Fallout 3

 PC
User Score
7.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 5318 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3,751 out of 5318
  2. Mixed: 987 out of 5318
  3. Negative: 580 out of 5318
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  1. cheRRymonk
    Oct 30, 2013
    0
    The worst first-person Fallout game you could imagine! Small game map, oblivion-like instances, bad skill balance, horrible graphics (even old Fallout isometric graphics looks better), combats are extremely boring, VATS is nothing here while you have a high skilled character after 13 of game and a 99% headshot chance...
  2. Fuzi0n
    Apr 11, 2013
    0
    The worst Fallout game and one of the worst games I have ever played.

    If you want a Fallout game with a first person view that actually feels like a Fallout game, then get Fallout: New Vegas, it is a great game!

    Avoid this huge pile of crap at all costs. You have been warned.
  3. whatever523
    Oct 25, 2015
    0
    Low violence version = low score review

    The game wasn't even in danger of being censored or anything, it was just pure laziness on Bethesda's part to avoid the German violence rating process.
  4. Goodbad
    Jun 11, 2021
    0
    This game is copycat of fallout 1,2 in many ways. Very few new stories are added. Not even a proper RPG
  5. ReiAyanami
    Nov 27, 2018
    3
    And even more than the lack of plot depth, the world just did not have the same permanence as Fallouts past. A few days (an hour or two, depending on what you were doing) and you were welcomed once again. And this applies to just flat out shooting someone in the face in town square. At noon. In Fallout past, that would have guaranteed death on sight. In Fallout 3, it is a temporaryAnd even more than the lack of plot depth, the world just did not have the same permanence as Fallouts past. A few days (an hour or two, depending on what you were doing) and you were welcomed once again. And this applies to just flat out shooting someone in the face in town square. At noon. In Fallout past, that would have guaranteed death on sight. In Fallout 3, it is a temporary annoyance.

    And also, in this new Fallout world, your freedom of action is greatly limited, plus your character variety is badly flawed. In Fallout previous, your attributed determined your skillsets, which determined your approach to the game, from brute force hulk with BIG guns, to the leader of a party through Charisma, Fallout allowed you ultimate freedom to solve your quests. Not Fallout 3. The few skills you have to work with now matter less than the three you actually need to finish the game.

    Yes, the world is huge compared to Fallout previous, but is so EMPTY compared to the previous offerings. It is a wasteland, devoid of the culture that made Fallout special. Plus the way you get sucked into the rushed ending, with no warning that you are in the endgame, left me frustrated that I really had no opportunity to explore the landscape fully.

