I would say the game from my childhood that never gets old is Fallout 1. I know a lot of people say that Fallout 2 is better, but I always enjoyed the original's dark humor and atmosphere more, let me explain:

(SPOLIERS!!!!)

Let's start with lore, now the first Fallout doesn't give us a ton of it, either because the devs didn't want to drop to much on us at once, or they haven't fully explored their own world yet, I don't know, but there is still some lore to delve into. 2077, World War 3, the most devastating war in human existence, and a war that lasted only 2 brief hours. An oil shortage puts the world in a sense of helplessness as Alaska is one of the only places left still producing oil. China eventually invades Alaska, the US annexes Canada, and war is fought on the homeland. America wins, but as China is retreating, the US sends troops to China. China nukes America. America nukes China. China's allies nuke America's allies as they nuke China's, and the world is reduced to cinders. Some lucky people were taken to large underground vaults, capable of containing human life until it is safe to go outside again. These vaults were constructed by a government company known as Vault-Tec, who used the vaults as mini test labs, as each vault contained an experiment. These experiments ranging from testing moral behavior, what if the vault door opened sooner than it should, what if the door never fully closed, what if we slowly contaminate the air with hallucinagentics, ect. Now your character, the Vault Dweller, is a resident of Vault 13, prolonged isolation.

Now quests, the main quest starts with the Vault Dweller needing to find a replacement water chip for Vault 13. The water chip purifies water making it drinkable by all the citizens of the vault, but it broke, and now you have 150 days (4-5 months) before the vault completely runs out of water. Right off the bat you feel a sense of urgency to complete this quest as failing it results in a game over. You end up traveling most of the wasteland in search of a place that might contain a replacement chip. Your first place to go check is Vault 15, but as you're traveling there, you come across a town called Shady Sands, a small farming community that has some common, but valuable resources. A rope is needed to get into Vault 15 and there are a few of those lying around in Shady Sands. Once you get to Vault 15 and go to the 3rd floor, you realize that its caved in, making you have to find another vault. You'll eventually come across a town called Necropolis, present day Bakersfield, California, where you find the chip. But this one city is one of the more interesting ones. It contains a vault, Vault 12. Now this vault's experiment was what if the door never fully closed. This experiment lead to all the residents becoming ghouls. This city also allows for a few ways to get the water chip. You could either just take the chip, and let the town die, or help fix their water pump, letting them keep a steady water supply while you get to take the chip. Its a fantastic way to do a quest, which ultimately changes the ending, which I always love when games do that, and Fallout has tons of quests like this. I've heard many complaints that the timer is too restrictive, but all I can say is that it just takes some experimentation, but I've never had problems with the timer, and you can even get it extended by 100 days by paying the Water Merchants in the Hub, one of the bigger cities.

Combat, what can I say except it's FANTASTIC. The point-and-click turn based combat lends itself well to strategic and bloody battles. One of my earliest memories from the game is picking up the assault rifle, switching the gun to burst, and letting loose on a raider, and watching his body get torn apart by bullets, still remains satisfying today. Another great weapon is the Turbo-Plasma Rifle, one shot literally MELTS enemies, all while this disgusting sound of what can only be described as clenching a hand full of wet slime, remains one of the most effective ways of releasing dopamine into my body. When you create your character, based on your SPECIAL (Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck) stats, you get a set amount of AP, or action points. These points determine what you can do in combat. Want to shoot a gun, that takes 5 AP, reload, 2AP, and it cost 1 AP for every tile you want to move to. Combat turns strategic as you're forced to plan ahead and strategize. But don't forget about companions, you got Dogmeat, Ian, Tycho, and Katja, all but Dogmeat need to be equipped with a weapon, ammo, and stimpacks (fallout's version of quick healing) to survive. All companions can only use their own set of weapons, for example, Ian can't use a shotgun or rifle, meaning you need to supply them with the proper equipment. But just because they tell you they can use a weapon doesn't mean you should give it to them. Another early memory was when I gave Ian a 9mm SMG and he burst fired my entire team to bits and 2 things happened. 1, I couldn't stop laughing, it was pretty funny that he killed my entire team, and hit the enemy for only 1hp, and 2, I hadn't saved in a while, so I was also pretty mad at Ian. First lesson of Fallout, DON'T give Ian any burst weapons.

Now most RPGs at the time had a lot of random encounters, Fallout is no exception. While traveling the world map there's a chance you'll get into an encounter with the likes of raiders, caravans, or even deathclaws, but nothing is compared to Fallout's special encounters. I still remember the first time I saw the crashed UFO, or the man stomped on by what looks like dinosaur tracks. Each of these are wacky and fun in their respective encounters and really help add to the charm of the first Fallout.

And finally Armor. You start out with your normal Vault 13 jumpsuit, but quickly get yourself a leather jacket in Vault 15. Now this is a cool piece of armor, and it's probably because it's literally the Mad Max jacket. In the Road Warrior movie, Max Rockatansky is seen wearing a leather jacket with the right sleeve cut off. It's truly an iconic look for the post apocalypse, and it looks sick in Fallout. I hadn't seen any of the Mad Max films before playing Fallout, but I watched the first 3 right after beating the game for the first time, along with A Boy and His Dog. Another piece of armor, and perhaps a more famous piece of armor, the Power Armor, used by the Americans to fight in Alaska, this turns you into a walking terminator, I remember putting this on for the first time and feeling invincible, and that feeling was further amplified when you can harden the steel making it even more powerful than it already was.

I could go on and on about how Fallout is one of the greatest games of all time, and I certainly feel lucky that my parents let me play it at such a young age, as it shaped my view on games for the rest of my life. Fallout will always be my favorite game of all time, and even in 2022, almost 25 years later, it holds up great.