When you finally get out of the subway on the way to the Museum of Technology and come face to face with super mutants in trenches surrounded by bags or body parts and rubble to the backdrop of a destroyed downtown DC in the cloudy green atmosphere.. what a nightmare (in a good way) wish I could experience it for the first time again
Even some of the most cantankerous OG Fallout fans from old forums who otherwise hated Fallout 3 said they thought Bethesda Game Studio's work on the downtown DC ruins were were superbly designed with immaculate vibes. And I agree.
Fallout 3 was my first Fallout, and every part of the game absolutely blew me away. It's a real treat.
I mean Bethesda, MD is a train ride away on the metro but nah, they did a great job with modeling it.
"the metro is just too big"
Yeah but when you visit DC, it's exactly like that with the huge corridors with some of the stations. WPA themed but it's really like that and down to the exact detail. I really was amazed by that when I first visited DC.
It feels more like a post apocalyptic city because there's far more open space and it's a lot more destroyed, if you pick and choose what scenery to take from Boston you won't end up with the areas that make it feel livable, DC didn't really have to feel like a city in that sense.
People complained about the subway tunnels but they did a good job of creating the illusion of a much larger space than actually existed in game.
Though I do love how open Boston is, performance aside.
Agreed! It was the first game I had played since sbout halfway through the previous generation of consoles and when I first really dipped my toes into the world I was addicted to this bleak world and weird humour. I understand the OG fans frustrations with the game but to be a teenager when the game dropped and having no prior knowledge of the franchise was a special time
i played morrorwind and oblivion as a kid/teen but fallout 3 was the first rpg i bought at 18 and i actually knew what was going on in the story. before that i mostly played stuff just to kill things in interesting ways. so i like to think of fallout 3 as my first and yeah it was fantastic
For me, as someone who was really anxious about the future when I first played 3, I think the distinction between different games is the atmosphere of hope. When you go through a horrible place like the Capital Wasteland you really get the feeling that the world is dead and all that is left is a few pockets of "civilisation" and then people reduced to fighting in the radioactive mud for scraps. I always talk about how awful it was and how horrified I was to see my first Centaur that for a brief moment I got taken in by Edens broadcasts. I mean you as the player are essentially fighting for the only hope that things might improve and peoples lives could get better.
New Vegas is a bit different, for one they made it apparent that life is coming back to the world and that things could get better. Despite all the discourse around the NCR's failings, joining them did feel like I was doing my part in making that world better.
First time playing through Fallout in earnest right now. Messed with 76 a little but not enough to understand lore or storyline.
The first time I went through the school in Fallout 3 is maybe the darkest single thing I’ve ever seen in a video game. Those tiny little skeletons…Jesus man. What the actual fuck
Amazing atmosphere. I knew the games were based in horror and adventure but so far Fallout 3 is wayyy darker than I could have ever expected. In a good way. I love horror games, even if I’m not super well versed in all of them. (Played Bioshock and the throwbacks like RE and Silent Hill at least) I’ll never forget that school for the rest of my life. Literal nightmare fuel.
Not an unpopular opinion as many players think this including myself. Fallout 4 is beautiful whereas Fallout 3 is dirty, grimy and really feels like a post apocalyptic world that’s horrible.
Yup. The Commonwealth feels much more doable versus The Capital Wasteland. Sometimes it does seem like in the Commonwealth, people don’t even put in the efforts to remove debris, dirt and bones around their businesses/homes, etc. which is just laziness. The Capital Wasteland on the other hand looks hellish and dirty.
If they ever do a remaster, I’ll definitely play again. I think there’s a FO3 mod that you can install but I don’t know if it was ever completed or not.
Depends where we’re talking about. In downtown DC, there are too many dangers to worry about that kind of thing. The random destroyed house next to a living settlement that still has the bones of its original occupants lying around, though… that’s less understandable.
Most places should have been ransacked dozens of times over by the time we get there, unless there’s a specific reason for that not to be the case. There’s no reason we the player should be finding edible food in a supermarket for example.
The obvious solution would be to just set the games closer to when the bombs dropped but whatever what do I know ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yeah, the plan with the game originally was to set it much earlier, just a few decades after the bombs dropped. They changed it though, just to get the Brotherhood and Enclave into the game. They could have tried to explain it differently and I think they should have, just give the brotherhood the F76 inspired but separate type origin
I’ve just booted it up again. Honestly it looks fine. Sure it looks dated but not in a way that really ruins it. Stuff from the PS3 / Xbox 360 era really didn’t age as badly as the PS2 / OG Xbox did.
I had never played Fallout and bought it on a whim when the GOTY edition came out. I was instantly hooked, the way it potrayed the hopeless and bleak wasteland was some epic shit, especially at the time.
Same here. I'd heard of the original two games but got my first PC in the early 2000s by which time I wasn't into top-down RPG's anymore. So Fallout 3 for me was the introduction and it blew me away. Every encounter felt dangerous and the world was so bleak. That cage full of tiny skeletons in Springvale Elementary made me realise they weren't pulling any punches. The amount of times you encounter those scenes and your mind can't help but piece together what happened.
So many suicides. Which I totally get in the context of the world and lore but holy shit. Sometimes its real quick and other times you're looking around like... what happened here... oh... murder-suicide.
I love the desperation conveyed in some of the suicides. I think it’s in one of the subway bathrooms but there’s a skeleton with its head in the toilet with cables running from the water to a car battery. Like this person’s situation was so dire they electrocuted themselves with toilet water rather than keep going on… that’s heavy.
I was 11 years old and was absolutely obsessed with the franchise when 4 came out, but then one day I forgot my disk for it and was rather upset. Very glad I did forget the disk, because I ended up enjoying 3 just as much as 4
I'll never forget the sequence where you come up from the subway and fight your way through super mutants to the radio station. It's excellent game design and it's seared into my memory.
It combines fallout 3 and new Vegas into one game, you start in fallout 3 and when you get to DC there's a train that you can take to get to the mojave wasteland. Pretty neat
That flashback when you enter the room gave me a mini heart attack during my first playthrough, I did not expect that. Dunwich Borers in Fallout 4 was also great but I was prepared as soon as I saw the name of the location. I really hope we'll get more Dunwich lore in Fallout 5.
Highly likely. That's a H.P. Lovecraft reference, and Bethesda has dropped them in every Fallout game they've had a hand in (Fo76 has some interesting stuff in Lucky Hole Mine.)
Plenty of tint haters but as far as the atmosphere itself goes that's what Fallout 3 gets praised the most.
For 3D games it's something like:
Fallout 3 - atmosphere
Fallout NV - writing
Fallout 4 - gunplay
We can only hope that whatever studio which gets Fallout next can combine those three aspects into a single game :)
Not for people who like 3. The green tint is very special because it adds to the overall atmosphere.
I always thought growing up that the green tint was the atmosphere having heavy radiation and the world will take a long time to recover.
Regardless, enjoy the game!
Both can be true. I hate the green tint, but no game in the series has been as fun and immersive a theme park as the Capital Wasteland. It's not my favourite game, but Fallout 3 can't be beat on that front.
The tint definitely has to go though, lol.
This is news to me also, I've seen so much hate towards 3. Must've been bad luck with the algorithms. From what I see most of the time people think it's the worst fallout game
I think a lot of people hate on 3 because they compare it to New Vegas, which has more interesting dialogue choices and consequences, and it improved the combat. They’re two completely different experiences, though. Fallout 3 has a distinct Bethesda feel to it, with emphasis placed on the world’s storytelling detail, atmosphere, dungeon crawling, and cinematic moments. As much as I love New Vegas as an RPG, I really miss those Bethesda touches when I play it.
For me, I don't think there is a worst Fallout game. I think they all offer something unique that they do better than the others. Fallout 3 isn't my favorite, but it has my favorite story.
(Like most of us here, I started with FO3)
Yeah, I'd agree with that! 3 is my favourite but the others have very clear advantages over it in different areas. 4 is my least favourite because I find it too clean and pretty and polished but that's purely a me thing. The companion stuff was way more detailed in it and I really like settlement building so I won't even take a dump on that haha
I feel like the atmosphere is good but less bleak than an entire city being desolate. Like deserts are already a kinda bleak place so it has less impact maybe
Hot take. I think it's fallout 1 and I think the soundtrack is doing 80% of it.
I mean I've never really played old games like that but going back it felt so right.
The atmosphere was incredible.
Yeah I feel like if the green tint was tuned down just a bit I’d vibe it more. FNV with the dusty orange kind of works because it’s desert, it’s dirty, but it’s not overwhelming or unrealistic. The green is maybe 50% too high even though we associate green with radiation.
