Why is Fallout 3 so hated?

MrMagic

MrMagic

First time out of the vault
My question is just as the topic indicates: Why do so many of you here on NMA detest FO3 so greatly? I've been a fan of the Fallout series for a quite a few years now, and I personally enjoyed Fallout 3 just as much as all of the others (Excepting Brotherhood of Steel which I never played, thankfully). And I can understand not liking a game, but I have seen some people post about how it was the worst game they have ever experienced and how the developers need to die and Bethesda is the worst company ever and so on. So, name the things you don't like about it, but try to refrain from things like "I just hate it. I don't know why." You must have a reason to hate something, right? So tell me what you don't like about it, and moreover what makes you hate it with such a burning passion, and I will see if I can offer a counterpoint to it.
 
The reason why normal people disslikes Fallout 3.
The story is bad
It's annoying having to emtpy 5 mags to kill an enemy at higher lvl.

Etc etc

Reason why the NMA-people hates Fallout 3.
It's not Fallout 1!
 
I know you're new here (at least, newly registered), so I'd just like to warn you from the outset that threads like this happen with predictable regularity, and a lot of the regulars here get understandably irritated every time someone comes in and adds another carbon copy to the literally dozens that are already littering the boards rather than doing a cursory search.

That said, there are those that say I'm nicer than some, so instead of a bashing, here's a short recap of the last several years:

Fallout 3:
*Has a shallow storyline
*Has absolutely no meaningful choices to make or consequences to live with
*Has an incredibly shabby combat system
*Is too easy
*Makes no logical sense
*Lacks believable characters/motivations
*Is incredibly inconsistent in tone
*Maintains superficial aspects of the original games while largely abandoning or botching the tone, pacing, and subtlety of them
*Is incredibly simplified in comparison to its forebears

That's the shortened version of a very long list. There are counterpoints to all of these. Most of them have been repeated (and addressed in every possible way) at least bi-monthly since the game came out, and I warn you now that any attempt to re-use them again will probably result in either snark or silent indifference.
 
@Yamu, Thank you for the warning, even if it is a bit late :D But, in all honesty, I shouldn't be expected to read through every other thread on the forum, right? My point in this particular thread was to get more *specific* reasons, not the typical "I hated it and I regret ever gaining knowledge of it's existence". What I mean is, people act like it is the worst thing in the whole of the Universe, and that they would rather be tortured mercilessly for hours on end than play FO3. That is the level of dramatism I see when people discuss it on this forum and others as well, so I was curious more as to why it is *SO* f**king heart-wrenchingly bad for some people. That being said, I agree with about half of what you listed off, but what logical inconsistencies did you personally find in the game?
 
MrMagic said:
But, in all honesty, I shouldn't be expected to read through every other thread on the forum, right? My point in this particular thread was to get more *specific* reasons, not the typical "I hated it and I regret ever gaining knowledge of it's existence".
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Actually, quite the opposite! Since this forum IS a hub of all things Fallout, it rather behooves you to take a little effort to do your research before coming here and posing an oft-asked (and overly-repeated) question. You aren't pardoned from that just because you think you shouldn't have to. In fact, that very mindset is very rude. You're new, and you think you'll ask the question better and less presumptuously than the rest, so that exempts you from doing so much as a cursory glance to find out whether or not you're really the first to consider that? HARDLY!

The fact of the matter is that this topic will get locked in very, very short order. Just consider for a moment why that is. Is it because you came in, guns blazing, full of hate and resentment? Of course not. Is it because you were ignorant and unwittingly tripped over a few major faux pas? Well, kinda. Maybe you didn't mean for it, but that's what happened. So, before the mods descend and say "Look, we even have a STICKY telling users not to post this", the long and short is as such: There ARE specifics. Users HAVE gone into thoughtful detail to express genuine concerns and valid reasons for what you might consider blind hate. The effort HAS been gone to that you desire, and it's rather inconsiderate to presume that it has to be repeated, just for you.

Please just do a little searching, that's all. You can join in on the lengthy conversation among the stickied threads about this very topic, and see for yourself how many users have the exact answers you seek.

If, on the other hand, you wanted to ask the question, "Why do so many people BLINDLY hate Fallout 3?" then I suppose you might want to change your topic title. I still think that's already been done though, and this thread won't last much longer, regardless...
 
Eating 200 year old food, looking at 200 year old wood framed houses, when in reality this would be dust. All those superfluous dead bodies strewn around/inside raider camps. (really, stick heads on pikes outside camp. no one would live right next to the stench of decay)


It's just not well thought out at all. With all the immersion that going 3d, first person could have provided, the amount of immersion breaking aspects of Fallout 3 is truly mind boggling to someone with even a mere passing interest in what a post nuclear wasteland might be like.

