Good Old Reviews: Fallout

[moosemaimer]

I picked this up from GoG a while back, having never played it before... I made it a few grid squares out of the starting area and was attacked by an entire gang of bandits who gunned me down before I could take a single action. Total duration of game, having not saved: about 20 minutes.

I did start up another game, and played it for maybe another 7 or 8 hours, but I just wasn't having fun. I can tolerate a certain amount of old-school charm (I did finish Deus Ex after playing Human Revolution!) but this was too much. Had I picked this up years ago when I was unemployed and had nothing but free time to play games, I probably would've spent months with it, but now I can't handle games that require that kind of investment.

 

[seule]

Aaah memories.... I totally get people picking this up and not enjoying it now. But, back in the late 90s when your RPG options were pretty much fantasy, or this, it was a refreshing and awesome change. I still have my original wire-bound manual and the original CD sitting in my office. So many hours, so much fun, if you can get past the initial difficulty, the game has a wicked sense of humor too, actually... the whole water chip thing could be considered black humor itself lol.

 

[00slash00]

I played Fallout 1 and 2 when I was in high school or middle school and still consider them to be infinitely better the the modern Fallout games. Fallout 1 remins to be one of my favorite RPGs of all time. Definitely a learning curve but once I figured out what I was doing, I couldn't stop playing. *sigh* I miss the isometric turn-based Fallout games. Maybe they'll make a new one some day....I'm not holding my breath

 

[Kaervas]

I snagged the set at walmart off the discount rack, partially for the brand, mostly because I am a fan of isometric turn based games. Icewind Dale started me on that kick. The time limit did help instill urgency, and it definitely had a lot of quirks that you can see in current games. I just ran into issues of rushing too hard to find the chip, and wound up dead in the wasteland too many times from not being prepared.

 

[Laurents van Cauwenberghe]

Fallout is the single best game I've ever played, bar none. Maybe because it introduced me to more than mindless action, maybe because it had actual conversation in it, or the story, or the vast ways you could build your character, or a fantastic setting and atmosphere... or all those things combined, but it stands as the absolute best, today.

Some of the awesomeness can be understood here: http://www.youtube.com/user/MrBtongue/videos
I can't link to anything specific, because most of it is brilliant and explains exactly the mindset that appreciates the gaming of the late 90's.

It is one of the pinnacles of gaming history and vastly underrated, but luckily a lot of people remember it.

" I would have adored this game if I'd played it in 1997. In 2013, it loses some of the appeal, but it holds up relatively well for a game of that era."
could you elaborate? I guess it's just a personal thing but fallout and games of the same genre (crpgs, not to be confused with arpgs like fallout 3)appeal to me much more these days than any modern game could

I played it when it was new, so I'm with you.

A friend of mine, who's older than me, very strategic and an avid gamer never tried it before Fallout 3, so going back to 1 was horrible for him. He didn't like it much and didn't give it an honest chance...
I'll admit the graphics are dated. Very dated. For me, it doesn't mean much, but when I went back to tactics recently, I just gave up.. there's not enough(initial) story to make up for the gameplay, but I'll give it another go soon, when my catalogue of games is less attractive.

There's just this level of intelligence and treating the player like s/he has an actual brain to work with that's so appealing to these games.

Why does everyone assume i played it when it was new? :<
I wasn't born when it came out, i played it a month or 2 ago.
also, i played fallout 3 before i played fallout 1 and it made me realize how awful fallout 3 is, i was a bit bothered by the graphics when i started playing but i think there's something charming about the graphics of fallout and other crpgs
lastly, thanks for calling me intelligent ^^

 

[Strazdas]

I played the first two games before Fallout 3 release (i have to start at 1, always). It was pretty good game but it shows its age a lot at what then was 10 years of time passed. its still enjoyable, but the amount of bugs in it cuases me nto to revisit it.

 

[Breywood]

Although Fallout 2 was bigger, I had a preference for its predecessor, mostly because there were fewer pop culture references and Fallout 2 had a bigger habit of breaking the 4th wall a bit too often for my liking. That isn't to say Fallout 2 is a bad game, it did make several wonderful improvements, but it seemed that Interplay was content to let Chris Avellone get a little too carried away with the inclusion of his favorite things at the time.

 

[seule]

I played Fallout 1 and 2 when I was in high school or middle school and still consider them to be infinitely better the the modern Fallout games. Fallout 1 remins to be one of my favorite RPGs of all time. Definitely a learning curve but once I figured out what I was doing, I couldn't stop playing. *sigh* I miss the isometric turn-based Fallout games. Maybe they'll make a new one some day....I'm not holding my breath

Can always check out Wasteland 2. It's not a new fallout by any stretch of the imagination, but Wasteland was the precursor to fallout and I think they're somewhat trying to capture the same vibe in Wasteland 2.

 

[VladG]

" I would have adored this game if I'd played it in 1997. In 2013, it loses some of the appeal, but it holds up relatively well for a game of that era."
could you elaborate? I guess it's just a personal thing but fallout and games of the same genre (crpgs, not to be confused with arpgs like fallout 3)appeal to me much more these days than any modern game could

It's most likely because of the very outdated interface, clunky controls and the fact that the game mostly throws you out in the deep end right from the start, with very little assistance. It's all the more jarring when you're used to modern games and their (quite frankly excessive) tutorials and hand-holding.

If you can get past these issues, you'll find Fallout one of the better RPGs out there. More so for Fallout 2, which is pretty much an improvement on all fronts, and one of my favorite games of all times.