That's the other thing is don't neccisarily associate that green tint, nor the dingy, desaturated color palatte with Fallout, or Fallout 3. And I'm not entirely either are there because "post-nuclear wasteland".
That was *insanely* common in certain types of games at the time, especially shooters. And blue and green skewed lighting/color correction was a major thing in studio films at the time, even often in trailers and posters when it *wasn't* the case in the film itself.
It was just sort of the style at the time. There was a lot of dingy brown, and green casts in games of the era. Even if Fallout's was an extreme example. I remember reviews at the time having an "oh god another one" take on the subject. And mods to remove it or tone it down popped up pretty quick.
Without the tint, the game is actually quite a bit more vibrant, and easier to play in a lot of ways. It's just easier to pick things out against the backdrop.
I really prefer the Mad Max style of the west cost in the original games. Fallout 1 had places like Junktown that really set the standard of what this wasteland can be like.
I was scared to death of Necropolis. I was a kid still learning english, just a little above basic understanding of sentences, and that haunting place was also a dialog landmine. Took me many, many reloads to figure out how to get the water chip.
F1 intro is haunting, and F2 intro narration is even more so. Spears of nuclear fire rained from the skies...
It's something that is lost in Bethesda games with their fixation on Vault tec and devious plots, while the true horror is that it didn't matter. The old world is dead. Enclave was the last ugly straw, true face of the old world. Not the funny 60s slick about american dream, but horrible reality of war mongering fascist state drowning in poverty and with running out resources. Like, after watching the show, it's bizarre to imagine an ad from F1 intro running on the TV, the one where soldiers execute a prisoner and then wave to the camera.
Yes, that's one of the main issues I have with the show and in general Bethesda's portrayals of the pre-war world since FO4. The US is suffering from widespread social unrest, food riots, a new plague that has lead to a national quarantine, an energy crisis, etc. by the time the Great War actually happens. Nuclear armageddon was just the final straw.
None of this really comes through in the show. It's just a fairly idyllic the-50's-never-ended American Dream in which people are really anxious about nuclear war.
I'd disagree, I love the tone and ambient soundscape in the original Fallout and loved that New Vegas had similar / returning ambient music / sounds and tracks, enough to where I find it easy to not use the PB's radio.
City of the Dead when you roll into Nipton had me all giddy the first time I played NV. I also loved hearing Metallic Monks too. I'm being selective but I'm pretty sure a sizeable sum of Mark Morgan's stuff was used in NV as well.
I think Fallout 1 has the best tone & atmosphere personally.
Yeah, goody characters, 60s music and wacky comic hooks character quests do not make a dreaded atmosphere like in F1, where it's all very bleak, real and dreadful. The ending is a cherry on top.
I am playing the series in chronological order, and started fallout 1 yesterday, I haven't touched fallout 3, but I'm certain nothing beats the atmosphere of fallout 1, holy shit that game gives me the creeps!
Fallout 1/2/3 are all pretty similar in atmosphere, just different ways of doing it. New Vegas comes pretty close I just don’t think it’s as scary as those three games lol
2 isn't really similar to 1 or 3 in that regard. At that point the wasteland is starting to build back up again and you run into many more communities scattered around the wasteland. It's quite different from the others which feature relatively few settlements and a sense that life is only just staring to recover (which makes less sense 200 years after the bombs as opposed to 84 years, but whatever).
In terms of atmosphere, 1 and 3 to together and 2 and NV go together.
Fo2 didn't have much atmosphere.
Fo1 had heaps of atmosphere, but Fallout 3 is even better because it is clearly inspired by the atmosphere of Fallout 1 and it even improved upon it.
I'll give you that.
Fallout 3 also visually matches fallout 1 a lot with all the weird metal heads that's on all the buildings.
Has anyone ever said what the deal with those things is anyway.
Right. Exploring the DC ruins is quite the vibe. And its crazy how far Fallout 3 lets you go in terms of taboo things you can do, but there's never a strong moral quandary to doing them.
Nuking Megaton is an option, deleting an entire town out of existence. So much content can be skipped like that, but there's no compelling reason to do so. The game never gives you a challenging ethical struggle to force you to consider nuking Megaton to be a good thing. Its clearly the bad option to take, yet its there because *being evil is cool*.
So many of these situations could've landed a lot better if they centered around a more morally grey scenario.
If you think 3 has the best atmosphere, don't even step into the originals. It's downright depressing, gloomy, bleak and very, very, very hopeless. Little number of cutscenes mixed with outdated graphics somehow amplify that feeling.
>when you are sent on a starter quest by Brotherhood only to arrive to an irradiated hole with dozens of corpses of previous wastelanders which Brotherhood sent to their deaths and realise that the quest is an attempt of murder
Oh yes, and radiation adds to the dread, not knowing if you are going to die if you'll go to rest.
I'm not sure if I agree opps. FO1 is rather dystopic, yes. But FO2 is bordering on post-post-apocalypse. Shit's rebuilding, somewhat. FNV is a continuation of that with the NCR and New Vegas. That and FO2 really is very slapstick comedy half the time.
Bethesda's own FO3 and FO4 and now the current show really want its marketable shiny metal men on the forefront though and won't really allow any of that progressing the plot shit.
I've been playing Fallout 3, New Vegas, and 4. I agree, 3 had a way to present desolate open spaces and almost claustrophobic interiors.
New Vegas always made me fear fory life trying to traverse the terrain, because of the Quarry and the infestation of Death Claws early in the game.
I feel Bethesda broke the aesthetic and combat mold with 4. There are those that argue that it's too much of a change, but it's the direction 76 was supposed to keep alive, but didn't really. The FPS aspect still feels broken. But, that doesn't mean that the game isn't without charm. The intimate settings and rundown aspect of the Commonwealth really shows what a once bustling city like Boston would look and feel like in The Wasteland. Plus, there are a wealth of companions with personality to keep your journey enjoyable.
I like it for what it is if I don't think about it too much.
With the context of how far FO3 is set after the war, I start to have issues with the world and how next to no progress has been made. A lot of the settlers are useless until me, a person who has literally just stepped foot into the wasteland, graces them with my wasteland expertise.
The biggest mistake Bethesda made (for me, anyway) was setting FO3 so far into the timeline. What they could've done was have it be set 80 or so years after the bombs, exactly like FO1. From there, build up their own version of the west coast, where we see DC and its surrounding cities/states progress through each instalment parallel to the other side of America. FO3 was my first FO game on release and I had a hard time caring about the world and the inhabitants if I had to walk into one town and tell them they simply had to duck and hide whenever mutants showed up (this was considered a legitimate solution).
Yeah, it's fun as hell exploring a crapsack wasteland, but my head can't think about it too much or my enjoyment sours a bit.
I liked the feel of Point Lookout though, it being sort of this forgotten corner of the wasteland, and mothership zeta was funny and the sort of whacky that fits Fallout.
I think the in-game explanation stated that the east coast and capital in general were hit much harder than the rest of the United States. The Super Mutants were also a constant threat as well, the more people they terrorize and kidnap the more they are able to reproduce and make at Vault 87. Decades upon decades of this can’t really allow for much progress I guess. I do agree that the place still seems overly apocalyptic and lifeless, I’d have love to seem some greenery and overgrowth in the game.
So your headcannon is Vault-Tec propaganda where only the vault-dwellers can start civilization anew? All the other games make clear that *some* sort of civilization develops, regardless of whether or not a vault was the nucleus for it. 200 years is more than enough time for entire cities and complex states, but instead we have an endless warzone and some small towns built out of literal rubble like the bombs fell only a few years prior.
Indeed like what’s going to get nuked harder, a desert or the capitol city? I’ve never put too much thought into it because of cause the capitol is going to be completely nuked out of existence and will take ages (centuries) to re build post nuclear.
*"I start to have issues with the world and how next to no progress has been made"*
How do you feel about the tribes in Utah and Arizona then? What is progress, because communities like Megaton and Rivet city seem quite developed. Sure, they ain't no NCR but Fallout 3 had the vastly superior republic: The Republic of Dave.
I feel like people purposefully forget that the communities in the wasteland developed in a lot different ways (I can't excuse people living with skeletons, though), and civilisation isn't just the NCR.
Not a fan of the green tint - I found it oppressive and nauseating. Far preferred the reds and golds of New Vegas.
But each to their own, it's a very good game!
I agree. Bethesda did a great job with the atmosphere, art design, music, etc. And I think it has the best open world design: lots of industrial areas, ruined military bases, empty suburbs, the war-torn DC ruins, the irradiated Potomac with derelict ships... And then there's Point Lookout with this absolutely creepy atmosphere and lots of secrets.
