Earlier this week we posted our first hands-on with Fallout 3, in which Will was among the first editors to play through Bethesda's post-apocalyptic world. Will was impressed by the gameplay, but the rest of us -- many long-time Fallout fans -- hungered to get our own crack at the carnage. Earlier today half our editorial team stormed the Bethesda booth and absolutely milked the demo for everything we could. We were a walking crimewave, and at this point couldn't be happier with Bethesda's take on the source material.
School's Back in Session...
Stepping out of Vault 101, our character squinted into the light -- our in-game eyes took a while to adjust, hammering home that this was the first time the character has seen genuine sunlight in his entire life. A vast, decimated landscape stretched out before us. There were no obvious roadsigns pointing out where to go: Fallout 3 is your world to explore at will.
So we headed off towards areas we hadn't explored in our earlier preview. The first stop was Springvale Elementary School -- at least what was left of it. Fallout 3 makes looting the hollowed remains of civilization easy. As we wandered the dusty and broken halls of the school, containers were labeled as [empty] if they weren't worth searching. We discovered row after row of lockers and piles of school desks had already been emptied of anything useful (weren't these school kids smart enough to pack some heat?).
Suddenly, gunshots rang out. Perhaps the school had already been stripped clean because it was filled with skuzzy, armed wastrels. We heard them shuffling along the broken floor, and all at once they surrounded us, guns blazing. We confirmed Will's initial impressions of the combat: You could definitely run-and-gun like a first-person shooter, but you're far more effective if you use the "V.A.T.S." system to pause the game and target individual enemies and enemy body parts. A few well-placed pistol shots allowed us to mow down an enemy and procure a shotgun. But shotgun ammo was hard to come by (at least after we emptied round after round up and down the hallways), so we opted to rely on the trusty baseball bat.
The interesting thing about the combat system is that it works equally well with either missile or melee weapons. You could target limbs with the baseball bat. You could also queue up multiple attacks. In the basement of the school we found a particularly thuggy opponent who we bum-rushed. A few quick clicks via the V.A.T.S. menu strung together a series of attacks. We let them rip and then watched the results, which were depicted from a third-person camera in slow motion so we could see all the gory details. First a bat to the gut. When the enemy doubled over, our character went for the knees. Then came a finishing blow, swinging upwards for the head. Fallout 3 pulls no punches, figuratively or literally.
Taking down the baddy in the basement gave us some spoils of war: a battered but functional assault rifle. Yes? Oh yes. We tested that beauty out on a lawless scavenger upstairs. The V.A.T.S. system works with a series of action points. Each move you string together uses up action points. A helpful gauge at the bottom of the screen shows you how much damage your combined attacks will do (assuming they all hit), which helps you plan. If you use up all your action points, they'll regenerate in real time when the game returns to normal speed, regenerating faster if you stand still for a couple moments.
We decided to dedicate every action point we had to try to score that elusive assault-rifle headshot. The results were worth the effort. The camera swung around to show our attack from over the enemy's shoulder. Our rifle round streaked through the air and -- hello, M Rating -- blasted apart our foe's skull in a hail of brains.
"Stay in school!" I shouted.
Our other editors had similar experiences with other parts of the game. I especially enjoyed watching Sterling take out a pack of snarling, mutated Mole Rats the size of pit bulls. Using the V.A.T.S. system, he blasted apart their heads in slow motion, in midair, as they lunged for his throat.
Fallout 3 is a grim, brutal, no-holds-barred take on life after the big one. It's not a world we'd want to live in. But we definitely enjoyed our visit. Read our earlier E3 hands-on for even more details!
