Fallout 1 - An LGR Retrospective Review

Wasteland was a brilliant game released in 1988 by Interplay and Electronic Arts .

It was a defining moment in computer role playing games , skillfully making use of a post apocalyptic theme and the dark stories that go with it naturally with a successful game on their hands .

Interplay wanted a sequel .

But what should have been a simple prospect turned out to be anything but the problem was that Interplay didn't own the rights to Wasteland .

Their publisher Electronic Arts did E A was already working on their own Wasteland successor Fountain of Dreams .

So Interplay started working on a new IP called meantime , but E A's game ended up dropping the Wasteland in before launch and meantime languished in development .

Hell never to see the light of day .

Then in 1994 Wasteland got another chance .

Interplay programmer , Timothy Kane spent six months working on a new game engine because why not programming ?

The inspiration for this was games like Crusader , no remorse .

The series and X com UFO defense Interplay still wanted to do a Wasteland too and this engine seemed like a great fit .

So they renegotiated for the license from E A only for it to fall through yet again .

Enter GPS , the generic universal role playing system created by Steve Jackson games in 1986 this was a tabletop role playing system that allowed for classless genre neutral R P G s and it was becoming popular with employees at interplay since the Wasteland IP was a lost cause .

They licensed GPS from Steve Jackson games .

Instead for a while , the project was known as GPS Wasteland and then Vault 13 A GPS Post Nuclear Adventure .

But then for unclear reasons , the GPS license was dropped .

And at some point interplay founder Brian Fargo suggested it be renamed Fallout at long last , after some final reworking , Fallout was released in 1997 for MS Dos Windows and Macintosh computers .

Oh man .

Is this box phenomenal or what ?

It's all rusty and grimy looking and it sits on its side instead of straight up .

It's a sign of quality right there .

Just open it up to witness the full glory of nineties PC game boxes .

Not only do you get this wonderful fold out front cover with screenshots and marketing blurbs , but the inside is packed full of goodies .

You get the game CD in one appropriately grimy looking jewel case , a quick reference sheet featuring Vault boy's eternally gleeful presence and the vault dweller survival guide .

This thing not only acts as a manual but helps you dive in head first into the lore of the game and the dark style of humor contained within .

It makes me happy .

Fallout begins with an opening cinematic that still gives me chills .

The ink spots sing as the harsh realities of war play out .

And as you're probably aware by now , war , war never changes .

Ladies and gentlemen , Ron Perlman war never changes .

The Romans waged war to gather slaves and wealth .

Spain built an empire from its lust for gold and territory .

Hitler shaped a battered Germany into an economic superpower but war never changes .

So after a global nuclear war in 2077 civilization , as we knew it was wiped out , but a select few continued living out their lives in underground shelters known as vaults .

You play as one of these vault dwellers in the year 21 61 84 years after the war .

Once you start a new game , you're given the option to choose from a few pre-made characters just like you could in wasteland .

Naturally , you can ignore these entirely and create your own vault dweller instead .

But unlike Wasteland , you don't need to roll any stats because here you've got the special system , strength perception , endurance , charisma , intelligence , agility and luck are your base attributes and these will affect all you do from talking to shooting and everything in between .

You also have skills which determine how effective you are in specific areas of expertise .

Three of which can be tagged from the start for an initial boost and will also level up at twice the normal rate .

Beyond this , you have a selection of optional traits , most of which have a positive effect with a negative side effect as a trade off .

And as you level up , you'll also earn perks which will add a further layer of customization to your character .

As you play .

Once you're through , you get a cut scene showing the overseer of your vault vault 13 , calmly letting you know that everything is awful .

The water chip and the vault's water purifying computer is crapped out .

A nearby vault may have one .

But if it's not replaced soon , everyone will die .

So because you went through the trouble of creating a character , it's up to you to retrieve it and just like that , you're out of the safety of the vault and taking your first steps into the world .

Only to be greeted with darkness and death .

There are human remains and a bunch of blood thirsty rats hanging around inside the cavern .

So your first task is to make it out into the wasteland without dying .

Now , you'll see some refer to fallouts aesthetic here being isometric , but technically , it's cavalier oblique projection .

This perspective was chosen in order to better suit the hex based areas you'll be navigating and it works quite well for what it is .

You simply use the right mouse button to change between interacting and moving and click on where you want to go or want to do .

And the game is divided up into a selection of instanced areas connected via this over world map again , very similar to wasteland along the way from point A to point B .

You may run across areas of interest either because of something interesting you can check out or because something has picked a fight with you .

What happens when it's time for some good old fashioned violence , guts and glory in the form of a turn based combat system centered around using action points .

And depending on your character level and development , you'll have a set number of action points to spend each turn and everything you do takes action points during combat from shooting a gun to simply opening your inventory .

It takes some inspiration from Wasteland and even Exco but it ends up with its own unique blend for one thing .

You only ever control your own character , even if you recruit other members to your party .

And there's also no real cover mechanic other than placing yourself .

So there are objects and people in the line of fire guns can be placed in single shot or burst fire modes .

Melee weapons can do things like thrust or swing and you're given a set percentage to hit something based skill level , distance lighting and other varying factors .

Beyond this , you can also place a targeted attack which will bring up a more detailed selection of percentages based on aiming at specific body parts .

Why ?

Yes , you can punch a rat in the balls .

If you want to , strategically taking out certain body parts will have notable effects like blinding , stunning or crippling an enemy .

And it can also happen to you .

