When it was announced that Bethesda, a studio with many years of experience in medieval fantasy RPGs, would be resurrecting the long dormant cult classic series Fallout, fanboys all over the internet swept into a violent fury that the series’ dead, long bankrupt creators would not be doing the job. The rage only increased upon the revelation that it would not be an isometric, turn based game running at 640×480 like the originals, but a high resolution 3D game like Oblivion. But while the accusations that Fallout 3 would just be a lazy pallete shift of Beth’s previous game increased, the studio had learned from past mistakes, and delivered a RPG tour de force that, while far from perfect, is still a great way to while away the hours.

The world of Fallout is not, in any way shape or form, a happy place. Set in an alternate history where the world never quite moved past the 1950s culture-wise and the Cold War came to a much less peaceful, much more apocalyptic ending, the game sees the player-created Lone Wanderer escaping from his Vault (a nuclear shelter where people have lived out their lives in a twisted form of pre-war normalcy for generations) into the irradiated ruins of Washington D.C. to try and find his/her father, and stumbling across a secret that could, for better or worse, change the Capitol Wasteland forever.

Pleasingly, the game lets you conduct business more or less as you please. You can be a polite do-gooder saving the hardy survivors from the many slavers, mutated beasts and monstrosities that the Wasteland throws up, or you can be a complete and total bastard that counts the aforementioned slavers as close personal friends. You can follow the plot, or ignore the gentle hand-holding and explore the wasteland as you wish. You can fight in real time like a FPS, or use the “VATS” system to pause the game and target individual body parts to attack in slow motion like the original turn-based games.

One particular favorite feature of mine is the Perks system, back from the original isometric games. As you gain experience and level up, you can select Perks, which let you customize and specialize your character in specific ways, from the useful (improving your accuracy when using specific weapon types) to the character-specific (Are you a mean bastard? Do you hang out with horrible people? Why not complete the set and take up Cannibalism?) to the amusing (The infamous and self-explanitory “Bloody Mess” perk makes a much-awaited return!).

The game, however, is far from perfect. Animations feel stiff and poorly done. The well-acted conversations are relayed by a character model staring blankly at a static camera. Combat can be stiff and clunky if you don’t rely on VATS, which while awesome makes the game much, much easier. Glitches abound, and the UI feels optimised for a console, leaving PC gamers feeling a little left out (it’s a world ahead of Oblivion’s awful interface, though!)

However, much of this can be forgiven, for when the pieces come together, they come together well, and hard – it’s hard not to supress a grin upon finding a horde of well-armed, well-embedded opponents and chunkifying them all by way of skill, ability and superior firepower, or upon escaping a sinister abandoned facility caked in monster bits and down to your last few bullets, but with what you were looking for tucked safely under your arm. At it’s high points, Fallout 3 reaches the same great heights as it’s predecessors in a much more accessible way.

Fallout 3 is a fantastic game, although I recommend the PC version for modding potential. I give it eight furious manchildren out of ten.