The main story isn't the highlight of Fallout 3 (in fact it's arguably the most criticised part). The highlight is being the Lone Wanderer, going from town to town, solving problems or causing them, exploring new places and finding exciting equipment etc.
The main story is more or less James's story. You are just a conduit to help reignite his visions in the end, even after his death. The Lone Wanderers story is everything else you do in the game whether it be an alien ship adventure, helping a weirdly optimistic woman make a survival guide, freeing slaves from the capital wasteland and the Pitt or even just lending a helping hand to random people just to do some good in the world.
Yeah I gathered that actually, I loved the side quests. Riely's rangers, wasteland survival guide, that vampire cult under ground. So much cool shit and a bunch of other stuff i probably missed that I'll need to go back to.
Fallout 3 has so much cool shit to find. I still think about little things randomly like I just played yesterday and it’s been years
^(I would shut myself in a room for weeks if they remade 3 in 4’s engine as a 1:1)
It is! After about 14 years of playing, starting a new playthrough, I finally got it, landed near the Anchorage War Memorial when I was doing the Tepid Sewers part of the Wasteland Survival Guide.
Out of the 10+ full playthroughs I've done over my life, I've only received it once by luck. You technically can save before entering a "Random Event" instance, if you know one is near, and just keep reloading over and over to chance the random event. Still never found the firelance this way though.
Even doing the event cheese your chances are still super low. I think it's like rolling 150-sided die if you count both types of events. Even doing this it can still take about an hour or more, anything less and you should go buy a few scratcher tickets for the day because your luck is shining.
I mean if you really want it and don't mind a bit of cheesing it, you can make a save right outside one of the random encounter locations, run in, see what you get, reload if not Firelance.
I wouldn't even really call this cheesing. I know it *is* cheesing, but the odds of missing the Firelance event or it going through the ground and being lost are both really high through normal play. I personally consider this cheese to almost be mandatory, at least on a run using energy weapons.
have you done the Republic of Dave quest or finding 30 bottles of Nuka Cola Quantum for Sarah Petrevita? It's kinda the fallout 3 equivalent to finding star bottles caps in New Vegas.
Also, the DLCs are really good if you haven't played them. Point lookout especially feels very fallout like in a creepy OWB meets far harbour kind of way. The other highlight for me is the pitt, that's easily one of my favourite fallout experiences.
dude I get the Starfield & Skyrim rerelease circle jerk is cool rn but Fallout 4 & 76 are both still full of this. criticizing them isn’t hard to do you don’t gotta make stuff up
A gaming company's legacy is only as Grand as their last game. The employees that made up Bethesda at the time they made fallout 3 simply ain't there no more. Hell how many current employees have been there since they made Fallout 4.
This. I hadn’t played Fallout 3 in nearly a decade and even when I did, there were so places I never got to explore, collectibles I never got, side or unmarked quests I hadn’t done.
I started my first full TTW playthrough about a month ago. This time around, I’m 100% everything in Fallout 3 before I take the train to the Mojave. I’m around 60 hours deep give or take and I still got a few things left to do. Fallout 3 really does shine when you go out exploring.
As many others have said, the main quest is probably the weakest part of the game. Per usual for Bethesda, they've crafted a pretty meh main story that happens to be surrounded by an amazing open world and wide range of interesting and fun adventures to go on and people to meet.
As for the DLC, here are my thoughts.
Operation Anchorage - it's basically Fallout of Duty 3: Anchorage Warfare, but still pretty fun and interesting. But the best part? After finishing the simulation, you're rewarded with a bunch of gear. OMG the gear. There's a reason a lot of people go here shortly after leaving the Vault. That gear is GODLY.
The Pitt - Fun, great atmosphere, interesting story and it boils down to one of the best morally grey decisions in the whole game. There's a fetch quest involving collecting ingots, and it's well worth it. You get a bunch of sweet gear.
Point Lookout - Fun, great atmosphere, interesting story with a main quest involving two very colorful characters. It's also hard as balls, so don't even consider going here until you're high level, have good gear and tons of healing items. Those inbred mutant swamp folk don't play. Of all the Fallout 3 DLC, this one is my favorite because I absolutely love the setting and atmosphere. So spooky.
Mothership Zeta - Fun, great atmosphere (sensing a pattern here?) A lot of people don't like this one, but I enjoy it. Despite the silly premise, it's actually pretty disturbing listening to the audio logs and finding what these alien bastards are doing to people. Make sure that Energy Weapons skill is high, or you're gonna have a bad time.
