Alright, so everyone is probably burnt out on Fallout 3 reviews but screw it.
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Second Thoughts on Fallout 3
Let?s get it out of the way, the original Fallout is my favourite game ever. I loved the second but the original contains a tightness of vision that far surpasses its predecessor. While Fallout 2 may have the funnier gags and larger world, the original has none of the fat. Every town is unique, and every quest is interesting (there is no delivering Smithy his lunch in Fallout). So yeah chalk me up as a rabid Fallout fanboy, I wear that on my sleave.
So I plunged into Fallout 3 hoping for the best expecting worst. I did not get the worst and rabidly pumped several hours I could have spent getting a girlfriend into it. I enjoyed myself immensely but then suddenly got bored. Fallout 3 has many niggling problems, from the fact that high Int characters are a massive exploit to the way Dogmeat has a tendency to unexplainably hover in the air. And let?s not get started on the uneven writing. So Fallout 3 was a game I had loved but suddenly cast aside. I began to wonder if I could ever go back to it. Recently I tried to do just that.
The result was a new appreciation for what Bethesda have managed to do. The landscape in this game is hauntingly beautiful. Now I don?t throw terms like hauntingly beautiful around willy nilly. Radiohead?s No Surprises is hauntingly beautiful, Won Kar Wai?s Chungking Express is hauntingly beautiful, Andy Warhol?s screen prints of electric chairs are hauntingly beautiful. When I say that Bethesda?s landscape in Fallout 3 is hauntingly beautiful I mean that it is up there with those fine works.
It is also timely and immediate. Check the news, America looks like it?s falling apart, the end of their cultural hegemony is in sight, their military is over stretched and their economic theories are in disarray. Into these times strides Fallout 3 with it?s vision of an apocalyptic American dream. Sure Fallout had the retro 50?s kitsch but it was a joking completely ironic Po Mo kind of retro futurism. Fallout 3 takes this thesis and runs it towards the very serious straight-faced end zone. Take a stroll through the capital building sometime, I dare you. Okay sure in ten years time once America has recovered it won?t feel so important, but right now Fallout 3 is this generations equivalent to The Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
But I will always love Fallout more then Fallout 3 and not because of rose tinted glasses or a kind of ?you had to be there?-ism. Why Fallout is better then the re-boot is the ending. Fallout is, to my mind, the original videogame tragedy. When you finish Fallout you do not win, you survive and then realise that that is enough. Fallout 3 tries to replicate that bittersweet coda but, putting aside the obvious plot holes, it is an over wrought melodramatic affair. It stretches too hard to be epic and tries too much to make us care. The ending to the original Fallout is simple?honest?true. I will love it more then any other because it was the first time I realised that videogames are art.
Fallout 3 will probably go on to win some Game of the Year awards and for what it?s worth I agree. More then any other film I?ve seen or book I?ve read, it distils the Zeitgeist of the right here right now. A broken world and the hope that we can make it better.
***
Second Thoughts on Fallout 3
Let?s get it out of the way, the original Fallout is my favourite game ever. I loved the second but the original contains a tightness of vision that far surpasses its predecessor. While Fallout 2 may have the funnier gags and larger world, the original has none of the fat. Every town is unique, and every quest is interesting (there is no delivering Smithy his lunch in Fallout). So yeah chalk me up as a rabid Fallout fanboy, I wear that on my sleave.
So I plunged into Fallout 3 hoping for the best expecting worst. I did not get the worst and rabidly pumped several hours I could have spent getting a girlfriend into it. I enjoyed myself immensely but then suddenly got bored. Fallout 3 has many niggling problems, from the fact that high Int characters are a massive exploit to the way Dogmeat has a tendency to unexplainably hover in the air. And let?s not get started on the uneven writing. So Fallout 3 was a game I had loved but suddenly cast aside. I began to wonder if I could ever go back to it. Recently I tried to do just that.
The result was a new appreciation for what Bethesda have managed to do. The landscape in this game is hauntingly beautiful. Now I don?t throw terms like hauntingly beautiful around willy nilly. Radiohead?s No Surprises is hauntingly beautiful, Won Kar Wai?s Chungking Express is hauntingly beautiful, Andy Warhol?s screen prints of electric chairs are hauntingly beautiful. When I say that Bethesda?s landscape in Fallout 3 is hauntingly beautiful I mean that it is up there with those fine works.
It is also timely and immediate. Check the news, America looks like it?s falling apart, the end of their cultural hegemony is in sight, their military is over stretched and their economic theories are in disarray. Into these times strides Fallout 3 with it?s vision of an apocalyptic American dream. Sure Fallout had the retro 50?s kitsch but it was a joking completely ironic Po Mo kind of retro futurism. Fallout 3 takes this thesis and runs it towards the very serious straight-faced end zone. Take a stroll through the capital building sometime, I dare you. Okay sure in ten years time once America has recovered it won?t feel so important, but right now Fallout 3 is this generations equivalent to The Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
But I will always love Fallout more then Fallout 3 and not because of rose tinted glasses or a kind of ?you had to be there?-ism. Why Fallout is better then the re-boot is the ending. Fallout is, to my mind, the original videogame tragedy. When you finish Fallout you do not win, you survive and then realise that that is enough. Fallout 3 tries to replicate that bittersweet coda but, putting aside the obvious plot holes, it is an over wrought melodramatic affair. It stretches too hard to be epic and tries too much to make us care. The ending to the original Fallout is simple?honest?true. I will love it more then any other because it was the first time I realised that videogames are art.
Fallout 3 will probably go on to win some Game of the Year awards and for what it?s worth I agree. More then any other film I?ve seen or book I?ve read, it distils the Zeitgeist of the right here right now. A broken world and the hope that we can make it better.