It all would have made sense if this was DC 50 years after the war. 200 years? Feh.

And if I can nitpick, DC is just a retarded setting for a post nuclear story. Any major city is, really. The surviving parts of San Fran and LA were at least explained that the (small) areas the PC visits were spared total destruction. DC, being the center of government, would have been bombed into a glass puddle.

#1:
No ability to hit children in the crotch with sledgehammers. :mrgreen:
 
@mobucks, Yeah, I can get all of that. I suppose one might argue that no game is fully realistic, but that is a dead end argument. Although I think there are some 200 year old houses made of wood, but they have been well cared for and have not had to withstand nuclear weapons.

@Snap, Thank you for your comment, and I suppose it is lazy to say that I wont search for other threads, but I just had horrible pictures in my mind of me scrolling through 40 pages of drivel only to find a few answers. Also, I didn't necessarily imply that I could ask the question better. I wanted to know why it is hated to the extent that it is, although it seems I failed to convey that in my original post; my own fault of course. It just seems strange to me that so many people who are dedicated Fallout fans would dislike the game so much. I can see the flaws with it, and there are many, but I tried to overlook them as there were some points in the game that were very enjoyable. I have spent countless hours cursing unrealism and nonsensical going-ons in games, because I am the kind of anal retentive man who does that sort of thing, and yet I enjoyed FO3 thoroughly. I just feel that many of the reasons that people cite as being game-breaking points to be trivial or incorrect. Example: People often note the inability to kill children in the game, but this has nothing to do with the game design; the folks at ESRB deemed it unacceptable to murder virtual children in a game, and as such, the game would never have been released otherwise, nor any game that has child killing in it. There are others, but I'm sure you are aware of them. Once again, thanks for the bit of a wake-up call. I have a bad tendency not to read the stickies and rules on forums I am new to, probably because I assume they are all the same basic thing, though I was wrong in this case. Just out of curiosity, what is your take on FO3 and New Vegas?
 
MrMagic, you must understand that the Fallout series used to mean something in the choice and consequence RPG scene. People on these forums really enjoyed the franchise in one way or another, and Bethesda ruined it - beyond repair.

It is really a lost hope, and now all that's left is Wasteland. And that is going to be a great title. Already better than anything Bethesda produced in the past few years.
 
Sub-Human said:
MrMagic, you must understand that the Fallout series used to mean something in the choice and consequence RPG scene. People on these forums really enjoyed the franchise in one way or another, and Bethesda ruined it - beyond repair.

It is really a lost hope, and now all that's left is Wasteland. And that is going to be a great title. Already better than anything Bethesda produced in the past few years.
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Yeah that makes sense to me. I mean FO3 is nowhere close to being what the first 2 were by any stretch, but it was still fun to play for me. I think the major problem for a lot of people was turning FO3 into a first person shooter rather than turn based combat. I personally feel that they did a lot better with NV in terms of making it more RPG-like and it reminded me more of the originals. Hopefully if they release another Fallout, it will be even closer to the originals. Also, Wasteland 2 looks like it's going to be pretty awesome. I should definitely go pre-order it.
 
For me?

Remove little lamplight and I think F3 will gain 20% more quality instantly. But thats just me ... of course there are still other issues left like strange story plots, bad writing, particularly inconstient writting, no real choices/consquences (really the saviour of the wasteland but blowing up a town?), and the engine really doesnt age very well. I mean look at those faces and animations ...
*Edit
Though, to say this I dont think making F3 in to a TB game would change much actually. It would change the gameplay, yes. But Fallout was more then just combat. The story would still need a lot of improvements in F3. Particularly this rather silly father-son relationship. I am not saying it cant work, but it requires good writing and voice acting.

Makta said:
Reason why the NMA-people hates Fallout 3.
It's not Fallout 1!
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Sure. Thats what exactly NMA is! One large group of hive with a single opinion :p

Some even liked F3, even as Fallout game. I agree though, the "overall" consensus here is that its not a really good sequel. But the details where it lacks and what it does well can change from opinion to opinion.

Just saying. Better to avoid saying "NMA-People". We are a community after all. Which you can see best with some wasteland discussions, where some love the screenshots and a few others maybe not so much etc.
 
Don't listen to the nazi with the Codreanu portrait, he has no idea what he is talking about.
 
I did not hate Fallout 3. I played through it, and figured it was a good play. I didn't take it out the PlayStation, take my keys and scratch it up, break it in half, and piss on it and then re-package it and send it back to Bethesda like some people did.

