It is difficult to imagine a fan of the post-apocalypse genre who would not play or hear about Fallout 3. Codes that can change one or another aspect of the entire project are freely available, but not all of them use it. And if they do this, they don’t abuse it. What is this game about and why is it so popular? This will be discussed in the article.
Author's idea
The plot of all the games in the series is based on the idea of ​​confronting such superpowers as the USA and the USSR, which ultimately led (in an alternative reality) to nuclear war. The very image of the American dream is clearly traced in the form of a house with a TV, refrigerator, Coca-Cola, roadside eateries and Elvis Presley songs.
In reality, in the 50-60s, the United States really lived in fear of an atomic war. Therefore, bomb shelters were built, significant food supplies were made, thematic films were made, specialized classes were held in schools in order to teach children how to behave in a nuclear strike.
The developers decided to go further, as if everything did not end with a "thaw." So one of the most promising projects was born, which attracted the attention of gamers.
Gameplay
The highlight lies in the unique mechanics, which has become something like a Fallout 3 visiting card. The beginning of the game is technically reminiscent of Skyrim: the gamer is smoothly led to the need to determine what the character will be. Here the same thing, only in the aforementioned RPG the hero is taken to execution, and in “Fallout” the plot begins from birth: the protagonist sees his father.
The scene launches a character generation script, after which the gamer selects the gender, creates a face. Then the father removes the surgical dressing, and striking a resemblance to the hero who has just been generated. The ingenious idea of ​​the developers, thanks to which the project is intriguing literally from the first seconds. Perhaps we can safely say: Bethesda set the standard for how any RPG game should begin.
Next is the scene where the hero is still a child and must take the book from the shelf - the first quest in Fallout 3, after which you have to decide what the character will be: strong, agile, smart and so on. The system of characteristics (SPECIAL), characteristic of the game, has no analogues:
- Strength
- Perception
- Endurance
- Charisma (charm).
- Intelligence
- Agility
- Luck (good luck).
The development of indicators contributes to the emergence of unique skills, as well as new branches of dialogs. Accordingly, behind this task, which consists in opening the book, there is an additional point in favor of one of the aforementioned characteristics.
A scene follows the character’s birthday, which shows his stage of development, and then an exam in the Vault, which will help determine the skill. These affect various aspects of the game: from adjusting certain characteristics to the ability to use weapons with greater benefit. More will be discussed later.
Battle system
Reviews of Fallout 3 from video bloggers note the genius of the author’s idea in terms of the development of combat mechanics. You can not just shoot from the hip at opponents from any weapon, but literally “savor” the moment using the system (VATS), which allows you to select the area on the enemy’s body where the blow will be struck.
Thanks to the Slow Motion technology, players were able to appreciate the brilliance of the moment when dealing critical damage to the enemy. The action is played out in slow motion with the camera turning (just like in the Matrix).
Skills
As mentioned above, skills in Fallout 3 are unique characteristics that affect various aspects of the game. Before choosing those, it is recommended to read the description. Points are awarded with each level in Fallout 3, so when the desired number is accumulated, the protagonist has the opportunity to choose the category in which he wants to improve the character.
Skill points earned can be increased. This may be affected by certain game events, wearing armor, reading related books, abilities (bonus perks), and cheating codes. Fallout 3 offers the following development paths (see table).
