Fallout. That is a name that rings hollow to the ear of many players, but incredible that evokes memories for many others. Fallout therefore, is almost ten years of misery after the release of second album in the series, the closure of Black Isle Studio and misadventures of the license took his time before joining the catalog of Bethesda. While it is undoubtedly one of the last major studios game development role, the creator of Elder Scrolls (including Morrowind and Oblivion) was not necessarily the most obvious tribute to the cynical aspect in the series. Does this mean that the Fallout 3 project did have no chance to achieve something interesting?



Live in autumn!

As was the case in the two previous opus, Fallout 3 starts in a vault ... in other words, shelter antiatomique particularly evolved. While there is rarely reference to that of its predecessors, the universe developed by Bethesda obviously based on the same basis: swept by terrible nuclear explosions, the U.S. has nothing of great power and Washington area is a field of ruins. The vaults were designed in anticipation of such a disaster and their inhabitants would have suffered little, apart from promiscuity implies that such a shelter. ndeed, given the dangerousness of the external environment, it is impossible to enter or exit a vault ... It lives and dies there, but above all, it was born ...


Cleverly incorporated into the adventure, the creation phase of our character begins with the birth of it. No way you spoil the surprise, but simply say that Bethesda has made remarkable things with sex selection, key features and basic skills through a prologue putting our hero new-born young man with for ten years, a nice gift: a pip-boy in 3000 almost nine, but we will. The creation of our avatar made, the adventure can begin and it starts with an event "tragic" but we do know why our father left the complex and the security officers in our research. As a result, we have little choice but to flee, leaving the shelter 101 and find the "Doo-Dah" story of an explanation.

The main objective will thread through the first part of the scenario imagined by Bethesda. No question of revealing the various twists, but it helps guide, players who prefer rails on which to rest. Depending on the level of difficulty, your skill and your speed, it should keep you in suspense a small twenty hours, but it would obviously be a shame not to go "further". Indeed, as the Elder Scrolls saga, the Fallout are role-playing themselves open where the player is almost completely free of its shares. The card is several square kilometers constellation of cities, villages and camps where live all kinds of people.

Role-playing optomized?

Some are resolutely hostile to others are looking for a savior, but they have in common to make up our experience and we touch is the first significant change compared to Oblivion: it is no longer a question to advance competence in using the routes leading to these idiots where one spends his time hopping and run to raise his athletics. In Fallout 3, we return to a more traditional items to distribute to the passage of each level and there is mounting its powers and perks are chosen, a sort of traits that can really customize their heroes who, for example, benefit from precision shooting or a remarkable metabolism breathtaking.

The meeting with various non-player characters is also an opportunity to discover the richness of the universe created by Bethesda, to be taken Thursday and see how Fallout 3 is immersive. This is due mainly to the realization very "Mad Max" of the whole. The post-apocalyptic landscapes are rendered with textures certainly a little repetitive, but nothing very serious. Bethesda has not abused some effects as was the case for Oblivion and games of light (dawn / dusk) are beautiful. We still regret that some places look pretty, but that Bethesda forces us to spend time in places as unattractive as the underground metro Washington.

Fortunately, Fallout 3 to Oblivion based on the principle of "place to discover." Once an important site was discovered by the player, it is marked on the map and it becomes possible to instantly make the plight of the metro is a delicate moment to pass. A time that allows a few amusing encounters such as vampires / cannibals with whom we can negotiate the life of a prisoner or passages full of pitfalls that must be varied defuse ... or die. In its progression, Fallout 3 inevitably recalls Oblivion and some points we have mentioned distinguished the last production of the previous Bethesda, others are not more or less inspired: for better or for worse indeed!

Fallout VATS is at war ...

