"War, war never changes. The Romans waged war to gather slaves and wealth. Spain forged an empire from its lust for gold and territory. Hitler shaped a battered Germany into an economic superpower. But war never changes. In the twenty-first century, war was still being waged over the resources that could be acquired. Only this time, the spoils of war were also its weapons: Petroleum and Uranium. For these resources, China would invade Alaska, the U.S. would annex Canada and the European Commonwealth would dissolve into quarrelling, bickering nation-states, bent on controlling the last remaining resources on Earth.
By 2077, the storm of world war had come again. In two brief hours, most of the planet was reduced to cinders, and from the ashes of nuclear devastation, a new civilisation would struggle to arise. A few would reach the relative safety of the large underground vaults. Your family was part of that group who entered Vault Thirteen. Imprisoned safely behind the large vault door, under a mountain of stone, a generation has lived without knowledge of the outside world. Life in the Vault is about to change." - The Narrator, Fallout introduction.
Fallout: A Post-Nuclear Role-Playing Game
Introduction
Fallout is a turn-based isometric RPG released in 1997, developed by the (then-unnamed) Black Isle division of Interplay Entertainment, and published by Interplay. Known for its excellent gameplay, powerful plot and controversial violence, along with a brilliant and still-well-regarded set of intro and outro videos, Fallout is a game which still lives on in fans' memories and is highly critically acclaimed, both by the media and by the gaming community as a whole.
Fallout, set in 2121, forty-four years after the Third World War, deals with the adventures of an unlucky vault dweller who has been sent out of his vault to find a replacement water purification chip. However, the wastelands are hostile, filled with mutated spawn, distrusting human communities and the scars of radioactive devastation.
Travelling from community to community, the Vault Dweller must confront the dangers in his path to save his community from assured death. But there are more dangerous things ahead for the Vault Dweller than obtaining the water chip, dangers which could endanger the entire wasteland.
Gameplay
As mentioned above, Fallout's gameplay is turn-based and set in a fixed two-dimensional isometric view. Being based on similar principles to traditional pen-and-paper RPGs such as Dungeons & Dragons and moreso the GURPS universal role-playing system (from which it was derived), it plays in a similar way, with the computer providing the actions of the games master.
While the game's central game elements are not revolutionary in the genre, the character-building system is. By sticking to its pen-and-paper roots, Fallout provided one of the very best character-building and customisation systems known to gamers today in the form of its SPECIAL system. The term "SPECIAL" is a reference to the primary statistics which a player selects from: Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck. Each of these primary statistics can have a bearing on the game, and, specially among CRPGs, the Charisma and Intelligence statistics aren't just limited to specific character builds (unlike the Wizard, Sorcerer, etc. in D&D).
Once the player has built up his statistics for his/her character, he/she can then specialise in a number of skill areas, such as several types of weapon, scientific skills, stealth skills and even speech and barter skills, with a total of three skills allowed to be specialised ("tagged", providing a significant percentage boost and quicker acquisition of skills when one gains extra skill points to spend). Along with that, two traits can also be selected, traits giving your character both advantages and disadvantages that allow a player to make a more interesting game experience.
The combat system works on a hexagonal grid, where actions are limited by Action Points, the amount of which a character has being dictated by their Agility. Unlike in most top-down RPGs, one must make a choice when selecting their actions whether to act or move, because both movement and action are based on the AP system, introducing a bit of strategy into the gameplay.
One of the most important elements in the gameplay is the widely acclaimed dialogue system. Fallout has a surprisingly naturalistic dialogue system for a computer game, where one's intelligence and charisma dictate their success at dialogue. The dialogue can be intelligent, humorous, threatening or diplomatic: A character can have all of these at his/her disposal.
But Fallout's greatest strength isn't just in its combat system, character customisation or dialogue system; it is in the whole being, because Fallout is a game which encourages and rewards lateral thinking to problems. One may choose diplomacy to resolve a situation, or violence, or stealth, and in most cases, all three of these may be used to solve the same problem. Take, for instance, the final confrontation with the arch-antagonist. Ways to complete the game using all three of the choices have been produced, with one of the most brilliant ways being the diplomacy ending - imagine defeating a computer game boss by using discourse. It just doesn't happen anywhere else.
Notable features
Fallout was one of the first games to popularise the use of actors to provide the voices for the characters, with such big names as Ron Perlman (who played the Narrator) and Richard Dean Anderson (who played Killian Darkwater, mayor of Junktown) lending their voice talents to the game.
Fallout's immersive game world is also a key point. Covering much of southern California, most of the game's towns and places of interest are well-designed, especially the plot-specific Necropolis, a city filled with horrifically mutated "ghouls", who are cut off from the rest of their society, the Glow, a heavily-radiated military base, and Junktown, a newly constructed town, where the walls are made with the metal carcasses of the pre-nuclear world.
