War may never change but Fallout changed everything
The thing I love about Fallout is that it knows what it is. From the moment you boot it up the world is firmly established. You play as a citizen of an underground vault who must venture into the wasteland to find a water purification chip. The wasteland is full of dangerous creatures and people but the scariest thing in Fallout 1 is the time limit. You only have 150 in game days to get the chip or else everyone in your vault dies. There is also a lingering background threat of super mutants, and once you find out about them they take over towns. If you told too many people about your vault on your quest to find the water chip the mutants could invade it as well. With all the side content and strange things on the map a time limit can be a turn off. To remedy this I recommend adding the Fallout Fixt mod pack. It patches a lot of annoying glitches and you can set the time limit.
Fallout was originally going to use the Generic Universal Roleplaying System(GURPS) used in many tabletop RPGs. Due to the violent nature of Fallout the GURPS license owner refused to let Interplay use it causing the team to create their own ruleset, the SPECIAL system. Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck. Seven stats and 18 skills to choose gives players a lot of variations to try on subsequent playthroughs. The games reactiveness to player choice is also commendable, there are multiple ways to handle situations which can lead to everyone playing the game a little differently. The game rewards you engaging with its side content with the classic ending slideshow showing how you impacted the wasteland. This system of choice and consequence carries on to the games of today. It’s something I always loved about the Fallout series, it made the world feel so alive having it react to player action.
When I first started Fallout 1 I was weak. I wasn’t sure I could handle that type of CRPG, I found them intimidating. After delivering the water chip back to the vault I quit the game for 6 years. Lucky that when I came back I was a little more experienced with games in that wheelhouse. Fallout takes some time to get familiar with but once you understand its systems the world really opens up to you. The world building in this game is some of the best I have ever seen. It’s a dark and goofy wasteland worth exploring. I’ve done 2 playthroughs now and I still haven’t seen everything. That being said, Fallout isn’t a very long game. On average it takes about 16 hours to complete, my second playthrough only took me 9 hours. While it is full of flaws, Fallout 1 is still an incredible game and its creation led to a series that I love so dearly.
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