    Overall, this feels like another game wearing Fallout clothes, and doing it badly. A below average FPS, and a bad RPG, but overall a slap in the face to RPG fans, and another stain on the franchise. Bethesda is absolute trash    … Expand
  6. Kakkaismo
    Mar 15, 2018
    1
    Omg bad game cant even quickscope in this. Wow reported for bad game. I couldnt use aimbot. Huono peli reportttt. N000bzzzz play dizzz game. Bad grApchicsz cod bo3 better.
  7. ForegoneGem439
    Dec 2, 2018
    3
    Fallout 3 is a all-round glitchy and rather boring game, with a weak plot and characters. Compared to its squeals, Fallout 3 has characters and companions with no personality, only existing to hand out quests to the player. The story is rather uninteresting and can be completed in under a hour if you follow only the main plot. The game in itself is plagued with glitches and mistakes thatFallout 3 is a all-round glitchy and rather boring game, with a weak plot and characters. Compared to its squeals, Fallout 3 has characters and companions with no personality, only existing to hand out quests to the player. The story is rather uninteresting and can be completed in under a hour if you follow only the main plot. The game in itself is plagued with glitches and mistakes that could easily be fixed, but the developers never did. The game is also mistagged, as it is not a RPG seeing it comes up with your character’s backstory for you. However, the game does have some positives. The game controls well and VATS system is great way of adding the original elements from the previous games. Otherwise, Fallout 3 is not a Fallout game and no one should play this game.… Expand
  8. bubyilda
    Nov 23, 2019
    1
    One of the worst fallout games, bad atmosphere, wick story and characters are very borimg
  9. Makks
    Dec 23, 2020
    2
    A good representation of what can go wrong when designing an open world. Game is boring, badly balanced, with an hilariously dumb morality set in poor dialogues, served by streamlined systems that didn't get a second thought. It is a mediocre FPS and an insult to all what original Fallout devs achieved with 1 and 2.
  10. LucaStoicel
    Jan 5, 2021
    4
    Look I can completely respect anybody's opinions and stuff for liking this game, and I'm not saying you can't enjoy Fallout 3, but you have to admit that Fallout 3 is objectively the worst Fallout, as there is little to no emotional stakes and dilemmas for your character to come across in the world of Fallout 3. As in, there is no real choices to be made as you can only ever be either aLook I can completely respect anybody's opinions and stuff for liking this game, and I'm not saying you can't enjoy Fallout 3, but you have to admit that Fallout 3 is objectively the worst Fallout, as there is little to no emotional stakes and dilemmas for your character to come across in the world of Fallout 3. As in, there is no real choices to be made as you can only ever be either a goodie two shoes or Satan, there is no grey area where different opinions can lead to different choices that be both good or bad in different perspectives like in the previous games or even Fallout New Vegas. Also Todd Howard is an atrocious game designer, as he made the terrible mistake of generally leveling every enemy in the game to be beatable by a low level character as he thought that would be the easy solution to solving the problem of "if the player can go anywhere immediately how can we make sure they don't unfairly die against high level enemies?" As a result after a few level ups you are practically unstoppable and all sense of danger or tension from combat is erased. Another example Todd's lazy excuses for game design would be the quest marker, instead of using elements of the game's potential design or atmosphere to give the player a sense of direction he lazily put a marker in the bottom corner of our screen to help us. I ask you this, is it challenging or rewarding to discover a new area from walking in a straight line? No? I thought so. Now with all this negativity there is some positive things to be said about Fallout 3, like you said simply exploring the world can just be really fun in its own right and a good chunk of those side quests can be really engaging. However, what Bethesda and a lot of game reviewers say about this game, that it's a game about player choice and freedom, with a grand amount of good quality content when the evidence I provided with this comment clearly states the contrary, you should know that they are wrong, and that Fallout 3 is objectively the worst game in the series. Apart from Fallout 76.… Expand
  11. voicedtunic
    Sep 9, 2021
    2
    One really easy way to describe this game is… boring.

    To start off, you’re born. Bit cliche, but fine. You you spend 5 minutes listening to an unskippable cutscene where you pick your name and looks, then spend another 5 minutes walking around as the slowest **** baby ever and choose your special stats while your dad rambles on about some **** bible verse I still can’t remember. Then the    One really easy way to describe this game is… boring.

    To start off, you’re born. Bit cliche, but fine. You you spend 5 minutes listening to an unskippable cutscene where you pick your name and looks, then spend another 5 minutes walking around as the slowest **** baby ever and choose your special stats while your dad rambles on about some **** bible verse I still can’t remember. Then the game forces you to interact with the most boring npcs in the world at your 10th birthday party for another 5 minutes and then teaches you how to aim and shoot like any person with above a room temperature IQ should know. You then take a meaningless quiz which takes **** ages and choose tag skills. If you haven’t turned off the game yet, you finally get to leave the vault. But not before you run past guards who want to kill you for no reason! Then, come to the shocking realisation that was just the tutorial. An amazing quote by Mr Howard himself, “when you step out that vault, it feels like you’ve already spent you’re entire life in there” yes Todd, I literally have spent my entire **** life in there. Freedom at last! What will the world contain! Amazing people, places, hidden secrets? Nope, just hundreds and hundreds of copy pasted bushes with the occasional house with some ammo inside to make you feel like you’re not just holding down W. The real problem with this game isn’t the fact that the devs didn’t put good content in, because there are great missions and stories in the game, but the fact that they didn’t let players find any of it. After I finished the game for the first time, I was happy and thought, wow, that was fun. Then I looked at my second monitor and realised I had a hundred tabs open all along the lines of: “how do I find _____ fallout 3”, “how to start _____ quest fallout 3”, “where is ____ fallout 3”. This game simply is not fun unless you know how to play it already, or if you know where everything is already, the game gives you no sense of direction of where to find the fun bits, all it does is put a tiny little marker in the corner of the screen telling you where to go to find a clue about your father who you already forgot about.