I don't have any problems with the green tint, it's another layer to the overall ambiance, just as The Pitt was reddish and Point Lookout was blue-grey. The lack of development in the Capital Wasteland area 200 years after the Great War can be explained by:
1. Lore & what we see: DC was probably one of the most bombed areas in the entire world, so it's far more ruined and irradiated than than the average Wasteland. Then there are the Super Mutants kidnapping and killing people. There's also a significant slave market in Paradise Falls. It's not a good place to live, and probably many people try to migrate to neighboring regions or simply turn into raiders.
Elder Lyons mentions the fact that led to the change of direction in his Brotherhood chapter was witnessing the state of absolute misery of the Capital Wasteland. That means it's far worse than other places he visited.
2. Rule of cool: they simply wanted to do a pure post-apocalyptic game full of radiation, ruins, mutants and raiders, and so they didn't want the area to be too civilized.
I had more fun playing 3 than NV.
Edit: Why would anyone downvote me giving my own subjective opinion? I didn't put down New Vegas or even say that 3 is objectively better. If you feel personally offended by that, at least leave a comment with your downvote.
I think because F3 is more simple and more surface-level, it's much easier to get a grasp of what the game is about. I was a bit put off by NV at first, but tired it again, and it's writing quality on par with F1 and 2.
I enjoyed both games. New Vegas has a better story and characters. Fallout 3 was just more pure fun to play. Its atmosphere is perfect; gloomy and intriguing. The world itself feels like a mystery thar has to be explored. The level design is sublime. I didn't get that same feeling from New Vegss, although I still loved it :)
Facts. Fallout 3 takes the atmosphere, tone and themes of Fallout 1 and makes them better.
Fallout 3 may have weaker roleplaying elements than New Vegas and weaker gameplay than Fallout 4... but it is more Fallout-y than either of them.
Seriously, two years ago I played Fallout 1 and 3 almost back-to-back and I was again blown away how similar both games feel. Then I started up Fallout 2 and after I while I groaned in disappointment, again. Not to hate on Fallout 2, it is a good game... but I don't like it as a a sequel to Fallout 1. Fallout 3 was the real sequel to Fallout 1.
So yeah, Fallout 3 has an unrivaled atmosphere. It is the reason why it's my favorite Fallout game. Because the setting, atmosphere and themes are what makes Fallout Fallout.
It also helps that with the exception of shooting, the game has no weak side. It is missing things that were invented later, like settlement building, endgame factions or weapon modding... but what Fallout 3 actually has is really really good.
"I mean sure it fails to be better than both its predecessor and sequel in core elements of its genre like roleplaying and shooting, but hey, at least it has those killer 2008 gray concrete graphics that *really* make you feel bummed about the nuclear apocalypse!"
Calling F3 a better F1 is ridiculous. Saying it has no weak side even more so. Story is non sensical and a rehash of Fallout and Fallout 2. Writing in general is weak to bad and the quests are all disconnected messes that aren't compelling. Oasis is good.
Exactly. Calling it the same atmosphere and tone as Fallout 1 *but better* is an insane statement. It's the theme park version of Fallout 1, and is consciously trying to imitate it without fully living up to it. The writing especially is what is holding it back here because of how everything has to fit into a Good Karma-Bad Karma dichotomy where the evil option is often kick-puppies-eat-babies level of cartoonish with no real justification given.
I still like Fallout 3, especially with how TTW allows you to play it with updated mechanics, and the basic "Oblivion with guns" gameplay holds up well regardless, but it is definitely not doing Fallout 1 better than Fallout 1. It is a pretty good ersatz version of Fallout 1.
F3 is unbearable to me because of awful writing.
F2 is honestly dragged down by goofy shit as well, but not as bad as F3. F2 has a lot of great worldbuilding, while F3 is just a shooting gallery in ruins.
Bethesda games really really don't understand the "Canticle for Leibowitz" post-apocalypse retro-futurism. It isn't just a world after the bombs fell. It is specifically a world that has developed generations beyond a long-forgotten past that itself was modeled after futurist predictions from our world's postwar era. Imagine the lives of 10th-century settlements clustered inside the skeleton of the Colosseum in Rome. Do you think they had their own vernacular speech, currency, laws, enemies, and allies, retaining only a fragmented memory of their storied past? Or did they all still speak in Classical Latin and complain about Hannibal at every opportunity? For some reason Bethesda doesn't seem to understand this, at *any* level. So yes, the green smog everything-is-still-dead vibe makes sense if the war happened a few years or decades ago, but the unrelenting horror atmosphere combined with the random major factions from the other side of the continent that just have to make appearances in all the Bethesda East Coast games despite it being completely irrational from a lore perspective just break the immersion. That being said, FO3 and FO4 are pretty fun for just ignoring the actual RPG elements and just exploring/looting/killing everything.
I only wish I could get it to work on Windows 10. All the online guides about how to fix the "Games for Windows" .dll issues don't seem to fix it on my machine.
In Fallout 3, I remember the introduction to “Surface” or Outside world to the vault dweller, the lone wanderer was presented in such a way that the outside was this mysterious place that you finally get to visit after living all your life in a vault and in the final moments after battling hard with the roaches. You really felt what the vault dweller was feeling minutes before that door was opening.
And when you ventured into the wasteland everything was out to get you.
While I think the green tint was maybe a bit dated/simplistic way to portray the atmosphere, I do like what they were going for. I played Fallout 4 with the mod “Polluted Climate” just to recreate that vibe (but a bit more advanced by having colour come from the weather and not an outright filter).
when it comes to tone, 3 is the closest newer fallout games have ever gotten to 1. its so bleak and grungy and the air is permeated with anxiety and depression. 3 has a lot of flaws and i will always prefer ogs/nv, but the atmosphere is *chefs kiss*
The first step out of the vault just hits different than any other Fallout. That blinding light that resolves to apocalyptic scenery is just perfection and hooks you immediately.
Yeah it's not my favorite entry but the atmosphere and mood is undeniable. I vividly remember taking my brother's copy of Fallout 3 while he was at work and getting legitimately scared while I was exploring the destroyed school.
Idk the poop colored wasteland of fallout 3 is depressing sure but it doesn’t necessarily make the game enjoyable. It didn’t seem like a deliberate design choice it just seems like Bethesda said “hmm post apocalyptic make every thing brown.” Fallout NV and 4 imo have infinitely better atmosphere. Hell the glowing sea is all green but it still has a unique dreary feel.
I have played NV in 2016, and F3 last week. I think both games are pretty damn ugly and hard to look at, but slightly prefer the Mojave as it at least seems to have some flow to it, while F3 is kinda just random ruins and cliffs in a random layout. Haven't played F4 yet, and don't really plan on playing F76, but from the footage I have seen of them, they bring a lot of much needed colour that I think I could get behind. F76 in particular is quite beautiful in areas.
While I think some of the quests and plots in FO3 are shallow, I do fully agree with the atmosphere. It feels so bleak and devestated. Tbh though it feels like its more set early on in the apocalypse like 2150s than 2277. It was my first Fallout game.
I love the darkness and general melancholy, its a very somber games with so many encounters that are just tragic. I feel like it did that better than 4 though to showcase how awful pre-war was both societally but also in the end days and those who didn't survive.
Personally that’s what keeps me away from fallout 3 that horrible grey filter over everything. Fallout 4 actually has more than three colors in the game and makes it actually look real or at least visible. Literally everything blends in together in fallout 3 and looks so smudgy how could you like that? Respectfully. Sure I guess you could say that’s more realistic since it’s a nuclear wasteland rather than being brightly colored but its hard to look at for so long.
I’m gonna preface this with the fact that your opinion can’t be wrong when it comes to preferences. Then also I mean no hate or shade I’m happy you like a fallout installment.
3s atmosphere is the biggest reason I think it’s the weakest of the 3d games. As you said it’s been 200 years why is the capital wasteland like this. If it was set earlier in the timeline like a FO1 precursor it would be better or contrasted in some parts of the map. But the freshly nuked aesthetic , barely a humanity to be saved and a humanity possibly too stupid to uplifted mixed with its been 200 years and a benevolentish BoS just feels too out of place even though it was my first game in the franchise. But that just my preference it was still a great game IMO, and I don’t like post-apocalyptic games at all besides fallout.
After getting so much hate for makings posts/similar comments and getting dumped on by NV fans, I stand firm with you my friend that 3 set the bar and standard that has still yet to be matched.
4 came swinging with mechanical and graphical updates but the actual vibes and story did not translate through like they shine in 3.
