Aaron said:
It's almost nothing like Oblivion. Seriously. No more copy and pasted locations, the VATS system, the whole setting, complex quests with many possible solutions, no more stupid conversation mini-game, an insane number of unique locations, a sense of humor, etc. The list goes on and on.
I hated Oblivion. Fallout 3 is already one the best games I've ever played.
I don't think so. I
hate Oblivion, but Fallout 3 unquestionably inherits its worst traits from Oblivion. Just on a very superficial level, your major distinctive points sort of betray a large number of design similarities.
On the "no more copy and pasted locations," that's really completely false-- the subway systems are almost identical even in terms of geometry, and the overworld is repetitive in terms of design in a number of areas. Not to the degree that it inspires deja vu or anything and not to the degree that Oblivion did, but it's there. You have your standard texture sets as well-- Vault, cave, deeper cave, lab, office, etc. Again, there's more of them than there was in Oblivion, but it's still the case that they exist. The problem in Oblivion wasn't cut-and-paste levels so much as cut and paste textures...I mean, in Fallout 3, can you really tell the AntAntagonist's Lair from the Fire Ant cave?
The setting and VATS system set Fallout 3 apart quite a bit and definitely represent two of the reasons I enjoyed this game so much.
On the other hand, the quest structure is very similar to Oblivion if you're comparing the right quests. One thing Fallout 3 has going for it that Oblivion didn't was the number of quests-- we're talking 15-20 named sidequests. Some of these quests are actually long and involved and many of them DO have you making real choices (some of which affect the world in a substantive way, most of which do not), but the same was true in Oblivion. Sure, the main quest in Oblivion wasn't great, but the Brotherhood and Knights of the Nine Quests were. So I think it's unfair to say that the games are completely dissimilar here; what I will say is that Fallout 3 feels considerably more focused.
I would say the major distinction between Fallout 3 and Oblivion is that Fallout 3 is built upon a much sturdier RPG foundation than I think Oblivion was. The SPECIAL system is a really great base (not created by Bethesda, go figure) to build on, and the leveling and perks distribution strikes me as considerably more fair and balanced than anything in Oblivion. Getting rid of the SaGa-style leveling means you don't have to wander around the fields jumping up and down to level acrobatics or repair broken armor x 500000000 to level vital skills, and you won't screw yourself over if you specialize in non-combat abilities. Additionally, Fallout 3 presents players with a real challenge in some spots that Oblivion never did-- it hides its level scaling considerably better than Oblivion ever did, and the nonrandomized/nonleveled loot is such an incredible boon for exploration that it's really no wonder that most "RPG people" hated that horrible game.
I think you're right on the humor. The writing in general I think is improved. It's not to where Black Isle games would have it, but it's better. I think your dialog options are expanded and your skills really manage to play a large part in conversation, though some ineffectual and meaningless <lie> choices still exist. I was pleased to see this improvement.
I thought the beginning of the game was brilliant and the main quest was much more enjoyable than Oblivion's ever was.
Ultimately some of the sins of the father are passed on to the son-- wonky NPC AI, too few voice actors, blah blah blah, but Fallout 3 is a much better game than Oblivion. It's like Oblivion+ with guns instead of vanilla Oblivion.
I imagine that with careful modding Fallout 3 is going to be a really, really great game. As it is, it's definitely one of my recent favorites and I think Bethesda's best game.
edit: I think a lot of general changes also helped out a bit-- getting rid of the stupid lockpicking game and replacing it with the new system, hacking, and that kind of RPG trappery was nice. I definitely felt like I was really, really role-playing early in Fallout 3. Once I found a shitton of ammo I started just mauling people but early in the game I was really fighting to survive.
I should mention I love this game. I don't want to sound at all like I'm hating on it. I just don't think that people on the fence should hop in if they hate an OBLIVION STYLE GAME. If you liked the
idea but thought the execution needed major work, then come on in, the water's fine. If you don't like that style of game-- whether it be first person, melee/shooting the way it is, etc., then you won't like Fallout.
