Fallout

Along with Fallout 2, Fallout is absolutely till this day (25 years later) in the top five RPGs of all time, hands down. Words cannot properly express the incredible game design, art, music, atmosphere and gameplay innovations that encompasses the original and the sequel. Having played these games when they were released, 25 years later they are still completely in a league of their own.

I own only Fallout Classic. But since you can't review Fallout Classic anymore on GOG I will do it here. Where to start? I've completed it a couple of times now. And I still consider to replay it one more time. Fallout is masterpice of atmosphere. Postapocaliptic dirt detailed art style, bloody good soundtrack, feeling that never being the same again and that real emptiness which you discover on a radioactive desert will make you almost sad. I always was fan of more colorful, fantasy, peaceful worlds. But I have part of me, which sometimes came out, where things like Alien, Judge Dredd, Diablo and Fallout are. Somehow those hopeless, dirt, heavy and scary visions attract me against my will. It's a very solitary experience, when new world just made its first step after nuclear war. Where your road, journey is almost more important than the final goal of the game. Where exploring new reality and discovering artifacts of the past is sometimes more important than your health or even life. And again compare to its sequel that game is very similar with a vibe to first Baldur's Gate (compared to its sequel). Smaller, less contents, less epic, but more truthfully, deep and personal.

I have two Fallouts I hold in high regards. The other one, is my personal favorite but I'd say the first game stands out above the rest. Many people will say Fallout 2 is superior and it is only in a few ways. Fallout 2 does improve on some UI and companion options and has a lot more content but it misses some of the original's feeling, designs, and ideas. Fallout feels absolutely eerie and mysterious. The combat is alright at best but the death animations really help spice it up. The world leads you through wonderfully and you'll visit very interesting places. The amount of options and ways to do things in this game are awesome and most of the time satisfying. The time limit for the first major quest is really not that bad as long as you're not just running around on the world map pointlessly for a long time. Fallout 1 is a classic and in my opinion, should be played by every person who loves cRPGs at least once. Oddly, the goodies that used to be given with this game are not longer present if you buy the game now but you can find all of the old goodies somewhere else. Hopefully GOG can get the goodies back anyway for convenience.

Just finished it for the first time after a weekend binge. It's a great game. You won't have fun if you don't know what you're doing. There's no tutorial. Shift-click to run. Fog of war in this game isn't as good as Jagged Alliance - all enemies are highlighted even if behind cover, but you can't scroll far away from the character to plan in advance. Peeking through a window is only possible if approaching buildings from the north or from the east. Unlike Fallout 3, Agility is important. Companions can't equip armor and get stuck in doors (the Bethesda purchase makes sense now). I don't really have a right to nitpick a game older than me, but giving stars seems to be mandatory, so I'll give a five. I played the 1.1 patch without any of the popular mods. Installed it on the GNU/Linux distro Debian and played it on low resolution.

Didn't expect to find Fallout for free on Amazon. There it was in plain view. Been almost 30 years. (Context, I'm one of the developers)