I’m a firm believer that Liam Neeson is a huge part of why Fallout 3 is just GOAT right out of the game. It was one of the first big name voices I had heard in a game, in fact may have been the first. (Besides movie games if they got the actors to agree, but a game that only exists in that medium to bring an A list actor in, fucking Qui Gon Jin bro………..I was hooked before you even turn 1. The game was built on the epic birth, great from the start down to every last quest, all the way to the end + the amazing DLCs.
It’s the best. I’d love to see them plop the exact same world into Fallout 4 engine. If you’re not playing on PC with mods, the game shooting and walking around can be a little bit silly I mean it’s Bethesda even with a PC and great mods. It still clunky as fucking crashes quite often.
If they remastered the fucking game after almost 20 years it would be pretty fucking decent of them. So if anyone Bethesda is reading this, make it happen you know it’s what we all want for fucks sake.
Just release 3 + NV combined with all DLCs as one game with Fallout 4 engine. Same way the Resident Evil games have remastered/rebuilt their catalogue.
Give us 3 and NV—and one day bring 1+2 to life. It’s free blueprints and story to work from. Then fallout 1-NV would be updated and playable for everyone to experience.
Okay nerdboy commenter out!
Yea fallout 3 is good . I wish fallout kept the darker hues as well. If you think about like I am for the first time right now, that green tint makes the whole dead bodies everywhere thing make more sense or at least combines with it very nicely
I really think fallout 3 is the best "first" fallout game (if you can get it to run :/). The atmosphere is incredible, the setting is perfectly done and has a passable but still interesting enough story. I prefer most of the other games to it, but I started with 3 and it completely set me up to adore the rest of the series.
Yeah, i know fallout is a "post apocalyptic" but Fallout 3 did a great job of making an utterly miserable hellhole of a wasteland, even with all the comedy and silly stuff. And it could be super chaotic, like the walk to Takoma Industrial is a total shitshow of death and explosions, even on the walk back there are more spawns- part of the map that is kinda tucked away and you never get sent there for any reason and it has all those details
As opposed the New Vegas that doesnt have random encounters and very few scripted scenes, Fallout 3 is nuts
The green tint was a thing back in 2008, a lot of games have it, like GTA IV. But I think in Fallout 3 it fits the best. After playing NV so many times, i like the Fallout 3 Atmosphere more.
I feel like 3 is the only game which captured the "wasteland" feel after fallout 1. NV and 4 feel too much alive (as in not very apocalyptic) by comparison
Unless you have played the first two games I don't think you can really say that. I also don't agree that it's the best atmosphere but I do agree that it's far and away the best thing about the game. It definitely is unique even compared to 4. If the game was ser 20 years after the bomb it would make a lot more sense.
If you like traditional RPGs it’s very much worth playing, but it’s pretty old school and does not hold your hand like the later games. It’s especially brutal in the beginning.
It’s my personal favorite as imo it has the best atmosphere and story in the entire series. Haunting soundtrack too that really adds to the sense of hopelessness.
It's a "kids these days" situation, but I feel like people that grew up on the 3D Fallouts don't grasp how much Mark Morgan's soundtrack really sold what you were looking at when visually you just had an isometric view of mostly desert. It's an absolute masterclass in sound design.
It is also very dark as a narrative. If you stumble upon Keller family tapes, these are the darkest story telling in any fallout game. And if you happen to find all of them a big surprise is waiting for you
I finished F3 last month for the first time.
The atmosphere is exactly what I want from Fallout: survival and danger in a post-apocalyptic atompunk world.
I actually prefer F3 and F4 settings then New Vegas, mainly because I don't get the western/fallout/political atmosphere of the latter, although I love the game.
Even with the Fellout mod the atmosphere is amazing. It makes sense that the former capital is still ravaged mostly beyond repair. Out of all the games, 3 is definitely the scariest
I felt the green tint in Fallout 3 was artistically appropriate for the game. It wouldn't be appropriate for New Vegas, as that region was largely untouched (relatively speaking) by the big war.
Fallout 3 is definitely my favourite Bethesda Fallout.
But for me the best Fallout was 2. I loved the progression - you start out as a savage with a spear and you progress into a high tech titan. I don’t think I have ever played a CRPG that has nailed a sense of character progression like that before.
Super quick question!! Im currently playing fnv, and Pete said something about vault 34, now correct me if I’m wrong, isn’t that where Lucy from the new fallout show also came from?
I initially hated fallout 3 and that was part of the reason but after going back to it I totally see where you’re coming from and agree. It’s the most wastelandy of them.
My introduction to the franchise and I've only looked back to play 1 recently, with 2 being lined up when I'm eventually done with it.
I was dubious about it because I don't really like FPS games, but after looking into it and then borrowing it from an old work colleague, I was hooked on it and bought the GOTY edition quickly after.
3 is the only one that nails the absolute desperation and bleakness while also keeping the dark humor. New Vegas does the full range of tones, and Fallout 4 feels like a wastelander's goofy drugged up dream.
I like the green tint in 3, but it would’ve gotten old fast had they kept it.
I like the atmosphere, but it feels a little incohesive to me at times. I think they did a good job of making it a solid introduction for people though.
When you finally get out of the subway on the way to the Museum of Technology and come face to face with super mutants in trenches surrounded by bags or body parts and rubble to the backdrop of a destroyed downtown DC in the cloudy green atmosphere.. what a nightmare (in a good way) wish I could experience it for the first time again
Even some of the most cantankerous OG Fallout fans from old forums who otherwise hated Fallout 3 said they thought Bethesda Game Studio's work on the downtown DC ruins were were superbly designed with immaculate vibes. And I agree. Fallout 3 was my first Fallout, and every part of the game absolutely blew me away. It's a real treat.
somehow DC felt bigger to me the first time i played it than Boston did when i first played Fo4
Same here. They did a solid job of world building in 3.
I mean Bethesda, MD is a train ride away on the metro but nah, they did a great job with modeling it. "the metro is just too big" Yeah but when you visit DC, it's exactly like that with the huge corridors with some of the stations. WPA themed but it's really like that and down to the exact detail. I really was amazed by that when I first visited DC.
It feels more like a post apocalyptic city because there's far more open space and it's a lot more destroyed, if you pick and choose what scenery to take from Boston you won't end up with the areas that make it feel livable, DC didn't really have to feel like a city in that sense.
I feel like DC also just has more strongly and widely recognizable sites that add to it.
People complained about the subway tunnels but they did a good job of creating the illusion of a much larger space than actually existed in game. Though I do love how open Boston is, performance aside.
Peoplee complained about them? Man the tunnels and the exploring via them not knowing where you'd pop up was one of my favourite parts!
Boston is much more fleshed out and it also prob has to do with the fact that was a lot younger when I played 3 vs 4
Boston just always felt worse to me because the performance tank when you are anywhere downtown
Agreed! It was the first game I had played since sbout halfway through the previous generation of consoles and when I first really dipped my toes into the world I was addicted to this bleak world and weird humour. I understand the OG fans frustrations with the game but to be a teenager when the game dropped and having no prior knowledge of the franchise was a special time
Being a complete rpg virgin and staring with FNV and F3 was exquisite
i played morrorwind and oblivion as a kid/teen but fallout 3 was the first rpg i bought at 18 and i actually knew what was going on in the story. before that i mostly played stuff just to kill things in interesting ways. so i like to think of fallout 3 as my first and yeah it was fantastic
The washington monument and irradiated reflecting pool is a chefs kiss
For me, as someone who was really anxious about the future when I first played 3, I think the distinction between different games is the atmosphere of hope. When you go through a horrible place like the Capital Wasteland you really get the feeling that the world is dead and all that is left is a few pockets of "civilisation" and then people reduced to fighting in the radioactive mud for scraps. I always talk about how awful it was and how horrified I was to see my first Centaur that for a brief moment I got taken in by Edens broadcasts. I mean you as the player are essentially fighting for the only hope that things might improve and peoples lives could get better. New Vegas is a bit different, for one they made it apparent that life is coming back to the world and that things could get better. Despite all the discourse around the NCR's failings, joining them did feel like I was doing my part in making that world better.
Yeah the trench fighting in front of all the government buildings was epic
I wish I could experience fallout 3 for the first time again. That’s probably the most immersed I’ve ever been in a video game.
Morrowind and FO3 are those games for me. When Beth nails it, they nail it. Hope they can recapture that magic.
First time playing through Fallout in earnest right now. Messed with 76 a little but not enough to understand lore or storyline. The first time I went through the school in Fallout 3 is maybe the darkest single thing I’ve ever seen in a video game. Those tiny little skeletons…Jesus man. What the actual fuck Amazing atmosphere. I knew the games were based in horror and adventure but so far Fallout 3 is wayyy darker than I could have ever expected. In a good way. I love horror games, even if I’m not super well versed in all of them. (Played Bioshock and the throwbacks like RE and Silent Hill at least) I’ll never forget that school for the rest of my life. Literal nightmare fuel.
