In Part 1, I talked about the origins of the Fallout series beginning with the inventive Wasteland by Electronic Arts. I explored the heart of the series in Interplay’s Fallout 1 and 2, and talked a little about Fallout Tactics with it’s inclusion of real-time combat. I finished up without comment on the immature joke riddled console game Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. Now I continue the journey of the franchise in Media Consumes Me’s History and Review of the Fallout Series Part 2.
Check out Part 1 if you haven’t already. Below is the transcript plus extra bits for reading.
Immediately after the release of Fallout 2, Black Isle Studios began working on another sequel to the series. Interplay at the time had just gone public on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange and their shares began to take a nosedive after several years of reporting loses. Even though Interplay published some great games, they were purportedly spending boatloads of cash on projects like Star Trek: The Secret of Vulcan Fury,a project I was eagerly awaiting, having seen a preview in PCGamer magazine. Fallout 3 along with many other upcoming projects were cancelled.
Interplay was funding its projects through credit agreements, game sales, and loans from the head of the company himself, Brian Fargo. They never kept much cash at the ready, and once troubles grew out of their hands in 1999, Titus Interactive, a French based production company, acquired a majority interest in Interplay. In 2001, Brian Fargo, the original founder, left the company and Titus Interactive’s own Herve Caen took over as CEO. A deal with Vivendi Universal was signed to publish Interplays games, giving a much needed lifeline to the troubled company.
Black Isle Studios returned to making Fallout 3, codenaming their production Van Buren. Details began to emerge and fans salivated at the thought of another game in the franchise. The game would feature 3D graphics, using the Jefferson engine developed for Baldur’s Gate 3, and continued the Fallout storyline in the American southwest in locations such as Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and Colorado. The player would have started off as a prisoner thrust into war between factions of the New California Republic (featured in Fallout 2) and the Brotherhood of Steel. It also featured a mad scientist named Victor Presper bent on using a Ballistic Missile Satellite to destroy what was left of the post-nuclear world. Supposedly at the end of the game, the player would have to choose where the satellite would target, something very familiar to players of Bethesda’s Fallout 3 DLC, Broken Steel, but we’ll get to that later.
Even though a good percentage of Van Buren was complete, on December 8th, 2003 Interplay cancelled it and closed Black Isle Studios. The troubles had escalated even with Vivendi Universal picking up publishing duties. The next year, Interplay was slapped with an eviction notice from its landlord, and shut down because of non-payment to some of their employees. Somehow though, Interplay survived moving to a smaller office space, possibly one with a lower overhead.
The Dream that turned into a Nightmare
Years later in 2007 a leaked version of the Van Buren tech demo was released on the internet through No Mutants Allowed, a hardcore Fallout fan site. The demo contained a small incomplete tutorial level from the game, giving fans of the series a “what could have been” look at the cancelled game. Although the game was to feature real-time combat and turn-based combat like that of Fallout Tactics, a requirement Interplay insisted on, the demo sadly only has real-time mode. Interplay also insisted on a cooperative multi-player mode.Once loaded up, a character is created in the updated creation system, and the player’s character starts off in an unnamed town during the Great War somewhere in the Midwest Commonwealth. Your character is escorted by a Corporal of the 4th Infantry Division through the war torn streets of the town, fighting against communist insurgents, as you make your way to a Vault located at the end of the level.
Playing the tech demo, fans easily saw the potential Black Isle Studios’ Fallout 3 had. The graphics, even though most were placeholders, were spot on echoing the atmosphere of the rest of the series. The tech demo is very buggy with almost all options missing (including the female character’s top), but it is great to see for anyone who is a fan of the Fallout series. It is hard to say how well the game would have succeeded with the new engine in its final release, but maybe if there was some alternate universe in which Black Isle’s Fallout 3 was finished, I am sure the Fallout fans residing there would have been more then happy with the final outcome then what occurred here, back in our dimension.
Going back to 2004, after cancelling Fallout 3, Interplay sold the rights to Bethesda Softworks, the makers of another successful RPG series, The Elder Scrolls. Bethesda at that time was in production of the fourth game in their TES series named Oblivion. Bethesda announced they would be starting production of Fallout 3 immediately but it was speculated that production didn’t fully start until Oblivion was finished. Leading up to Fallout 3’s release date, fans of the series were split on whether Bethesda would give the series a faithful update.
