"So... I heard you guys sacrifice puppies." - Bobo to a Brotherhood of Steel member

There are older RPGs I probably should have looked back on first, but they can wait seeing as how this particular franchise is getting a lot of attention at the moment, and I'm not doing these articles in any particular order anyway. Computer Role Playing Games or "cRPGs" were always a fairly niche sub-genre, even the widely loved Ultima series didn't receive as much attention as titles from other genres, or even the Japanese counterpart to cRPGs. It was in 1997 during what many RPG gamers call the first of the golden years of the cRPG sub-genre that Interplay would release this surprise hit.

Developer: Interplay Productions
Publisher: Interplay Productions

Gameplay: Being a spiritual successor to an older RPG called Wasteland Fallout is a very traditional RPG. By traditional I mean that Fallout is turn based, isometric, and it uses a generic RPG stat and skill system. Character generation could have actually been intimidating to a new comer since there were a lot of options, and what was an ideal selection for new players wasn't inherently obvious. Fortunately Fallout came with three pre-generated characters each representing a basic form of play; one was a big dumb combat focused character, another a weak but persuasive character and the third was a balance between the two.

For this article I was lazy and used the pre-generated "Albert" (persuasion focused character) as a base simply changing his name to something more awesome

Combat in Fallout was turn based, and depending on who you ask this could be either a blessing or a curse... for some people (myself included) it could be both. Most battles were small skirmishes that only lasted a couple of minutes (especially if you set the combat speed to fast), but occasionally you ended up in a town battle that could last thirty minutes... no I'm not joking. Fortunately unless you're a homicidal maniac; this never really happened. One thing I really liked about Fallout's combat system is that it didn't take a "one move" approach to turn based gameplay; instead characters had "action points" in which every action they performed cost a set amount of AP. Essentially AP measured your character's "speed"; the faster a character was the more they could do in the few seconds that their turn would be if measured in real time.

Isometric turn based gameplay gave Fallout a tactical edge

Design: Fallout was designed in a way that accommodated multiple play methods. As the pre-generated characters suggest you could focus on combat, persuasion, or a balance between the two. It was actually possible to finish all of Fallout without firing a shot (known by Fallout fans as a Pacifist Run) since most quests could be solved in dialogue by words if you had a high enough charisma, intelligence and speech skill. Since the game was turn based it was also easier to run away from hostile enemies; especially during world map travel.

Fallout was the first game (to my knowledge) to use the "dialogue tree" system that soon to be famous BioWare would later go crazy with in Baldur's Gate, its sequel, and quite a few RPGs after. This dialogue system worked well in Fallout as your stats and skills actually mattered. High intelligence, charisma, and speech would open up new dialogue options while intelligence below four would result in what can be described as "mentally handicapped" dialogue (used by many for comedic "Let's Play" videos and forum threads).

Fallout is (probably) the first appearance of the cRPG "dialogue tree"

One aspect of Fallout's design that I really liked (and miss) was the world map travel system that simulated realistic distances and time passage. It could take weeks to travel from one place to another in Fallout, and this was simulated via an Indiana Jones-like map system. Occasionally you would run into random encounters, some hostile, some neutral, some a little bit of both.

Nostalgia Factor: Not much for me, while I thoroughly enjoyed Fallout when I originally sat down with it I was never a hardcore fan so most of my viewpoint comes from simply finding it to be an excellent game.

Critical Reception: Fallout received almost universal praise from gaming critics; most finding it refreshing and enjoyable despite its brief length. See a detailed list of reviews on MobyGames' Fallout page.

How it holds up: I think it holds up just fine; there are not many deep RPGs hitting shelves these days. Fallout was a pretty complex game, and for folks who don't shy away from a challenge definitely worth playing (or replaying). I'd definitely argue that Fallout is better than most modern RPGs.

Fallout definitely deserves a place in the hardcore gamers' collection if only for the fact that it helped bring cRPGs to the top.

This Indiana Jones-like world map simulated realistic travel distances

Useless Trivia:
- Fallout is the spiritual successor to Wasteland, but it's not set in the same fictional universe.
- The Brotherhood of Steel sacrifices puppies.

External Links:

Fallout on MobyGames

Visit a town in the wasteland for free with the Fallout Demo

Do you have what it takes to survive in the wasteland? Buy Fallout at Good Old Games