...and i finished the game for the first time at level 15. and i did side quests. trying to keep this spoiler free now.
i don't quite know what to say. i am disappointed. while the time inside the vault was nicely done, the moment you exit, it goes downhill. while the environment is nice, it somehow magically manages to not project the same feeling of wasteland that the first two games did. maybe because there are enemies freakin' everywhere. my mind is still racing, so i'll just put down the pros and cons:
+tutorial. nicely done.
+vault 112. genius.
+some of the abandoned houses make up 80% of the atmosphere - i found one that had a bed with two hugging skeletons in it.
-generic story
-fps combat in real time is broken. plain and simple.
-v.a.t.s. == cheating
-dungeon crawling
-can heal crippled limbs with stimpacks?!
-quest logic breaks easily, example(i do not consider this a spoiler, since the megaton quest is widely known): i talked to burke, refused. told the sheriff. went back together. sheriff arrests burke. burke shoots him in the back. i shoot burke in the face. whole questline gone. even days later mr. tenpenny doesn't seem to notice that burke is dead, let alone care, and keeps sniping random wanderes of the wastes.
-power armor can be acquired in the first 2 hours of the game. effortlessly. (although it cannot be worn until later. but up to that point i could have easily amassed countless sets of PA of various types)
-i had zero sympathy for any party member, except one. and that one joins in the last 30 minutes of the game. they constantly run through your line of fire and thanks to v.a.t.s. there is nothing you can do about it.
-humongus amounts of in-combat gibberish
-there is exactly one enemy in the game that requires the nuclear catapult. thank god the thing is conveniently found close by.
-random crashes
so. was it fun? well, most of the time. did it capture the spirit of the originals? no. way too much shooting. way too little atmosphere.
at least i had no drm-related problems.
edit: just two more things
+/- dialogue is so-so. i LOLed at some lines, but usually the available options are not what i would've said.
-character movement/expressions. cheesy and sub-par.
edit 2: i meant vault 112, not 87
i don't quite know what to say. i am disappointed. while the time inside the vault was nicely done, the moment you exit, it goes downhill. while the environment is nice, it somehow magically manages to not project the same feeling of wasteland that the first two games did. maybe because there are enemies freakin' everywhere. my mind is still racing, so i'll just put down the pros and cons:
+tutorial. nicely done.
+vault 112. genius.
+some of the abandoned houses make up 80% of the atmosphere - i found one that had a bed with two hugging skeletons in it.
-generic story
-fps combat in real time is broken. plain and simple.
-v.a.t.s. == cheating
-dungeon crawling
-can heal crippled limbs with stimpacks?!
-quest logic breaks easily, example(i do not consider this a spoiler, since the megaton quest is widely known): i talked to burke, refused. told the sheriff. went back together. sheriff arrests burke. burke shoots him in the back. i shoot burke in the face. whole questline gone. even days later mr. tenpenny doesn't seem to notice that burke is dead, let alone care, and keeps sniping random wanderes of the wastes.
-power armor can be acquired in the first 2 hours of the game. effortlessly. (although it cannot be worn until later. but up to that point i could have easily amassed countless sets of PA of various types)
-i had zero sympathy for any party member, except one. and that one joins in the last 30 minutes of the game. they constantly run through your line of fire and thanks to v.a.t.s. there is nothing you can do about it.
-humongus amounts of in-combat gibberish
-there is exactly one enemy in the game that requires the nuclear catapult. thank god the thing is conveniently found close by.
-random crashes
so. was it fun? well, most of the time. did it capture the spirit of the originals? no. way too much shooting. way too little atmosphere.
at least i had no drm-related problems.
edit: just two more things
+/- dialogue is so-so. i LOLed at some lines, but usually the available options are not what i would've said.
-character movement/expressions. cheesy and sub-par.
edit 2: i meant vault 112, not 87