Thus, some players miss the side a little soft fighting can definitely not be compared to what is proposed and any FPS is all the more unfortunate that a good part of Fallout 3 gameplay revolves around these battles. Bethesda proposes a dual system makes real-time and VATS. The first is approaching therefore an action game in the first person, but frankly sequences lack of nervousness. The whole is too slow to be truly convincing, but fortunately, VATS is there to provide a little variety. This is to put the game paused, allocating a number of action points and let the player allocate those points as he intends to launch a grenade, reloading, shooting in the head, Shooting on the right arm ...

VATS sequences are rapidly converted into gore festival

This fact, the pause is disabled for us to admire the result through sequences of "idle". According to our precision, you can see passages particularly with gores explosion of guts, dismemberment or outright beheading. Despite many hours of Thursday, one is surprised not to be bored by these sequences, but in fact it is keen to the fact that generally does not incorporate fighting in a way or another. In fact, the player often alternates between the two actions are carried out delicate via VATS which can be raised and more accurate, while the 'simple' is done in real time. However, the scheme of things is at the discretion of the player who is never forced anything.

Better still, the player is not obliged to engage in combat. Thus, it is usually possible to put other skills to play the stealth and go quietly in the back of naughty not nice. In the same way, skills can significantly enrich the gameplay, provided of course that the player wants to play the game, it is possible to hack computer systems to free up guards or robots to control turrets. It may be pockets of his enemies, pick all sorts of cupboards, chests or offices and to repair its weapons / armor. It is even possible to achieve its own equipment provided they have met the various and sometimes very few components.

The Elder Scrolls: Fallout?

Unfortunately, the work done by Bethesda is not always the same level and if we have already raised some concerns, we must now point fingers at large defects of the game Some will be embarrassing for everyone while others do finishing touches that fans of the series Fallout. These are such very disappointed that Bethesda did not go deeply into the politically incorrect. The studio allows things quite amazing as trigger a nuclear bomb in the middle of a city or plunder the religious buildings, but Bethesda has remained fairly "wise" compared to previous series. All fortunately retains much of the cynicism of the series and the dialogues are fun, proof that Bethesda has not botched things, even if it could have gone further.

Despite dialogues are rich and often turned, the implications are a little light

The studio could also work more implications of the decisions of the player. While the concept of karma (alignment of the player) is present, it remains superficial. It is very easy to "change sides" and the consequences of our actions are limited at best, we can see some NPC us gifts during subsequent visits if they behaved as a hero. If left in the game, this defect is not embarrassing, this is not the interface. The Pip-Boy is fun, but it is not pleasant to use the weapon change is painful, as well as inventory management or reading the map. The Fallout series has never shone at this level, but after Oblivion, we would have liked Bethesda make some efforts.

The interface is managed properly with a joystick (Xbox 360), but it was possible to do much better with the couple keyboard / mouse. is all the more damage it is the only problem that can bind to the fact that Fallout 3 is multi-platform. Other players criticize games for the hook / hack, speed a little light, rigid animations or the principle of adjusting levels of enemies. These concerns have not really embarrassed and in fact for the last point, it should be noted that we are not safe: the monsters seem to match the level of heroes, but only to a certain extent. It must not, for example, believe that you can darken early in the most sensitive. We'll have a little patience before facing the impressive Behemoth!

Conclusion

Delicate situation than Bethesda. It was commercially suicidal to achieve a technically in the vein of previous Fallout, but it was still enough away Oblivion for the title has its own identity. A challenge that developers are able to raise but with a caveat: Fallout 3 is really nice, but it is difficult to see the spiritual son of the previous series. It also has other things to review (including the interface) and we hope that the PC can achieve the same feats as Oblivion, but even in the state, Fallout 3 is a great atmosphere stake is excellent, the universe and the very successful scenario more than correct. Ultimately, we still regret that Bethesda has not honored the first two opus (cynicism behind), but you're player PC or Xbox 360 (we are still waiting for the PS3) you should find widely Your account.

Bethesda bad point on which such a title has not been able to send a French version: we talk of the location as quickly as possible. Finally, note the system requirements to play the game comfortably: Core 2 Duo 2 GHz, 2 GB of RAM and a GeForce 7800GT card.