When I was a kid I leaned more towards PC gaming then console gaming. Sure, I had my Genesis and my N64 and my Super Nintendo, but for the most part I enjoyed PC games (probably because the computer was in my room whereas the Nintendo was in the living room). I would go to the grocery store with my mom and eagerly run off to the magazine section to flip through copies of Electronic Gaming Monthly and PC Gamer to read about all the new games. Unfortunately, EGM has shut its doors on the brink of its 20th anniversary, and its sister site 1up.com is being downsized significantly. This story isn’t really related to Fallout, but sitting on those cold King Sooper floors and eagerly reading magazine’s was the first thing that popped into my head when I heard the news of EGM’s closing yesterday, and that time period reminded me of the first time I read about Fallout. It was the days before video previews or video reviews, back when you would find a particular reviewer that you learned to trust over time as they reviewed countless game after game. I remember being a kid and thinking to myself that EGM was more grown up than Gamepro, but not as grown up as PC Gamer. It’s strange the way kids rationalize the world, and even stranger that many of those thoughts stick with you for so long.
I wish all the writers who’ve been laid off from EGM and 1up the best of luck.
And onward!
Fallout 3 was one of the biggest games of 2008. So, likely, if I sum it up as an open-world RPG that takes place in a 1950s post-apocalyptic world in which most people want to kill you but some like to talk and you really really want to find your dad but keep getting sidetracked by bright objects and the promise of money or exploding heads, that should suffice. Yeah?
The part about Fallout 3 that I’m interested in talking about is the eerie quality of a go-anywhere do-anything game that demands my complete attention as well as my own moral values. In the game you can kill anything, steal everything and wear whatever you want (in my current game I’m wearing an Ant Super Hero Costume that lowers my Charisma but raises my Agility, it also prompts random children to ask me for an autograph and oh, did I mention? It makes me look like an Ant Super Hero). You can talk your way out of situation or blast your way, steal or outsmart, brains or brawn and you get the point eh?
So what do I do? Do I act out unfulfilled fantasies and attack and steal everything in sight? Do I punch the rude doctor? When offered the opportunity do I detonate a nuclear bomb and explode a whole town? Nope. I act like I do in real life (well, close anyway). I’m polite to even the rudest people, I try not to kill if I can talk my way out of situations and I carry small firearms as opposed to big ones (which, as we all know I generally walk around the city with a rifle slung over my soldier). I decorate my house in science-themes and worry about my pet dog. I don’t take drugs and I wear suits. I sneak around enemies, avoiding conflict whenever possible. Why do I do this? It’s a video game, right? I can do whatever I want, I can get things done the easy way (shooting) so much easier than my stupid methods. Perhaps it’s the post-nuclear D.C. wasteland that pushes me to rise above the rest of the world. I want to help rebuild this society, make it better for everyone. I want to give the poor men water, destroy the evil scientist’s bizarre ant breeding plans and rescue the damsel in distress.
When games give you every opportunity to make yourself evil it’s interesting that many of us take the high road (okay, I’m assuming that others took the high road? None of my close friends did, oddly, which makes me a bit weary when I’m around them now), that our own ethics could have an impact on a game’s play. This time around I’m trying to be evil, but I really have to try, I have to convince myself to steal everything I can, and it’s honestly rather difficult for me. If a game is making the player think this thoroughly about their own moral compass it has to be worth playing, and playing through again and again. Never mind the hundreds of locations to discover and explore, never mind the numerous missions to undertake — the most interesting aspect of Fallout 3 isn’t it’s expanse, but its introversion. A player can feel not only like they are really there in this world, but like their choices matter, like the non-player character’s opinions matter, like perhaps, if you do good in this world, it might reflect how you’ll act in the real world.
I suppose the only way to see how I’d truly act is to start a nuclear war, escape to a vault, wait for the world to be safe to walk in again and find out for myself. For now, Fallout 3 is easier. Now if I could just get those dang super-mutants to like me.
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