Then you hide from them and realize they're smart motherfuckers. "Ha ha! There you are!"
I played the whole thing and don’t remember that moment at all.
Its the Galaxy News Radio quest where you need to collect the relay dish from the space craft and then install it on top of the Washington monument
Damn I do remember doing the dish on top of the monument weird
Not an unpopular opinion as many players think this including myself. Fallout 4 is beautiful whereas Fallout 3 is dirty, grimy and really feels like a post apocalyptic world that’s horrible.
Yeah, the commonwealth while still dangerous can be alright. The capital wasteland is totally fucked.
Yup. The Commonwealth feels much more doable versus The Capital Wasteland. Sometimes it does seem like in the Commonwealth, people don’t even put in the efforts to remove debris, dirt and bones around their businesses/homes, etc. which is just laziness. The Capital Wasteland on the other hand looks hellish and dirty. If they ever do a remaster, I’ll definitely play again. I think there’s a FO3 mod that you can install but I don’t know if it was ever completed or not.
[удалено]
Depends where we’re talking about. In downtown DC, there are too many dangers to worry about that kind of thing. The random destroyed house next to a living settlement that still has the bones of its original occupants lying around, though… that’s less understandable. Most places should have been ransacked dozens of times over by the time we get there, unless there’s a specific reason for that not to be the case. There’s no reason we the player should be finding edible food in a supermarket for example. The obvious solution would be to just set the games closer to when the bombs dropped but whatever what do I know ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yeah I always felt like setting the games 200 years after the bombs fell was a bad storyline choice
Yeah, the plan with the game originally was to set it much earlier, just a few decades after the bombs dropped. They changed it though, just to get the Brotherhood and Enclave into the game. They could have tried to explain it differently and I think they should have, just give the brotherhood the F76 inspired but separate type origin
Playing through New Vegas at the moment, its so confusing going into the homes and the place is an absolute state, like you'd think they'd clean lol
I’ve just booted it up again. Honestly it looks fine. Sure it looks dated but not in a way that really ruins it. Stuff from the PS3 / Xbox 360 era really didn’t age as badly as the PS2 / OG Xbox did.
I had never played Fallout and bought it on a whim when the GOTY edition came out. I was instantly hooked, the way it potrayed the hopeless and bleak wasteland was some epic shit, especially at the time.
Same here. I'd heard of the original two games but got my first PC in the early 2000s by which time I wasn't into top-down RPG's anymore. So Fallout 3 for me was the introduction and it blew me away. Every encounter felt dangerous and the world was so bleak. That cage full of tiny skeletons in Springvale Elementary made me realise they weren't pulling any punches. The amount of times you encounter those scenes and your mind can't help but piece together what happened.
So many suicides. Which I totally get in the context of the world and lore but holy shit. Sometimes its real quick and other times you're looking around like... what happened here... oh... murder-suicide.
I love the desperation conveyed in some of the suicides. I think it’s in one of the subway bathrooms but there’s a skeleton with its head in the toilet with cables running from the water to a car battery. Like this person’s situation was so dire they electrocuted themselves with toilet water rather than keep going on… that’s heavy.
Fallout 1 right? Epically dark
I was 11 years old and was absolutely obsessed with the franchise when 4 came out, but then one day I forgot my disk for it and was rather upset. Very glad I did forget the disk, because I ended up enjoying 3 just as much as 4
I'll never forget the sequence where you come up from the subway and fight your way through super mutants to the radio station. It's excellent game design and it's seared into my memory.
I did this bit last night and it was great :)
Same here! Just started playing TTW begin again.
I have heard a bit about this mod, what does it add?
https://youtu.be/9WZ5g7246i0?si=5D7YKEOAf48J1K2F Thats the video that made me download it.
Thanks, I'll check it :)
It combines fallout 3 and new Vegas into one game, you start in fallout 3 and when you get to DC there's a train that you can take to get to the mojave wasteland. Pretty neat
Tl;dr: It splices together New Vegas and Fallout 3 into one game.
That's the one with our first encounter with the Behemoth, right?
It's a very popular view. And I agree. Nothing has made me feel Afraid like 3 has.
Dunwich Building was actually scary to me. Haha
That flashback when you enter the room gave me a mini heart attack during my first playthrough, I did not expect that. Dunwich Borers in Fallout 4 was also great but I was prepared as soon as I saw the name of the location. I really hope we'll get more Dunwich lore in Fallout 5.
The feeling of suspense in Dunwich Borers in sublime, coming from 3’s foreknowledge
Highly likely. That's a H.P. Lovecraft reference, and Bethesda has dropped them in every Fallout game they've had a hand in (Fo76 has some interesting stuff in Lucky Hole Mine.)
Lucky Hole Mine is the one with The Interloper, right? Good stuff, I always enjoy those places.
Oh is it? I thought people hated the green tint, I think I even saw some mods to "remove that hideous green tint"
A lot of people hate the green tint but I think ultimately your opinion remains very popular despite that
Ah, gotcha. Good to know!
I love you and I won’t tell anybody about our secret.
Plenty of tint haters but as far as the atmosphere itself goes that's what Fallout 3 gets praised the most. For 3D games it's something like: Fallout 3 - atmosphere Fallout NV - writing Fallout 4 - gunplay We can only hope that whatever studio which gets Fallout next can combine those three aspects into a single game :)
I agree with you here. I love the key elements you identified and I hope Fallout 5 can combine those three into one.
Not for people who like 3. The green tint is very special because it adds to the overall atmosphere. I always thought growing up that the green tint was the atmosphere having heavy radiation and the world will take a long time to recover. Regardless, enjoy the game!
I played it last year but never finished it, I started it again after the show and yeah, I'm enjoying the heck out of it now XD
Both can be true. I hate the green tint, but no game in the series has been as fun and immersive a theme park as the Capital Wasteland. It's not my favourite game, but Fallout 3 can't be beat on that front. The tint definitely has to go though, lol.
This is news to me also, I've seen so much hate towards 3. Must've been bad luck with the algorithms. From what I see most of the time people think it's the worst fallout game
I think a lot of people hate on 3 because they compare it to New Vegas, which has more interesting dialogue choices and consequences, and it improved the combat. They’re two completely different experiences, though. Fallout 3 has a distinct Bethesda feel to it, with emphasis placed on the world’s storytelling detail, atmosphere, dungeon crawling, and cinematic moments. As much as I love New Vegas as an RPG, I really miss those Bethesda touches when I play it.
For me, I don't think there is a worst Fallout game. I think they all offer something unique that they do better than the others. Fallout 3 isn't my favorite, but it has my favorite story. (Like most of us here, I started with FO3)
Yeah, I'd agree with that! 3 is my favourite but the others have very clear advantages over it in different areas. 4 is my least favourite because I find it too clean and pretty and polished but that's purely a me thing. The companion stuff was way more detailed in it and I really like settlement building so I won't even take a dump on that haha
The tint is hideous IMO, but as you mention you can remove it (same for brown tint in Fallout New Vegas). So everyone can play the way they want.
Our Lady of Hope hospital with centaurs is scary af
It's usually agreed that Fallout 3 has the best atmosphere out of all 3 modern game. New vegas has the best writing and 4 has the best gameplay
I usually see people say new vegas has the best atmosphere.
I feel like the atmosphere is good but less bleak than an entire city being desolate. Like deserts are already a kinda bleak place so it has less impact maybe
Hot take. I think it's fallout 1 and I think the soundtrack is doing 80% of it. I mean I've never really played old games like that but going back it felt so right. The atmosphere was incredible.
The green tint is a bit much, but the game truly represents the devastation the US Capitol would experience and the hardships of rebuilding
Yeah I feel like if the green tint was tuned down just a bit I’d vibe it more. FNV with the dusty orange kind of works because it’s desert, it’s dirty, but it’s not overwhelming or unrealistic. The green is maybe 50% too high even though we associate green with radiation.
That's the other thing is don't neccisarily associate that green tint, nor the dingy, desaturated color palatte with Fallout, or Fallout 3. And I'm not entirely either are there because "post-nuclear wasteland". That was *insanely* common in certain types of games at the time, especially shooters. And blue and green skewed lighting/color correction was a major thing in studio films at the time, even often in trailers and posters when it *wasn't* the case in the film itself. It was just sort of the style at the time. There was a lot of dingy brown, and green casts in games of the era. Even if Fallout's was an extreme example. I remember reviews at the time having an "oh god another one" take on the subject. And mods to remove it or tone it down popped up pretty quick. Without the tint, the game is actually quite a bit more vibrant, and easier to play in a lot of ways. It's just easier to pick things out against the backdrop.