Skill | Source parameterSpecial | Book | Description | The code |
| Steel arms | Force | Grognak Barbarian | The only skill that the Strength attribute can lead to. Determines the degree of effectiveness of using melee weapons. It doesn’t matter if it’s an ordinary pipe or some kind of super-hole made from pieces of rusty garbage | Meleeweapons |
| Repairs | Intelligence | "Repair Electronics" | Any armor will crack once, and the gun will begin to misfire. Thanks to the “Repair”, it is possible to maintain ammunition in good condition. | Repair |
| The science | Intelligence | Science for All | Increases the general level of scientific knowledge, contributes to the successful hacking of computers | Science |
| Barter | Charisma | “Merchant from Junktown. Stories » | The skill determines how profitable it is to conclude a contract of sale. In other words, it makes it possible to bargain with a merchant in order to bring down the price of a product of interest | Barter |
| Light weapons | Agility | "Pistols and bullets" | Determines the degree of damage to the enemy when using a shotgun, assault or air rifle, as well as a 10 mm caliber pistol | Smallguns |
| Stealth | Agility | "The combat charter of the Chinese special forces" | Affects the ability to go unnoticed when trying to get into someone else’s house or empty pockets. In addition, an attack in stealth mode will immediately be identified as critical (action in slow motion with instant killing of the enemy) | Sneak |
| Eloquence | Charisma | Paradise Lost and False: A Congressman Textbook | Opens unique branches of the dialogue and increases the ability to influence the interlocutor. A very useful skill, because in the absence of such a lot of secrets can be kept secret, and there is a great chance that the player will not be able to resolve the discussion in his favor, and will have to make a deal with his conscience | Speech |
| Heavy weapon | Endurance | "US Army: 30 recipes incendiary mixtures" | Increases the efficiency of working with heavy guns, which include: a minigun, a grenade launcher, a Gatling system laser machine gun, "Rocket", a flamethrower or "Fat man" | Bigguns |
| Without weapons | Endurance | "Fist fight in illustrations" | Useful for hand-to-hand combat lovers. Maximum using brass knuckles. Determines how successfully you can inflict injury (or even nail) the enemy with your bare hands | Unarmed |
Breaking | Perception | "Modern castles" | Increases the probability of successfully breaking a safe or door lock. It is curious that the interface of the master key process like two drops of water is similar to Skyrim | Lockpick |
| Explosives | Perception | “For cover! Lie down! " | It allows you to successfully defuse mines, install explosives, and also increases the damage from grenades | Explosives |
| Energy weapon | Perception | "Nikola Tesla and you" | Intuitively, the presence of the skill will benefit fans of plasma and laser pistols and rifles (in slow motion, the moment of decay of the enemy into atoms during a critical shot from such a gun is very epic) | Energyweapons |
| The medicine | Intelligence | The District of Columbia Therapeutic Journal | Allows you to increase the number of points to be restored when using a stimulant, antiradin and Rad-X | Medicine |
Reading a book increases the skill by one. There are 25 copies of each tome in the game. The exception is Eloquence, for which there is only one volume, Paradise Lost, and 24 copies of the volume False: A Textbook for Congressman.
Codes in Fallout 3 are entered by pressing the ~ (tilde) key, after which the player.setav command [code from the table above] [number not more than 100] is written. It is important not to go too far with cheating teams, otherwise the game will cease to be interesting.
Side quests
The number of quests in Fallout 3 is impossible to count. Mileage along the storyline alone will affect only a third of the game and less than half of the locations. According to Fallout 3 reviews by Anton Logvinov, the main line of events in itself is not very interesting without “side effects”.
In the end, in the best RPG tradition, “hang up” the plot with third-party quests so that the player can get the most complete picture of the universe.
The passage of such leads to meetings with interesting characters in Fallout 3, the extraction of new weapons and resources. For example, south of the ruins of Feifrfax, west of the Yader-Kola plant, a player can get into the quiet town of Andale, which attracts lonely travelers with an atmosphere of comfort, silence and the appearance of prosperity.
The population is very small. According to the residents, they always have enough food, water, they do not experience any problems. In addition, people are participating in the election of the governor of Virginia (despite the apocalypse). The only fly in the ointment in this whole barrel of honey is old Harris, who now and then works on scaring away lonely travelers who accidentally come into the light.
