Being the fan of Fallout 1-2 and New Vegas, it is not easy to write about Fallout 3, but I will try anyway. Pros - nice soundtrack - the first good looking 3D wasteland - usually multiple solutions for quests - quite stable, no crashes at all, even with mods Cons - writing is from bad to average only - follow up from the previous titles is lousy (Brotherhood-Enclave-Mutants) - the main plot is too generic - the adventure sites lack internal logic. (things like the rich in the middle of nowhere, village with only children, folks living 10m distance from super mutant camps, etc.) Even though I consider New Vegas superior in every possible way, this game is a nice wasteland shooter, which definietly is worthy of a playthrough.
Came out during the great drought, together with Witcher 1. The game was sold as a spiritual successor of the Baldur's Gate franchise. These are down to personal preferences. Mostly love it or hate it. - aesthetics. The game has "fantasy" armor and weapon design, up to the point of disfunctionality. - formulaic combat, with strict DPS-Tank-Support classes - encounters scale to level - swift regen after combat. You start each fight with all abilities re-charged. PRO - some of the NPCs are entertaining - party interaction is nice, and sometimes funny - character building and team synergies are nice - combat in general is quite dangerous and tactical in theory. It is undermined with the very few (3-4?) enemy types and the swift regeneration after the battle - music is nice - the engine is solid. Easily load 10+ mods without problem. CON - maps are small, claustrophobic. Even the forests feel like dungeons with corridors. A surprising step back from even Baldur's Gate 1. - apart from a few NPCs (Loghain, Morrigan) most are Buffy-style high school clichés. Jock, artsy chick, goth, teacher who tells you what to do. - some quests don't make sense and/or your choices don't matter (eg. mage origin story) - some really grindy areas, full of trash mob fights - world is a bit too generic (excluding dwarfs) I feel that this game suffers from bloat. The actual size is larger than the quality content. Sadly fedex quests and trash mob fights were used as padding. While in my opinion the game fails at being a worthy successor of BG1-BG2-PST, it is not bad. Worth a try when you are bored with the classics, you might like it.
And again, a game I missed originally, but found time to play during Covid lockdowns. Pros: - good quality, smart and stylish dialog - ambient surroundings - very... coherent? The developers knew what they wanted, and everything supports their idea. Voice acting, color palettes, game systems, etc. - compact city blocks, minimal travelling and backtracking - actually unsettling and scary at places - voice acting is one of the best ever - clever use of animation: they are outdated, but they convey the personality of the NPC exceptionally well - modern day, not fantasy, sci-fi or post-apoc. This makes it really stand out. (maybe Alpha Protocoll is the other, and that's it?) Cons: - the grand finale was rushed. It is combat only, while the game as a whole usually offers sneaky or peaceful options. Even as a pacifist, start to build up your attack and defenses from about Hollywood. - there are some links which I think only possible to reveal with a walkthrough - choices and consequences are mostly cosmetic. (But! I have to admit that a main theme of the game and the V:tM in general is that characters don't really have agency, decisions are made by elders, PCs don't have the info necessary to make thought out choices, etc.) - Nosferatu playthrough is underwhelming. In theory everyone shoud freak out because of your looks, but - for plot reasons - all quest givers ignore that you look like a monster from a slasher movie. To be fair I have to admit that Malkavian dialogs are different than the rest, and lots of work went into them. This is not an open world game, as it deals with simulating the world with a different solution. Open world elements are ignored, but the important bits are fleshed out exceptionally well, which results in a laser focused experience. And to be honest this proved to be a much more enjoyable experience than what I anticipated. This game is still really unique, and every rpg enthusiast should try it out.
Originally I missed this game. Since it was available cheap, I decided to try it, and inmediately played through twice. Pros: - immersive gameplay with gritty atmosphere - well-written, CDPR has very good writers - important characters are not clichés. You sympathize with enemies, and sometimes loath your allies. Often you cannot decide which is which. This part is great. - no handholding and immersion breaking quest markers on the map - nice surprises - choices and consequences (even though the follow up in Witcher 3 is lousy) - nice weapon and armor progression - looks! Armor designs are better then W3! Cons: - strange difficulty curve. Or rather brick wall. The beginning in Flotsam is super harsh. The game then gets progressively easier, up to the point of seemingly playing with a god mode with cheat in the end. - some annoying QTEs. (you can turn them off in the menu) - the game has a bad habit of a cutscene leading you into a fight scene with no save - this ties into potions. You have to drink them before the cutscene, but you have to know that the cutscene will lead you into a fight. This won't happen on your first playthrough. - crafting component weight is not really thought out - I am not bad in rpg puzzles, but I had to use gamebanshee's walkthrough on a few occasions Tips: - a mod from nexus, called "weight watchers". This makes every crafting component 0 kg - there is a "navigate to wraith infested battlefield" section in mid game. You get a talisman to guide you through it, but the game doesn't tell you to _use it with pressing the Y key_ - gamebanshee's walkthrough is nice if you cannot figure out a puzzle Overall I think this game holds up well. The only really annoying thing is the inventory weights, but you can nullify it with a small mod. Controls are not the best, and graphics are 2010, but if you can get over these, the experience is worth it. Definietly in my personal TOP10 of post-2000 rpgs.
The game seemed a mix of Banner Saga gameplay with the Gwent mechanic from Witcher 3, which seemed a good combinatin to me, as I like both. Unfortunately the game turned out less fun than expected, but still not bad. Pro: - pretty graphics, with a Banner Saga-Disney wibe - quality voice acting - well written characters, CDPR has the best writers in the industry - choices&consequences events - some puzzles are nice to teach card combos Con: - regular Gwent duels are too easy, because the best cards are easily available - story holds no surprises - while the characters are well-written and have great voice acting, most of them are clichés. Stock characters like hippie with a dark past or loveable rogue. - I felt that the puzzles are overdone, your deck not usable in a sizeable portion of the game. (40-50%? not sure) - map navigation and resource collection involves lot’s of backtracking, and is basically a waste of time. The maps are pretty though. Areas of improvement: - 2D map, with linear progression. This would cut the backtracking on the campaign map - save a deck option. Currently, if the player faces a gimmick challenge, the only solution is: loading an earlier save + build a deck around the gimmick + win the duel + rebuild your original deck. - it would be nice to _not_ build the cards at camp, but pick one of three after a battle. This would force the players to adapt their deck to the cards at hand, not just build their winning combo. This would also solve the competitiveness of the AI, as you might end up with only one alchemist or no forager. This is similar to Witcher 3 or Slay the Spire, where you get a random card from your matches, and there are no guaranteed cards. Overall: A good game, but not great. I feel that the Witcher 3 Gwent game is more interesting than this, as long as you don’t play Northern Realms or Empire. I don’t regret buying it, but I am glad I bought at a discount.
