Fallout (PC)
Reviewed by: soundtech
Reviewed on: 9-Apr-2005
- Summary
- Fallout is an excellent RPG that takes adventuring out of the dungeons and throws it into a post nuclear wasteland.
- Ratings
- Overall: A+
- Gameplay: A+
- Graphics: A
- Learning Curve: A
- Replay Value: A
- Sound: A+
- Pros
- Different kind of RPG
- High replay value
- Very realistic weapon sounds
- Easy to use interface
- Enjoyable story
- Great set of skills and perks
- Great selection of weapons and armor
- Helpful and funny NPC's
- Excellent graphics
- Very unique voices for NPC's
- Links
- Images
Description
Fallout ----- Without a doubt one of the greatest RPG's ever created! This is the classic RPG that took fantasy role-playing out of the dungeons and threw it into a post nuclear world. This was the game that started my love for RPG's and it still remains one of my favorites of all time.
I have also written a review for Fallout Tactics, and I found when I looked back on it, that I left out many descriptions of the mechanics and details of the game, so I will include more of that for this game, and this game is the original that Tactics was based on, so all of this information can be applied to Tactics, and I will point out the differences in this review.
The background story for the Fallout universe is that the country has been ravaged by a nuclear war, and some of the citizens were able to take shelter in underground compounds known as "Vaults", all of which have been built by a private contractor company called Vault-Tec. The character that you play is a member of Vault 13, and when the game begins you have been summoned by the Vault Overseer and told that the Vault's water chip is broken and you must venture outside and obtain another water chip for your fellow Vault Dwellers before they die from lack of water. This is the main quest, and of course it is timed, and once you complete that one, and get back to your home Vault with the new water chip, than you are given the news that an army of Super Mutants are gaining strength and wanting to invade all of the Vaults, including yours. Once again you are sent out to the wastelands, this time to track down the Super Mutant base and destroy the threat.
The first thing you will have to do before you begin your adventure into the wastelands, is to create your character that you will play. There are 3 pre-made characters that you can choose to play if you want to skip the character creation section and just get into the game, but I would suggest that you make your own character, it provides for a more enjoyable game. If you decide to create your own character, than this is what you will set-up:
1.) Spend Character points --- There are seven primary statistics that ALL characters have. The primary statistics are: Strength (ST), Perception (PE), Endurance (EN), Charisma (CH), Intelligence (IN), Agility (AG), and Luck (LK). During character creation you are given 5 points to spend on these stats, and you should keep in mind that this is where they will be set for the entire game, because you will not have a chance to change them later on. Depending on what level you set them on, they can range anywhere from Very Bad (1), to Heroic (10).
2.) Select Three Tag Skills ---- Skills are learned abilities that can change as you gain experience during the game. During character creation you can choose 3 of them to "Tag", which means that these three will be your primary skills, and they immediately receive a +20% bonus, and they grow faster than the rest of the skills, because you will get twice the improvement when you spend future skill points on them. Here is a complete list of the skills and a brief description of each:
Small Guns -- Covers pistols, SMG's, rifles, and shotguns.
Big Guns -- Covers anything that requires both hands to operate. (Flamers, miniguns, rocket launchers).
Energy Weapons --- Any laser or plasma based weapon.
Melee Weapons --- The use of knives and spears.
Throwing --- How well you can aim and operate a thrown object, like a granede.
Unarmed --- Using your fists and feet for combat (sometimes refered to as Martial Arts).
Speech --- Using your dialogue skill, being able to talk your way out of combat (Diplomatic character).
Barter --- Covers the ability to trade (Can give you discounts on equipment and give you more money for equipment you sell).
Gambling --- This skill lets you win more often when playing games of chance.
Outdoorsman --- Helps with outdoor living and hostile environments ( Can reduce the amount of random encounters on the World map that you may have).
Sneak --- This skill enables you to move silently and keep out of sight.
Lockpick --- Covers the ability to open locked chests or lockers.
Steal --- The art of removing things from a person or object without being noticed.
Traps --- The skill of spotting, disarming, and setting traps and explosives.
First Aid --- The skill of minor healing (Cuts and Bruises).
Doctor --- This is the more advanced skill of healing (Can heal broken limbs).
