What i really want to talk about this one is actually the
plausability and yet the huge diversity
of the world depicted in
Fallout 3. To be honest I’ve never experienced such a variety of situations you
can stumble upon. That’s due mostly to the brilliant scenario, IMO. The choice
of the setting is allowing practically limitless directions of development.
Before I indulge, I just want to briefly describe the state of the world the
game’s main storyline is taking place.
USA is
engaged in war with China, and in the war reaches it’s escalation point when
nukes start to fly destroying all, irradiating the entire Earth’s surface with
massive radiation. People were forced to retreat to Fallout shelters that were
built all over USA. After a certain amount of time they’re opened and people resurface
to find entire new situation on the surface. The player is put in a role of one
of the guys who comes out of the shelters.
First, this scenario offers a world of
possibilities. People who stayed are suffering severe radiation symptoms (decay
of the skin) and are shunned by the people who were not affected by the
radiation. This actually makes a lot of sense, since the people who could not
afford/couldn’t get to the Vaults were mostly farmers and in general people
with low financial standing so in the chaos that followed the bombing they
called upon their primal survival skills and employ unethical methods to
continue their lives. Most of them, anyways…
The
pinnacles of power are always formed around the money wells. The Enclave , who
are self-proclaimed descendants of the US Government , (basically politicians
and part of military) who are using the current situation to perform multitude
of testing for their variety of agendas (creating super soldiers, silencing the
speakers of the people or everyone with a potentially harmful opinion,
eradicating their failed experiments with mutation) and the Brotherhood of
Steel , which are essentially well organized technology scavengers ( formed
also by part military/scientists) with an honor code embedded in their beliefs.
There is also the mutants, who were actually humans infected with a virus
developed by the Enclave, and a lot of other fractions - various AI’s and
androids/robots , aliens, Raider gangs and groups and whatnot. Add that to the fact that the
world is on a crossroad, there are ideals and there are tools so basically
everyone forges the world in his own direction.
So, back to
my original point, basically just by providing a fruitful setting for the
storyline quests and various situations the player can get himself into is
tremendous. Every “what if” idea can sprawl a city/encounter on the map when
that idea is brought to life ( and there are pretty awkward ones , like “What
if I make my own state and name it after myself , where everyone does what I say”
to the utopian ones like “What if we organized to defend people everywhere” ). To
make the situation more real, every idealistic commune (a city or an organization)
has individuals who think differently on the idea which they themselves are a
part of. So you have a human-loving mutant, anti-slaver fighter with a knack
for monetary, Brotherhood of steel member who does not share the zeal and enthusiasm
of his fellows (a.k.a. he just works there) etc, etc..
All of the
ideas implemented make sense and not seem “made up”. But what’s more realistic is the painting of
the humans as individuals in that big picture. For I think that in every human
is the desire to be unique and at the same time the desire to be a part of
something. A game trait which for me
(and whole lot of other people) is a solid base for building an immersive
experience.
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