Are the Wastelands Wheelchair-Accessible?

November 1, 2008 12:56 PM

Can I play Fallout 3 despite my physical disabilities?

I'm your typical geek who happens to have a motor neuron disease that leaves me with very little movement in my extremities. I operate my PC with a device that lets me move the mouse with my head in conjunction with an on-screen keyboard. I was a big fan of the old-school isometric RPGs like Fallout and Planescape because they could be played entirely with a mouse and didn't require particularly quick reflexes. But as more RPGs switched to first-person perspectives and emphasized twitchy gameplay, I found myself getting shut out of the genre.

I'm definitely interested in Fallout 3 and would love to play it. I'm thinking that might be possible if I run it in windowed mode and use my on-screen keyboard to handle movement. Any thoughts on whether is possible? I have a reasonably fast computer (Athlon X2 5200, NVidia 8600GT). Can most of the game's tasks be accomplished with a mouse? Or should I not bother and just fire up Planescape again? Thanks in advance for your input.

posted by wintermute2_0 to computers & internet (12 comments total)

It may not be as twitchy as, say, Half-Life... but there's definitely a need to be reflexive. Combat's in real time (though you can pause to fire at specific body parts, doing to requires using a diminishing pool of action points that are replenished over time.) Frequently, you'll find enemies in your face who require rapid twitch-action to kill. If you can't play an FPS, Fallout 3 isn't really going to be an option.
posted by Tomorrowful at 1:02 PM on November 1, 2008

Now when Diablo III comes out...

it's more of a hack-and-slash than an RPG, though.
posted by dunkadunc at 1:21 PM on November 1, 2008

It _may_ be possible. Combat is about 2/3rds VATS based ("Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System") and 1/3rd running backwards firing manically. VATS allows you to fire at specific body parts as Tomorrowful explains. You _might_ be able to optimise your character for VATS based combat (extremely high agility, perks that work well with VATS) and see where that goes. Also there are combat drugs your character can use to increase your action pool, so you get to use VATS more.

Generally you get enough action points for 2 or 3 VATS based actions. Which is generally enough to kill an opponent with headshots (if you're close enough to hit reliably).
posted by schwa at 1:57 PM on November 1, 2008

You might also consider using a cheat-mode to increase your character's agility (and pool of action points). Combat really isn't the best part of the game anyway - especially once you realise the best way to take down that minigun wielding supermutant is to ignore all cover and charge him so you can a handful of point blank hand shots...

The best part of Fallout 3 in my mind is the exploration of the wasteland.
posted by schwa at 1:59 PM on November 1, 2008

You might be able to, but I don't think you'll enjoy the experience. Can you use the keyboard keys at the same time as the mouse?

You can reset the walk-speed in the console to make everyone move a little slower, and specialize in sniping skills with emphasis on criticals and primarily rely on VATS. Either max out your character's agility (and perception) for maximum action points (and the ability to spot enemies at maximum distance) or find a trainer/mod to give you unlimited or very quickly replenishing action points.

The exploration and dialogue should be fine and it's possible to adopt a more tactical combat style. As long as you can control the on-screen keyboard and move the mouse at the same time at a reasonable speed/accuracy, it's worth a shot, at least.

The game's... ok... I've recently replayed the original FO and FO2 and FO3 is really more of a spiritual successor rather than a true sequel. Much of the dialogue isn't very well written but the atmosphere's there. To use an analogy, it's more of a Mad Max Thunderdome rather than Mad Max Roadwarrior.
posted by porpoise at 2:11 PM on November 1, 2008

I don't think you would be happy with Fallout 3. While I think it is a lot of fun, it is definitely not a turn-based RPG. The V.A.T.S. takes care of targeting, but you have to do a lot of evading in real-time when your AP is recharging. For me, evading enemies while you couldn't use V.A.T.S. was the thing that determined life or death. Well, that and getting lucky on critical hits.
posted by demiurge at 4:14 PM on November 1, 2008

I think you might be ok with the game... the combat is really like 25% of it... and like the other fallouts there are ways to play a character that are more based on dialogue than fighting. You may have to lower the difficulty to the lowest setting to let you absorb some punishment,. The problem as I see it is that movement in the entire game is done with the WASD keys... so it may be hard for you to run around in the world (even outside of combat) if you rely more on the mouse. If you have problems moving around in a typical FPS you may want to look elsewhere...
posted by outsider at 7:33 PM on November 1, 2008

If you don't enjoy an FPS, I can't imagine that Fallout 3 is going to work for you. The VATS system definitely takes most of the twitch out of combat (other than the initial reflex tap on the VATS button), but it doesn't help with just generally navigating the environment.

schwa has it right with "[c]ombat is about 2/3rds VATS...and 1/3rd running backwards firing manically." But, you have to be able to navigate in close, quickly, in order to get any sort of decent probability to hit. You don't have to have the coordination to keep the cross-hairs on the enemy, but you need the reflex coordination to identify the threat and to run up close to him (but not too close) and hit the VATS button.

On easy, you can take a lot of damage. But, not enough you can stand still in a firefight.

(I was actually thinking about accessibility of modern video games yesterday, while exploring the Wasteland. The state of the art there is shitty. Perhaps I'll come up with some sort of solution for control. I think head/tongue-tracking plus eye-tracking might be the way to go. Eye-tracking is mad expensive, though.)
posted by Netzapper at 8:15 PM on November 1, 2008

Also, while you can make combat 25% of the game, you can only really accomplish that by sneaking around minions and talking/speeching the bosses. The sneaking system requires coordinated movement. If you can't sneak (I had no sneak skill), you've got to kill hordes of various baddies. A super-mutant with a minigun can rip you to shreds in about five to ten seconds even by the time you really start to encounter them.
posted by Netzapper at 8:18 PM on November 1, 2008

I have similar issues, wintermute2_0, although to a lesser extent. It's going to be really annoying if it's even possible, from the reviews I've read.
posted by StrikeTheViol at 9:34 PM on November 1, 2008

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like it's more trouble than it's worth. I'll hold out for Diablo III. And maybe The Witcher. I liked the demo for that one.
posted by wintermute2_0 at 9:42 AM on November 2, 2008

I think it's always time to fire up Planescape. In fact, I don't know why I'm not playing it now.
posted by zusty at 11:10 AM on November 3, 2008