Critical response
Fallout has had unprecedented success critically, being considered one of the best RPGs ever made. With a high 89% average on Metacritic, it has almost universal acclaim in terms of its gameplay. The fanbase is rabid to a point which I have never seen for another game (see The Community below). Fallout has regularly been considered one of the most important moves that the computer game world has taken, being considered the biggest "Quantum Leap" in the RPG market and one of the biggest in terms of storytelling by Gamasutra, the professional games development site, these awards being judged by a group of critics and games developers.
Two particularly well-judged aspects are the few cinematic affairs which the game has. Where games such as the Final Fantasy series have laden their games with FMV videos, Fallout takes a minimalistic approach, only ever using cinematics for key scenes. In particular, the absolutely fantastic introduction, along with the ending movie, are still considered to be two of the best cinematic scenes ever, even ten years after the game's first production.
The Community
Fallout has a high cult following, with many gamers enamoured with the games. A large fan community exists, mainly being concentrated on the fansites, No Mutants Allowed, which is by far the biggest, and Duck and Cover, with some of the fan community taking residence in the RPG Codex.
Fallout's community is one of great contradictions. While the community as a whole addresses its love for Fallout's often intelligent discourse, some of the community are very vulgar, especially those on Duck and Cover, which professes itself to be the more anarchic of the two sites. As well as that, there seems to be some sort of informal rivalry between the two major fansites, with NMA claimed to be "wimps", if not worse, and DAC considered to be "psychopaths".
Just a suggestion for those who would have any interest in finding out more about this community: Stay near the surface, lest you be sucked under and become a full-fledged "Glittering Gem of Hatred". Take it from a Fallout fan - the reputation will precede you in not-so-positive ways.
Conclusion
Fallout is one of my very favourite games. With gameplay that still rings true today, full of choices and consequences, I really can't recommend this game enough. From its opening scene, where the camera pans out from its retro 1950s television commercials to show the ruins of a broken city, to its journey, taking me across the wasteland, to its ending, Fallout provided me with some of the best gaming memories I've ever had.
Fallout remains a game which I would recommend to any gamer, being one of the few games which hold that position. It is, quite simply, a masterpiece.
"War, war never changes. The Romans waged war to gather slaves and wealth. Spain forged an empire from its lust for gold and territory. Hitler shaped a battered Germany into an economic superpower. But war never changes. In the twenty-first century, war was still being waged over the resources that could be acquired. Only this time, the spoils of war were also its weapons: Petroleum and Uranium. For these resources, China would invade Alaska, the U.S. would annex Canada and the European Commonwealth would dissolve into quarrelling, bickering nation-states, bent on controlling the last remaining resources on Earth.
By 2077, the storm of world war had come again. In two brief hours, most of the planet was reduced to cinders, and from the ashes of nuclear devastation, a new civilisation would struggle to arise. A few would reach the relative safety of the large underground vaults. Your family was part of that group who entered Vault Thirteen. Imprisoned safely behind the large vault door, under a mountain of stone, a generation has lived without knowledge of the outside world. Life in the Vault is about to change." - The Narrator, Fallout introduction.
Fallout: A Post-Nuclear Role-Playing Game
Introduction
Fallout is a turn-based isometric RPG released in 1997, developed by the (then-unnamed) Black Isle division of Interplay Entertainment, and published by Interplay. Known for its excellent gameplay, powerful plot and controversial violence, along with a brilliant and still-well-regarded set of intro and outro videos, Fallout is a game which still lives on in fans' memories and is highly critically acclaimed, both by the media and by the gaming community as a whole.
Fallout, set in 2121, forty-four years after the Third World War, deals with the adventures of an unlucky vault dweller who has been sent out of his vault to find a replacement water purification chip. However, the wastelands are hostile, filled with mutated spawn, distrusting human communities and the scars of radioactive devastation.
Travelling from community to community, the Vault Dweller must confront the dangers in his path to save his community from assured death. But there are more dangerous things ahead for the Vault Dweller than obtaining the water chip, dangers which could endanger the entire wasteland.
Gameplay
As mentioned above, Fallout's gameplay is turn-based and set in a fixed two-dimensional isometric view. Being based on similar principles to traditional pen-and-paper RPGs such as Dungeons & Dragons and moreso the GURPS universal role-playing system (from which it was derived), it plays in a similar way, with the computer providing the actions of the games master.
