Nice and concise summary for those of us who haven't had the chance to play it yet - thanks!
Decisions aren't hard to make. good decisions feel good. bad decisions feel bad. The "role playing" in the game is generally overall pretty poor I'd say. (see below)
Skills and perks don't REALLY affect gameplay. I'm level 14, haven't put a single point into any combat skills, and I'm finding it way too easy on very hard mode. I've died maybe 10 times. I also set my SAP to 1's (SPECIAL) CIL to 9's... no real noticable "penalties" using VATS for AP, carry weight, etc.
Very little challenge is on the table for the more "serious" players beyond the typical xbox get-drunk-play-a-game-2-night/this-weekend category.
Dialogue is totally turds most of the time. Sometimes it feels alright, but Deus Ex this is not! NPC's tend to respond erratically more often than not. You can tell the dialogue options aren't exactly well planned out. They just don't mesh together in sequence when having a conversation! I can never tell if someone is "angered" by my response or likes me less after the conversation is over. Sometimes they will act angry, then act cheerful if i immediately start another conversation with them again. Again, good decisions feeling good and bad decisions feeling bad are present in the dialogue just as well. beyond "humorous" insults... theres little reason you'd want to anger someone, threaten them, etc.
Poor plot and story line (so far).
Lots of mapping errors.
Tons of gameplay glitches
lot's of general design bugs... the thing just really feels very unfinished. it starts to feel more and more unfinished as you progress through the game. I hate it when games feel that way, good int he beginning, real lackluster in the middle, and they may pick up in the end, or they may just continue to decelerate further into oblivion (no pun intended, as Oblivion was at least decent). It really does feel Beta.
Lot of content/feel removed and stripped away from the authentic franchise. No New Reno, no gambling skill, technology is not as "tweaked out", dirty-feeling, philip k **** inspired, etc. Overall gameworld is "sameness", exploration reward payoff not high enough, skill utilization/benefits not high enough. (finding pinkerton in rivet city took me three hours, and my "reward", is to change the appearance of my face.... this cool neurotic scientist type with all this cool equipment and gear... no items, weapons, quests, etc... just "hey i'll change your face")
lot of content added that doesnt really add to the gameplay. "Useless weapons" such as the chinese pistol, cue stick, etc. Lots of "junk" items, but few quest items that you realize later are quest items. (as the game wasn't designed to make the player think that way and make "hard decisions" in the beginning about which items would later be important, and have to save things like geiger counters, ropes, radios, crowbars, pliers, wrenches, etc.) overdone retro-ization of the game, to make up for the very little orthogonal "future-ization" feel/flavor.
The combat and visuals overshadow all the other aspects of the game in a large proportion, resulting in a "car lot" game that is fun to "watch" than it is to actually purchase, take home and "drive".
Doesn't give enough of a contrasting feel in the locations that the west coast did in the other titles. Being able to go to new york, atlantic city, philadelphia, etc. could have given more flavor, but may not have meshed well... but it really doesnt mesh well anyway. you can kind of tell who worked on what, and when their "project ends" (and it ends abruptly).
It's very American (xbox) Dream and not very "mysterious" or intriguing. Depth limited to the sex, drugs, violence, and some coarse language that seems intentionally stuck in some places it doesn't necessarily seem to even belong.
Very mentally disengaging and non-stimulating. Diablo gives the cerebral cortex more of a workout than this.
Very greedy DLC for the "Games for windows deal", resulting in a patch that comes out just to correct problems associated with "live"... yet lots of players still seem to be having problems regardless. Bethesda made a very immoral decision to use games for windows with this IMO as it wasn't a convenience to players at all, it was a corporate deal.
Incredible sound and music that is both appropriate for the game, immersive to it's environments, and pay homage to the earlier titles (in some respects at least.)
some of the best combat in any game I've seen in a while.
VATS is the coolest new evolution in bullet time around (since bullet time!)
The weapons while not realistic (so what?) are rather balanced (most of them), and really do work well in the game, having more of a situational/response feel similar to that of titles such as counter strike, deus ex/system shock, or even unreal tournament.
great remakes of most of the weapons, such as the 10mm, 10mm SMG, laser pistol
great remake of the pipboy as well. really feels nice, looks nice, glows nice as you bring it up to your face. (It's rather hypnotic and strangely very comforting in ghoul infested subways. as you take stim-pack breaks from your assault rifle)
Touring a postwar capitol offers a lot of cool places to explore. A novel idea.
Great feel of rivalry between the brotherhood and supermutants like in the original series.
enclave returns.
bottlecaps return.
Overall, it is a fun sit-and-go game, but nothing remarkable really. I remember one time back in high school where i had a conversation over the phone with a friend, he called me up and asked me how to repair gecko's nuclear power plant and i walked him through it. he asked me where he could find a water chip, and i give him a few hints. this game isnt really that engaging. Bethsoft threw away the whole DND/classic roleplay feel to it and built a game world revolving around VATS that was in league with their earlier titles.
I'd say the game might DESERVE an "8" score out of "10" once all the bugs get worked out. if the DLC and expansions are cool, (and better than dog-meat armor) maybe a 9.
lot's of mods for the game already, some are pretty cool. ghoul/child races... chuck norris playable model. check out fallout 3 nexus sometime if you play the game.
