10 Harsh Realties Of Playing Fallout 3

April 27, 2024, noon

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10 Harsh Realties Of Playing Fallout 3

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Summary Dated visuals and animations in Fallout 3 are overshadowed by newer titles with better graphics and animations.

Lackluster crafting system and weapon upgrades hinder the survival game experience in Fallout 3.

Fallout 3's gameplay feels sluggish and outdated, especially compared to newer shooters with better gunplay.

Fallout 3 is a special title in gaming for several reasons. For one, it is the first title in the series made by Bethesda, marking its move to an FPS over a CRPG. Another reason is that it is beloved by the community, so much so that there is a mod for Fallout 4 called Capital Wasteland, in which devoted fans are seeking to recreate the entirety of the third title in Fallout 4, with the sequel's better graphics and gameplay.

Still, that doesn't change that the series' third entry is getting on in age. By its nature, it does not have the longevity and agelessness of the titles that came before it in the franchise, and even the more recent Fallout 4 is almost 10 years old. Of course, players can always result to mods in order to forcefully update the game graphically and mechanically, but that won't rectify that the base scaffolding is beginning to rust.

Although not officially stated, it is rumored that there will be a Fallout 3 remaster. Several Microsoft documents were leaked over its acquisition of Bethesda during the FTC v. Microsoft lawsuit stating that the project was an upcoming one in September 2023.

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10 Lackluster Crafting System & Weapon Upgrades

The Wasteland Should Have Scrappy Gear

Fallout 3 may be a shooter, but it is also a survival game in which many weapons are meant to be haphazardly put together based on whatever is around. Unfortunately, the title has lackluster weapon mods, upgrades, and crafting to really play into the survival wasteland that the player finds themselves in. The durability system does little to help in this regard, making the acquisition of new weapons and repairing old ones an annoying process.

This would not be as noticeable if Fallout 4 hadn't improved crafting as significantly as it did. Weapons can be modded to change their fundamental uses, upgraded, and given attachments. This aids in the wasteland survival feel of the game, as well as makes every weapon feel more personal to the player. The lack of equipment durability also means that these weapons are here to stay, which is helpful for gear that a player has personally put a lot of effort into.

9 Relatively Poor Voice Acting

Except For Liam Neeson

Voice acting performances are being taken more seriously in video games of late. In general, the medium is one of entertainment's biggest and is treated as such, with many voice actors putting on award-winning performances, such as Neil Newbon for Baldur's Gate 3 and Christopher Judge for God of War. Fallout 3 was released before this period, however, and it shows in some of the voice acting performances and directing.

Big names have been in video games for a while, especially with Bethesda, since Sean Bean, Patrick Stewart, and Liam Neeson have all worked with the studio. That doesn't necessarily mean that the performances seen on screen match the ones behind the booth, since Bethesda titles are never known for their voice acting performances. It doesn't help that Fallout 3 did not make use of motion capture to enhance performances and let actors use more than just their voice.

8 Poor Animations Exacerbated By Lots Of Dialog

Reminder That Uncharted Came Out A Year Before

This is a problem that Bethesda has to this day. The studio has never been known for its animation quality, and when paired with Fallout 3's poor voice acting and dated aesthetic, it can come across as quite ugly. The game also insists on zooming in on an NPC's face during dialogue, which further highlights the less than stellar animation. The movements are very uncanny, and with polygon stretching being evident (due to models being relatively low poly to run on older consoles) it can be a little uncomfortable to behold.

Motion capture could have been used for Fallout 3 to alleviate these problems, as with titles released around the same time. Uncharted and Bioshock were released a year before and both have stellar animations to keep them from feeling too aged. Animation has improved as Bethesda has worked on more projects, but it is still a valid criticism the studio faces for its more recent works, like Starfield.

Bethesda still uses handkey animation with video references. The studio is yet to use motion capture, even with its latest title, Starfield.

It Is Over Fifteen Years Old Now

This is, unfortunately, a harsh reality in gaming as a whole. Graphics have improved so drastically in the last five years, that games released on older console generations age terribly, even if they looked good for their time. One way to get around this is stylizing visuals, which Fallout 3 has partly done, but its textures, models and lighting all pale in comparison to the Xbox One/PS4 era, let alone the current console generation.

For its time, Fallout 3 wasn't a particularly visually impressive game. It excelled in roleplay and in the depth of its vast world, but its size meant that its visuals were somewhat mediocre in comparison to other titles of the time. When paired with its age, the game has soured like milk visually, although this is something that modders can always fix for the PC version.

Fallout 3 uses the Gamebryo engine, which was originally released in 1997. For Skyrim, Bethesda moved to its Creation Engine, which has been upgraded to Creation Engine 2 for future projects.