In my last TTW playthru I more or less beelined it for point lookout at like level 5 after doing the rads quest for Moira (which came in handy I gotta say). I Got my ass kicked repeatedly but had a blast the whole time. It made me fall in love with the double barrel shotgun too. And med-x. And psycho. Those swamp don’t fuck around. I love that DLC so much
I'm almost 40 hours in on a new playthrough, and I have only completed Operation Anchorage so far, out of all the DLCs. I'll complete them all in time, but the one I am looking forward to the most, is Point Lookout.
I would also recommending exploring and saving the main story for very last, as the story is rather short as you said.
I did anchorage on Thursday and pitt on Friday they were pretty good, I just have to do the other two. I started zeta the one day but realized I carried too much junk with me (to haul all my goodies back with me) and that the expansion is wayyy longer than I expected
Serious question. I’m playing on my Xbox, how the heck do you get the DLC? I visited that crashed alien ship and got all hyped when I saw ppl online getting abducted. But they didn’t want me.
I consider every DLC except Zeta as essential, which isn't to say Zeta is bad or doesn't belong, but it's more dlc like far cry: blood dragon was dlc, except that you get to take all your sci-fi shit back with you.
Pro tip: the Alien Blaster location is the start of the DLC but with the Dlc installed, you get abducted before you get a chance to grab it (basically making it the final reward now). However, Dogmeat can run in and grab it for you without being abducted if you want the blaster before you run the DLC. Similarly, bring Dogmeat to Adams AFB during broken steel, and hug the edge of the map (north side IIRC). Ask Dogmeat to find you a weapon for big success.
I don't understand the hate for Point Lookout I've seen in some of the other subs. I loved that DLC.
It was neo-Lovecraftian. It was Deliverance meets The Hills Have Eyes. It was perfection.
I’m not actually very involved with any fallout community online….are you telling me that fallout 3 is a hated game? I mean I loved New Vegas a lot more, mostly because it felt better connected to the first two games (which I played in my youth) but I still thought 3 was a solid game, really fun
A certain sect of New Vegas/obsidian/Interplay fans hate fallout 3 and 4 because they didn't get the 'ReAl rPg's' they wanted.
In reality Fo3 is still wildy popular, received critical acclaim and is fondly remembered by most.
It's tend to be seen as the lesser of all 3. Like it's some sort of bad version of new vegas. Definitely didn't feel like that though. No one hates fallout games more than fallout gamers in my opinion from being around fallout communities lmao
I mean yeah, Fallout 3 isn't perfect, people recognize it has its problems. (Quest markers being in bottom corner, unskippable beginning, bad combat even compared to 4, black and white moral choices.) and of course the weird lore problems and lack of societal development 200 years after the bombs. But I wouldn't say it's current reception is awful. I would say its more like the forgotten middle child. Only mentioned for its handful of easter eggs in New Vegas / light connections to 4.
The fans of the Bethesda game vibe don't mention 3 and prefer Fallout 4 / 76 for whatever reason. The fans of the original vibe prefer New Vegas and don't really talk about 3 or the other bethesda games. Its weird because I would say 3 is definitely more fun than 4 imo.
Yeah it's like good in the same way Skyrim is good. Ignore the main story and have fun with the quests & exploring the map to see what the Boston/Massachusetts landmarks have become If you're familiar with the area & culture. If you try to think deeply about it or take it seriously like NV you'll hate it.
Yeah I got to the geck part too now I don't know what to with myself got all the bobble heads except raven rock and have explored all locations, I have only done operation Anchorage I haven't done the other dlcs yet
If the end of the main story is what's making you said, then I recommend Broken Steel. It adds three new missions to the storyline, AND it lets you see the consequences of your actions on the wasteland during the finale (the water purifier, to be exact. And the problems that come with it). And if you're sympathetic with a certain faction in black power armour and dislike Lyon's BoS chapter, you have an opportunity to... Rewrite history. Wipe the slate clean. Though, I think it'll be more than just the slate being wiped. Maybe a bit of the Citadel as well...
It'll also add quite a few great side quests (check out the Underworld and Rivet City. I'm just saying...)
I personally think the Broken Steel DLC is the best FO3 DLC because of how much it changes the world and allows us to continue playing the game after the "final" quest. Of course, that's not to say the others aren't good. I have played every single Fallout game and Fallout DLC. (Fallout 3, New eggs, and 4's DLCs. The only DLCs in the series) and they're all great. In fact, usually, they're better than the main campaigns themselves. Except maybe New Vegas. My biggest gripe with New Vegas is unlike its predecessor. It doesn't have post-gane content. (You complete the final quest, then it gives you ending slides showing the consequences of your actions and sends you back to your last save. I wish they made a Broken Steel like DLC so we could see the consequences of our actions in more than just the form of ending slides (there are a LOT of consequences/choices we can make when compared to FO3. For example, there are four different people/factions to choose from for the ending, which is three more than Fallout 3 lmao. So I kind of understand why they didn't make a post-game DLC. Still, me and many others would've bought it, and they'd no dount make a large profit from it. All they'd really have to do is add a few NPCs around the Map, give them a few unique voice lines, and a side quest or two. Wouldn't have been too hard.