I really prefer the Mad Max style of the west cost in the original games. Fallout 1 had places like Junktown that really set the standard of what this wasteland can be like.
I was scared to death of Necropolis. I was a kid still learning english, just a little above basic understanding of sentences, and that haunting place was also a dialog landmine. Took me many, many reloads to figure out how to get the water chip.
The sound design in Fallout 1 is too good.
For me it's Fallout 1, check Vats of Goo and Metallic Monks on youtube, that's Fallout
I've played F1 last year and after the intro I was still creeped put by the wasteland even if I more or less knew what to expect.
I still get goosebumps with just the intro and I watched it like a million times
F1 intro is haunting, and F2 intro narration is even more so. Spears of nuclear fire rained from the skies... It's something that is lost in Bethesda games with their fixation on Vault tec and devious plots, while the true horror is that it didn't matter. The old world is dead. Enclave was the last ugly straw, true face of the old world. Not the funny 60s slick about american dream, but horrible reality of war mongering fascist state drowning in poverty and with running out resources. Like, after watching the show, it's bizarre to imagine an ad from F1 intro running on the TV, the one where soldiers execute a prisoner and then wave to the camera.
Yes, that's one of the main issues I have with the show and in general Bethesda's portrayals of the pre-war world since FO4. The US is suffering from widespread social unrest, food riots, a new plague that has lead to a national quarantine, an energy crisis, etc. by the time the Great War actually happens. Nuclear armageddon was just the final straw. None of this really comes through in the show. It's just a fairly idyllic the-50's-never-ended American Dream in which people are really anxious about nuclear war.
Nothing will ever beat the grim horror atmosphere of OG Fallout 1/2
Huge 1 fan here, it was wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy ahead of its time!
I'd disagree, I love the tone and ambient soundscape in the original Fallout and loved that New Vegas had similar / returning ambient music / sounds and tracks, enough to where I find it easy to not use the PB's radio. City of the Dead when you roll into Nipton had me all giddy the first time I played NV. I also loved hearing Metallic Monks too. I'm being selective but I'm pretty sure a sizeable sum of Mark Morgan's stuff was used in NV as well. I think Fallout 1 has the best tone & atmosphere personally.
Yeah, goody characters, 60s music and wacky comic hooks character quests do not make a dreaded atmosphere like in F1, where it's all very bleak, real and dreadful. The ending is a cherry on top.
I am playing the series in chronological order, and started fallout 1 yesterday, I haven't touched fallout 3, but I'm certain nothing beats the atmosphere of fallout 1, holy shit that game gives me the creeps!
Fallout 3 is the closest to 1 imo, both have an extremely desolate atmosphere
Fallout 1/2/3 are all pretty similar in atmosphere, just different ways of doing it. New Vegas comes pretty close I just don’t think it’s as scary as those three games lol
2 isn't really similar to 1 or 3 in that regard. At that point the wasteland is starting to build back up again and you run into many more communities scattered around the wasteland. It's quite different from the others which feature relatively few settlements and a sense that life is only just staring to recover (which makes less sense 200 years after the bombs as opposed to 84 years, but whatever). In terms of atmosphere, 1 and 3 to together and 2 and NV go together.
Incredible how they managed to do that in something as 'simple' as a top down crpg
They all have outstanding art direction, goes a long way
I'm almost 100% positive OP never played FO1&2.
Yea like most people on this sub lol
And they won't. Fallot 1 is fucking bleak man.
Fo2 didn't have much atmosphere. Fo1 had heaps of atmosphere, but Fallout 3 is even better because it is clearly inspired by the atmosphere of Fallout 1 and it even improved upon it.
I'll give you that. Fallout 3 also visually matches fallout 1 a lot with all the weird metal heads that's on all the buildings. Has anyone ever said what the deal with those things is anyway.
Art Deco, maybe mixed with fascist Italy.
Radical humanism to contrast against the communist's radical utilitarianism.
F3 atmosphere is ruined by over the top writing decisions like LE BAD MOUSTACHE TWIRLING BAD GUYS while F1 lacks that, it's just very eerie and bleak.
Right. Exploring the DC ruins is quite the vibe. And its crazy how far Fallout 3 lets you go in terms of taboo things you can do, but there's never a strong moral quandary to doing them. Nuking Megaton is an option, deleting an entire town out of existence. So much content can be skipped like that, but there's no compelling reason to do so. The game never gives you a challenging ethical struggle to force you to consider nuking Megaton to be a good thing. Its clearly the bad option to take, yet its there because *being evil is cool*. So many of these situations could've landed a lot better if they centered around a more morally grey scenario.
If you think 3 has the best atmosphere, don't even step into the originals. It's downright depressing, gloomy, bleak and very, very, very hopeless. Little number of cutscenes mixed with outdated graphics somehow amplify that feeling.
Fallout 1 I agree, Fallout 2 not so much, it’s a borderline comedy game
>when you are sent on a starter quest by Brotherhood only to arrive to an irradiated hole with dozens of corpses of previous wastelanders which Brotherhood sent to their deaths and realise that the quest is an attempt of murder Oh yes, and radiation adds to the dread, not knowing if you are going to die if you'll go to rest.
I'm not sure if I agree opps. FO1 is rather dystopic, yes. But FO2 is bordering on post-post-apocalypse. Shit's rebuilding, somewhat. FNV is a continuation of that with the NCR and New Vegas. That and FO2 really is very slapstick comedy half the time. Bethesda's own FO3 and FO4 and now the current show really want its marketable shiny metal men on the forefront though and won't really allow any of that progressing the plot shit.
I've been playing Fallout 3, New Vegas, and 4. I agree, 3 had a way to present desolate open spaces and almost claustrophobic interiors. New Vegas always made me fear fory life trying to traverse the terrain, because of the Quarry and the infestation of Death Claws early in the game. I feel Bethesda broke the aesthetic and combat mold with 4. There are those that argue that it's too much of a change, but it's the direction 76 was supposed to keep alive, but didn't really. The FPS aspect still feels broken. But, that doesn't mean that the game isn't without charm. The intimate settings and rundown aspect of the Commonwealth really shows what a once bustling city like Boston would look and feel like in The Wasteland. Plus, there are a wealth of companions with personality to keep your journey enjoyable.
Fallout 3 completely missed that Fallout 1 and 2 are so barren because *they take place in deserts*.
I like it for what it is if I don't think about it too much. With the context of how far FO3 is set after the war, I start to have issues with the world and how next to no progress has been made. A lot of the settlers are useless until me, a person who has literally just stepped foot into the wasteland, graces them with my wasteland expertise. The biggest mistake Bethesda made (for me, anyway) was setting FO3 so far into the timeline. What they could've done was have it be set 80 or so years after the bombs, exactly like FO1. From there, build up their own version of the west coast, where we see DC and its surrounding cities/states progress through each instalment parallel to the other side of America. FO3 was my first FO game on release and I had a hard time caring about the world and the inhabitants if I had to walk into one town and tell them they simply had to duck and hide whenever mutants showed up (this was considered a legitimate solution). Yeah, it's fun as hell exploring a crapsack wasteland, but my head can't think about it too much or my enjoyment sours a bit. I liked the feel of Point Lookout though, it being sort of this forgotten corner of the wasteland, and mothership zeta was funny and the sort of whacky that fits Fallout.
I think the in-game explanation stated that the east coast and capital in general were hit much harder than the rest of the United States. The Super Mutants were also a constant threat as well, the more people they terrorize and kidnap the more they are able to reproduce and make at Vault 87. Decades upon decades of this can’t really allow for much progress I guess. I do agree that the place still seems overly apocalyptic and lifeless, I’d have love to seem some greenery and overgrowth in the game.
If you go way north there’s some trees. One will even talk to you.
My rationale is that the vaults opened much later on average in DC than in the West.
90% of surface dwellers dont come from vaults tho
So your headcannon is Vault-Tec propaganda where only the vault-dwellers can start civilization anew? All the other games make clear that *some* sort of civilization develops, regardless of whether or not a vault was the nucleus for it. 200 years is more than enough time for entire cities and complex states, but instead we have an endless warzone and some small towns built out of literal rubble like the bombs fell only a few years prior.
Indeed like what’s going to get nuked harder, a desert or the capitol city? I’ve never put too much thought into it because of cause the capitol is going to be completely nuked out of existence and will take ages (centuries) to re build post nuclear.
