This is a nostalgic piece of gaming history for me. As such, I may be more forgiving in my critique. In order to avoid that, let me break it down into the simplest elements I can. First, the bad. This game is old. Old school, old graphics, old mechanics, old story telling... but, all of these things together still make a masterpiece today. It's old school. It's post apocalyptic, but it was one of the first franchises to really nail that post apocalyptic feel without making the story stale or repetitive. It's not just zombies after a nuke goes off. It's life, society and survival of the fittest (after the nukes go off). It is old graphics, but the style is unique to fallout and was so fitting to the subject matter that it gave the whole thing a bleak and atmospheric feel that helped to immerse you into the story. Old mechanics were unavoidable in the day because of the limitations of the hardware. The hex based turn based system was easy to abuse once you get far enough into the game, but there was always a "leveller" just around the corner. An encounter that really took thought and skill to get through, either with violence or skills or dialogue. Finally the old story telling. Now this is a thing that I wish games of today would learn again, because it's almost a lost skill. This story takes hours to open up, is always there in the background even when you're off on a tangent and is such a satisfying, well told narrative that it pulls every other element together into one post apocalyptic whole. In conclusion, yes this game has aged and will be hard for newcomers to get into with all of the old school stuff to contend with, but I urge you to persevere, because the experience will be unique and memorable. A classic in every sense of the word.