    TL:DR: fallout 3 has fun bits, but doesn’t let you find them, and forces you to do boring stuff.    … Expand
  12. squidyy666
    Dec 11, 2021
    0
    wasted many hours exploring the waste land, this was the entery that got me into the franchise though i do struggle to replay FO4 as the story is pretty bland. still a better story than FO4.
  13. Moskonavt
    Mar 7, 2022
    0
    In Russian region a can`t buy this game, besides all Bethesda games blocked in Russia. It`s so stupid. Non-politics games.
  14. H1tman1488
    May 3, 2022
    0
    This game is horrible. Horrible graphics release,horrible shooting. I don't recommend this game for purchase.
  15. nastyjes
    Apr 15, 2023
    4
    meh .
  16. madtrex122
    Dec 27, 2022
    2
    I'm sure that someone feels this is the best Fallout game of all time, maybe even THE best game of all time. I am not that person. This game feels like baby's first shoot-em-up, the gun play feels atrocious (it's 2008 why do none of the guns have iron sight aiming), the story is so linear it's almost comical, and none of the exploration even matters.
    Mainly, none of the quests matter.    I'm sure that someone feels this is the best Fallout game of all time, maybe even THE best game of all time. I am not that person. This game feels like baby's first shoot-em-up, the gun play feels atrocious (it's 2008 why do none of the guns have iron sight aiming), the story is so linear it's almost comical, and none of the exploration even matters.
    Mainly, none of the quests matter. Even the most ardent defenders of this game can point to 2 good quests, Wasteland Survival Guide and Oasis. Wasteland Survival Guide feels like a tutorial mission for the mid-game; "Learn about radiation and limb damage", "learn about x location" and by the time you finish the first chapter it's worn out its welcome. Oasis is...fine, but everything seems designed so that you'll never find it, from it only being accessible through a thin mountain path right to the very north, to it's location only being given to you via random encounter. Half the locations are entirely useless, providing nothing but set dressing and maybe a bobble head or skill book (if you're lucky). The only reason this isn't a 0/10 is because some characters are pretty fun and likeable, and some of the setpieces like Tranquility Lane and the Liberty Prime battle are somewhat enjoyable. Just... save your money and get a better game.    … Expand
  17. Chillaoi
    Jan 13, 2023
    2
    Review só pra lembrar a nota que dei pro jogo:
    Historia horrível, personagens ok, tutorial insuportável e um mapa grande sem muitas coisas pra fazer.
    P.S.: Estou cansado da brotherhood of steel, no fallout 1 e 2 já foi suficiente.
  18. ChiIIaoi
    Apr 6, 2023
    2
    Review só pra lembrar a nota que eu dei pro jogo:
    historia ruim mas com umas missões legais, agora só escrever pra passar dos 75 caracteres.
  19. mumbo
    Sep 4, 2023
    3
    this game is a disaster. after the beginning the game falls apart like a bad marriage. the game makes you fight high level enemy's at the very beginning [the first mission] not to mention how bland the gameplay and story is. disappointment after playing new vegas.
  20. Alias--
    Sep 11, 2023
    4
    It's just a sucky version of Fallout New Vegas, my advice is to just play that instead
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Awards & Rankings

3
#3 Best PC Game of 2008
1
#1 Most Discussed PC Game of 2008
1
#1 Most Shared PC Game of 2008

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
91

Universal acclaim - based on 48 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 45 out of 48
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 48
  3. Negative: 0 out of 48
  1. PC PowerPlay
    90
    Minor niggles aside, Fallout 3 is almost entirely spectacular. Everything from the graphics, to the sound, to the plot is first-rate. The VATS system worlds like a charm, and it’s so easy to get the hang of, you’ll be cracking skulls like there’s no tomorrow. [Dec 2008, p.55]
  2. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    100
    A vast and open world of unimaginable possibilities opens in front of you in Fallout 3. Great story, flawless combat system, and the option to choose your own way makes it a hot candidate for game of the year. [Nov 2008]
  3. Meristation
    95
    Fallout 3 is one of this year's best games. It's an unforgettable journey that lives up to the series. You are an ex-vault 101 inhabitant, and you discover a whole new world, full of zombies, mutants, raiders, aliens and all kinds of creatures. Welcome to this post-apocaliptic reality, where you are going to spend hundreds of hours.
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