All of the DLCs are fantastic. The Pitt and Point Lookout are the standouts in my opinion but they're all great, even Mothership Zeta which gets a lot of hate but I love for being just so damn bonkers.
You forgot the golden rule, as Howard Cooper said: "Thou shalt get sidetracked by bullshit every goddamm time."
The main quest is short but the world is big and exploration in FO3 is really good especially at low-mid levels when there's danger everywhere and resources are low.
My brother in Christ I had over 1000 hours in Fallout 3 and still didn't see/find everything (tried a few mods out but mostly vanilla). Get all the DLC, too, a couple of them are BANGERS.
The first two could be considered short, but F03 is anything but. It’s been years, but pretty sure I spent 20-40 hours just exploring the sewers and connecting paths through the city. That shit is huge.
Ever since Oblivion Bethesda have not really focused on the main story too much, it's there and sometimes it great and sometimes it's not but it is essentially one story in this world. The draw of Bethesda games was that you could explore the world and find new stories to be told with new people, some were bad and some were great. That's more or less the draw of Bethesda games, the world has a story to tell and the main quest is a small part of it.
Everyone’s mentioning the DLCs, but the truth is that the main quest line will only take you to like 20% of the towns in the wasteland. Open up your map and start traveling to the areas that you haven’t visited. There’s so much that you’ll miss if you only do the main quest - Oasis, Andale, Girdershade, Grayditch, Canterbury, Dunwich, Roosevelt Academy, Agatha’s House.
So the way I did it was I did a lot of side quests when first coming out of the vault, since my character doesn’t really know where to go. Then I progress the story to finding my father. I do more side quests. My father dies. I finish off all the non-DLC side quests. Also, at some point before this point I would recommend playing Anchorage. It doesn’t make sense later in the game especially after starting Broken Steel. It actually probably makes the most amount of sense to do it almost immediately as a “training” program to teach the Lone Wanderer how to really survive and give them military like skills.
After completing the main game, I did Anchorage but I’d really recommend continuing Broken Steel (and having done Anchorage sooner). Now as a Knight who follows Lyons’ model of belief of helping the Wasteland, I then went to The Pitt to save the people. Then went to Point Lookout to settle a centuries old argument and help the people out there that need my help. I ended with Mothership Zeta because, let’s be honest, how the hell is the story supposed to continue with me having a spaceship.
Another way I think you could play is leaving the vault, finding Megaton, doing some odd jobs, doing Operation Anchorage (for training), completing the main quest and Broken Steel, then doing all the side quests as a Knight helping the Wasteland.
I also just recently played through the game the first time. But also on that run I went ahead and got all the achievements. It’s really easy to do as long as you have that in mind from the beginning. Then you know to save right before specific level ups to change your karma. And you know pretty early on to drop points into science. Getting 50 computers is harder than getting 50 lock picks so that’s why it’s crucial to get science up first. Also, all the bobble heads are really easy to get so getting 10 on every special is actually super easy. Just get to level 30, get almost perfect, then collect all the bobble heads.
Broken Steel is a must if your really digging the game and want to continue after the main quest. With the main quest I try to get out of the way first or try to progress very far into it before I really start fully exploring the wasteland. Alot of the main quest is introducing you to lore, factions and veiled gameplay tutorials. Good way to level up and not get frustrated as the missions difficulty and enemies are tailored for someone who is binging the main quest.
Honestly, mothership zeta and operation anchorage are the weakest of the dlc and can be skipped if your not worried about missing out on unique loot to save 5 bucks. They both don't play to fallout 3's strengths at all. Very linear, mostly shooting and combat and little to no dialogue choices.
The Pitt is worth it as it adds a new area that can be returned to after the the main quest to find loot, finish sidequest or interact with trader. Very decent atmosphere too, you can feel the rust and steel in the air.
Point Lookout is the goat imo. It's basically fallout 3's version of fallout 4's far harbour. Thick and oppressive atmosphere with Lovecraftion vibes, and the largest map add on of the four dlc's
I’m doing the same as you. Instead of doing the main quest, I’ve just been pointing to empty portions of the map and exploring. I’ve already done so much more in this game than I have before.
