Fallout

This is one of those gems of 1990s that just needs to be experienced by any fan of old-school RPGs. Its graphics are dated (though still charming and functional), the UI can be clunky, there is no party banter, and it is easy to get stuck. Therefore, if you love the modern RPGs with all their QoL, if you care about graphics, if you cannot look past rough edges, then I suggest you move on to more modern titles. On the other hand, if you love RPGs with great story, if you like that story line has to be organically uncovered by your actions, if you like challenging gameplay, and are into a dystopian future games, this is THE GAME to play. The first thing that stands out about Fallout is that it really captures the depressing landscape of post-apocalyptic world. The world is empty, dangerous, and full of ruins. The few settlements that you visit are run down with few people struggling to survive. Some may say that this makes game empty, but it really captures perfectly the feel of world after a nuclear holocaust. The main story line is also excellent. I won't spoil any details, but it organically fits the depressing world depicted in Fallout. This is a heavy game and there is very little silliness that became so common in later installments. The fighting system is turned-based, but I always found it oddly satisfying. It can be slow initially, but once you get SMG (which you get early on) or more advanced weapons it becomes really fun. Few things are as satisfying as using SMG in burst model on an enemy in closed-quarters. But for newcomers, the system will take some time to get into. Finally, this is an old-school game meaning that you are strongly advised to read manual. There is little hand-holding so save often. If you manage to see past its few shortcomings, you will quickly realized that Fallout 1 is one of the best RPGs ever made. I finished it more than 10 times and just writing this review made me itch to play it again.

I'd like to rate this game higher, but it gets docked a little due to the clunkiness of the interface, in particular inventory management. I should point out that I played the game as provided by GOG, so basically vanilla with an HD widescreen patch only. The story is really good and there's some pretty good replayability in that regards as well. Graphics are still quite good with some nice, gory deaths for enemies, but sometimes items blend into the background that are needed to advance the story. For that reason, I needed to check a guide here and there to figure out what to do. I wouldn't say I needed to use a guide heavily, but I did have to use it often enough to make it fairly essential. Music is atmospheric, but not what I'd call excellent. Definitely worth a go if you've never played it and want to see where everything got its start in the Fallout universe. Just be aware that it's not the smoothest experience nowadays. Not a huge amount of mods for this game as Fallout 2 gets more attention in that area to include Fallout 1 in 2 which just runs this game in Fallout 2's engine. Some people may complain about the children being removed, but that didn't really bother me much.

A 1997 role-playing game in a post-apocalyptic setting in an imaginary California in the year 2161 onwards, after its devastation by a nuclear war between China and the USA in 2077. It adopts the 1950s' angst of nuclear destruction and ideas of the future as its style. A spiritual successor of the 1988 videogame Wasteland. I enjoyed the gameplay, the turn-based combat, the hexagon movement pattern, the atmosphere, the story, the background music, the dialogues, the writing, the quests, the character stats/skills/perks/traits. At first I was afraid about time limit (150 days for the first main quest) but even with hoarding & selling items, exploring everything, etc. I finished it in about 60 days. The game could do better with more unique/different models. One can't tell the companions or foes apart. The models partially dictate what weapons they are allowed to use. The game lacks some quality of life features. Such as: • Ability to remap keys • Exchanging items with companions (workaround is bartering and stealing) • Tell Dogmeat to stay instead of following (keeping your companions alive is a very frustrating task) • Inability to push your companions (I swear, I yelled at times when they blocked me in a corner AGAIN) Fixable through (unmaintained/outdated) community patches but I decided against them in favour of gameplay authenticity. The digital releases on Steam and GOG adopted the European version 1.2 with a high-resolution patch. A 121 pages long manual and a game controls reference card. The European version had the children removed which can be reimplemented with this patch: https://www.moddb.com/games/fallout/downloads/fallout-1-child-patch I learnt that the game has unimplemented quests which also cause the inability to get the good ending for "The Hub" and the "Followers of the Apocalypse" unless one edits save files or installs (unmaintained/outdated) community patches. Fun and the flaws can be looked over. Rating: 3/4

Replayed this game after 20 odd years, and the flaws are glaringly obvious: lack of directions, bugs, skills that do nothing (steal), broken quests, broken triggers (especially towards the end of the game). Yet what this game does well, it does flawlessly! The atmosphere is one of a kind, the story is incredible, the voice acting and writing blows most modern games out of the water, and the graphics have held up really well if you don't mind pixel sprites. If you've never played this game, don't be put off by the harsh beginning. Make sure to dig out the manual and read it and/or consult guides and other players if you get frustrated. It's well worth it believe me.

Lacks goodies compared to the original release on GOG, feels like absolute jank by today's standards, but the writing absolutely holds up!