiders, super mutants (at Falls Church for example) or talon company mercs (at the scrapyard for example) even if your karma is low. Can at least befriend one super mutant
Tenpenny isn't an interesting minor villain (cartoonish motivation and lack of nuance)
Can't blow up doors/locks with explosives (without a mod)
Can't lock or fully barricade doors
No drivable vehicles
The DC area doesn't have enough enemy/hazard variety
Keep finding skill books of the kind that would raise a skill that you've already maxed out - could've swapped the others of that kind for a random skill that you haven't maxed out yet after maxing it out OR let you use them on your companions OR made them worth more money
Can't talk to companions about what you're currently doing or where you are and they don't comment much on places (Cross sometimes says she's been where you're currently at but it seems like a random line that gets repeated - for example she said it when I was at vault 87 near the GECK) - the one exception seems to be asking them to sacrifice themselves near the end which only works without casualties on Fawkes, Charon and RL-3
Kinda lame main ending (still images montage using in-game graphics, shows you wandering alongside Meatdog whether you did or not, not much mention of what you did besides the main quest - unlike the prequels)
Notes:
-Original version is from 2008
-Includes all DLCs
-Played using the Updated Unofficial Fallout 3 Patch (so Unofficial Fallout 3 ESM Patcher, Fallout Anniversary Patcher, FOSE, Command Extender as well) which fixes bugs and makes the game run better. It also restores some cut content ("Cut content is reviewed/restored only if fixable and able to blend into the game perfectly"; one example is the gray matters perk from point lookout)
-*CHA 7 is required for the Cherchez la Femme dialogue with Corporal Betsy to initiate but it does nothing, and to pass the speech check for the Boomer kids, but you you only gain some fame (required to advance in the Volare! quest?)
-Get a +10% experience boost for 12 hours after sleeping for 8h in an owned or rented bed (well rested status)
-Did maybe 85% of quests
Bugs/weird stuff:
-NPCs can talk to you through walls (the "Those" quest kid near the beginning). Can also interact with certain item containers through walls
-In a few cases an enemy would act almost like normal during my VATS attack (vs a mole rat and later some ghouls)
-Sometimes it looks like you can clearly shoot through a tighter space but when using VATS you end up hitting the obstacles near where you're aiming instead
-Enemy and NPC AI is sometimes stupid (occasional pathfinding issues where an NPC gets stuck until pushed (happened already during the intro gameplay for me), can end up falling off a higher path and dying, at one point an enemy put away their gun at a weird time, the reaction radius of enemies that are meant to be in a group could've been a bit bigger, groups sometimes shoot each other from behind during combat, sometimes gets stuck on a lower obstacle like a table if you stand on the other side - mirelurks, fairly often lets you move back and forth between cover and being in the open while shooting towards the wall instead of timing its shots better or moving forward, even if you tell a companion to wait they will move towards enemies that are attacking you and ignore the request - this can screw up trying to use mines)
-The slow motion camera sometimes glitches out a bit
-Can be caught stealing at a person's house, upsetting them and making them ask you to leave, then enter dialogue with them and during that dialogue they act like nothing happened
-Couldn't walk up one of the slopes near Falls Church unless I walked backwards
-Under the memorial some of the mirelurks wouldn't react to my presence
-Bug where the game thinks you've asked Preston about the escaped android when you haven't (it's not an option, triggered when asking about Pinkerton)
-Bug where certain NPCs would be in fleeing mode when they weren't supposed to be (traders on the path towards rivet city, dukov's party girls?, guy who tries to rob you outside of super duper mart but you can tell to fuck off)
-You'll sometimes drop a corpse while dragging it
-Crashed a few times (twice when clicking done after a level up, forcing me to log out of windows to regain control over the computer)
-Sometimes VATS glitches out a bit and makes you move the camera around to make the body part targets appear
-Hannibal wouldn't show up near the memorial
-Occasionally glitchy hit detection for grenade blasts (once threw one into a van with raiders, killing the others but not damaging the one I targeted at all)
-The adult in little lamplight just disappeared after I went to vault 87
-At Cryo lab in the UFO, Elliot wouldn't follow me in there which made it so that some switches couldn't be pressed - had to use the console to unlock a door
-Sometimes buggy hit detection when using the Gauss Rifle (can go right through a deathclaw standing in front of you)
-The deathclaw scrambler didn't work for me (the game suddenly said the quest was completed while in Olney - never got to free the deathclaw with a helmet SE of Olney)
-Couldn't free Clover from Paradise Falls