Bethesda’s was the first booth I headed for on day two of the Tokyo Game Show and I was rewarded with a free doll! Not only that, but I got some quality time with Bethesda’s highly anticipated title, Fallout 3.
In the demo you are given the task of escaping a vault called Vault 101. It was in Japanese, so all of the conversations I had with people in the vault were rendered useless, but it was interesting to see the much-hyped conversation choices work all the same.
After a few minutes, I had an encounter with a military official which escalated into combat. I fired my entire clip of ammunition into the two men swinging metal bars at me, but the men continued unabated. I used my PIP-boy 3000 to select the crowbar and had a few swings at the bad guys. I was barely dealing any damage until I pressed LT, which zoomed the action into a close up analysis of my foe in frozen time. I selected his body and pressed attack. A stylized lunge took place and pretty soon the two officers were dead on the floor. I looted their bodies and explored the vault.
There was nothing to get excited about in the vault, or the rest of the demo for that matter. Outside the vault was an arid desert, scattered with dry flora. I was disappointed how few items I could pick up and the environment did not come across as particularly interactive. There were however, a multitude of items to be found on dispatched enemies, even on the many large cockroaches I had to kill.
In terms of gameplay, Fallout 3 is more similar to Bethesda’s other masterpiece Oblivion than the original Fallout. Item menus are laid out in the same way as Oblivion, as is the instant removal of clothes from bodies lying around if you choose to take them. The combat outside of the slow-motion/lock-on mode also mirrors Oblivion, with LT blocking and RT swiping or shooting, with a powerful attack occurring if you hold RT for longer. There is also a stealth mode like Oblivion, which slows the player down. The character moves too slowly even outside stealth mode, but in general the controls are fluid and well mapped. Lacking in the demo was the ability to quick-change weapons, instead relying on accessing the PIP boy to switch weapons. Assuming this will be in the final release, this could prove really annoying as nobody wants to take 3 seconds to change weapon. Hopefully it will be included, or perhaps I missed it (although I did ask an employee and he just referred me to the PIP boy).
Another area of interest is the third-person view. I prefer first person in every game I play, but the third person mode was also enjoyable to use. Rather than the Oblivion approach, Bethesda have opted for an over the shoulder, Resident Evil style camera view. This suited me fine and I feel as though both camera views work well enough to comfortably play the game. The visuals are crisp and the game is well presented all the way down to the tiny details, like posters on the walls.
It’s a shame there was no opportunity to delve into the story any more than I could, but otherwise this session has left me impatiently waiting for October 31st (EU release date).