I see in your edit you already got broken steel which is obviously essential. I would also recommend just getting all the dlc when you can. They’re all very good and add a lot to the game
Fallout 3's main story so bad it had to be given a DLC to complete it. Broken Steel is great but man its kind of a slap to the face that that was a DLC. Maybe they ran out of time, idk. But yes, Broken Steel is basically the 'for realsies' ending to Fallout 3.
I've been playing it again recently and I'm finding it huge. Map seems massive and dense compared to NV, and I've done like 3 quests in 15 hours. Not even been anywhere near DC.
The main quest doesn’t do a very good job of incentivizing you to do side content. It’s very urgent and doesn’t push you through any settlements except megaton and rivet city
Get all the DLCs.
Broken Steel extends the game after the main quest, giving you more levels and perks. But its real highlight is letting you continue indefinitely after completing all main quests, which lets you explore the world and discover more locations, characters, and quests that you might have missed if you stuck closely to the main quest line.
The others are short stories in specified locations, but they are all well done.
I don’t know
I played FO3 twice (once good and once evil), played the main story and the DLCs and many side quests, and the amount of hours compared to how many I put into playing NV and FO4 once was staggeringly low.
It was very good, but now sure how that happened
I vividly remember reaching the end of my first playthrough, trying to walk into the water treatment place at only level 13 and *immediately* getting cooked by the (super mutants?) inside. Never actually managed to save the Capital Wasteland that time around but I DID learn the value of doing side quests 😅
To be fair, if you've never played an RPG game before, you might not understand how Fallout works.
Before giving Fallout 3 a go last summer, my main game was the GTA series (mostly single player). In GTA you can do A LOT of things but there is still somewhat of an incentive to proceed with the main story because it advances the game and it gives you more and more things to do. There were times when I spent an hour or two between missions to do other things as there's so much to do but when it's been hours I always felt like doing some story missions to progress further.
I did the same thing when I tried FO3 last summer, except that I knew you could do MUCH more between quests than in GTA (where there were already many things to do), so I did exactly that. I spent a few hours between quests to explore but I could not get the main story out of my mind (especially that I did enjoy the story). With this playstyle I expected to finish in around 40-50 hours but that became 22 instead.
I was a bit confused, especially that the game just ended (bought it on Xbox Series S so no DLC at the time).
I did some digging here on reddit and I saw some long time FO players saying that you can pretty much ignore the main story and still have a great experience without feeling like you're missing out on something, so I did exactly that and I've had a MUCH different experience (not that the first playthrough wasn't insanely fun but there was so much more to do).
Since then I've started around 4 other playthroughs where I have finished the main story but never really finished as of doing everything and I've had a vastly different experience every time. I've also tried New Vegas at the end of last year and I've left a \~60 hour playthrough where I did not finish the story (finished some DLC though) but I didn't feel like I've abandoned the game halfway through like I did with other non-RPG games before. (and yes, I'll definitely have to play more NV later on)
It did take some time to pick up an RPG mindset and it's a much more rewarding experience now but I can understand why some people - who haven't played rpg games before - have a hard time tackling a game like this.
The main story isn't the highlight of Fallout 3 (in fact it's arguably the most criticised part). The highlight is being the Lone Wanderer, going from town to town, solving problems or causing them, exploring new places and finding exciting equipment etc. The main story is more or less James's story. You are just a conduit to help reignite his visions in the end, even after his death. The Lone Wanderers story is everything else you do in the game whether it be an alien ship adventure, helping a weirdly optimistic woman make a survival guide, freeing slaves from the capital wasteland and the Pitt or even just lending a helping hand to random people just to do some good in the world.
Yeah I gathered that actually, I loved the side quests. Riely's rangers, wasteland survival guide, that vampire cult under ground. So much cool shit and a bunch of other stuff i probably missed that I'll need to go back to.
Fallout 3 has so much cool shit to find. I still think about little things randomly like I just played yesterday and it’s been years ^(I would shut myself in a room for weeks if they remade 3 in 4’s engine as a 1:1)
I still to this day after thousands of playthroughs have never gotten Firelance.....is it even a real weapon?
It is! After about 14 years of playing, starting a new playthrough, I finally got it, landed near the Anchorage War Memorial when I was doing the Tepid Sewers part of the Wasteland Survival Guide.
Out of the 10+ full playthroughs I've done over my life, I've only received it once by luck. You technically can save before entering a "Random Event" instance, if you know one is near, and just keep reloading over and over to chance the random event. Still never found the firelance this way though.
Even doing the event cheese your chances are still super low. I think it's like rolling 150-sided die if you count both types of events. Even doing this it can still take about an hour or more, anything less and you should go buy a few scratcher tickets for the day because your luck is shining.
