Fallout

Just get it. It's one of the greatest CRPGS of all time you really shouldn't need me or anyone else to tell you to play it.

Despite this apparently being the censored version, I thoroughly enjoyed going through the story. While there are aspects of it that are quite rough and unpolished, the story is engaging and amazing. The atmosphere is phenomenal, mostly due to the way the world is composed and the music. I quite like how the dialogue is written as well, especially in comparison to later Fallout titles. Overall its a game worth going through at least once.

Fallout offers a good old RPG experience. Okay, compared to the sequel, there's a lot less ... of anything, I guess, and not much variety or use of the RPG elements. There are a lot of perks, traits or skills that you never use because there are few occasions in the game where you really need them. So it seems like there are few builds you can really do (and forget the predefined classes), unless you want a really weird challenge (like having less than 4 in intelligence...you'll have trouble speaking at all). The downside is it is in a buggy and unfinished state. It really annoyed me that you can't really get a good ending for each settlement, because there are unfinished/not implemented quests in the game that you need to get the best ending. And I'm kind of a completionist. Not to mention all the bugs in the game: quests don't start properly, quests aren't crossed out, when they're finished, my inventory icon turns black and I can't click on it, etc etc. I could go on and on if I wanted to. There are even some exploits that could be considered cheating (getting unlimited XP or caps), but of course I didn't use them. But luckily there are fan-made patches for these problema. I already used a High Defnition patch to be able to play on a modern PC with high resolution, but there are also fan-made patches like Fallout Fixt that fix most of the complaints I had with the game. Too bad I only discovered this when I was halfway through and didn't want to start over. I just played with this patch for a while after finishing the game once and it was great. Companions can be pushed to get out of the way, aren't limited to weapons, can also wear armor, it has a better interface, various bugs have been fixed, ... Therefore I give a cautious recommendation to play this game, but not without this patch. Unless you're a purist, but then you know what you're getting yourself into.

Fallout 1-2 and Tactics are - in my opinion - the very best RPG-s of the post-apocalyptic genre. On the technical side this version runs perfectly fine and without any problems on modern PC-s. On the story side I think Fallout 2 is the perfect version of BI's concept about a p.a. game. The relationship of the two is kinda similar to Diablo 1 and 2, except that on the side of game mechanics F 1-2 are not that different. All in all I highly recommend this, but also you should approach it with an open mind and let the atmosphere suck you in.

Fallout is a real gem but this finding can only be found when you beat it 10 times. Only then you will be able to understand the complexity and possibilities in the game. Not only decisions matter but also the order of your decisions matter which leads to one of many endings. You can follow the main path - to find a water chip - or you can create your own story. Hell, I even beat the game without finding the chip (tho the Overseer thanked me for helping them, which was weird to be honest and the final cutscene should have been adjusted IMHO). There are many places you can go, many situations you may win or you may fail depending on how much developed your character actually is. There gare many quests you may not find if you do not look around properly. Tho, the game has some flaws. First of all, it's really short which also lead to minimalistic writing which moves the plot forward. Cmon, you found the chip and the Overseer then calculated that there are many Mutants out there so someone must create them, so you must destroy a lab. What? Just like that? Out of the blue? How did you calculate it? Why actually? How do you know there is a lab? If the game was longer, the writing would be ritcher so the plot would make more sense and overal it would be much more believable. Also combat can be frustrating as despite you have your companions around you, everybody just attacks you, so often every turn you have just one option - to heal yourself. Despite these flaws, Fallout is really a gem, especially when you take into account the year when the game came out. Fallout is a 1997's game and when you look even further into the history, there was no such a game in 1996 or 1995 or 1994. From today's perspective the game may look and feel a bit primitive but as I said there was no game like Fallout in 1997. Fallout is an unquestionable RPG legend. (I own GOG's classic version of Fallout which had been sold till Bethesda re-released it again scrapping the old version).