It turns out that such friendly citizens have long been hunting for cannibalism, and in the basement of one of the houses is evidence of this. The simplest solution is to expose the population to the righteous wrath of the Lonely Traveler (all the more so since nightfall all the inhabitants will set off in search of a hero, and the streets will resemble Innsmouth from Call of Cthulhu).
If a player possesses the skill of “Eloquence” or the ability of “Cannibal”, then when meeting with the inhabitants of the town a unique dialogue thread will be available, thanks to which you can “pass for your own one” in such an unfavorable environment. Remaining in friendly relations with the inhabitants, the Lonely Traveler will receive every day a bonus from the settlement - a pie made of strange meat.
In the absence of the above conditions, but if you want to stay different for these peculiar people, you can use the following codes for Fallout 3:
- player.addperk 00094EBC - get the ability “Cannibal”;
- player.setav Speech 100 - upgrade of the skill "Speech".
Next, a little about the characters of the project.
Interesting characters
In Fallout 3, these are more than enough. Each has his own story, mental anguish, emotions, each is curious in his own way, and many have their own quests with rewards. The most entertaining and useful are the heroes who can become partners of the Lone Traveler. The only problem is that they can be killed. Then you have to either look for a new one, or use the console command for Fallout 3 on a PC in order to be able to receive ongoing ally support. The latter will only lose consciousness, and not die.
In Fallout 3, the codes for the immortality of partners are introduced using the pattern setessential [id] 1. The following characters can be allies (see table).
Partner | Description / Location Fallout 3 | Pros and cons | id for cheat code |
| Dog | It can be found absolutely anywhere, but most often in a landfill, where the hero will save the animal from the raiders | Brings cartridges, caps and a bunch of all kinds of loot, therefore it is extremely useful for gathering. In addition, it is not listed as a full-fledged NPC, so you can take a second partner. The teeth and claws of the dog are not too good weapons, and health is not enough | 0006a772 |
| Fox | One of a kind super mutant with a high level of intelligence. Locked in Vault 87. Good karma needed to take it with you | An excellent partner in terms of battle with any enemies except the Claws of Death. Due to its growth, it often gets stuck in the openings of small rooms. | 0003d34e |
| Butch | The “Friend of Childhood” of the Lone Traveler, a badass, was brought on by the proud leader of the “Tunnel Serpent”. You can meet at Rivet City. Will become a partner only with the neutral karma of the hero and only if his mother’s life was saved at the beginning of the game | Plus are only endless ammo and the ability to change the hairstyle of the hero. The negative side is that it is not too tenacious, and accuracy is a big problem, so it’s easier not to hire | 00027f65 |
| Sergeant RL-3 | Robot butler, which can be hired for 1000 caps of Coke at the Rob-Co plant. Neutral Karma Required | A definite advantage is the ability to notice the enemy at a great distance and choose the weapons necessary for the battle. The downside is that the robot often gets stuck in the doorway | 9426e |
| Clover | A slave in a pink dress from Paradise Falls. Hiring is possible with negative karma (otherwise they are not allowed into the trafficking area) for 2000 caps | Masterfully fights, but can't carry too many things | 000156a2 |
| Charon | A ghoul that can be obtained as partners in the Dungeon for 1000 caps at any level of karma. And also can be obtained for completing the quest from its owner | Great shotgun mate. The ideal fighter for cleaning rooms. Bad at long distances | 000156f6 |
| Paladin Cross | Extremely valuable character from the Brotherhood of Steel. In order for the young lady to join, the player must have high karma and a story quest, according to which the Lone Traveler came to the Citadel | Excellent command of heavy weapons and wears power armor, which is good news. Extremely suspicious - can get away from the main character if he accidentally touches a positive character. Because even the code for immortality delivers unnecessary hassle in the game | 000156e5 |
| Jericho | A tramp and a warrior of roads. He agrees to cooperate only with negative karma, since he himself is a former raider. Prefers not to deal with purebloods. Works as a security guard in Megaton. | It is very useful in the open area as a sniper, therefore, in a room it is better to give him a melee weapon (or at least a shotgun). Otherwise, it will quickly die | 00000a71 |
All kinds of weapons
In Fallout 3, this stuff is more than enough. The developers made sure that RPG fans had a lot of defenses and attacks when exploring wasteland: knives, pistols, brass knuckles, flamethrowers, bombs and much more.
