Ed Oscuro
05-20-2005, 05:53 AM
A week or so ago I noticed a flimsy two-disc pack with Fallout: A Post Nuclear Adventure and the sequel bundled together. For $3, I decided to pick it up on a whim (I also found my melty red Game Boy Pocket there, which I'm also using quite a bit).
My ranting and raving probably won't be that coherent given the late, late hour (hmm, getting perilously close to sunrise here), but I've still got to write something, as I 'beat' the game just an hour ago.
After seeing the intro...wow. Incredibly powerful; both melancholy and incredibly, blackly hillarious at the same time.
Fallout is an incredibly polished isometric vew RTS game at the squad level. Movement is done on a virtual hex grid (this becomes quite apparent if you try to run straight upwards, downwards, or across certain corridors). Amazingly, the architecture is very natural in appearance, with walls coming out at many different angles. Most of the game is accomplished solo (and it's pretty much impossible to keep a team for the last areas).
The first thing to know about the game is that it's very, very tricky and secretive. You'll often explore "all" the paths of a dialog with a character, annoyed that you didn't get the outcome you wanted...no, you probably just missed something (or your intelligence wasn't high enough - here's a game I suggest looking up the excellent savegame editor for, and the 1.1 patch is a prerequisite). There are tons of ways to do things in this game. Generally speaking, all objectives can be done a variety of ways - cowboy style (guns blazing), infiltration, and through conversation. The best way of doing things is usually to talk it through, and so players with high speech skill and intelligence are going to come out best. I've noticed tons of famous movie quotes here to chuckle at - most aren't going to do anything but get you in a fight, though!
The interface is pretty unusual, with lots of fiddly things to figure out, but as you start figuring it out the game opens up a good deal. Learning how to do things, for me, was pretty satisfying all by itself; your learning curve mirrors that of your character in the game itself. Just remember to hit "Done" when you've changed your options; it's very picky about that. In line with this are a metric ton of ranged stats, special "perk" abilities and modifiers, and kill counts. There's a karma system (an idea that's definitely caught on, as with Star Wars Galaxies' somewhat expanded Faction Points version of the system) as well, keeping a virtual record of who's been naughty or nice.
The world itself looks awesome. All prerendered graphics, seen from an isometric perspective. I've noticed lots of little glitches, but nothing should ruin your day (besides some rare save bugs even with the patch - make sure to use backup saves), and for the most part the world is solid and reliable. The game is supposed to be set in a post-holocaust Western/Southwest U.S. of the year 2077, but you'll notice that everything looks as if it came from the fifties (including the famous pudgy cartoon avatar you'll see all over the stat pages). It's actually very effective and done with a wink and a nod. You'll notice that a lot of the usual crazy, improbable things are happening here, with geniuses sequestered underground making wild guesses, and humble blacksmiths improving prewar plasma rifle designs on an anvil...all a good backdrop for your own highly improbable exploits, of course. One thing that does hold this area back is the constant re-use of certain types of grahpics, giving even important places like The Glow a generic feel, unfortunately. Sometimes this is used advantageously, however. It's pretty strange considering the pretty wide variety of large, unique graphics used for random encounters. Character look quite good, though it's easy to have trouble picking your character out of a crowd as your guy/gal looks just like any other person of their gender wearing that armor type (playing as a woman works well enough in solving this, though I haven't tried it).
The basic story, the real one, of the game revolves around some technological mumbo-jumbo that's absolutely impossible from a technical standpoint, but it IS engaging, deep and resonates just enough to be taken somewhat seriously. Characters, even (especially) enemies, are believable within their set of parameters. It's certainly a more complex premise than you'll ever see offered up in a conventional blockbuster, and Fallout has no shortage of scenarios to work through.
The weapons are damned convincing, and so are the enemy deaths! I rarely like gore, but somehow seeing what some of the weapons done is enjoyable enough. No doubt Victor (of the Skullz gang) is a parody of those of us who like it, but deaths are really spectacular in this game.
Yes, I haven't really done much more than scratch the surface. This game is huge, and it's amazing. It's chaotic enough to avoid the sameness and predictability of my last featured game (Front Mission: Gun Hazard), and this really adds a huge dimension to help shore up the game's rather iffy hex battles :)
Not a game I don't mind cheating a bit through (namely giving myself more AP and carry weight) on repeat visits, though I recommend playing by the book on your first go-through. The combat is admittedly not incredible fun, but it's perfect in areas where hex combat sims on either side of the Pacific have absolutely nothing.
On a final note - the music isn't happy, not at all, but it's among the best I've heard in any game. A personal favorite is the city/cathedral theme, and I like the Vault 13 music as well.
