Aaah… Bethesda brings another heavy dosage of gaming bliss, this time with a new combat system (VATS), and an interesting new world to explore. You start life in a vault as a baby, then… well I’m not going to spoil anything for you, just buy it! I have 40 hours in so far with two times playing through, and will easily have over 100 hours after playing the DLC’s coming out this winter.

Essentially, this game is the same engine as Oblivion, with the new combat system, and little else. Not to downplay the game though, it is a very interesting format, although very similar to Oblivion. Just like it’s ‘predecessor’ (Fallout goes way back in its own right), you can finish the story in about 10 odd hours, or just explore and enjoy. I took about 30 hours to do the first play through, and my second character has all the knowledge that the other character had (in my head only, the game makes you re-explore with a new character), so I am close to the end already with only 10 hours and having explored much more, also on a higher level than the 30 hour character.

Some sweet new things: excellent leveling system has unique new characteristics, allowing for very customized characters. Some of my favs are ‘Mysterious Stranger’, a Secret Agent type man that pops up and kills everything in site, on a critical strike sort of time cycle (I think it’s related to your luck skill level honestly). Another one is the level up perc, which you get around level 10, and you can level up again inside your current level up session! I just did that last night, and man is it sweet. I’m sure I’ll be taking advantage of that again before level 20.

Some less than desired things: some map markers don’t show up in the system unless you find the entrance to the location. Personally, I think that they should have made a perimeter around each location so you can approach it from any direction that is very frustrating! Also, I think the story could be been a bit more involved, I remember Oblivion’s main story line was a bit longer. Although, there is so much more to do in the world, you can easily get lost on side quests, it’s quite fun. Considering how many good games have come out this fall, and that I’ve devoted 40 hours to this one and less than 10 to all the others, this title definitely brings the right kind of satisfaction to make it worth a buy And trust me I don’t say that often!