While the game's central game elements are not revolutionary in the genre, the character-building system is. By sticking to its pen-and-paper roots, Fallout provided one of the very best character-building and customisation systems known to gamers today in the form of its SPECIAL system. The term "SPECIAL" is a reference to the primary statistics which a player selects from: Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck. Each of these primary statistics can have a bearing on the game, and, specially among CRPGs, the Charisma and Intelligence statistics aren't just limited to specific character builds (unlike the Wizard, Sorcerer, etc. in D&D).
Once the player has built up his statistics for his/her character, he/she can then specialise in a number of skill areas, such as several types of weapon, scientific skills, stealth skills and even speech and barter skills, with a total of three skills allowed to be specialised ("tagged", providing a significant percentage boost and quicker acquisition of skills when one gains extra skill points to spend). Along with that, two traits can also be selected, traits giving your character both advantages and disadvantages that allow a player to make a more interesting game experience.
The combat system works on a hexagonal grid, where actions are limited by Action Points, the amount of which a character has being dictated by their Agility. Unlike in most top-down RPGs, one must make a choice when selecting their actions whether to act or move, because both movement and action are based on the AP system, introducing a bit of strategy into the gameplay.
One of the most important elements in the gameplay is the widely acclaimed dialogue system. Fallout has a surprisingly naturalistic dialogue system for a computer game, where one's intelligence and charisma dictate their success at dialogue. The dialogue can be intelligent, humorous, threatening or diplomatic: A character can have all of these at his/her disposal.
But Fallout's greatest strength isn't just in its combat system, character customisation or dialogue system; it is in the whole being, because Fallout is a game which encourages and rewards lateral thinking to problems. One may choose diplomacy to resolve a situation, or violence, or stealth, and in most cases, all three of these may be used to solve the same problem. Take, for instance, the final confrontation with the arch-antagonist. Ways to complete the game using all three of the choices have been produced, with one of the most brilliant ways being the diplomacy ending - imagine defeating a computer game boss by using discourse. It just doesn't happen anywhere else.
Notable features
Fallout was one of the first games to popularise the use of actors to provide the voices for the characters, with such big names as Ron Perlman (who played the Narrator) and Richard Dean Anderson (who played Killian Darkwater, mayor of Junktown) lending their voice talents to the game.
Fallout's immersive game world is also a key point. Covering much of southern California, most of the game's towns and places of interest are well-designed, especially the plot-specific Necropolis, a city filled with horrifically mutated "ghouls", who are cut off from the rest of their society, the Glow, a heavily-radiated military base, and Junktown, a newly constructed town, where the walls are made with the metal carcasses of the pre-nuclear world.
Critical response
Fallout has had unprecedented success critically, being considered one of the best RPGs ever made. With a high 89% average on Metacritic, it has almost universal acclaim in terms of its gameplay. The fanbase is rabid to a point which I have never seen for another game (see The Community below). Fallout has regularly been considered one of the most important moves that the computer game world has taken, being considered the biggest "Quantum Leap" in the RPG market and one of the biggest in terms of storytelling by Gamasutra, the professional games development site, these awards being judged by a group of critics and games developers.
Two particularly well-judged aspects are the few cinematic affairs which the game has. Where games such as the Final Fantasy series have laden their games with FMV videos, Fallout takes a minimalistic approach, only ever using cinematics for key scenes. In particular, the absolutely fantastic introduction, along with the ending movie, are still considered to be two of the best cinematic scenes ever, even ten years after the game's first production.
The Community
Fallout has a high cult following, with many gamers enamoured with the games. A large fan community exists, mainly being concentrated on the fansites, No Mutants Allowed, which is by far the biggest, and Duck and Cover, with some of the fan community taking residence in the RPG Codex.
Fallout's community is one of great contradictions. While the community as a whole addresses its love for Fallout's often intelligent discourse, some of the community are very vulgar, especially those on Duck and Cover, which professes itself to be the more anarchic of the two sites. As well as that, there seems to be some sort of informal rivalry between the two major fansites, with NMA claimed to be "wimps", if not worse, and DAC considered to be "psychopaths".
Just a suggestion for those who would have any interest in finding out more about this community: Stay near the surface, lest you be sucked under and become a full-fledged "Glittering Gem of Hatred". Take it from a Fallout fan - the reputation will precede you in not-so-positive ways.
Conclusion
Fallout is one of my very favourite games. With gameplay that still rings true today, full of choices and consequences, I really can't recommend this game enough. From its opening scene, where the camera pans out from its retro 1950s television commercials to show the ruins of a broken city, to its journey, taking me across the wasteland, to its ending, Fallout provided me with some of the best gaming memories I've ever had.
Fallout remains a game which I would recommend to any gamer, being one of the few games which hold that position. It is, quite simply, a masterpiece.