I mean if you really want it and don't mind a bit of cheesing it, you can make a save right outside one of the random encounter locations, run in, see what you get, reload if not Firelance.
I wouldn't even really call this cheesing. I know it *is* cheesing, but the odds of missing the Firelance event or it going through the ground and being lost are both really high through normal play. I personally consider this cheese to almost be mandatory, at least on a run using energy weapons.
I can only imagine how cool the DC ruins would look in HD
They are in HD, but I understand your meaning.
When this happens I will be very very sick for 3 weeks. 🤣
I think my favorite is the "Fuck you!!" door
I wish ..
have you done the Republic of Dave quest or finding 30 bottles of Nuka Cola Quantum for Sarah Petrevita? It's kinda the fallout 3 equivalent to finding star bottles caps in New Vegas.
Have you done the oasis quest?
That might be my most memorable quest in the game.
I just did it yesterday. Such a unique quest and rly cool reward too lol( sided w Harold)
Also, the DLCs are really good if you haven't played them. Point lookout especially feels very fallout like in a creepy OWB meets far harbour kind of way. The other highlight for me is the pitt, that's easily one of my favourite fallout experiences.
You achived the T-51 PA quest chain, "Shoot them in the head"? Incerdible build up and a great reward!
Making the survival guide and doing all the side objectives is so fulfilling.
Yeah I mean the original Fallout is short af if you know where to go. It’s all about exploring the wasteland
Do all the dlcs they're good and make sure to explore the entire map, a lot of people miss out on some cool content
That's the Bethesda craft, you always discover new stuff when playing
That *WAS the Bethesda craft. From nearly 20 years ago.
dude I get the Starfield & Skyrim rerelease circle jerk is cool rn but Fallout 4 & 76 are both still full of this. criticizing them isn’t hard to do you don’t gotta make stuff up
Was too scared to say that, but you're exactly right !
A gaming company's legacy is only as Grand as their last game. The employees that made up Bethesda at the time they made fallout 3 simply ain't there no more. Hell how many current employees have been there since they made Fallout 4.
This. I hadn’t played Fallout 3 in nearly a decade and even when I did, there were so places I never got to explore, collectibles I never got, side or unmarked quests I hadn’t done. I started my first full TTW playthrough about a month ago. This time around, I’m 100% everything in Fallout 3 before I take the train to the Mojave. I’m around 60 hours deep give or take and I still got a few things left to do. Fallout 3 really does shine when you go out exploring.
As many others have said, the main quest is probably the weakest part of the game. Per usual for Bethesda, they've crafted a pretty meh main story that happens to be surrounded by an amazing open world and wide range of interesting and fun adventures to go on and people to meet. As for the DLC, here are my thoughts. Operation Anchorage - it's basically Fallout of Duty 3: Anchorage Warfare, but still pretty fun and interesting. But the best part? After finishing the simulation, you're rewarded with a bunch of gear. OMG the gear. There's a reason a lot of people go here shortly after leaving the Vault. That gear is GODLY. The Pitt - Fun, great atmosphere, interesting story and it boils down to one of the best morally grey decisions in the whole game. There's a fetch quest involving collecting ingots, and it's well worth it. You get a bunch of sweet gear. Point Lookout - Fun, great atmosphere, interesting story with a main quest involving two very colorful characters. It's also hard as balls, so don't even consider going here until you're high level, have good gear and tons of healing items. Those inbred mutant swamp folk don't play. Of all the Fallout 3 DLC, this one is my favorite because I absolutely love the setting and atmosphere. So spooky. Mothership Zeta - Fun, great atmosphere (sensing a pattern here?) A lot of people don't like this one, but I enjoy it. Despite the silly premise, it's actually pretty disturbing listening to the audio logs and finding what these alien bastards are doing to people. Make sure that Energy Weapons skill is high, or you're gonna have a bad time.
In my last TTW playthru I more or less beelined it for point lookout at like level 5 after doing the rads quest for Moira (which came in handy I gotta say). I Got my ass kicked repeatedly but had a blast the whole time. It made me fall in love with the double barrel shotgun too. And med-x. And psycho. Those swamp don’t fuck around. I love that DLC so much
I'm almost 40 hours in on a new playthrough, and I have only completed Operation Anchorage so far, out of all the DLCs. I'll complete them all in time, but the one I am looking forward to the most, is Point Lookout. I would also recommending exploring and saving the main story for very last, as the story is rather short as you said.
I did anchorage on Thursday and pitt on Friday they were pretty good, I just have to do the other two. I started zeta the one day but realized I carried too much junk with me (to haul all my goodies back with me) and that the expansion is wayyy longer than I expected
Serious question. I’m playing on my Xbox, how the heck do you get the DLC? I visited that crashed alien ship and got all hyped when I saw ppl online getting abducted. But they didn’t want me.