However, the reason I probably didn't hate it like other people, is because all the while I was playing it, I just told myself that it was a spin-off. A game that was an official "part of the series", but was just something new that they wanted to try, kind of like Tactics (but Fallout 3 wasn't as bad as FO:T)

This is how I feel about the game, and I AM a veteran fallout player. I first played Fallout (the first one was my introduction to Fallout) in 2003 (been playing FO for ten years now, never gets old). I cant tell you how much I loved that game. Everyday I would go to bed, literally not being able to wait until tomorrow so I could get out of school and go home and play Fallout. I loved that game like it was my child (figuratively speaking). I am 20 now, and I still enjoy the game just the same.

I am just saying, Fallout was legendary. It was a very sad, dark day when we heard Fallout was leaving the hands of the original creators, and Van Buren would not come through. However, I did not even attempt to play Fallout 3 at first. But when I did, I didn't think it was that bad. It wasn't great, or near Fallout 1 status, but it wasn't bad.

The way I look at Fallout 3 is that it is a spin-off. Not part of the actual series, however still canon. The game wasn't bad. I liked the setting, the dark feel of a post-apocalypse, a feeling I hand not felt since Fallout 1. However, I still don't consider it part of the series. Maybe that is what helps me play the game without hating it.
 
Big Boss, please, for the love of God, PLEASE stop double posting on these forums! You can quickly and easily add on to your own posts by clicking the edit button.

MrMagic said:
@Snap, Thank you for your comment, and I suppose it is lazy to say that I wont search for other threads, but I just had horrible pictures in my mind of me scrolling through 40 pages of drivel only to find a few answers. Also, I didn't necessarily imply that I could ask the question better. I wanted to know why it is hated to the extent that it is, although it seems I failed to convey that in my original post; my own fault of course. It just seems strange to me that so many people who are dedicated Fallout fans would dislike the game so much. I can see the flaws with it, and there are many, but I tried to overlook them as there were some points in the game that were very enjoyable. I have spent countless hours cursing unrealism and nonsensical going-ons in games, because I am the kind of anal retentive man who does that sort of thing, and yet I enjoyed FO3 thoroughly. I just feel that many of the reasons that people cite as being game-breaking points to be trivial or incorrect. Example: People often note the inability to kill children in the game, but this has nothing to do with the game design; the folks at ESRB deemed it unacceptable to murder virtual children in a game, and as such, the game would never have been released otherwise, nor any game that has child killing in it. There are others, but I'm sure you are aware of them. Once again, thanks for the bit of a wake-up call. I have a bad tendency not to read the stickies and rules on forums I am new to, probably because I assume they are all the same basic thing, though I was wrong in this case. Just out of curiosity, what is your take on FO3 and New Vegas?
Click to expand...
My thoughts on New Vegas would take too long for the sake of a single question, and they would be way too derailing to the topic (which I'm surprised has been allowed to go on). But, for the sake of brevity, I can just say that "I loved New Vegas." As for FO3, I actually wrote a review on it (although my opinion has certain evolved, since then) that, due to multiple requests, I ended up pasting on these forums. In fact, you replied to the topic, but you probably missed it; but if you're curious, you can find it here, page 19, 6th post from the top.

It's funny that you mentioned finding it strange that fans would react so negatively to FO3. I personally thought it was the ONLY logical reaction at all. Not that excessive hate made sense, or that it was proper, but just that it's HOW one might feel it's necessary to respond when something they love nearly and dearly is at all altered. Any changes to the "classic Fallout formula" would have just been met with discontent, and such was indeed the case in the past. The fans were none too thrilled when they learned the details behind FOBOS, and as it turns out the game was so bad, their cynicism was actually justified. It stands to reason that a SECOND attempt at doing Fallout all over again, and once more in a totally different direction, would be met with skepticism at best, and utter antipathy on the other end of the spectrum. One Youtuber even made a video about the "history" of Fallout, and he correctly expressed that FO3's large fanbase was mostly comprised of players newly-introduced to the series from the game, while FONV's fanbase was, by contrast, largely comprised of fans of the original games, and that both groups tended to favor one game over the other. It makes sense when you think about it.
 
I liked it. It was the first Fallout I played and then I went back to play the others. It isn't as good as other games in the series, New Vegas is my personal favourite. Still there is more than one person on NMA so it isn't like there is just one opinion on the game.
 
BigBoss said:
I did not hate Fallout 3. I played through it, and figured it was a good play. I didn't take it out the PlayStation, take my keys and scratch it up, break it in half, and piss on it and then re-package it and send it back to Bethesda like some people did.