Science --- Covers the ability to use computers, and other mechanical devices.
Repair --- This skill allows you to fix many things that are broken in the wastelands.
In Fallout Tactics, the Speech skill has been taken out since it is more of a combat style game, and the new Skill is Piloting, because there are more vehicles in Tactics to use. This new Skill allows a character to properly operate and drive a vehicle.
3.) Choose Two Traits --- This section is optional, and you can start the game without choosing any traits. They each have their own advantages and disadvantages. Fallout Tactics has the same traits available as well as a number of new ones that are tailored to the new races you will encounter in that game. Some of the traits include One Hander (Dominant with one hand), and Bruiser (Hit less often, but hit harder).
4.) The last things you set are very simple: Your age, Your sex, and Your name.
There is a unique way that combat is handled in Fallout that you DO NOT see in games that often anymore. Combat in Fallout is turn-based. Your character has a certain amount of action points, and each type of action uses points, and once those points are depleted than the turn is over. Most of the points will be used in movement, but you can also use points by reloading, opening doors, or accessing inventory. During combat your opponent is governed by the same system.
Fallout and Fallout 2 are both turn-based, but with Fallout Tactics you have the option of playing in turn-based or continous turn-based, which is exactly as it sounds, your squad and the opponents move at the same time like any other game these days.
Another important feature of this game is the NPC's (Non Playing Character). The amount of NPC's that can accompany you during your adventure is based on your Charisma ranking, the higher the Charisma number, the more NPC's you can have. Some of them can be very funny, and of course the more you have with you, the better your chances of surviving tough combat situations.
This feature is part of the first two games, but it is NOT part of Tactics, and that is because in Fallout Tactics you are in control of an entire squad.
You gain experience in Fallout mainly through combat and completing quests. If you gain enough experience, you will advance levels, and this could earn you "Perks". Perks are new abilities, and you get one additional Perk every three levels (Every four levels if you have chosen the Skilled trait). Perks can enhance many things about your character, and here is some examples of them:
Healer (Makes healing easier), and More Criticals (More likely to cause Critical hits during combat).
The Perk system is also a part of the Fallout Tactics game, but the difference being there are more available, and some are only available for certain races.
One of the things that I enjoyed so much about this game was that it was so different from your typical RPG. The surroundings were different, and most notable was the difference in armor and weapons. Here is some examples of the weapons and armor that you will get to use in this nuclear world:
Brass Knuckles, Pistol, Grenade, Sledgehammer, Combat Armor, and Leather Jackets. There is also many other items that you can find that will aid in healing, inventory management, and resistance to radiation. The Fallout Tactics game offers new weapons, armor, and items. For example, you can get toolkits that enable you to repair expert to fix the vehicles.
Graphics are very good in this game, the environments and buildings look like they have been damaged by a nuclear war, and that helps to provide for a realistic adventure. Sound is excellent, with plenty of weapon sounds and very distinctive NPC voices. There is also plenty of apacolyptic sounding background music. The Gameplay and interface are extremely easy to use, with everything a mouse click away. You will have a full gaming screen, with system messages, chosen weapon, armor class, action points, character button, inventory button, and at the far right hand side a button that will quickly bring up a list of the Skills for your character. The other game options, such as save/load, automap, and a list of quests is provided on a device known as your PipBoy.
Replay value is very high, and I think that is due to the fact that you can find something new each time you play this game, something you missed before. The lLearning curve on this game is good. There is not a tutorial mission on this game, but there is a quick introductory walkthrough in the manual that touches on all the basics of how to get around in the Fallout world. Fallout Tactics does offer a tutorial mission, in fact it offers two different ones, a tactical one and a basic one.
There is also a World Map feature in this game, and whenever you go outside of the Town areas, it goes into the World Map automatically. Unfortunately your only means of travel through the World Map is by foot, and it can sometimes take a while to get to your destination, and you will more than likely encounter hostile creatures. Fallout 2 provides a car that helps shorten travel time in the World Map, and Fallout Tactics offers many vehicles for use in this area.
There is really nothing about this game that I disliked. Maybe the only thing that was annoying was the fact that you had to travel by foot on the World Map, but it was not really that big of a deal, and most of the time you gained a good amount of experience points from the encounters, so it made it worthwhile.
