A fun, engaging and interesting rpg experience for teenagers and older--if you've ever liked rpgs and have a spare month
In Fallout, this nuclear war has become reality. Only, the world isn't that fresh after the nuclear war. As the intro already explains: 'War. War never changes.' It shows eery pictures of a world in cinders, explaining what happened and why.
This game releases your character into this post-nuclear war world, to look for a piece of technology that is needed to keep 'Vault 13', a massive underground nuclear shelter, your home, running.
Creating a character is already big fun. All the traits and perks you can choose for character are illustrated in this fifties cartoon style that is evident all through the game. A cute little feller that smilingly blasts bullets through opponents. Nowhere have I ever seen the gruesome reality of the governments attempts to act lightheartedly about a possible nuclear war depicted better. (Mind you, that's my feeling about these cartoons. The game does clearly not intend to bring any political message across.)
The 'quest' your character has to fulfill is thoroughly thought through and I have up to today never encountered a more subtle or more non-linear story-line in any game. The number of 'side-quests' that you can engage in is huge. Having finished this game four times now, I can safely say that I still missed out on a lot of them.
Interacting with the non player characters depends strongly on the traits of your own character. Some people are simply smoother talking than others. If you play a strong but dumb person, the conversation with others is quite different from playing with a highly intelligent, witty character. Furthermore, the way you act, reflects strongly on the
contacts with others. No one will have anything to do with a child murderer, but will gladly talk to a person that rids the world of the strange creatures that evolve in a strongly radiated environment.
I was always disappointed in the combat system a lot of Role Playing Games suffer from. Most of the time those games turn into 'who clicks on the sword icon fast and often enough, wins'. Not so in Fallout. The game is completely real-time, until combat starts. Combat is turn-based, which leaves the player room to manoevre and think about his moves. During combat, all non player characters utter taunts and moans, that appear as text near where they are. Although somewhat repetitive, they are very funny, lightening the atmosphere of this game. That's just as well.
The player needs some cheering up, every once in a while, because the cruel reality of nuclear destruction lies all over the story. Atmosphere wise, this game is absolutely unbeaten. The black rain in Blade Runner, the sun-kissed meadows in Wheel of Time, none of them, however technically more advanced, capture the player more than the skeletons of houses and rusting remains of vehicles in Fallout.
The end of the game, which for me comes far too soon, even though it'll take even players who take the shortest route towards the end many hours, is different every time, depending on what the player's character has said and done. Entire communities will survive or be wiped out, all because of what you achieve.
One thing remains the same, however. Your character wanders into the dusty, radiating desert, accompanied only by the sad, yet hopeful tones of the Legendary Ink Spots' 'Maybe'. To me it feels like saying goodbye to a friend, every time. Good thing that there is Fallout 2!