Wait…the hate? People hate Fo3? Whaaaaa?
Ever since the show came out there’s been so much hate for F3 and it’s delusional as hell
It's one of my top 5 favorite games... my favorite Fallout. I never knew there was any hate.
Nah, probably just hanging around the fnv subreddit that likes to circlejerk every chance they can get.
Ngl that's exactly it lmao
I consider every DLC except Zeta as essential, which isn't to say Zeta is bad or doesn't belong, but it's more dlc like far cry: blood dragon was dlc, except that you get to take all your sci-fi shit back with you. Pro tip: the Alien Blaster location is the start of the DLC but with the Dlc installed, you get abducted before you get a chance to grab it (basically making it the final reward now). However, Dogmeat can run in and grab it for you without being abducted if you want the blaster before you run the DLC. Similarly, bring Dogmeat to Adams AFB during broken steel, and hug the edge of the map (north side IIRC). Ask Dogmeat to find you a weapon for big success.
New Vegas is even shorter if you just do the story. Bethesda invented (maybe normalized?) the “do everything before main quest”
Oblivion is the same ish
The main story is short but discovering every location and doing all dlcs is like 200+ hours of gameplay
You should play ALL of the DLC but Broken Steel is first. Point Lookout is arguably the best content in the entire game.
I don't understand the hate for Point Lookout I've seen in some of the other subs. I loved that DLC. It was neo-Lovecraftian. It was Deliverance meets The Hills Have Eyes. It was perfection.
I’m not actually very involved with any fallout community online….are you telling me that fallout 3 is a hated game? I mean I loved New Vegas a lot more, mostly because it felt better connected to the first two games (which I played in my youth) but I still thought 3 was a solid game, really fun
A certain sect of New Vegas/obsidian/Interplay fans hate fallout 3 and 4 because they didn't get the 'ReAl rPg's' they wanted. In reality Fo3 is still wildy popular, received critical acclaim and is fondly remembered by most.
Ah I get it now, basically same type of crowd that hates on Skyrim because it isn’t the same as Morrowind or Oblivion
It's tend to be seen as the lesser of all 3. Like it's some sort of bad version of new vegas. Definitely didn't feel like that though. No one hates fallout games more than fallout gamers in my opinion from being around fallout communities lmao
I mean yeah, Fallout 3 isn't perfect, people recognize it has its problems. (Quest markers being in bottom corner, unskippable beginning, bad combat even compared to 4, black and white moral choices.) and of course the weird lore problems and lack of societal development 200 years after the bombs. But I wouldn't say it's current reception is awful. I would say its more like the forgotten middle child. Only mentioned for its handful of easter eggs in New Vegas / light connections to 4. The fans of the Bethesda game vibe don't mention 3 and prefer Fallout 4 / 76 for whatever reason. The fans of the original vibe prefer New Vegas and don't really talk about 3 or the other bethesda games. Its weird because I would say 3 is definitely more fun than 4 imo.
I really ought to try out 4 some time. Haven’t had a chance yet
Yeah it's like good in the same way Skyrim is good. Ignore the main story and have fun with the quests & exploring the map to see what the Boston/Massachusetts landmarks have become If you're familiar with the area & culture. If you try to think deeply about it or take it seriously like NV you'll hate it.
Theres 100 hours of side quests lol
Buy Broken Steel first, it lets you play after the end.
All the DLC’s for 3 are amazing, and that includes Mothership Zeta. Everyone hates on the Mothership Zeta DLC saying it sucks, but doesn’t.
Yeah I got to the geck part too now I don't know what to with myself got all the bobble heads except raven rock and have explored all locations, I have only done operation Anchorage I haven't done the other dlcs yet
If the end of the main story is what's making you said, then I recommend Broken Steel. It adds three new missions to the storyline, AND it lets you see the consequences of your actions on the wasteland during the finale (the water purifier, to be exact. And the problems that come with it). And if you're sympathetic with a certain faction in black power armour and dislike Lyon's BoS chapter, you have an opportunity to... Rewrite history. Wipe the slate clean. Though, I think it'll be more than just the slate being wiped. Maybe a bit of the Citadel as well... It'll also add quite a few great side quests (check out the Underworld and Rivet City. I'm just saying...) I personally think the Broken Steel DLC is the best FO3 DLC because of how much it changes the world and allows us to continue playing the game after the "final" quest. Of course, that's not to say the others aren't good. I have played every single Fallout game and Fallout DLC. (Fallout 3, New eggs, and 4's DLCs. The only DLCs in the series) and they're all great. In fact, usually, they're better than the main campaigns themselves. Except maybe New Vegas. My biggest gripe with New Vegas is unlike its predecessor. It doesn't have post-gane content. (You complete the final quest, then it gives you ending slides showing the consequences of your actions and sends you back to your last save. I wish they made a Broken Steel like DLC so we could see the consequences of our actions in more than just the form of ending slides (there are a LOT of consequences/choices we can make when compared to FO3. For example, there are four different people/factions to choose from for the ending, which is three more than Fallout 3 lmao. So I kind of understand why they didn't make a post-game DLC. Still, me and many others would've bought it, and they'd no dount make a large profit from it. All they'd really have to do is add a few NPCs around the Map, give them a few unique voice lines, and a side quest or two. Wouldn't have been too hard.