 

[Laurents van Cauwenberghe]

" I would have adored this game if I'd played it in 1997. In 2013, it loses some of the appeal, but it holds up relatively well for a game of that era."
could you elaborate? I guess it's just a personal thing but fallout and games of the same genre (crpgs, not to be confused with arpgs like fallout 3)appeal to me much more these days than any modern game could

It's most likely because of the very outdated interface, clunky controls and the fact that the game mostly throws you out in the deep end right from the start, with very little assistance. It's all the more jarring when you're used to modern games and their (quite frankly excessive) tutorials and hand-holding.

If you can get past these issues, you'll find Fallout one of the better RPGs out there. More so for Fallout 2, which is pretty much an improvement on all fronts, and one of my favorite games of all times.

to be honest, i preffer it if a game throws me in the deep end without any assistance, i'd rather try to survive the encounters by the skin of my teeth instead of the game holding my hand for the whole game.
aside from that, the interface just takes some getting used to, same with the controls. But in general i think that they're probably one of the best games made (this is not nostalgia speakin, played it 1 or 2 months ago for the first time.)

 

[Sarah LeBoeuf]

...there's almost no direction given to the player...

...even though the path to victory was frequently unclear...

...lack of direction...

...Ok. This obviously bothered you but I'd like to better understand this particular complaint of yours.

I mean, you're given a pretty clear goal, from the get go: Find a new water chip. It's something you can pretty much ask almost every person of power about, in every settlement (granted most of them have no idea where to find one but few can point you in the right direction). You're initially given the location of the nearest vault and you're pretty much guarantied to find Shady Sands that's right next to it. That town is then supposed to serve as a point where you're given information about nearby settlements and even has the option of extending the water supply, for your vault, so that you can have more time to find the chip.

I agree, not trying to put the reviewer down or anything, but part of the fun is in having to carefully piece together your current goal. It's like a detective story. Because you can't afford to waste time running back and forth between locations that are days apart. I suppose that isn't as fun for everyone, as it is a bit of a time sink, but it really helps the role playing aspect. As you have to figure out the logic of this wasteland state just like your "fresh from the vault" character does. I guess what I'm trying to argue is that the "I'm lost" feeling of the player isn't only due to old school clunkiness, as some posters here called it, but is a game design choice. Anyway, I played the game back in... 2004? Dunno if that qualifies me for the nostalgia squad.

Okay so all these thoughts are totally valid. Yes, I knew that the main goal was to get the water chip. However, I went into this game totally blind and didn't want to use a guide. So I had no idea how strict the time limit would be, and once I realized how much time I'd wasted going back and forth looking for supplies I felt like I had to start over. On my second attempt, I tried to be more observant and meticulous in my exploration, but still had that nagging feeling of "Am I on the right path? Am I doing the right thing?" which undermined my feeling of progress.

Anyway--still liked the game! I just imagine my teenage late-90s self would have been obsessed with it, whereas present-day me thought "This is pretty cool and holds up better than I would have guessed. I should probably pay more attention to the next Fallout game, I'll probably enjoy it."

 

[Doom972]

Just use the high resolution patch and the unofficial patch and this game feels like a contemporary indie game, and a great one at that.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Don't forget kids you can brake bones(with moderate luck) with flares and they cost little to throw, I got a few deathclaws with that trick.

 

[scorptatious]

Don't forget kids you can brake bones(with moderate luck) with flares and they cost little to throw, I got a few deathclaws with that trick.

You can? I never really found much of a use for flares myself.

I'll have to keep this in mind for my next playthrough when going up against a deathclaw.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Don't forget kids you can brake bones(with moderate luck) with flares and they cost little to throw, I got a few deathclaws with that trick.

You can? I never really found much of a use for flares myself.

I'll have to keep this in mind for my next playthrough when going up against a deathclaw.

They forgot even at low damage you can still cripple stuff and they cost 1AP a throw I think god its been so long but ya I messed stuff up with them tho I never put much into throw.

 

[SanguiniusMagnificum]

I consider Fallout 2 to be a lot more fun. Mostly because there's just....more. More freedom, more locations, more quests, more characters, more story, more weapons, more tongue-in-cheek pop culture references etc....

I kind of have a hard time playing FO1 after FO2. That stupid time limit just kills the enjoyment.

Fallout 2 also sports a limit, it just doesn't tell you how much time remaining. Also in Fallout 1, you remove the time limit after about half the gmae.

Correct me if I'm wrong (I haven't played Fallout 2 for a pretty long time) but isn't the limit in FO2 just your shaman visiting you in your dreams to tell you to hurry up? I mean, I don't remember that there were any negative consequences for not following the main quest (finding the GECK and saving your village from the Enclave), while in Fallout 1 you have 150 days to get the waterchip and 500 days (minus the time that you've already spent in search of the waterchip) to find the mutant base and blow it up. So if you don't make it in that limit you don't save the residents of your vault and get the bad ending.

 

[Scorpid]

I consider Fallout 2 to be a lot more fun. Mostly because there's just....more. More freedom, more locations, more quests, more characters, more story, more weapons, more tongue-in-cheek pop culture references etc....

I kind of have a hard time playing FO1 after FO2. That stupid time limit just kills the enjoyment.

I always have trouble starting up a game in Fallout 2. That beginning village and the opening test always annoys me. I much prefer the rat-filled cave of Fallout 1. I miss games that just let you play without being molested for an hour in a "training" area.

AMEN Brother! Who ever has done the opening dungeons of Skyrim, Oblivion, FO2, and FO3, needs to be beaten with stick. It's so absurd that when you start playing Skyrim that you sit for 5 minutes in a stupid wagon ride. I mean there should at least skip option once you go through it once, it's absurd that modders have to do something SO SIMPLE as that.