Beaten: Apr 13 2022
Time: I have no idea but it felt like 20ish Hours on easy?
Platform: PC via GOG and Parallels
The classic Fallout games are really weird and clunky. Usually you can tell just by looking at their isometric turn-based style, with menus that look like they were crafted out of bolted together scrap missile parts, but as crusty as they look, they’re much crustier to the touch. Animations are slow, combat is heavily random number reliant, moving at a diagonal results in your character zigzagging all the way across the screen, and those menus? The design language they use is frustrating, at first (you actually have to click the little red buttons, not the words).
In any other games, these could, or maybe would, all end up poisoning or breaking the experience. I mean, does that sound fun? I definitely lost at least a couple hours just save scumming my way across the wasteland at points, or cheesing my way out of an unwinnable situation. It manages to translate the scungy mechanical parts of playing DnD, but without the fun of having friends, or a DM that’ll fudge the numbers for you.
But in this case, this one case (two if you count fallout 1), it works. Nothing gets you into the right mood, the right atmosphere for this game, like the interface. Black Isle was also working on Planescape Torment at the same time, a much smoother, quicker rpg, yet here they used most of the same systems from Fallout 1. I know the main reason for that is the rushed development of 2 (9 months I heard???????), but I’d like to believe they chose to use these systems again expressly for the mood they create when you meet them halfway.
Once you’re in that mood, this game is god damn fantastic. You want an RPG that reacts to your decisions and has morally dubious choices? You can not do better. A game with memorable characters and towns and world-building? You Can Not Do Better. You want a game that’s funny as hell AND incredibly disquieting about the state of our world (maybe more today than when the game came out)?????
BROTHER
PLAY THIS GAME
I wouldn’t call it flawless or anything (in particular, the tribal faction in the game feels… uncomfortable, even though you’re one of them), but it really is the kind of game that will meet you beyond halfway if you come to it with an open mind, willing to adapt to it.
I really don’t want to get into any kind of details about it, because I went in almost completely blind and every little thing the game threw my way felt amazing because of that, but if you think you’ll be able to adapt to the interface and difficulty (you can play on easy like I did, but you definitely still need to keep your wits about you) I really can’t recommend this game and its predecessor enough.
Time: I have no idea but it felt like 20ish Hours on easy?
Platform: PC via GOG and Parallels
The classic Fallout games are really weird and clunky. Usually you can tell just by looking at their isometric turn-based style, with menus that look like they were crafted out of bolted together scrap missile parts, but as crusty as they look, they’re much crustier to the touch. Animations are slow, combat is heavily random number reliant, moving at a diagonal results in your character zigzagging all the way across the screen, and those menus? The design language they use is frustrating, at first (you actually have to click the little red buttons, not the words).
In any other games, these could, or maybe would, all end up poisoning or breaking the experience. I mean, does that sound fun? I definitely lost at least a couple hours just save scumming my way across the wasteland at points, or cheesing my way out of an unwinnable situation. It manages to translate the scungy mechanical parts of playing DnD, but without the fun of having friends, or a DM that’ll fudge the numbers for you.
But in this case, this one case (two if you count fallout 1), it works. Nothing gets you into the right mood, the right atmosphere for this game, like the interface. Black Isle was also working on Planescape Torment at the same time, a much smoother, quicker rpg, yet here they used most of the same systems from Fallout 1. I know the main reason for that is the rushed development of 2 (9 months I heard???????), but I’d like to believe they chose to use these systems again expressly for the mood they create when you meet them halfway.
Once you’re in that mood, this game is god damn fantastic. You want an RPG that reacts to your decisions and has morally dubious choices? You can not do better. A game with memorable characters and towns and world-building? You Can Not Do Better. You want a game that’s funny as hell AND incredibly disquieting about the state of our world (maybe more today than when the game came out)?????
BROTHER
PLAY THIS GAME
I wouldn’t call it flawless or anything (in particular, the tribal faction in the game feels… uncomfortable, even though you’re one of them), but it really is the kind of game that will meet you beyond halfway if you come to it with an open mind, willing to adapt to it.
I really don’t want to get into any kind of details about it, because I went in almost completely blind and every little thing the game threw my way felt amazing because of that, but if you think you’ll be able to adapt to the interface and difficulty (you can play on easy like I did, but you definitely still need to keep your wits about you) I really can’t recommend this game and its predecessor enough.