Bittersweet Candy
Eventually in 2008, Bethesda’s Fallout 3 was released for the PC, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3. The game featured the same engine (Gamebryo) as Oblivion, and it was easy for fans to see that it had less in common than what they were used to in a Fallout title. It was transformed into a real-time RPG First Person Shooter, and no longer exhibited many of the traits fans were used to in the previous installments. To fans, it looked like a big budget Oblivion total conversion, but you could tell Bethesda tried very hard to make the story and atmosphere resemble as closely as possible to the original games.
You start at the very beginning of your character’s life, literally being born on screen, from your own point of view, you emerge from your mother’s womb. You are introduced to your dad, voiced by Liam Neeson, who through a series of questions lays down the basic name and appearance of your character. What follows is a small tutorial chapter inside the vault you inhabit from a small child to an adult, choosing your character’s skills and traits along the way. The first few times you play this section it is refreshing, but after awhile of replay the linearity of the vault sequence starts to show. Most of your choices are sometimes redundant too, as after your escape you are displayed a screen giving you a chance to undue what you previously selected.
Once you have broken free into the Capital wastelands, the choice is yours to venture wherever you choose. Although you are pointed in the direction of the main quest, to find your father, the game let’s you traverse to any number of locations. The game’s map is gigantic, and with exception to downtown Washington D.C. , is pretty much free of the usual obstacles to keep a player from freely traversing the area. The graphics are immense, rendering the post apocalyptic landscape with numerous amounts of rubble and debris, and although I would have liked to see the long expansive deserts of the American southwest, you have to admit Bethesda did a perfect job in bringing the environment to life. The only real problem regarding graphics is the color palette, which never really leaves the boundaries of its dusty grays, yellows, and greens.
The story and main quest take a little time to actually get moving, and for a bit is very entertaining, but after a few seminal moments, feels a little dull, especially for the Fallout series. Most of the time you will be preoccupied with the side quests, which too after awhile get a bit tedious and feel like basic fetch this item, kill that guy, kind of missions. There are only certain times when you can actually try different routes using your charisma and speech unlike it’s predecessors, and even then they feel a little limited. There are excellent payoffs during certain quests early in the game, most notably if you choose to play an evil character. The dialogue is good, but not necessarily on par all the time, with some characters sounding phoned in, but nevertheless better then Oblivion. The character’s in many circumstances aren’t very memorable, since they all share a weird likeness in the uncanny valley.
Anyone up for some Ice Skating?
Using the same engine as TES: Oblivion brought Fallout 3 most of the same good and bad points that Oblivion had. The interface was greatly updated from previous Fallout games, to give us everything in a seamless PipBoy transition, but suffers from console disease brought on from Oblivion’s simplistic inventory and map. TES 3: Morrowind had a very intricate interface for PC, and felt like an advanced RPG, but when Bethesda updated it to Oblivion and the console, a lot went the way of the dodo. As far as the action goes, Bethesda tried to appeal to Fallout fans by incorporating the V.A.T.S. targeting system. Entering into this mode targets a nearby enemy, and using your action points let’s you choose which body part will be the focus of your attack. Adding in this option helps the game play, as much of the action in Fallout is clumsy, but once you have used V.A.T.S. around a few hundred times throughout the game, and your character has become god-like, watching the gory slow motion deaths get’s a little tedious.
What Bethesda did right is give the player a giant map to explore like in their previous TES series, and create a story of his/her own. Being able to just explore a game without any purpose other then that of discovery is something that I longed to do in my childhood before many sandbox style games were introduced. Sometimes I wish they would even forgo a main quest line for a more open ended experience. During your adventures, the PipBoy interface also gives you limited radio stations to tune into, giving you a break from well produced wind sounds and event timed soundtrack. You could also stumble upon radio transmissions useful in finding locations or quests.