I think that pretty much covers everything about this game, if you want to know more about it, than leave me a post, and I will answer it ASAP. If there was ever a game that I am an expert about, it would be this one, so don't hesitate to ask questions if you have any.
I would highly recommend this game, and if you want to experience an RPG that takes you into a post nuclear wasteland, than pick this one up and I promise you that you will have a very good time playing it!
Your Fellow Gamer
Bobby
I have also written a review for Fallout Tactics, and I found when I looked back on it, that I left out many descriptions of the mechanics and details of the game, so I will include more of that for this game, and this game is the original that Tactics was based on, so all of this information can be applied to Tactics, and I will point out the differences in this review.
The background story for the Fallout universe is that the country has been ravaged by a nuclear war, and some of the citizens were able to take shelter in underground compounds known as "Vaults", all of which have been built by a private contractor company called Vault-Tec. The character that you play is a member of Vault 13, and when the game begins you have been summoned by the Vault Overseer and told that the Vault's water chip is broken and you must venture outside and obtain another water chip for your fellow Vault Dwellers before they die from lack of water. This is the main quest, and of course it is timed, and once you complete that one, and get back to your home Vault with the new water chip, than you are given the news that an army of Super Mutants are gaining strength and wanting to invade all of the Vaults, including yours. Once again you are sent out to the wastelands, this time to track down the Super Mutant base and destroy the threat.
The first thing you will have to do before you begin your adventure into the wastelands, is to create your character that you will play. There are 3 pre-made characters that you can choose to play if you want to skip the character creation section and just get into the game, but I would suggest that you make your own character, it provides for a more enjoyable game. If you decide to create your own character, than this is what you will set-up:
1.) Spend Character points --- There are seven primary statistics that ALL characters have. The primary statistics are: Strength (ST), Perception (PE), Endurance (EN), Charisma (CH), Intelligence (IN), Agility (AG), and Luck (LK). During character creation you are given 5 points to spend on these stats, and you should keep in mind that this is where they will be set for the entire game, because you will not have a chance to change them later on. Depending on what level you set them on, they can range anywhere from Very Bad (1), to Heroic (10).
2.) Select Three Tag Skills ---- Skills are learned abilities that can change as you gain experience during the game. During character creation you can choose 3 of them to "Tag", which means that these three will be your primary skills, and they immediately receive a +20% bonus, and they grow faster than the rest of the skills, because you will get twice the improvement when you spend future skill points on them. Here is a complete list of the skills and a brief description of each:
Small Guns -- Covers pistols, SMG's, rifles, and shotguns.
Big Guns -- Covers anything that requires both hands to operate. (Flamers, miniguns, rocket launchers).
Energy Weapons --- Any laser or plasma based weapon.
Melee Weapons --- The use of knives and spears.
Throwing --- How well you can aim and operate a thrown object, like a granede.
Unarmed --- Using your fists and feet for combat (sometimes refered to as Martial Arts).
Speech --- Using your dialogue skill, being able to talk your way out of combat (Diplomatic character).
Barter --- Covers the ability to trade (Can give you discounts on equipment and give you more money for equipment you sell).
Gambling --- This skill lets you win more often when playing games of chance.
Outdoorsman --- Helps with outdoor living and hostile environments ( Can reduce the amount of random encounters on the World map that you may have).
Sneak --- This skill enables you to move silently and keep out of sight.
Lockpick --- Covers the ability to open locked chests or lockers.
Steal --- The art of removing things from a person or object without being noticed.
Traps --- The skill of spotting, disarming, and setting traps and explosives.
First Aid --- The skill of minor healing (Cuts and Bruises).
Doctor --- This is the more advanced skill of healing (Can heal broken limbs).
Science --- Covers the ability to use computers, and other mechanical devices.
Repair --- This skill allows you to fix many things that are broken in the wastelands.
In Fallout Tactics, the Speech skill has been taken out since it is more of a combat style game, and the new Skill is Piloting, because there are more vehicles in Tactics to use. This new Skill allows a character to properly operate and drive a vehicle.
