It's apparent from the start of the game just how polished it is. The character creation is actually built into the story of the game. Instead of a thoughtless character editor before the game begins, your character is actually BORN into the game. Various story elements bring your character to life, from the doctor checking if you're a boy or girl, all the way to actually taking an aptitude test to determine which skills you should tag for a starting boost. Following your character as he or she grows up and makes decisions gives you an actual attachment. Unlike a game like Gears of War, where you're busted from a prison cell with no back story at all, you actually have time vested in your character's past, and that makes a huge difference.
When you step out into the ruins of Washington D.C. the first time, it really hits you - this WAS the capitol of the United States. From the girders of the Washington Monument to the fortified Citadel that was once the Pentagon, you instantly understand the magnitude of destruction that has occurred, and you're almost forced to thinking about what you could possibly do in such a situation. Then you remember, it's just a game, and you have a waypoint marker. Back to reality.
The gameplay is fantastic. Your wonderfully styled Pip-Boy, complete with retro DOS fonts and monochrome display, shows your status, inventory, maps, quests, everything. You can swing a baseball bat or shoot a gun in real time (first OR third person), or you can bring up your VATS display to pinpoint where your attacks will land. The VATS mode will most likely please old school Fallout fans, as your attacks use Action Points and bring a more retro turn based experience to what otherwise looks like an FPS. Even the sound effects when you turn on VATS are true to the series. And the GORE is phenomenal. Heads explode, heads and limbs fly off, people turn into piles of goo and ash, and if that's not enough, a certain perk makes enemies completely EXPLODE into guts and blood at a fairly decent rate.
Another thing about the game that really appeals to me is the variety of ways that you can go about doing things. You can always go guns blazing of course, but there is almost always another way of going about things. It's so open ended that you're really only limited by your own imagination. To keep spoilers to a minimum, I'll use an early quest as an example.
When you enter Megaton, you're looking for some information about a missing person. After asking around, you find out this one guy has the info you need, but he wants you to pay him 100 caps. If you have 100 caps, you can do that, easy. If you don't, he wants you to do go collect money from a drug addict. You can do that as well. If you have some skill in lockpicking, you can forgo all of this and pick his cabinet lock, take his computer password, and get the information from his computer. If you have enough skill in science, you can just hack the computer and find it out that way. If you don't mind wanton destruction, you can shoot the guy in the head (or plant a live grenade in his pocket), take his password, and use his computer as well. If you're not a fan of killing, stealing, hacking, or paying, you can get the Lady Killer perk when you level up for the first time, and a friendly woman at the bar will give you the password to the computer if you play your cards right. Do you see what I mean by open ended yet?
There seems to be just an endless amount of quests as well. Almost everyone you meet has some information on a new location or a quest they need done. If you like to explore, you're really in luck here. I've read that the story can be completed in 90 minutes or less, but I can say first hand that I've spent longer than that on a single side quest.
The perks for leveling up are really fun as well. I've already discussed two of them, but also on the list is are perks to let you feed off corpses (though you lose karma and can be attacked by police for it), collect ears or fingers from enemies and turn them in for money and karma, boost stats, and much more. The limits on character customization are about as definite as the ways to complete quests.
There are also some fantastic weapons you can make through schematics. I made a weapon called a shishkabob, which is essentially a flaming sword, out of some junk parts. I've also seen videos of a Rock-It Launcher, which hurls whatever junk you pick up (hilarious).
I did find a couple of things wrong with the game though, despite my overall infatuation with it. First off, it seemed to me like the enemies scaled to your combat level, which I'm not a fan of. I like to level up and beat the crap out of things that would've beat the crap out of me earlier. Now I've read that this isn't the case - the OXM review says everything is preset. However, it seemed even in full power armor and a minigun, a mole rat that I could dispatch with my newbie gun in the beginning of the game would still give me a bit of trouble. Also, at one point in the game I persuaded the people I was escorting to leave one member of the party behind, due to his heart condition (he was dying, needed medicine, whatever). I came back to that area later, and he was still there! He was quite rude to me as well, trying to convince me he was busy, standing there in the sewer all by himself.
Achievements are mostly for completing quests or gaining levels with specific karma levels. There is an achievement for pickpocketing a live grenade into someones pocket though, which is hilarious.
As you can see, this is much more than Oblivion with guns. It's everything great about old school Fallout games, with the power of new hardware. I highly advise that you pick this one up if you're a fan of these types of games. From what I've seen, it has everything.
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