The upcoming Fallout 3 can’t be just like the decade old originals, so get over it. But Bethesda, who got rights to the game from worn-down original studio Interplay, looks like they’re doing a good job of adopting everything that made the originals so unforgettable and putting it in a next-generation title.

Some have made a rabble-rousing hubbub over changes to the design. A shift in perspective from isometric to first person or behind the head, unkillable children, and a reduction in party size from four to two have all drawn venomous ire from the franchise’s cult followers.

Fallout 3 definitely looks different than its predecessors, which were rendered in 2D sprites and came out about a decade ago. Even as a big fan of Fallout, I don’t mind the changes and am happy with the new game’s presentation so far.

The graphics engine and conversation system match that of Bethesda’s previous game The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, but rather than being Oblivion with guns, the atmosphere as apparent in the E3 trailer is all Fallout. The trailer has dark comedy, a bleak setting, and the 60s music and flair that defined the originals.

The four minutes of gameplay footage is mostly combat but with some promise for engineering paths. The previous two Fallout games allowed multiple approaches to the world: run-and-gun combat, stealth, and crafty conversation. Hopefully we’ll see more of the latter two as the game nears its October release.

There are some things it can do right to maintain the atmosphere that made the original so unforgettably immersive. The setting is central to this attitude, and Fallout 3 is doing it right. The landscape in the trailers and screenshots is promising, showing a world destroyed by nuclear war, rusted with time, and cobbled together by the lawless survivors. This is what Fallout would look like in 3-D.

Bethesda also needs to insert comedy in the equation. The original games were full of gags and pop-culture references that did not break the sense of immersion. Fallout 3 weapons like the nuke-launching Fat Man or the Clever Shrapnel Bomb, made by the player from a Vault-tec lunchbox and bottlecaps, fill this role.

“It’s so depressing that you have to see the humor in it. If not, you’ll lose your mind or slit your wrists,” said Lead Designer Emil Pagliarulo in an interview with OXM. “The dark humor of talking to an old lady who’s really nice to you, and then you blow her head off, put her head on a counter, and pretend to talk to her…there’s a certain charm to that.”

Dark humor is the je ne sais quoi of the franchise, and hopefully it extends beyond the action in Fallout 3. Bethesda has not revealed much of the dialog or story yet, but the premise fits.

The protagonist is a vault-dweller of Vault 101 under Washington D.C., devastated by a nuclear war 200 years before. Character generation is inserted into the plot, allowing character customization, feat selection, and control tutorials as you witness the birth and upbringing of the hero.

When the main character’s father vanishes from Vault 101, the first time anyone has left since it was sealed, he has to venture out and find out what happened. There are 10,000 possible versions of the cut scene that resolves the following adventure, all dependent on player choice, a perfect throwback to the glory days of RPGs.

Fallout 3 retains two gameplay mechanics from the originals, the SPECIAL character creation system of attributes, skills, and perks, and the turn-based combat system.

Players in Fallout 3 can play through the game like a real-time, Oblivion-like shooter, or enable the Vault-tec Assisted Targeting System and spend action points to use attacks and target different points on an enemy’s body.

And when you use the VATS, you can see another Fallout feature — the extreme gore. Skulls shatter, legs go flying, and so much blood sprays out you’d think Rambo was doing the killing.

All in all, Fallout 3 looks like it will satisfy fans of the original as much as possible while still offering a game great in its own right. Promised mechanics fit the franchise perfectly, and the post-apocalyptic atmosphere is still here.