Fallout 3 Preview

UGO Games Blog has cranked out another preview of Fallout 3 after spending four more hours with the RPG sequel.

Once I got to the boy’s southern town, the skittering noises all around me quickly clued me in to the current state of affairs. Giant ants were all around. But these were no normal giant ants, these puppies were breathing fire at me and doing quite the number on my health. After finding the boy’s father in the family house, I stumbled across a rather odd key that belonged to the shack outside. And it was in that shack that the mystery began to unravel.

The decrepit little building was nearly immaculate inside. Inside was a computer, a bunch of chemistry doo-dads, and an empty chamber meant to house a robot. A little investigating quickly revealed the computer’s password, and a scan of the hard drive clued me into a greater scheme at work. Somebody has been doing some kind of experiment with the local giant ant population. And they’re doing it down in the nearby subway station.

It’s this method of introducing players to higher bits of drama (or mystery) that’s core to the Fallout 3 experience. Any seemingly simple objective (find the boy’s father) is just the beginning. You’re handed the piece of string, and it’s up to you to unravel the entire thing. Yes, I did go down into the subway. And I died there quite a bit to be perfectly honest. But in doing so, I allowed myself to lose track of place and time as I searched for the scientist from that shack above ground. And I also stumbled across even more sidequests in the process.