I was born into a world, where I could choose what I would look like when I grew up. I could choose my skills. I lived in an underground nuclear fallout shelter. It was called Vault 101 and it was my home.

When I was ten, I had the best birthday party ever, until those older kid jerks started picking on me.  One of them, a kid named Butch, tried to make me give him my birthday cupcake.  Instead of giving it to him, I spit on it and then gave it to him.  I had the best birthday ever.

A couple of years later, my father left, but I don’t know  why.  In the ensuing chaos, I beat the Vault Overseer to death, in front of his daughter Amata.  That was unfortunate, because I was totally going to ask her to the Vault prom too…  I also convinced Butch to leave his mother behind as she was being attacked by radroaches.  Served him right.  I had held a grudge since my tenth birthday.  Because of my actions, I was forced to leave the Vault forever. So began my journey into the Capital Wasteland and my life in Fallout 3.

Fallout 3 is a sandbox style Role Playing game from Bethesda, the same studio that made the Elder Scrolls series of roll playing games including 2006’s Oblivion for the Xbox 360 and PC.  With any Bethesda game, there’s much to expect out of their latest blockbuster, Fallout 3.  A certain style of presentation, great supporting characters, and a living, breathing world to explore.  Smartly, that’s where the comparisons between Fallout 3 and Oblivion ends.

Fallout 3 carves its own path almost from the get go.  Sure, if you’ve played any Elder Scroll game you’ll see a familiar way in which Bethesda presents conversations within the game world, but instead of beginning in a dungeon with skeletal warriors, you’ll play as a child, growing up in Vault 101, a safe haven after a nuclear apocalypse has left the outside world a hollow shell of itself almost 200 years after a devastating war between China and the United States.

Eventually, you’ll leave the Vault under curious circumstances. Early on you’ll make choices as to how to live your life.  I chose to play as an evil character.  Someone that steals, lies and cheats his way around any situation, to put themselves squarely behind their enemy, to position myself to stab my problem in the back.

The game features a Karma system to determine your alignment.  If you steal, you lose Karma, if you help, you gain Karma.  You can strike a balance and remain neutral, but that’s a bit tricky.  If you kill a good character, you’ll lose Karma. You take no hit for killing enemies and evil characters.  While it sounds simple, in practice, the Karma system is a bit of a mystery in the game.  Sure, you’ll get clear cut good and evil choices throughout the game, but your choices in your every day life may not be so straight forward.

Once you leave the Vault, you’ll find a breathtaking view of the most fracked up landscape I have ever seen in a video game.  Desolation, destruction and damnation await… and that’s just Megaton.

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