As a side note, the game generally regarded to be Fallout's spiritual predecessor (made by a completely different team and company, as far as I'm aware) is Wasteland for the Apple IIgs, which has a similar, post-80s-holocaust theme.
My ranting and raving probably won't be that coherent given the late, late hour (hmm, getting perilously close to sunrise here), but I've still got to write something, as I 'beat' the game just an hour ago.
After seeing the intro...wow. Incredibly powerful; both melancholy and incredibly, blackly hillarious at the same time.
Fallout is an incredibly polished isometric vew RTS game at the squad level. Movement is done on a virtual hex grid (this becomes quite apparent if you try to run straight upwards, downwards, or across certain corridors). Amazingly, the architecture is very natural in appearance, with walls coming out at many different angles. Most of the game is accomplished solo (and it's pretty much impossible to keep a team for the last areas).
The first thing to know about the game is that it's very, very tricky and secretive. You'll often explore "all" the paths of a dialog with a character, annoyed that you didn't get the outcome you wanted...no, you probably just missed something (or your intelligence wasn't high enough - here's a game I suggest looking up the excellent savegame editor for, and the 1.1 patch is a prerequisite). There are tons of ways to do things in this game. Generally speaking, all objectives can be done a variety of ways - cowboy style (guns blazing), infiltration, and through conversation. The best way of doing things is usually to talk it through, and so players with high speech skill and intelligence are going to come out best. I've noticed tons of famous movie quotes here to chuckle at - most aren't going to do anything but get you in a fight, though!
The interface is pretty unusual, with lots of fiddly things to figure out, but as you start figuring it out the game opens up a good deal. Learning how to do things, for me, was pretty satisfying all by itself; your learning curve mirrors that of your character in the game itself. Just remember to hit "Done" when you've changed your options; it's very picky about that. In line with this are a metric ton of ranged stats, special "perk" abilities and modifiers, and kill counts. There's a karma system (an idea that's definitely caught on, as with Star Wars Galaxies' somewhat expanded Faction Points version of the system) as well, keeping a virtual record of who's been naughty or nice.
The world itself looks awesome. All prerendered graphics, seen from an isometric perspective. I've noticed lots of little glitches, but nothing should ruin your day (besides some rare save bugs even with the patch - make sure to use backup saves), and for the most part the world is solid and reliable. The game is supposed to be set in a post-holocaust Western/Southwest U.S. of the year 2077, but you'll notice that everything looks as if it came from the fifties (including the famous pudgy cartoon avatar you'll see all over the stat pages). It's actually very effective and done with a wink and a nod. You'll notice that a lot of the usual crazy, improbable things are happening here, with geniuses sequestered underground making wild guesses, and humble blacksmiths improving prewar plasma rifle designs on an anvil...all a good backdrop for your own highly improbable exploits, of course. One thing that does hold this area back is the constant re-use of certain types of grahpics, giving even important places like The Glow a generic feel, unfortunately. Sometimes this is used advantageously, however. It's pretty strange considering the pretty wide variety of large, unique graphics used for random encounters. Character look quite good, though it's easy to have trouble picking your character out of a crowd as your guy/gal looks just like any other person of their gender wearing that armor type (playing as a woman works well enough in solving this, though I haven't tried it).
The basic story, the real one, of the game revolves around some technological mumbo-jumbo that's absolutely impossible from a technical standpoint, but it IS engaging, deep and resonates just enough to be taken somewhat seriously. Characters, even (especially) enemies, are believable within their set of parameters. It's certainly a more complex premise than you'll ever see offered up in a conventional blockbuster, and Fallout has no shortage of scenarios to work through.
The weapons are damned convincing, and so are the enemy deaths! I rarely like gore, but somehow seeing what some of the weapons done is enjoyable enough. No doubt Victor (of the Skullz gang) is a parody of those of us who like it, but deaths are really spectacular in this game.
Yes, I haven't really done much more than scratch the surface. This game is huge, and it's amazing. It's chaotic enough to avoid the sameness and predictability of my last featured game (Front Mission: Gun Hazard), and this really adds a huge dimension to help shore up the game's rather iffy hex battles :)
Not a game I don't mind cheating a bit through (namely giving myself more AP and carry weight) on repeat visits, though I recommend playing by the book on your first go-through. The combat is admittedly not incredible fun, but it's perfect in areas where hex combat sims on either side of the Pacific have absolutely nothing.
On a final note - the music isn't happy, not at all, but it's among the best I've heard in any game. A personal favorite is the city/cathedral theme, and I like the Vault 13 music as well.
As a side note, the game generally regarded to be Fallout's spiritual predecessor (made by a completely different team and company, as far as I'm aware) is Wasteland for the Apple IIgs, which has a similar, post-80s-holocaust theme.