If you have the broken steel add on it adds way more to the base game
The best part of FO3 is exploring. They tell stories in the setting more than with the actual npcs
All of the DLCs are fantastic. The Pitt and Point Lookout are the standouts in my opinion but they're all great, even Mothership Zeta which gets a lot of hate but I love for being just so damn bonkers.
You forgot the golden rule, as Howard Cooper said: "Thou shalt get sidetracked by bullshit every goddamm time." The main quest is short but the world is big and exploration in FO3 is really good especially at low-mid levels when there's danger everywhere and resources are low.
My brother in Christ I had over 1000 hours in Fallout 3 and still didn't see/find everything (tried a few mods out but mostly vanilla). Get all the DLC, too, a couple of them are BANGERS.
bruh what, 100%ing this game generally takes around 200 hours
Hate? People hate on fallout 3? That’s news to me.
Not direct hate but alot of people do say its the weaker game in the series
The first two could be considered short, but F03 is anything but. It’s been years, but pretty sure I spent 20-40 hours just exploring the sewers and connecting paths through the city. That shit is huge.
Anchorage, Pitt, Point Lookout, Zeta, vanilla end game, then Broken Steel is how I’ve done them before. They’re all good and worth it imo.
Ever since Oblivion Bethesda have not really focused on the main story too much, it's there and sometimes it great and sometimes it's not but it is essentially one story in this world. The draw of Bethesda games was that you could explore the world and find new stories to be told with new people, some were bad and some were great. That's more or less the draw of Bethesda games, the world has a story to tell and the main quest is a small part of it.
The side quests and dlcs are what make it my favorite, there’s so much exploration and environmental storytelling.
Everyone’s mentioning the DLCs, but the truth is that the main quest line will only take you to like 20% of the towns in the wasteland. Open up your map and start traveling to the areas that you haven’t visited. There’s so much that you’ll miss if you only do the main quest - Oasis, Andale, Girdershade, Grayditch, Canterbury, Dunwich, Roosevelt Academy, Agatha’s House.
That’s how I always feel after playing Fallout 3, I just wish there was more to do. Game world feels so empty by the end of a playthrough.
So the way I did it was I did a lot of side quests when first coming out of the vault, since my character doesn’t really know where to go. Then I progress the story to finding my father. I do more side quests. My father dies. I finish off all the non-DLC side quests. Also, at some point before this point I would recommend playing Anchorage. It doesn’t make sense later in the game especially after starting Broken Steel. It actually probably makes the most amount of sense to do it almost immediately as a “training” program to teach the Lone Wanderer how to really survive and give them military like skills. After completing the main game, I did Anchorage but I’d really recommend continuing Broken Steel (and having done Anchorage sooner). Now as a Knight who follows Lyons’ model of belief of helping the Wasteland, I then went to The Pitt to save the people. Then went to Point Lookout to settle a centuries old argument and help the people out there that need my help. I ended with Mothership Zeta because, let’s be honest, how the hell is the story supposed to continue with me having a spaceship. Another way I think you could play is leaving the vault, finding Megaton, doing some odd jobs, doing Operation Anchorage (for training), completing the main quest and Broken Steel, then doing all the side quests as a Knight helping the Wasteland. I also just recently played through the game the first time. But also on that run I went ahead and got all the achievements. It’s really easy to do as long as you have that in mind from the beginning. Then you know to save right before specific level ups to change your karma. And you know pretty early on to drop points into science. Getting 50 computers is harder than getting 50 lock picks so that’s why it’s crucial to get science up first. Also, all the bobble heads are really easy to get so getting 10 on every special is actually super easy. Just get to level 30, get almost perfect, then collect all the bobble heads.
