Fallout

Old and ugly but none the less enjoyable. Both Fallout and Fallout 2 still succeed at being complex, funny, engaging games framed around a rich world containing well written characters. It's aged look and older design can be a barrier to entry the patience and time investment pays off. The world of Fallout and Fallout 2 is impressively realized, horrific and funny and offers a considerable challenge. I've written a more detailed spoiler free review here: http://theboilingpot.net/fallout-and-fallout-2/

The plot is icredibly good, deep, interesting, engaging and actually fun, and the setting is already legendary. It's also a great example of interactive storytelling and in how to create a competent role playing experience. Nevertheless, is too clunky and too obtuse at times, probably signs of the time it was made, to be an actual masterpiece. Its system is dated, to put it nicely. You make this exact game at this moment with modern standards and a little more time in the oven, without compromising its greatness, and it'll be a contender for the best game ever, if that isn't the case already.

Planet earth is in bad shape right now; we are consuming natural recourses much faster than they can be replaced, deforestation for grazing cattle is causing rainforests (along with millions of species of plants and animals housed in them) to disappear, pollution and man-made chemicals are causing changes to our environment and bodies in ways we don't yet understand fully, and chemical waste dumping is acidifying our ocean to the point that species are dying off at an alarming rate. There are entire islands of garbage floating in our oceans at this very moment...just let that sink in. Considering all of this, along with the fact that nuclear arms manufacturing and testing is still occurring today, it is not terribly difficult to imagine that the fate of our own real life world might one day mirror the fate that befell the world of Fallout, assuming that we continue down the path we're on at present. Perhaps it is a bit farfetched to imagine the real world overrun with irradiated mutant humans who resemble the Hulk, radscorpions, whatever the hell Deathclaws are, and ghouls, but Fallout: A Post-Nuclear Role Playing Game makes this kind of world a load of fun to be part of. The game starts you out (after the awesome opening cut-scene with narration provided by Ron Pearlman) with a character selection screen; you can choose to play as one of three pre-made characters, but I strongly recommend building your own. Making your own character means that you get to control their stats, and by way of old-school RPG number management/distribution, you can create a character with totally unique abilities. Depending on how you choose to parcel out your "Skill Points", "Character Points" and "Tagged Skills", you can make a character that will have unique methods of playing through the game; will your character be skilled in sneaking by the dangers of the waste, a smooth-talking thief who talks his or her way out of confrontations, a gun-toting weapon expert who makes peace (or conversely, conflict) by neutralizing threats? These are just a few examples of the many ways that the game can be played, and it is to the developers' credit that they had enough talent to create a game that actually allows players to complete challenges in a variety of ways. Your character will almost certainly be skilled in a few things, mediocre in others, and pretty bad in yet other aspects, and this means that completely unique story and gameplay experiences are possible every time a new game is started. It is possible to be so charismatic and intelligent that you can talk your way through several major battles, and by contrast, you are also able to make a character that is so unintelligent that they won't be able to form sentences at all (I'm completely serious) which does make for some laugh out loud hilarious moments. Fallout, along with it's sequel, are true, pure role playing games in the most literal sense imaginable, which is something that is absolutely lacking in a lot of modern games. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy the new Fallout games to varying degrees, but I feel that the first two games have a few things that the newer ones lack. There's a special magic in Fallouts 1 and 2 that I am completely enamored by...or maybe I'm suffering from radiation sickness, who knows? I hope we can find a way to alter the way we're draining our planet's recourses, stop killing/polluting literally all life on it, and avoid nuclear war; fighting irradiated beasts and humans is all well and good fun in Fallout, but being mauled to death by a Deathclaw in real life would probably suck.

Full disclosure: I've loved Fallout for years. I've loved science fiction literature for as long as I remember and I've loved video games almost as long as that. I can't put it down here in adequate words, but don't be alarmed if I gush. Fallout (I) is the greatest sci-fi RPG ever, ever made, in the history of video games and even extending into the future, across multiple parallel dimensions and alternate histories including the one crafted within its comparatively small landscape. This game is the essence of quality over quantity. Even as a low graphics, 2D hex-grid essentially turn based game, Fallout provides still today a genuinely enjoyable open-world experience with character development, story arcs, a beautiful visual/audio experience and writing which just doesn't age. Yes, the game is small and turn based, but turn-based tactics shouldn't be dismissed, and the pleasure of completing a great game in different ways is unfortunately nowadays overlooked in favour of "hours of gameplay content". The main reason I love Fallout is that it reminds me of reading a good sci-fi book. Everything is strange, new, yet resonant. You meet tiny, minor characters and find yourself giving them help out of the goodness of your heart. Everything is believable. I remember running home from school to play this game, and my imagination being completely captured by it. In fact, the world painted in Fallout is so rich that, many games and platforms later, almost nothing of substance has changed in the style or content of the series. Fallout 2 is more of the same (and well worth playing), Fallout 3 is Fallout 3D, etc. etc. but the vision, the real vision, was with this game. And that's where the joy and essence of the franchise remains, and that's why this is one of the greatest video games ever created.

Bit the game yesterday, to give you the feeling how I much liked it, I have not slept night to complete it. Have to start all over again to build character right. May be a bit scaring for nowadays players who got used to games leading them around by the hand. That totally not the case with Fallout. Read conversations with NPC carefully, try to memorize possibly important info, since you'll not even have brief extracts in your log book with useful hints and directions. You won't have compass pointers or points on you map for character to talk to or stuff to get. Only todos like first main one "find the water chip". But after you get yourself used to that it starts to make perfect sense. The lack of all this modern stuff makes you hold all that in your head and plunge much deeper into the game. The setting, atmosphere, specific humor, different approaches to the same situation with different outcomes. I've bought Fallout 2 immediately after completing first one, and sure that I'm going to come back to this masterpiece not once nor twice.