Maturity: Adult
Learning Curve: Experienced Gamer
Visuals: Stunning
Gameplay: Good
Story: Good
Politics: Silly
Fallout 3 is the game for an adult gamer who likes the first person shooter genre and likes to dip into the role playing genre. Excellent graphics and smooth controls make for a great shooter experience, though you'll often find yourself cursing your lack of ammunition and tendency of your weapons to break down.
Set in post-nuclear Washington, D.C., you find yourself in control of a "Vault Dweller," a human whose family was selected to ride out the apocalypse in a sealed, underground facility. You're booted from your comfortable home when your father (voiced effectively by Liam Neeson) "escapes" into the irradiated wilderness and the vault's population flips out. So, off you go to fight gun to sword to laser rifle against hideous mutants, Mad Max derived Raiders, and leftover U.S. government robots that yell in hearty, masculine tones about the evils of Chinese Communism.
The selling point of Fallout 3 for me is atmosphere. The game is darkly beautiful, sucking you into a believable nightmare of post-nuclear America. Playing it alone in my apartment at night occasionally had me shivering on my way to bed as I hummed one of the haunting ballads on "Galaxy News Radio."
The question of political messages reaching impressionable minds is lessened by the mature audience lable, but Silicon Valley, like Hollywood, can never seem to avoid SOME anti-U.S. barbs. The extent of such is minor, and usually humorous, but the worst offenders I'll list here:
-In the "alternate universe" Fallout 3, America was highly technologically advanced, but had the cultural and stylistic norms of the 1950's (or, as Coulter would say, "The black night of fascism"). It is suggested that the nuclear war began as a result of a militaristic, jingoistic America getting into an out of control war with Red China.
-You discover the hideous results of American scientists unethically experimenting on humans, per orders of the pre-war government.
-"The Enclave," a group purporting to bring back the American government, is a racist, psychotically violent pack of fiends.
Interestingly, though, you can find a nod to the Founding Fathers and their vision of limited government, even mentioning the individual right to bear arms against an oppressive state.
All in all, Fallout 3 is a great game, but definitely NOT for children. It earns its MA rating with language, gore, and general creepiness.