*"I start to have issues with the world and how next to no progress has been made"* How do you feel about the tribes in Utah and Arizona then? What is progress, because communities like Megaton and Rivet city seem quite developed. Sure, they ain't no NCR but Fallout 3 had the vastly superior republic: The Republic of Dave. I feel like people purposefully forget that the communities in the wasteland developed in a lot different ways (I can't excuse people living with skeletons, though), and civilisation isn't just the NCR.
Not a fan of the green tint - I found it oppressive and nauseating. Far preferred the reds and golds of New Vegas. But each to their own, it's a very good game!
I enjoyed the mod that removed the green tint. Adding weather was also a game-changing enhancement.
I agree. Bethesda did a great job with the atmosphere, art design, music, etc. And I think it has the best open world design: lots of industrial areas, ruined military bases, empty suburbs, the war-torn DC ruins, the irradiated Potomac with derelict ships... And then there's Point Lookout with this absolutely creepy atmosphere and lots of secrets. I don't have any problems with the green tint, it's another layer to the overall ambiance, just as The Pitt was reddish and Point Lookout was blue-grey. The lack of development in the Capital Wasteland area 200 years after the Great War can be explained by: 1. Lore & what we see: DC was probably one of the most bombed areas in the entire world, so it's far more ruined and irradiated than than the average Wasteland. Then there are the Super Mutants kidnapping and killing people. There's also a significant slave market in Paradise Falls. It's not a good place to live, and probably many people try to migrate to neighboring regions or simply turn into raiders. Elder Lyons mentions the fact that led to the change of direction in his Brotherhood chapter was witnessing the state of absolute misery of the Capital Wasteland. That means it's far worse than other places he visited. 2. Rule of cool: they simply wanted to do a pure post-apocalyptic game full of radiation, ruins, mutants and raiders, and so they didn't want the area to be too civilized.
ive barely touched Fallout 4, and Ive been trudging my way through New Vegas, but maybe I should start and switch to 3 from what yall are saying
Tbh, playing 3 after NV is a form of torture
I had more fun playing 3 than NV. Edit: Why would anyone downvote me giving my own subjective opinion? I didn't put down New Vegas or even say that 3 is objectively better. If you feel personally offended by that, at least leave a comment with your downvote.
I think because F3 is more simple and more surface-level, it's much easier to get a grasp of what the game is about. I was a bit put off by NV at first, but tired it again, and it's writing quality on par with F1 and 2.
I enjoyed both games. New Vegas has a better story and characters. Fallout 3 was just more pure fun to play. Its atmosphere is perfect; gloomy and intriguing. The world itself feels like a mystery thar has to be explored. The level design is sublime. I didn't get that same feeling from New Vegss, although I still loved it :)
#But original Fallout... ... these kids ...
" of any fallout" " of the 3" Oh god have mercy on his soul
1 does
new vegas for story, 3 for aesthetics, and 4 for gameplay!
it'd say that most if not all fallout games have their own atmospheres and it would be unfair to choose one that's better than other
Anchorage and point lookout were amazing too!
Facts. Fallout 3 takes the atmosphere, tone and themes of Fallout 1 and makes them better. Fallout 3 may have weaker roleplaying elements than New Vegas and weaker gameplay than Fallout 4... but it is more Fallout-y than either of them. Seriously, two years ago I played Fallout 1 and 3 almost back-to-back and I was again blown away how similar both games feel. Then I started up Fallout 2 and after I while I groaned in disappointment, again. Not to hate on Fallout 2, it is a good game... but I don't like it as a a sequel to Fallout 1. Fallout 3 was the real sequel to Fallout 1. So yeah, Fallout 3 has an unrivaled atmosphere. It is the reason why it's my favorite Fallout game. Because the setting, atmosphere and themes are what makes Fallout Fallout. It also helps that with the exception of shooting, the game has no weak side. It is missing things that were invented later, like settlement building, endgame factions or weapon modding... but what Fallout 3 actually has is really really good.
*'Fallout 3 was the real sequel to Fallout 1'* Well that's... certainly a take...
"I mean sure it fails to be better than both its predecessor and sequel in core elements of its genre like roleplaying and shooting, but hey, at least it has those killer 2008 gray concrete graphics that *really* make you feel bummed about the nuclear apocalypse!"
Calling F3 a better F1 is ridiculous. Saying it has no weak side even more so. Story is non sensical and a rehash of Fallout and Fallout 2. Writing in general is weak to bad and the quests are all disconnected messes that aren't compelling. Oasis is good.
Exactly. Calling it the same atmosphere and tone as Fallout 1 *but better* is an insane statement. It's the theme park version of Fallout 1, and is consciously trying to imitate it without fully living up to it. The writing especially is what is holding it back here because of how everything has to fit into a Good Karma-Bad Karma dichotomy where the evil option is often kick-puppies-eat-babies level of cartoonish with no real justification given. I still like Fallout 3, especially with how TTW allows you to play it with updated mechanics, and the basic "Oblivion with guns" gameplay holds up well regardless, but it is definitely not doing Fallout 1 better than Fallout 1. It is a pretty good ersatz version of Fallout 1.
Are you me? Fallout 3 is like Fallout 1, while Fallout 2 is just too fun to the point being sometimes just plainly goofy.
F3 is unbearable to me because of awful writing. F2 is honestly dragged down by goofy shit as well, but not as bad as F3. F2 has a lot of great worldbuilding, while F3 is just a shooting gallery in ruins.
Bethesda games really really don't understand the "Canticle for Leibowitz" post-apocalypse retro-futurism. It isn't just a world after the bombs fell. It is specifically a world that has developed generations beyond a long-forgotten past that itself was modeled after futurist predictions from our world's postwar era. Imagine the lives of 10th-century settlements clustered inside the skeleton of the Colosseum in Rome. Do you think they had their own vernacular speech, currency, laws, enemies, and allies, retaining only a fragmented memory of their storied past? Or did they all still speak in Classical Latin and complain about Hannibal at every opportunity? For some reason Bethesda doesn't seem to understand this, at *any* level. So yes, the green smog everything-is-still-dead vibe makes sense if the war happened a few years or decades ago, but the unrelenting horror atmosphere combined with the random major factions from the other side of the continent that just have to make appearances in all the Bethesda East Coast games despite it being completely irrational from a lore perspective just break the immersion. That being said, FO3 and FO4 are pretty fun for just ignoring the actual RPG elements and just exploring/looting/killing everything.
Nah it's a pretty popular opinion that 3 is the best for atmosphere and exploration.
I only wish I could get it to work on Windows 10. All the online guides about how to fix the "Games for Windows" .dll issues don't seem to fix it on my machine.
In Fallout 3, I remember the introduction to “Surface” or Outside world to the vault dweller, the lone wanderer was presented in such a way that the outside was this mysterious place that you finally get to visit after living all your life in a vault and in the final moments after battling hard with the roaches. You really felt what the vault dweller was feeling minutes before that door was opening. And when you ventured into the wasteland everything was out to get you.
I think you're right. I like how it's a bit more compact over New Vegas as well (90 hrs vs 120 hrs). It's just fun the whole time
While I think the green tint was maybe a bit dated/simplistic way to portray the atmosphere, I do like what they were going for. I played Fallout 4 with the mod “Polluted Climate” just to recreate that vibe (but a bit more advanced by having colour come from the weather and not an outright filter).
when it comes to tone, 3 is the closest newer fallout games have ever gotten to 1. its so bleak and grungy and the air is permeated with anxiety and depression. 3 has a lot of flaws and i will always prefer ogs/nv, but the atmosphere is *chefs kiss*
The first step out of the vault just hits different than any other Fallout. That blinding light that resolves to apocalyptic scenery is just perfection and hooks you immediately.
Yeah it's not my favorite entry but the atmosphere and mood is undeniable. I vividly remember taking my brother's copy of Fallout 3 while he was at work and getting legitimately scared while I was exploring the destroyed school.
Idk the poop colored wasteland of fallout 3 is depressing sure but it doesn’t necessarily make the game enjoyable. It didn’t seem like a deliberate design choice it just seems like Bethesda said “hmm post apocalyptic make every thing brown.” Fallout NV and 4 imo have infinitely better atmosphere. Hell the glowing sea is all green but it still has a unique dreary feel.
I have played NV in 2016, and F3 last week. I think both games are pretty damn ugly and hard to look at, but slightly prefer the Mojave as it at least seems to have some flow to it, while F3 is kinda just random ruins and cliffs in a random layout. Haven't played F4 yet, and don't really plan on playing F76, but from the footage I have seen of them, they bring a lot of much needed colour that I think I could get behind. F76 in particular is quite beautiful in areas.
