Fallout 3

Fallout 3 is an action role-playing game that can be played from either a first-person or third-person perspective. It is set in the Washington metropolitan area, years after a nuclear war left much of the United States decimated. The player controls a 19 year old character who grew up in a fallout shelter called Vault 101. The goal of the game is to complete a series of quests to find the character’s father, who unexpectedly left Vault 101.  In addition to the main quests, the player can participate in optional unrelated quests known as side quests. GamesRadar+ critic Andy Kelly estimates there are over 100 hours of content in Fallout 3.

At the beginning of the game, the player can customize their character’s physical appearance by choosing their gender and race. They can then allocate points into seven primary attributes: strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, and luck. These attributes are known as S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats, and range from 1 to 10.  Additionally, there are 13 secondary attributes whose point totals are affected by S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats: barter, big guns, energy weapons, explosives, lockpick, medicine, melee weapons, repair, science, small guns, sneak, speech, and unarmed. 

If the player has a high charisma stat for example, then they will be more proficient with the barter and speech skills at the beginning of the game.  The player can add more points into skill stats whenever they earn enough experience points to level up. Experience points can be earned through several methods, such as killing an enemy or completing a quest. When the player reaches a new level, they can select a perk, which is a permanent beneficial upgrade. For example, the perk Master Trader reduces the price of items sold by vendors by 25 percent. Fallout 3 features an open world map that the player can freely explore. 

Locations the player can discover range from small settlements and abandoned buildings, to larger locations like the Jefferson Memorial and the Washington Monument. The player is equipped with a wearable computer called the Pip-Boy 3000. The device serves as a menu, and allows the player to access items they have acquired, view detailed character statistics and active quests, and look at the map. The player can use the Pip-Boy 3000 map to fast travel to previously discovered locations.  The player can also use the Pip-Boy 3000 as a radio, and listen to songs from the 1940s and 1950s on makeshift radio broadcasts. 

While exploring, the player can recruit some non-playable characters as companions, who will accompany the player and assist them in combat. There a variety of weapons in the game, including standard guns, energy-based guns, melee weapons, and explosives.  While in combat, the player can utilize a gameplay mechanic known as V.A.T.S., which pauses the game and allows the player to target specific body parts of an enemy. V.A.T.S. is dictated by a statistic known as Action Points. Each attack while in V.A.T.S. costs Action Points, and when the player runs out of Action Points they must wait a short period of time before they can use it again.

Fallout 3 takes place in the year 2277, 200 years after a nuclear war between the United States and China. Some survivors of the war took refuge in high-tech fallout shelters known as Vaults. The player character, nicknamed the Lone Wanderer, grew up in Vault 101, located near Washington, D.C. After the Lone Wanderer’s 19th birthday, their father, a scientist named James (Liam Neeson), leaves the Vault without explanation. The young vault dweller decides to track down their father and journeys the region in and around Washington, D.C., now known as the Capital Wasteland.

Along the way, the Lone Wanderer learns about their father’s background from other characters, including Megaton resident Colin Moriarty (Mike Rosson), radio DJ Three Dog (Erik Dellums), and scientist Madison Li (Jennifer Massey). Before the Lone Wanderer’s birth, James and his wife Catherine had been working on Project Purity, in which a water purifier built in the Jefferson Memorial would have purified the irradiated water in the Tidal Basin and Potomac River. However, Catherine died during childbirth, and James abandoned the project to raise his child in Vault 101.

The Lone Wanderer finds and rescues James from a virtual reality program in Vault 112. James reveals that he wanted to revive Project Purity and left Vault 101 to seek the Garden of Eden Creation Kit (G.E.C.K.), a powerful piece of technology intended to assist in rebuilding civilization after a nuclear war. When work on Project Purity resumes, the remnants of the United States government, known as the Enclave, intervene. Its leader, President John Henry Eden (Malcolm McDowell), wants to inject the purifier with a deadly virus that will kill any mutated organisms who drink the water, including humans.

James sacrifices himself to protect the purifier. In response, the Lone Wanderer enlists the help of the Brotherhood of Steel, a military organization that protects the residents of the Capital Wasteland. The Lone Wanderer finds the G.E.C.K. in Vault 87 but is captured by the Enclave and held in Raven Rock. They escape imprisonment and meet President Eden, who is revealed to be an artificial intelligence program. Eden gives them a vial containing the virus and asks them to insert it into Project Purity. Afterwards, the Lone Wanderer leaves and optionally causes Eden to self destruct.