(Note: This got totally gimped from an errant key stroke, so this is my condensed version...spite!!!)



So I am just going to break down what I did and did not like.

I liked that way that the game started out. It attached you quite well to the main character and the father during the scenes where you are 'growing up' in the vault. I really feel that it was a new appraoch to start of a game, and it worked very well for me.

I at first did not like the scenery. Everything was bland, even for being war torn, and I still had the feeling I was playing Elder Scrolls again (which I only played for like 2 hours, because I couldn't stand it). It was the same 'jump over this cliff for an hour to keep going to nowhere'. Sigh. But the sites and attractions did stick out (mostly) and travelling and exploring was still a fun part of the game.

One thing that bothered me a lot is that the scenery was often recycled. In some cases it makes sense, because each Vault is made to be the same sort of thing, as they were supposedly mass produced. But then some buildings just looked exactly the same as each other, or caves, or what not, and often I felt like the design team was uninspired or pressed for time. Oh well. Also as far as visuals go, my girlfriend complained that the graphics seemed lacking. When she points it out, you know its got to be bad...(I forgive it because it is a fairly large world, so yeah, size constraints, and time issues, but I understand)


This stuff right here? Total BS


I did like the VATS feeling of an RPG, quite a bit. At first it seems like cheating where you call out your shots like that, and a lot of people feel it detracts from the action, but I think it resembles a table top RPG more than an action game/video game RPG. It is like telling the DM (the game) that you want to roll a d20 (pull up vats) to hit the enemy in the face (shared). Neat, huh? But you know what won't happen in a table top RPG that does happen in this? VATS LIES TO YOU. There were quite a few times where I would be hidden and lining up a stealth attack from a corner and would turn on VATS to get the kill shot. It says I have a 90% chance of getting him in the face, so its a sure thing if I pop off two shots (likely a sure thing, anyway). But what I didn't know is that my gun is actually embedded in the wall and both shots will hit the wall and really have a zero percent chance of hitting. This BLOWS. Some shots are key and so you lose the kill and you lose actions points because the game never told you. Overall that was the most frustrating part of the experience.

The differing enemies seemed like fun at first, but by the end of the game I really felt like I wanted more. At first you encounter new guys and you see how they fight and what they can take, but by the end you have seen it all, and its just boring. I would have liked either variety or shown progression as I level up (i.e. the super mutants that were at the start of the game mutated further into something bigger and badder every so often...replacing them with super mutant leaders doesnt count either, because thats barely a change). Variety is the spice of life and this got bland quick.

I liked how open ended everything was and how you could kill whoever you really wanted to. I felt guilty sometimes about it, because I generally play nice, so I tried to stay away. Worst part for me was when I realized the 'plant a grenade in someones pants' achievement and thought 'next guy I see is getting a 'nade". Next guy I saw was a ghoul trying to get into Tenpenny Tower. So I blew him up and went in myself. Problem solved for them right? Wrong. You have to kill all the ghouls. So I went to do that and made it to the end where Ghoul city was. There was one left, who was his wife or something. It was hard to bring myself to off her as well to complete the quest, because she hadn't done anything wrong, and really didn't deserve it. That moment stuck with me for quite some time throughout. Bad karma indeed.

My second biggest complaint (still cussing out VATS...LIAR) is the story of it all. I picked it up and figured it would be like Oblivion in length (my friend played for 100 hours and did everything) so I thought maybe 70 hours, maybe more. I was ready. I did every quest that I ran into and tried to stay away from the main plot as long as I could. I was psyched to go through all of this. I played 20 hours without even looking for my Dad, and when I started, I thought it would be an epic struggle. It was more like a weak afterthought. There were what, five story quests? And it ends and you are left hanging because nothing really gets resolved. I mean yeah it's over, but they could have done so much more. The opposition with the conclave could have been epic, but no, we wont focus on that. (Spoiler? I talked the president into killing himself. What the F?) I beat the game in 35 hours to my satisfaction with quest completion. It felt rushed, it felt undone, and it did not satisfy me.

It was a fun game overall, and I really liked a lot of things that it did, but really it just fell short (pun intended) of my perhaps inflated expectations.