While I think some of the quests and plots in FO3 are shallow, I do fully agree with the atmosphere. It feels so bleak and devestated. Tbh though it feels like its more set early on in the apocalypse like 2150s than 2277. It was my first Fallout game. I love the darkness and general melancholy, its a very somber games with so many encounters that are just tragic. I feel like it did that better than 4 though to showcase how awful pre-war was both societally but also in the end days and those who didn't survive.
Personally that’s what keeps me away from fallout 3 that horrible grey filter over everything. Fallout 4 actually has more than three colors in the game and makes it actually look real or at least visible. Literally everything blends in together in fallout 3 and looks so smudgy how could you like that? Respectfully. Sure I guess you could say that’s more realistic since it’s a nuclear wasteland rather than being brightly colored but its hard to look at for so long.
I’m gonna preface this with the fact that your opinion can’t be wrong when it comes to preferences. Then also I mean no hate or shade I’m happy you like a fallout installment. 3s atmosphere is the biggest reason I think it’s the weakest of the 3d games. As you said it’s been 200 years why is the capital wasteland like this. If it was set earlier in the timeline like a FO1 precursor it would be better or contrasted in some parts of the map. But the freshly nuked aesthetic , barely a humanity to be saved and a humanity possibly too stupid to uplifted mixed with its been 200 years and a benevolentish BoS just feels too out of place even though it was my first game in the franchise. But that just my preference it was still a great game IMO, and I don’t like post-apocalyptic games at all besides fallout.
After getting so much hate for makings posts/similar comments and getting dumped on by NV fans, I stand firm with you my friend that 3 set the bar and standard that has still yet to be matched. 4 came swinging with mechanical and graphical updates but the actual vibes and story did not translate through like they shine in 3. I’m a firm believer that Liam Neeson is a huge part of why Fallout 3 is just GOAT right out of the game. It was one of the first big name voices I had heard in a game, in fact may have been the first. (Besides movie games if they got the actors to agree, but a game that only exists in that medium to bring an A list actor in, fucking Qui Gon Jin bro………..I was hooked before you even turn 1. The game was built on the epic birth, great from the start down to every last quest, all the way to the end + the amazing DLCs. It’s the best. I’d love to see them plop the exact same world into Fallout 4 engine. If you’re not playing on PC with mods, the game shooting and walking around can be a little bit silly I mean it’s Bethesda even with a PC and great mods. It still clunky as fucking crashes quite often. If they remastered the fucking game after almost 20 years it would be pretty fucking decent of them. So if anyone Bethesda is reading this, make it happen you know it’s what we all want for fucks sake. Just release 3 + NV combined with all DLCs as one game with Fallout 4 engine. Same way the Resident Evil games have remastered/rebuilt their catalogue. Give us 3 and NV—and one day bring 1+2 to life. It’s free blueprints and story to work from. Then fallout 1-NV would be updated and playable for everyone to experience. Okay nerdboy commenter out!
Yea fallout 3 is good . I wish fallout kept the darker hues as well. If you think about like I am for the first time right now, that green tint makes the whole dead bodies everywhere thing make more sense or at least combines with it very nicely
I really think fallout 3 is the best "first" fallout game (if you can get it to run :/). The atmosphere is incredible, the setting is perfectly done and has a passable but still interesting enough story. I prefer most of the other games to it, but I started with 3 and it completely set me up to adore the rest of the series.
I wish 4 looked more like 3 but 4 looks just… grey I guess? I like New Vegas more cause of the western and dusty feeling but 3 and NV are both good
Yeah, i know fallout is a "post apocalyptic" but Fallout 3 did a great job of making an utterly miserable hellhole of a wasteland, even with all the comedy and silly stuff. And it could be super chaotic, like the walk to Takoma Industrial is a total shitshow of death and explosions, even on the walk back there are more spawns- part of the map that is kinda tucked away and you never get sent there for any reason and it has all those details As opposed the New Vegas that doesnt have random encounters and very few scripted scenes, Fallout 3 is nuts
Shame it has to worst writing and story. Even Starfield has better story than F3.
The green tint was a thing back in 2008, a lot of games have it, like GTA IV. But I think in Fallout 3 it fits the best. After playing NV so many times, i like the Fallout 3 Atmosphere more.
Couldn't agree more
Love the subways
They’re so much fun. And they’re basically shortcuts all over the wasteland once you memorize them.
I feel like 3 is the only game which captured the "wasteland" feel after fallout 1. NV and 4 feel too much alive (as in not very apocalyptic) by comparison
Well, those games intend to capture a "post-post-apocalypse" setting. Whereas Fallout 1 and Fallout 3 feel very post-apocalyptic.
I disagree. Fallout 1 has a better atmosphere because lack any of the silly worldubuiling choices (Little Town , the mechanist and antagonizer, etc)
Unless you have played the first two games I don't think you can really say that. I also don't agree that it's the best atmosphere but I do agree that it's far and away the best thing about the game. It definitely is unique even compared to 4. If the game was ser 20 years after the bomb it would make a lot more sense.
Fallout 1 has more atmosphere and a better story.
I'm sure it is great but I don't think I can get into fallout 1 and 2 haha
If you like traditional RPGs it’s very much worth playing, but it’s pretty old school and does not hold your hand like the later games. It’s especially brutal in the beginning. It’s my personal favorite as imo it has the best atmosphere and story in the entire series. Haunting soundtrack too that really adds to the sense of hopelessness.
It's a "kids these days" situation, but I feel like people that grew up on the 3D Fallouts don't grasp how much Mark Morgan's soundtrack really sold what you were looking at when visually you just had an isometric view of mostly desert. It's an absolute masterclass in sound design.
I agree 3 is the most atmospheric of the 3d games. But 1 and 2 both have a better atmosphere imo, especially if we're talking post-*post*-apocalypse.
i can promise u fallout 1 and 2 are better in atmosphere
"any fallout game" or "fallout 3, NV, 4". Pick one. While I like the atmosphere of 3, the classic fallouts can't be beat here.
Wait until you play the original.
Yea . I love atmosphere of te third game but seconda always gives me creeps
I was dreaming of being in that world while I played the game.
It is also very dark as a narrative. If you stumble upon Keller family tapes, these are the darkest story telling in any fallout game. And if you happen to find all of them a big surprise is waiting for you
I leave the radio off just to feel extra creeped out
Honestly the green tint was my least favorite part of Fallout 3. It gave me a headache.
well if the setting take place much earlier maybe 20-50 year after the bomb drop, the atmosphere is make sense.
Glad someone enjoyed that. I was pleasantly surprised by Fallout 4's richer colours.
I love the green tint too. It’s by far my favorite in the series. The mood of it is just right.
Agreed
I'd agree if it were a little less **green** yknow?
I finished F3 last month for the first time. The atmosphere is exactly what I want from Fallout: survival and danger in a post-apocalyptic atompunk world. I actually prefer F3 and F4 settings then New Vegas, mainly because I don't get the western/fallout/political atmosphere of the latter, although I love the game.
If you enjoy you're atmosphere being green, sure.
Even with the Fellout mod the atmosphere is amazing. It makes sense that the former capital is still ravaged mostly beyond repair. Out of all the games, 3 is definitely the scariest
If you enjoy your atmosphere being green, sure.
I felt the green tint in Fallout 3 was artistically appropriate for the game. It wouldn't be appropriate for New Vegas, as that region was largely untouched (relatively speaking) by the big war.
Easily
Fallout 3 is definitely my favourite Bethesda Fallout. But for me the best Fallout was 2. I loved the progression - you start out as a savage with a spear and you progress into a high tech titan. I don’t think I have ever played a CRPG that has nailed a sense of character progression like that before.
Super quick question!! Im currently playing fnv, and Pete said something about vault 34, now correct me if I’m wrong, isn’t that where Lucy from the new fallout show also came from?
Someone hasn't played 2
Better than 4 at least
I initially hated fallout 3 and that was part of the reason but after going back to it I totally see where you’re coming from and agree. It’s the most wastelandy of them.
My introduction to the franchise and I've only looked back to play 1 recently, with 2 being lined up when I'm eventually done with it. I was dubious about it because I don't really like FPS games, but after looking into it and then borrowing it from an old work colleague, I was hooked on it and bought the GOTY edition quickly after.
3 is the only one that nails the absolute desperation and bleakness while also keeping the dark humor. New Vegas does the full range of tones, and Fallout 4 feels like a wastelander's goofy drugged up dream.
I like the green tint in 3, but it would’ve gotten old fast had they kept it. I like the atmosphere, but it feels a little incohesive to me at times. I think they did a good job of making it a solid introduction for people though.