Previews// Fallout 3 Hands On

It’s evident in the first crumbled hill that I walked down, and in my immediate surroundings. Burnt out gas stations and charred houses litter the landscape, as you realise that the rubble you’re exploring was once a thriving town.

I make good use of the many objects I find: postboxes, leftover suitcases and trashcans all can be interacted with to find weapons and other items. All that remains in this strange new world are mutant creatures, crazy bounty hunters and the 'Enclave' - the remnants of a twisted US Government.

After seeing an Enclave message robot float around broadcasting propaganda, it’s not long before I ran into a few unsavoury characters. Time to get into the thick of battle – and this is where the game gets interesting.

In either the first-person or third-person view, you can choose to take an FPS-style approach to battles, and shoot enemies in real-time, or you can press a button and engage VATS (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System), which enables you to pause the action, zoom in on each enemy and target specific areas of an enemy to shoot down. Each body part has a percentage ratio showing how successfully a particular shot will hit that area, and you can assign as many shots as you like within the ‘Action Points’ limit you have.

Following your selection, a cut-scene plays out that shows your character blasting away and, if you finish someone off, a satisfying display of meaty goodness. It’s great for voyeurism, but also for tactical play. Being surrounded by loads of enemies means there’s only one way to do it; launch VATS, pick off enemies’ arms and legs to disarm them, then watch yourself go all Jason Bourne as your character smoothly makes every shot count.

The VATS method of attack is a throwback to the combat system in previous Fallout games. However, does the presentation of an FPS give a confusing message to the player expecting RPG action? Pete Hines thinks not, telling me, “We don’t believe in beating people over the head with the term ‘RPG’. It’s like you have something to prove, or you need to show your 20-sided dice to get in the door. The idea is that you pick up and play the game however you want to. And if you want to be a power gamer and a number cruncher you can, whether you play in VATS or in real-time those numbers are still meaningful.”

Just like a classic RPG, you can level up in Fallout 3, with a number of points being given to you to assign to different skills when you do. These skills are required for certain side-quests and dialogue options – a good ability in the ‘Speech’ department will allow you to wing your way through tricky situations, and even lets you barter for more cash for a quest if you want to get greedy.

The Pipboy 3000 is a gadget that your character has that controls your level-up options. It also holds important items such as maps, weapon selection and quest directives. When I used it, I was able to select ‘Perks’ – extras that can be selected when you level-up, ranging from additional dialogue options when speaking to children, to my favourite, ‘Bloody Mess’. You can imagine what happens when that is active – a humourous display of giblets and limbs exploding all over the place when you make a kill. It’s most effective in the slow-mo cutscenes during VATS battles.