So it's best to protect your nads .

Taking out your phones often results in loot and further quest information .

And to keep track of this , you have a state of the art , wrist mounted pip boy 2000 .

This computer system is useful for everything from making maps to keeping track of your current objectives .

But don't rely on it too much because there's still an awful lot that happens that it will not track at all while you're out in the wastelands of southern California , you'll run into all kinds of characters and events that will demand your attention .

Yet , only a selection of these are related to your main quest and many of the ones that aren't , won't show up in your pit boy .

So writing things down is always a good idea as is saving your game like before and after every encounter because fallout is absolutely brutal and the randomness can make even the most straightforward of combat situations unpredictable .

You can tinker with the difficulty at any time if things get too tough .

But if you've got a character too scrappy to deal with the situation or the numbers just work against you , it won't matter what does matter is that the game is an absolute pleasure to play even to this day .

My word do I love fall out .

And even though this isn't the best in this series , it got so much right from the start that I can't help but be enamored .

One of the biggest things that absolutely nails is the atmosphere which is crucial to a solid post apocalypse .

A big part of that comes from the soundtrack by Mark Morgan .

It's just blissfully foreboding the graphical style and the art direction is also spot on with everything looking like it's seen a couple of generations of neglect and each shack or settlement boasting its own unique feel .

It's a believable gritty world of depraved humanity punctuated by the decayed aesthetic and general lack of anything bright or colorful .

The N P CS you come into contact with are as unpredictable and dangerous as the locations , many of which are only spoken to through text , but some have fully voiced dialogue trees featuring actors like Richard Dean Anderson .

Well , that's a damn fine coincidence .

That's what this store is here for .

We got about everything you can need .

Yep , you can talk to Macgyver about killing a man and then proceed to buy drugs off of him .

It's brilliant .

As mentioned earlier , there are also some MP CS that serve as companions and there's no limit to how many you can have tag along .

You can't control their actions though and their stats won't level up , but they will help you in combat and later on prove invaluable .

Dog meat is one of the very first that you'll come across and he's become a staple of the franchise ever since .

There's nothing like having a canine companion .

Once the apocalypse hits , am I ?

Right ?

In fact , the game is chock full of pop culture references like this from Mad Max to doctor who to freaking coca-cola in the form of omnipresent new Co Cola radioactive soda .

It's this warped retro future combined with nonchalant references to our own world contrasting against the unapologetic violence and moral atrocities that makes Fallout such a weird and awesome reality to explore .

And I mean , it , when I say Fallout is unapologetic with things like absurdly gory death animations all over the place and the ability to kill Children , which caused more than a few controversies .

Yet the despicable stuff you do makes the positive things you can do stand out that much more .

And it's awesome if you play your cards , right ?

Most of the time you won't have to kill at all since sneaking around and convincing people not to fight are always options .

There are so many ways to play that I could wander these wastelands forever .

And indeed , it feels like I have when I consider the thousands of hours I've dedicated to this series of games over the years .

You can get through this one in about 25 hours if you just run for it .

But I love taking my time and soaking things in when I have the chance .

And on subsequent play throughs , there's always something else to find someone else to deal with .

Some other little thing tucked away that I missed .

That's not to say it's without its faults though .

And there are quite a few , especially compared to some of the later games .

I can't stand the inventory management for one .

It's just a mess that makes everything from bartering to reloading your weapons .

A chore .

There are also several quests that sometimes don't work or won't update , leaving you in limbo where you don't really know if you've triggered a progression point or not .

And the graphic style while excellent , artistically often works against you as a player .

It's not uncommon for useful items to just blend into the background or buildings and objects to block your viewpoint of some pretty crucial objectives .

I also take issue with a timer at the beginning of the game even though it's more of a small aggravation than a huge hindrance .

If you don't get the water chip before the timer runs out , everyone in your vault dies and it's an instant game over .

So you're pretty much forced to do that before you can focus on role playing , how you want to , which arguably goes against the grain of fallouts , sandbox nature .

And lastly , there's the sluggishness of the combat , even when you speed up the animations to their highest speed .

Sometimes this is a rush , but most encounters just put me to sleep rough edges aside .

Fallout was an absolutely groundbreaking game in the C R P G genre and beyond , you can still easily play it on modern machines with the updated versions like you'll find on G O G dot com .

So I would recommend it completely .

And just recently , Bethesda physically re-released the game in this incredibly gimmicky yet awesome mini nuke package .

It comes with the Fallout Series up through New Vegas and even though these are steam versions only , it's worth taking a look at if you're a fan of the series and I certainly am .

Fallout is one of my all time favorite franchises in any medium bar .

None .

And the first one is what I have to thank for it .

You'd be hard pressed to find someone that considers the first one their favorite when later games like Fallout two and three in New Vegas were so well received , but you got to respect your elders , you know , unless your elder pulls a laser rifle on you during a conversation about irradiated water and in that case , shoot them in the balls and hope they have some good loot on their dismembered corpse .

Yeah , Fallout .

And I want to thank Jim very much for giving me this copy of the game in the box .

Uh This is just an excellent box and such a great game .

So , thank you very much , sir .

You are awesome .

And if you thought this video was awesome , then perhaps you'd like to see some others .

There are some right here to click on and the annotations or you could just subscribe and get new videos every Monday and Friday .

There's always stuff on Twitter and Facebook , socially , whatever that means as well as Patreon for money stuff and seeing videos early and as always , thank you for watching .

Thank you for watching .

Never changes .