Throughout the game the player will pick up numerous items, some will be useless at first, but almost all of them have a use at some point. There are tons of weapons to find, or create, expanding possibilities in combat, but again once the player has gone through most of them, they will probably end up picking their favorite and using it again and again (ahem…plasma rifle). There are so many objects in the game that during the first half you’ll be picking up all of them and schlepping them back to your house or apartment just to watch your collection grow. I would usually pick up unique objects, then store them in appropriate containers, and end up forgetting about them.
Bethesda could have spent more time developing some of the towns, as they felt much smaller then those in previous Fallout games, but they had much more on their radiated plate. In it’s first release Fallout 3 contained numerous bugs. Just like the first Fallout, some quests were incomplete, and the non-linear approach sometimes backfired. The game physics would also get a bit wonky during certain times, throwing corpses across the screen like mashed up ragdolls, or letting the player slip through the ground and become stuck between geometry. After some patches though, most of the problems were fixed, but Fallout 3 still suffered from an ending that left a sour taste in a lot of fans’ mouths.
In the next year Bethesda would roll out five add-ons as downloadable content, pricing each at ten dollars. The first up was Operation Anchorage, and at first look, seemed like an exciting concept, but once I was able to play through it, I found it was the worst of the bunch. It is more focused on action then RPG elements, something Fallout 3 was just hanging on by a thread through much of the vanilla game. The story and setting are great, taking place inside a simulation of the war in Anchorage, Alaska. The levels are somewhat linear, and much of the stealth game play is wasted. The only prize at the end of the frozen tundra are some weapons, armor, and items that make the rest of the game even easier then it already is.
The second DLC to be released was The Pitt. It featured one of the best storylines and environment of the downloadable content, forcing the player into tough decisions, even though the outcomes and rewards were similar in the end. It had the Mad Max 3: Thunderdome feel being able to explore a rundown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that was controlled by raiders. My only problem was I wish it could have been a little longer, but the ride was well worth it, rewarding the player with an ammo supply and interesting weaponry. The Pitt was sadly released with a boatload of bugs for the Xbox 360 version, and was pulled from Xbox Live until Bethesda was able to iron them out.
The third DLC was Broken Steel, which opened up the end game for the player to continue the main quest, helping the Brotherhood of Steel against remnants of the Enclave that were scattered throughout the Capitol Wasteland. This DLC was a must as it changed the level cap from 20 to 30, adding as usual more weapons, armor, items, and perks. It provided some interesting plot developments and some memorable moments, like Mirelurk campfires down by the river.
The fourth and largest of the DLCs released, was Point Lookout, giving the player a whole state park in Maryland to explore. There are plenty of locations and side quests, and also hillbillies and tribals to fight. The mood and atmosphere is up there with The Pitt, with a twisted storyline that even features a drug induced dreamy sequence.
The final DLC to be released was Mothership Zeta. Finally players got a chance to board an alien spacecraft, get their hands on advanced weaponry (like there wasn’t enough already), and live the dream of fighting from deck to deck against alien hordes, something I’m sure Travis Walton wish he could have done. Although it is again an action oriented DLC, the new textures and environment, along with the story, make it stand out a lot more then Operation Anchorage.
Of course, hardcore fans upset with any of the features in Fallout 3, can download Bethesda’s free editor, named appropriately after a Fallout 2 plot device. The G.E.C.K. was released shortly after Fallout 3 hit store shelves, and has already spawned many modifications focused on balancing game play, or adding in elements some felt were missing. Bethesda knew they wanted to keep fans busy between game releases, and they have done the same with past games in their Elder Scrolls series. If you have some time on your hands, you can pick up the G.E.C.K. Fallout 3 editor here from the official website, which also contains tutorials on using the program.
The Best Oblivion TC Available!
Now that all of the DLCs have been released and featured in the Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition, it’s time to look towards the future of the Fallout franchise, past all the legal troubles of intellectual property between Interplay and Bethesda. There has been a number of games proposed, like Bethesda’s Fallout 4, Obsidian’s Fallout: New Vegas, and Interplay’s Project V13. They all have me excited, and worried at the same time for the franchise. Where will they take us? I hope to one day make a Part 3 featuring them, but until then, I would like to thank the Fallout community over at No Mutants Allowed for their support and critical response to my articles.
Sun, Nov 1, 2009
Music, Video Games