However, the reason I probably didn't hate it like other people, is because all the while I was playing it, I just told myself that it was a spin-off. A game that was an official "part of the series", but was just something new that they wanted to try, kind of like Tactics (but Fallout 3 wasn't as bad as FO:T)

This is how I feel about the game, and I AM a veteran fallout player. I first played Fallout (the first one was my introduction to Fallout) in 2003 (been playing FO for ten years now, never gets old). I cant tell you how much I loved that game. Everyday I would go to bed, literally not being able to wait until tomorrow so I could get out of school and go home and play Fallout. I loved that game like it was my child (figuratively speaking). I am 20 now, and I still enjoy the game just the same.

I am just saying, Fallout was legendary. It was a very sad, dark day when we heard Fallout was leaving the hands of the original creators, and Van Buren would not come through. However, I did not even attempt to play Fallout 3 at first. But when I did, I didn't think it was that bad. It wasn't great, or near Fallout 1 status, but it wasn't bad.

The way I look at Fallout 3 is that it is a spin-off. Not part of the actual series, however still canon. The game wasn't bad. I liked the setting, the dark feel of a post-apocalypse, a feeling I hand not felt since Fallout 1. However, I still don't consider it part of the series. Maybe that is what helps me play the game without hating it.
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I can understand why people dosn't like F3.. But how can you hate tactics?! It was awesome in a not so Fallout'ish way! Besides some minor graphical "problems"

BigBoss said:
Makta said:
Reason why the NMA-people hates Fallout 3.
It's not Van Buren!
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Fixed.
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NV is the "new" VB and most comments about how bad F3 is are connected to how awesome the first game was! The worst part is that people points out flaws in F3 that the first 2 games had themselfs.. Except the crappy story :P

Dragula said:
Don't listen to the nazi with the Codreanu portrait, he has no idea what he is talking about.
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So most of the posts i'm reading here are lies? Interessting..

Crni Vuk said:
For me?

Remove little lamplight and I think F3 will gain 20% more quality instantly. But thats just me ... of course there are still other issues left like strange story plots, bad writing, particularly inconstient writting, no real choices/consquences (really the saviour of the wasteland but blowing up a town?), and the engine really doesnt age very well. I mean look at those faces and animations ...
*Edit
Though, to say this I dont think making F3 in to a TB game would change much actually. It would change the gameplay, yes. But Fallout was more then just combat. The story would still need a lot of improvements in F3. Particularly this rather silly father-son relationship. I am not saying it cant work, but it requires good writing and voice acting.

Makta said:
Reason why the NMA-people hates Fallout 3.
It's not Fallout 1!
Click to expand...
Sure. Thats what exactly NMA is! One large group of hive with a single opinion :p

Some even liked F3, even as Fallout game. I agree though, the "overall" consensus here is that its not a really good sequel. But the details where it lacks and what it does well can change from opinion to opinion.

Just saying. Better to avoid saying "NMA-People". We are a community after all. Which you can see best with some wasteland discussions, where some love the screenshots and a few others maybe not so much etc.
Click to expand...

I should probably say "The old farts of NMA" ;)
 
It is simply a bad game, imo. Even without the Fallout name it would have a stupid story, a non-sensical gameworld, and a horrible fucked up skill system.
 
Makta said:
I can understand why people dosn't like F3.. But how can you hate tactics?! It was awesome in a not so Fallout'ish way! Besides some minor graphical "problems"
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Minus any graphical qualms, to this I'd say "thank you". I'm in the camp of "FOT was a good game", so all the hate is bizarre, to me. It obviously couldn't be compared on its RPG elements to the rest of the series, because it was essentially a squad based RTS game (with decent turn based mechanics), but it was fun to play, challenging without being stupid, fun without being easy, and visually it was eye candy. I STILL think it looks good. In summation, my PERFECT unreasonably-modded-to-perfection version of Fallout 2 would be if it was FO2 with killap's unofficial patch using FOT's visuals, or a heavily modded FOT to simulate FO2's gameplay, story, and everything else. Such a thing would be a dream for me to play.

Lexx said:
[Fallout 3] is simply a bad game, imo. Even without the Fallout name it would have a stupid story, a non-sensical gameworld, and a horrible fucked up skill system.
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Very brief, but succinct and to-the-point. If you were to take the novel-sized list of qualms and complaints about FO3, and their accompanying validations and explanations and citations and examples and anecdotes, and were to dilute it all into a single, bite-sized explanation, this is what you'd get.
 
Lexx said:
Even without the Fallout name it would have a stupid story, a non-sensical gameworld, and a horrible fucked up skill system.
Click to expand...

Let's not forget fucked up quests (where villagers start hating you for saving them from a bunch of vampires) and dialogs with lines, written by some retarded teenager who is heavily on ritalin.
 
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