Fallout 3 does what few franchises are able to do. Take an existing, loved franchise and change it's genre while still maintaining the love.
Fallout 1 and 2 were turn based 3rd person affairs while Fallout 3 turned into a first person adventure game with a massive map to explore.
Look, other games have excellent maps to explore. Other games have complex skill and level up systems. Other games have epic storylines. Fallout 3 offers two things that other games don't feature.
First, Fallout 3 has my favorite rags to riches feel in a RPG. At the start of the game, you run away from just about everything in the open world. Everything can kill you. In fact, everything hates you and will kill you. You spend much of the early hours running away from everything that moves.
As you gain experience, you gradually begin to battle some of the lesser foes. Then, a few tough enemies. By the time you reach the level cap, you're a warrior. You have no clue how you got there, but you no longer run away from your foes. You laugh when foes approach and then you release your vengeance on their pitiful souls. You never feel a surge of power hit after a level up. But after time, you realize that you're no longer a pushover. You're a bad***.
The second thing that Fallout does perfectly is the feeling of desolation. My lord, I've never felt more alone in a game. As you walk through the world, you see nothing but death and destruction. When you come across "civilizations", it carries such a Mad Max vibe that you realize that entire world is hanging on by a thread. In the wild, there are no colors, no life, and no joy in the entire world. Everything in the world is either death and decay or trying to kill you.
Fallout 3 is lonely, terrifying, and brilliant.
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