For example, the official Fallout 3: Broken Steel add- on brought something like the Tesla Cannon to the game. And the DLC Mothership Zeta is a series of units of light and heavy weapons, as well as cryomines and cryogranates.
Informal fan communities also do not sit still. Such "goodies" as Fallout 3 weapon mods under the names "Made in China" and "Made in America" ​​have been released, adding a lot of guns from these countries.
Fans of the STALKER series of games will like the modification that adds the attributes of the specified universe to the game. And fans of large-scale destruction and powerful explosions will like such a weapon mod for Fallout 3 as Grenade Launcher Functional. Adds a powerful grenade launcher.
Minor incidents
Fallout 3 in Russian looks quite canonical: good voice acting and well-translated text. The version is called Game of The Year Edition. There are only purely visual inconsistencies and bugs when installing mods and DLCs that have not been Russified.
Such errors in Fallout 3 look like “mixed” dialogs with English and Russian phrases or lack of sound when communicating with NPCs.
There are two ways to solve this problem:
- search independently for a more or less suitable crack;
- Use only English versions.
Interesting
The game received a cult status not only thanks to its idea and unique gameplay. The project has many references to other elements of mass culture: films, books, etc.
In addition to Fallout 3: Operation Anchorage, you can meet a photographer who takes a picture of three soldiers, hoping that a monument will be erected from his photo. The monument can be found in the original version of the game near the lair of the swamps.
There are also ruins of Bethesda's office in the southeast of the map. And not far from the Greener Pacchers dump you can find a crashed flying saucer. There is an alien corpse in a spacesuit, and next to it a blaster with cartridges is useful in the game.
One of Megaton’s houses has a safe, the code for which (15-16-23-42) is a reference to the LOST television series. You can find out this combination after dialogue with Maggie and gaining the ability to "Eternal Child".
In the Brotherhood of Steel Citadel there are Gallows soldiers. No one knows his name, and everyone is trying to figure him out one way or another - a reference to the film "Saving Private Ryan." And the image of the city in the Fallout 3: The Pitt expansion resembles that of George Romero’s Land of the Dead.
When the Lone Traveler enters the village of Arefu, it is difficult to get past the local disaster - the killing of local residents. Another Fallout 3 quest to find the missing boy will lead to the Mereshti metro station. This is the name of the cave in Transylvania. A vampire will be discovered at the station, and the plot itself is a reference to the legend of Dracula.
Conclusion
The genre of the post-apocalypse has always attracted attention with its unique atmosphere of neglect, doom and, oddly enough, the aftertaste of hope for the best.
The romance of post-war ruins, dusty rusty skies, as well as secret bomb shelters that hide the secrets of the dark past and the recipes for building at least some bright future, excite every day more than a dozen minds.
It is with such thoughts that gamers plunge into this so interesting universe. Fallout 3 is not just a game, it is an author's gift to all of humanity, telling about what shape will take another piece of land in the event of a nuclear war.
If you think further and compare pieces of apocalyptic mosaic in the minds of fans of post-apocalypse, you can see post-nuclear Moscow in the Metro 2033 projects, as well as the well-known Exclusion Zone in games of the STALKER series
Between themselves, these creations, of course, are weakly correlated, but discs with such brainchildren are unambiguously listed in the collections of gamers. The whole atmosphere of the apocalypse is to blame: ruins, dangerous mutants, futuristic (and not so) weapons, the spirit of doom, philosophy and the irresistible desire of man to survive. At any cost.
Let there be more such projects, and let such ideas remain only in games, books and comics.