Bethesda’s Fallout 3 is structurally sound as an RPG. Playing like an offline MMO, your real appreciation for this world comes from exploring landscapes and learning secrets – many of which you won’t find on your first play-through. Powerful weapons, stat-altering bobble-heads, and a beautiful environment take the form of a physical reward, but most of your satisfaction comes from the personal encyclopedia you’ll create in your memory - a kind of Pokédex. These are Fallout 3’s strengths, and fans of The Elder Scrols IV will most certainly be impressed. But Fallout 3 isn’t a complete success.

Bethesda has decided to stick with their Oblivion Engine, for better or worse. Advantages include Bethesda’s familiarity with its tools, and various improvements to the engine. Disadvantages include a strange conversation perspective (like Oblivion, we zoom right into our friend’s face as we speak to them, the world behind pausing mid-step) and Bethesda’s continued penalization of ranged combat. Bows never worked particularly well in earlier Elder Scrolls titles; on top of having to aim carefully there was still a high chance to miss until your stats with that weapon were high enough, and this tradition has continued. This isn’t just frustrating, but needless and unintuitive. While I have a deep respect for dice rolls, having them effect your accuracy so greatly makes these weapons uninteresting at the lower levels, and results in constant saves for convenient reloads should you get unlucky. This was a problem in the earlier Fallouts, too, but I’m guessing this design decision wasn’t retained on account of a desire for meaningful progression or a deep respect for Fallout’s foibles and personality.

On that note, the Fallout universe has been diluted. I’m not speaking of child-killing here, that’s something I’m quite thankful to be free of, but the warm welcome this world offers. Fallout 2 featured a suffocatingly harsh cast, and some characters were memorable simply because they were friendly: this tradition has been lost. Fallout 3 offers a warm welcome with Megaton, your first home city. And while you do have an option to free yourself of it, it’s somewhat strange that the city even exists. Its residents don’t seem particularly crazed, aside from a few cult members, and the guy who runs it is protective and fatherly, qualities that seem more appropriate for a character that exists in The Elder Scrolls rather than Fallout. This is not some Episode 1 shit, it’s not a terrible disservice to fans, but Fallout’s spirit feels more alive in Fallout 3’s dangerous environments than its surprisingly polite characters.

Fallout 3’s environment is one aspect that’s been greatly improved. Exploring vaults (not unlike the one in which your character was raised) and new areas are infinitely more interesting than they were before. That’s not to say they’re going to surprise you; dungeons play out in familiar ways. You risk health and ammo for rewards, and sometimes that risk pays off, sometimes not. But as you do more of these, your encyclopedia grows, making your second and even third characters’ progression more fluid. It’s here Bethesda has played to their strengths, the novelty of discovery and satisfaction of familiarity resulting in a whole greater than the sum of all parts.

After 40 or so hours of play, Fallout 3 feels like something of a mixed bag. Bethesda’s decision to package Elder Scrolls as a Fallout game feels forced, and while it’s a fresh aesthetic, the Fallout universe isn’t used particularly well. Ultra violence is still featured, and you’ll hear “fuck” and “shit” from time to time, but poor characterizations make this world feel transparent. Still, if you’re a fan of Bethesda’s games and you can forgive these missteps, Fallout 3 offers a lot of silver lining, and it’s worth the time you put into it.