3.) Choose Two Traits --- This section is optional, and you can start the game without choosing any traits. They each have their own advantages and disadvantages. Fallout Tactics has the same traits available as well as a number of new ones that are tailored to the new races you will encounter in that game. Some of the traits include One Hander (Dominant with one hand), and Bruiser (Hit less often, but hit harder).
4.) The last things you set are very simple: Your age, Your sex, and Your name.
There is a unique way that combat is handled in Fallout that you DO NOT see in games that often anymore. Combat in Fallout is turn-based. Your character has a certain amount of action points, and each type of action uses points, and once those points are depleted than the turn is over. Most of the points will be used in movement, but you can also use points by reloading, opening doors, or accessing inventory. During combat your opponent is governed by the same system.
Fallout and Fallout 2 are both turn-based, but with Fallout Tactics you have the option of playing in turn-based or continous turn-based, which is exactly as it sounds, your squad and the opponents move at the same time like any other game these days.
Another important feature of this game is the NPC's (Non Playing Character). The amount of NPC's that can accompany you during your adventure is based on your Charisma ranking, the higher the Charisma number, the more NPC's you can have. Some of them can be very funny, and of course the more you have with you, the better your chances of surviving tough combat situations.
This feature is part of the first two games, but it is NOT part of Tactics, and that is because in Fallout Tactics you are in control of an entire squad.
You gain experience in Fallout mainly through combat and completing quests. If you gain enough experience, you will advance levels, and this could earn you "Perks". Perks are new abilities, and you get one additional Perk every three levels (Every four levels if you have chosen the Skilled trait). Perks can enhance many things about your character, and here is some examples of them:
Healer (Makes healing easier), and More Criticals (More likely to cause Critical hits during combat).
The Perk system is also a part of the Fallout Tactics game, but the difference being there are more available, and some are only available for certain races.
One of the things that I enjoyed so much about this game was that it was so different from your typical RPG. The surroundings were different, and most notable was the difference in armor and weapons. Here is some examples of the weapons and armor that you will get to use in this nuclear world:
Brass Knuckles, Pistol, Grenade, Sledgehammer, Combat Armor, and Leather Jackets. There is also many other items that you can find that will aid in healing, inventory management, and resistance to radiation. The Fallout Tactics game offers new weapons, armor, and items. For example, you can get toolkits that enable you to repair expert to fix the vehicles.
Graphics are very good in this game, the environments and buildings look like they have been damaged by a nuclear war, and that helps to provide for a realistic adventure. Sound is excellent, with plenty of weapon sounds and very distinctive NPC voices. There is also plenty of apacolyptic sounding background music. The Gameplay and interface are extremely easy to use, with everything a mouse click away. You will have a full gaming screen, with system messages, chosen weapon, armor class, action points, character button, inventory button, and at the far right hand side a button that will quickly bring up a list of the Skills for your character. The other game options, such as save/load, automap, and a list of quests is provided on a device known as your PipBoy.
Replay value is very high, and I think that is due to the fact that you can find something new each time you play this game, something you missed before. The lLearning curve on this game is good. There is not a tutorial mission on this game, but there is a quick introductory walkthrough in the manual that touches on all the basics of how to get around in the Fallout world. Fallout Tactics does offer a tutorial mission, in fact it offers two different ones, a tactical one and a basic one.
There is also a World Map feature in this game, and whenever you go outside of the Town areas, it goes into the World Map automatically. Unfortunately your only means of travel through the World Map is by foot, and it can sometimes take a while to get to your destination, and you will more than likely encounter hostile creatures. Fallout 2 provides a car that helps shorten travel time in the World Map, and Fallout Tactics offers many vehicles for use in this area.
There is really nothing about this game that I disliked. Maybe the only thing that was annoying was the fact that you had to travel by foot on the World Map, but it was not really that big of a deal, and most of the time you gained a good amount of experience points from the encounters, so it made it worthwhile.
I think that pretty much covers everything about this game, if you want to know more about it, than leave me a post, and I will answer it ASAP. If there was ever a game that I am an expert about, it would be this one, so don't hesitate to ask questions if you have any.
I would highly recommend this game, and if you want to experience an RPG that takes you into a post nuclear wasteland, than pick this one up and I promise you that you will have a very good time playing it!
Your Fellow Gamer
Bobby