Fallout 3 - Review Roundup

Well, here we go - the first batch of major web reviews.  Let's start with IGN, who have a lengthy 5-page article and a score of 9.6/10.  A snip on the writing and dialogue, which they really liked:

The conversations you'll have with the various people you meet in Fallout 3 range from disturbing to hilarious, but they all have one thing in common: fantastic writing. You'll want to hear everything every person has to say, but to do that you'll have to play the game more than once and likely more than a few times. While the dialogue system doesn't take the cinematic leap that Mass Effect did, it brings so much depth that the simple listed responses become quite powerful. Some perks, stats and skills add new conversation options. If your strength is high, you might be able to intimidate someone. If you're playing as a female character, you might be able to flirt your way through a sticky situation with some men. Or, if your speech skill is high enough, you might be able to lie your way to key information. The way you talk to the people you meet can drastically change the story you're writing.

GameSpy note a couple of minor issues - more so that IGN - but the score is still a hefty 5/5.  Their article is shorter but also less detailed.  Again, they really like the story:

Examples of this presentation are everywhere, from the slides that pop up on the loading screens to the posters that line the walls of the subway. Maybe we're just suckers for retro-futuristic designs, but we couldn't help smiling every time we saw (and by saw, we mean destroyed) a mechanical man that looked strikingly similar to Robbie the Robot from "Lost in Space." We also really enjoyed the engaging and entertaining storyline, which is leaps and bounds better than the run-of-the-mill sword-and-sorcery plot featured in Oblivion.

...and then on to GameShark, who seem to take a balanced view, pointing out a number of deficits but still concluding this is an excellent game.  Hardcore Fallout fans will want to take a look at this one, because they do contrast Bethesda's work against  the originals.  Their rating is 'B+' and here's a critical bit on plot missteps, since the other two reviews have liked the writing so much:

It’ll surely come as no great shock that your dogged pursuit of your father has you stumble onto a much larger story that affects the entirety of the game world. Nor should it be surprising that everything you’re intended to take for granted isn’t necessarily based on reality. The ideas of fighting the “Good Fight” and sacrificing for the sake of others are prominent. But, much like Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, this intricate and compelling story too frequently gets tripped up in its implementation.

Take your aforementioned exit from the vault. Everyone in the vault was born in that vault. Everyone there has spent their lives together. Yet, we’re to believe the day dad leaves, the vault’s Overseer is so enraged that he orders everyone to be confined to quarters, has a man beaten to death, intends to have you killed and threatens to kill anyone else found in the vault’s corridors? Even if the Overseer were established as dangerously unstable, which he isn’t, we’re to believe nearly every vault security officer is willing to listen to these orders and ready to gun down the same vault civvies they’ve known their entire lives, with no questions asked? That doesn’t strain credibility—it holds it over its head and then snaps it over its knee.

[Update] Adding a bunch more...

Alec Meer admits at Rock, Paper, Shotgun that he struggled with his review at IGN UK.  He ultimately calls it a "must play" but laments a considerable lack of polish in a number of areas.  The score is 8.8/10 but the text reads much lower:

The real trouble is there's this air of, almost, incompetency to the game at large. Yes, it's supremely competent on a certain level: it's this huge, atmospheric place filled with toys and fights and quests and choices. At the same time, the game's filled with cock-ups so glaring that you almost wonder if it ever got play-tested before release. To name but a few: friendly NPCs that run directly in front of your bullets (even in the slo-mo VATS mode); occasional spelling and grammatical errors that could have been fixed by spending a couple of hundred quid on another proof-read; an optional third-person view so badly animated you'll never want to use it; passers-by bumping into one another and grinding to a enmeshed halt; cutscenes triggering in the middle of firefights; people greeting you pleasantly in one second then threatening you in the next; and the mad cacophony of multiple characters all speaking at once. Many of the same problems as Oblivion, then.

IGN AU sees it much like the main IGN review - all's good and a score of 9.5/10:

A big part of what adds to Fallout 3's replay value rests within its sense of morality. Morality and consequences are two interconnected elements of the game design – and have been since the original games – and to a similar extent in Bethesda's RPGs too. The framework for your moral compass rests within the decisions you make in conversations, your approach to handling conflicts and quests, as well as whether you tend to help yourself to other peoples' belongings or plant live hand-grenades on them when they're not looking.

Eurogamer's reviewer sounds a bit scared of the open world but still didn't find it difficult (score: 10/10):

It isn't, however, all that difficult, and there's no option to crank up the challenge, other than making things difficult by heading off to areas that are too dangerous. If you even vaguely follow the main storyline, there's rarely anything that feels beyond you. This worked for me - it's more than big enough without the game bashing me over the head every five minutes - but it'll be understandable if others hanker for more brutality.

Such scenes of breathtaking destruction soon become the norm, but the sheer craft never fails to impress.

And when you get all the way up to level 20, you simply become a bit too good for the game. With your abilities capped, you're generally such a badass that the tension is reduced as you explode every head you aim for. With no more levelling possible (at least until the DLC, perhaps), there's no longer the same sense of reward, and it turns into a bit of a victory march. This is a problem specific only to truly committed players, but in a series that attracts an unusually large proportion of hardcore gamers, the endgame is relevant.

An 8/10 from Jeff Gerstmann at Giant Bomb:

Most of the quests in Fallout 3 can be completed in multiple ways, and the way you finish a quest can have substantial ramifications. Take, for example, the side quest called The Power of the Atom. This is one of the first side quests you might encounter in the town of Megaton. Megaton is so-named because there's a live nuclear bomb in the center of town. It leaks a bit of radiation and some local nutjobs worship it as some sort of great deity. The local law enforcement would be appreciative if you could quietly disarm the bomb. But a shadowy businessman in the local tavern offers you a hefty sum if you can rig the bomb to explode, instead. Since Megaton has other side quests and is also the place where you find your first lead on your father's whereabouts, blowing up the town can be a pretty dramatic act if you do it early on. It's a very cool moment.

Unfortunately, most of the other quests don't quite have that level of impact. But that doesn't mean they aren't clever or interesting. You'll get sent on a lot of different missions, either purely as side endeavors or in order to satisfy a person and convince them to give you the next piece of the main quest line. And there are still others that you might be able to circumvent if your statistics are properly aligned. The speech skill seems especially useful for this, as talking your way out of violent situations is usually much faster and easier than blasting your way through the entire game. But some quests won't require you to have specific skills. It's more a function of whether you're going to play like a jerk, and choose the most negative thing on the dialogue tree, or try to be a bit more even-handed. The game does a good job of making you feel like your dialogue choices are meaningful, even if they're just different tones of voice that ultimately lead to the same conclusion.

• 1Up - A+
• VideoGamer - 9/10
• GameDaily - 8/10