Fallout

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)

A marvelous echo from days when rpg was mean roleplaying a role and doing things in virtual world, not some marker moving. It's an undying classic, made with huge effot and deep lore and story. A game that should be conserved in Time Capsule for future generations. An outstanding soundrack, an excelent story and rpg-flavored deep post-apocalyptic retro-futuristic world stuck in golden age of Atomic power. You can't miss that marble. a true grandson of Wasteland and game that gave line of excelent series.

While I know the Fallout brand and premise from pop culture, this was the first time I actually played a game in the series. Your vault opens its doors for the first time since the nuclear apocalypse and it is up to you to find a replacement water chip so your people survive. This simple quest evolves into wide exploration of the California wasteland and gives way to a sinister plot that you must unfurl to save humanity. You piece together the backstory by discovering clues and exploring atmospheric locations. While I can appreciate this, the story ends up feeling a little thin for an RPG, especially for today's standards. By the same token, character development is non-existent. You have the option of recruiting companions for your journey but they are essentially goons-for-hire and offer nothing in way of unique conversation or plot devices. You do meet interesting folks, though interactions are brief and repetitive. Every town seems to be ravaged by criminal overlords that you can trick and double-cross in the same exact way. The gameplay is typical isometric RPG-flair: mouse-driven movement and combat with plenty of skills, attributes, and traits to juggle. Not all skills and attributes are as viable as you might think, though it is generally flexible enough to offer variety for different playthroughs. The pre-rendered graphics hold up well, and this release does support higher resolutions. Locations are dreary and atmospheric, but extremely repetitive, as you might imagine in a wasteland. Be careful where you save. If an NPC had to move aside to let you through, reloading will actually reset that NPC's position. For example, your starting vault has an armory that you can talk your way into. I saved in the armory after returning with the water chip, only to reload and get shot by the guards for supposedly breaking into the armory. The game was unwinnable at that point. Overall, good game, but not a must play.

This game is something else. I'm not sure if it's the crushing atmosphere of post-apocalyptic wasteland or the perfectly written story, but either way, it's a game I come back to regularly. The beauty of this game is in it's abundance of choices. And I don't mean just the dialogue options. This game has perfect character building system. Many other (fantasy) RPGs make you build your character by assigning millions of personality traits and skills and it's just annoying and confusing because "Hello! New to this game!". This is not the case of Fallout. The SPECIAL stats system is pretty straightforward and all characteristics are well-explained, so you know what you're spending your points on even if you're new to Fallout. The skill set is variable enough, but not so much that you'd spend hours over it. Simply put: The character building is neat and easy to use! The great thing about SPECIAL is that you give an extra point to this and take one from that and whole game changes for you! Sometimes it can make the game pretty hard, but it also offers you endless challenges. Add the many ways you can actually play this games and it really is a thing that lasts you for YEARS. I love the soundtrack. It's not intrusive, it adds to the atmosphere nicely and you don't get bored and annoyed by it (can't say the same about Fallout 3). The turn-based combat system is an interesting concept and while it can get kinda lenghty when many enemies are involved, I still enjoy it a lot. It certainly makes you think a few steps ahead. The easter eggs, humour and random encounters just add to the briliance of the game and it's pretty sweet you can still encounter new things even on your fifth or tenth playthrough. I wish I could give it four and half stars, since some of the controls aren't so user friendly (Fallout 2 deals with it though), but since I can't, I'm giving it full five. After all, the game is an older one and you gotta have patience with these gems.

If you were curious, yes Ron Perlman was in these original Fallout games, too. I have the original GOG release of these. I do not see a reason to buy them again to get these ones that Bethesda dumped their branding all over like anyone cares that they own the IP now. From what I hear these don't even have all the stuff that originally came with Fallout on GOG so not only is there 0 point, but now we're in the negatives. Unfortunately, though, if you never played the original Fallout then yes you should get these because there's no way to get them otherwise and it's a good game despite being super buggy (which, who knows, the community probably fixed all the bugs by now).