6 A Limited Dialogue System

This Isn't New Vegas

At the time, Fallout 3's dialogue system was substantial, but with almost everything in gaming, the industry has moved forward, leaving older titles behind. A big part of what limits the dialogue system is the writing, for many consider Fallout: New Vegas to have superior dialogue despite using the same system. This is largely because players can do more with the options available to them, even if selecting the options is the same from game to game.

Still, what helps Fallout 3 is that Bethesda took a step back with Fallout 4's dialogue system. That restricted the player to four dialogue options and obscured what they really mean, which caused controversy among the franchise's community. Still, when compared to a modern title, like Baldur's Gate 3, Fallout 3's dialogue pales in comparison. Despite this, it does have its funny moments with over-reactive responses.

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5 Fallout 3's Game World Is Comparatively Small

Everything Is Bigger Now

At the time, Fallout 3's world was a large one, especially for a 3D title. Unfortunately, as technology has improved, so has the hardware for the gaming industry, meaning that bigger and bigger worlds can be made. Fallout 3 is one of Bethesda's smallest worlds. Fallout 4 and Skyrim have significantly larger maps with more to do, which many players now expect from more modern games.

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Even then, both Skyrim and Fallout 4's world maps only take up a fraction of The Witcher 3's, Red Dead Redemption 2's and Grand Theft Auto 5's. Players returning to Fallout 3 may remember the world being bigger than it actually is, thanks to nostalgia. The game, in general, may feel short too, since the title only takes around 24 hours for those that focus purely on the main quest.

Fallout 3's map is around 8.5 square miles. Comparatively, Skyrim's is just under 15 square miles.

4 There's A Lack Of Large Settlements

It Really Is A Wasteland

Despite The Elder Scrolls titles containing many major settlements, this doesn't seem to be the case with many of the Fallout games. The third entry's settlements aren't particularly large, since the biggest town is Rivet City, which all fits in a single aircraft carrier. The size of settlements is likely restricted by the technology of the time, since loading a city's worth of NPCs alone may not have been viable on the Xbox 360 and PS3.

When compared to the bigger cities in gaming, like Novigrad from The Witcher 3 or Night City from Cyberpunk: 2077, the settlements of Fallout 3 seem to offer very little. Labeling a single aircraft carrier a city seems a bit weak, especially because this is improved in Fallout 4 and New Vegas. At least Diamond City takes up an entire baseball stadium and New Vegas lets players explore the Vegas Strip, which was massive for its time.

3 Fallout 3's Intro Sequence Is Long

There's Only So Many Birthday Parties One Can Tolerate

Much like with Skyrim's intro, Fallout 3's first sequence in Vault 101 is iconic and well done to set up the rest of the game. One big problem lies in how long it takes. It is roughly an hour long, and any who are going to play Fallout 3 now have likely done so before. Having to go through that birthday party sequence again just to replay the game may not be every player's favorite experience.

Just like with Skyrim, many players elect to skip the intro through mods so that they can get to the meat of the game. Of course, parts of the introductory sequence can be skipped in Vault 101 by either selecting certain dialogue options or by loading a save that the game automatically makes at the vault's entrance. There is a chance that this save can be deleted when playing, however, and it is not always a reliable method.

2 Bethesda Moved On From Fallout 3 Years Ago

And Left All The Bugs Behind

If Bethesda is going to do anything with Fallout, it likely won't have anything to do with the current build of the game. The studio has just released Starfield, continues to work on Fallout 76, and has declared that its next big title is going to be The Elder Scrolls 6. Although all of this may be obvious, it does mean that there will likely not be any patches or support for Fallout 3 to iron bugs out of the game.

Bethesda titles have always been mocked for how buggy they tend to be, and instead of constantly updating the title to address this, like what Larian is doing with BG3, Fallout 3 was largely left as is. Bugs, glitches, and crashes are a part of the game. As frustrating as this can be, it can also provide some entertainment in and of itself. Bugs and glitches are part of the Bethesda experience, after all.

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1 The Gameplay Is Clunky

Shooting Isn't As Fun As It Should Be

It is no secret that Fallout 3's gameplay is not exactly a highlight of the game. The gun play and combat is beyond dated and the lack of a sprint command makes roaming the Capital Wasteland a toil. If it wasn't for V.A.T.S., aiming would be incredibly painful. This is likely a problem that exists because of the game's age, since Fallout 4's gunplay, although nothing stellar, is solid and the guns act as they should.

Overall, the title suffers from gameplay that was behind, even at the time. In the 2020s, it feels incredibly sluggish and may be difficult to go back to after the many shooters with better gameplay that have been released since then. Although V.A.T.S. compensates for many of Fallout 3's issues around aiming and shooting, it does have its own issues, such as its camera glitching or simply not working from time to time.