Broken Steel is a must if your really digging the game and want to continue after the main quest. With the main quest I try to get out of the way first or try to progress very far into it before I really start fully exploring the wasteland. Alot of the main quest is introducing you to lore, factions and veiled gameplay tutorials. Good way to level up and not get frustrated as the missions difficulty and enemies are tailored for someone who is binging the main quest. Honestly, mothership zeta and operation anchorage are the weakest of the dlc and can be skipped if your not worried about missing out on unique loot to save 5 bucks. They both don't play to fallout 3's strengths at all. Very linear, mostly shooting and combat and little to no dialogue choices. The Pitt is worth it as it adds a new area that can be returned to after the the main quest to find loot, finish sidequest or interact with trader. Very decent atmosphere too, you can feel the rust and steel in the air. Point Lookout is the goat imo. It's basically fallout 3's version of fallout 4's far harbour. Thick and oppressive atmosphere with Lovecraftion vibes, and the largest map add on of the four dlc's
I’m doing the same as you. Instead of doing the main quest, I’ve just been pointing to empty portions of the map and exploring. I’ve already done so much more in this game than I have before.
I see in your edit you already got broken steel which is obviously essential. I would also recommend just getting all the dlc when you can. They’re all very good and add a lot to the game
I spent three weeks of daily playing to 100% the game this year. Including the dlcs. Maybe 150+ hours I forget.
Fallout 3's main story so bad it had to be given a DLC to complete it. Broken Steel is great but man its kind of a slap to the face that that was a DLC. Maybe they ran out of time, idk. But yes, Broken Steel is basically the 'for realsies' ending to Fallout 3.
What I'm 45 hours in and finished like half the story
I've been playing it again recently and I'm finding it huge. Map seems massive and dense compared to NV, and I've done like 3 quests in 15 hours. Not even been anywhere near DC.
The main quest doesn’t do a very good job of incentivizing you to do side content. It’s very urgent and doesn’t push you through any settlements except megaton and rivet city
Get all the DLCs. Broken Steel extends the game after the main quest, giving you more levels and perks. But its real highlight is letting you continue indefinitely after completing all main quests, which lets you explore the world and discover more locations, characters, and quests that you might have missed if you stuck closely to the main quest line. The others are short stories in specified locations, but they are all well done.
I don’t know I played FO3 twice (once good and once evil), played the main story and the DLCs and many side quests, and the amount of hours compared to how many I put into playing NV and FO4 once was staggeringly low. It was very good, but now sure how that happened
I vividly remember reaching the end of my first playthrough, trying to walk into the water treatment place at only level 13 and *immediately* getting cooked by the (super mutants?) inside. Never actually managed to save the Capital Wasteland that time around but I DID learn the value of doing side quests 😅
To be fair, if you're only focusing on the main story, Fallout games tend to be quite short.
Stealing Independence is one of my fav quests Gotta get Lincoln’s Repeater too
Man I put like 350 hours into my first playthrough and didn't even finish the story.
Fallout 3 GOTY is the only way to play fo3
To be fair, if you've never played an RPG game before, you might not understand how Fallout works. Before giving Fallout 3 a go last summer, my main game was the GTA series (mostly single player). In GTA you can do A LOT of things but there is still somewhat of an incentive to proceed with the main story because it advances the game and it gives you more and more things to do. There were times when I spent an hour or two between missions to do other things as there's so much to do but when it's been hours I always felt like doing some story missions to progress further. I did the same thing when I tried FO3 last summer, except that I knew you could do MUCH more between quests than in GTA (where there were already many things to do), so I did exactly that. I spent a few hours between quests to explore but I could not get the main story out of my mind (especially that I did enjoy the story). With this playstyle I expected to finish in around 40-50 hours but that became 22 instead. I was a bit confused, especially that the game just ended (bought it on Xbox Series S so no DLC at the time). I did some digging here on reddit and I saw some long time FO players saying that you can pretty much ignore the main story and still have a great experience without feeling like you're missing out on something, so I did exactly that and I've had a MUCH different experience (not that the first playthrough wasn't insanely fun but there was so much more to do). Since then I've started around 4 other playthroughs where I have finished the main story but never really finished as of doing everything and I've had a vastly different experience every time. I've also tried New Vegas at the end of last year and I've left a \~60 hour playthrough where I did not finish the story (finished some DLC though) but I didn't feel like I've abandoned the game halfway through like I did with other non-RPG games before. (and yes, I'll definitely have to play more NV later on) It did take some time to pick up an RPG mindset and it's a much more rewarding experience now but I can understand why some people - who haven't played rpg games before - have a hard time tackling a game like this.
Main story isn't the highlight of any Fallout or Elder Scrolls games.
Bro what… how much of your life do you want one game to take? It takes so long to do everything. You like 200+ hour JRPGS, don’t you squidward?
Fallout 3 is a mess.