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Fallout
I finished playing the RPG classic Fallout this morning and I was surprised that the game was relatively short, in comparison to Baldur's Gate and Morrowind. At the same time, one is amazed by the antiquity of the game engine. There were some things that were pretty clunky, such as inventory management and navigating with a party. One of the things that frustrated me about the original Baldur's Gate was how party members would cluster around a doorway and there would be no way out. Several times I was trapped in washrooms for a few minutes. Come to think of it, Fallout has an odd preoccupation with toilets. Nuclear war can destroy just about everything but commodes! There was just so much to discover in the game and I enjoyed that.
I loved the retro future styling of the game, as well as its science, the main idea being that radiation makes things larger and stronger. And then there are the bomb shelters in the form of Vaults. Your character, the Vault Dweller, emerges from a sheltered vault into the post nuclear wasteland in order to repair the vault's faulty water chip.
At first the limited colour palette bothered me, but I got over it after a while. It's easy to forget that back in 1997 most people didn't have super duper colour monitors anyway. Just like the Vault Dweller, I stumbled around badly trying to figure out the turn based action point combat system. It took me four good save games before I made it past the rats!
Moreso than other RPGs, I found myself making many saves. The wrong dialog choice could lead to future silence from a character. I wasn't able to quiz Vree for the mutant autopsy disk, and I had several broken quests, such as the missing caravan quest, due to poor dialog choices. It seems RPGs never quite deliver dialog satisfaction either. For instance, you can tell Nicole that you'll share whatever you hear with her, but after several good discoveries, she still spits out the same conversation.
I had Ian, Tycho, Katja and Dogmeat for a party, although I lost Dogmeat somewhere in Adytum. He didn't get killed, he just disappeared after I explored the mushroom farm. Although it was nice to have help, Ian and Katja often got in the way, especially in the way of friendly fire. That's another thing, there wasn't much in the way of controlling the party. Just like in other RPGs, the weakest character would run straight for the baddest enemy! As I found better weapons, such as the flamer (which I loved!) and the plasma rifle, I began to leave the group because of friendly fire issues.
I ended up soloing the quest to get rid of the death claws, the upper cathedral level, the military base and the final confrontation with the Master. I have to say that the military base was one of the best RPG battles I have ever played. I managed to take out most of the mutants with the rocket launcher, but carrying the power armor, I could only carry so much...and I had to put the flamer aside. It took several reloads to finish the military base boss. I tried several ways of defeating his goons. The mutant lieutenant was easily dispatched with a rocket, but I had to do the tried and true method of luring out the enemy one by one. In my successful battle, both goons game out at once, which proved quite fortunate. Goon 1 stood in front of Goon 2 and Goon 2 literally cut him in half! I then forced Goon 2 to use up all his ammo while going up and down the hallway several times :-D The problem at this point was that I didn't have a huge energy weapons skill, so I missed a lot with the plasma rifle. I also made the neat discovery that if a weapon is on the ground, the mutants will try to pick them up. Goon 2 came across the empty flamer and I was so amazed!
The Glow was another area that I revisited a couple of times. I found the lower levels so intriguing, there was an odd moment of magic when power is restored. I guess it's because the area was so grim to begin with. Restoring the original lighting made it look a lot better!
The final battle itself was pretty rote (hide behind column, fire, hide behind colum), although I almost had to replay it. I thought I had paused the game, but I didn't, and ended up with half the time to leave before the cathedral exploded. There was some odd humour in the upper levels of the cathedral basement, such as when I dispatched the mutants on level 2. You can free some trapped humans on this level, and they come bounding out crying "We're free! We're free!" only to go splat seconds later :-D Similarly, in the little chapel, purple robed worshippers were cannon fodder for the super mutants in there. After all was said and done, only one worshipper was left, and he'd scratch his head every now and then :-D
The final ending was quite satisfying...in some regards the whole game reminded me of Monica Hughes' novel Devil On My Back, a Canadian young adult classic about a teenage boy that escapes from a dome in a similar setting. My favourite RPGs have always been the ones with good storytelling...I almost wish it could be made into a movie. It would be a good one!
I loved the retro future styling of the game, as well as its science, the main idea being that radiation makes things larger and stronger. And then there are the bomb shelters in the form of Vaults. Your character, the Vault Dweller, emerges from a sheltered vault into the post nuclear wasteland in order to repair the vault's faulty water chip.
At first the limited colour palette bothered me, but I got over it after a while. It's easy to forget that back in 1997 most people didn't have super duper colour monitors anyway. Just like the Vault Dweller, I stumbled around badly trying to figure out the turn based action point combat system. It took me four good save games before I made it past the rats!
Moreso than other RPGs, I found myself making many saves. The wrong dialog choice could lead to future silence from a character. I wasn't able to quiz Vree for the mutant autopsy disk, and I had several broken quests, such as the missing caravan quest, due to poor dialog choices. It seems RPGs never quite deliver dialog satisfaction either. For instance, you can tell Nicole that you'll share whatever you hear with her, but after several good discoveries, she still spits out the same conversation.
I had Ian, Tycho, Katja and Dogmeat for a party, although I lost Dogmeat somewhere in Adytum. He didn't get killed, he just disappeared after I explored the mushroom farm. Although it was nice to have help, Ian and Katja often got in the way, especially in the way of friendly fire. That's another thing, there wasn't much in the way of controlling the party. Just like in other RPGs, the weakest character would run straight for the baddest enemy! As I found better weapons, such as the flamer (which I loved!) and the plasma rifle, I began to leave the group because of friendly fire issues.
I ended up soloing the quest to get rid of the death claws, the upper cathedral level, the military base and the final confrontation with the Master. I have to say that the military base was one of the best RPG battles I have ever played. I managed to take out most of the mutants with the rocket launcher, but carrying the power armor, I could only carry so much...and I had to put the flamer aside. It took several reloads to finish the military base boss. I tried several ways of defeating his goons. The mutant lieutenant was easily dispatched with a rocket, but I had to do the tried and true method of luring out the enemy one by one. In my successful battle, both goons game out at once, which proved quite fortunate. Goon 1 stood in front of Goon 2 and Goon 2 literally cut him in half! I then forced Goon 2 to use up all his ammo while going up and down the hallway several times :-D The problem at this point was that I didn't have a huge energy weapons skill, so I missed a lot with the plasma rifle. I also made the neat discovery that if a weapon is on the ground, the mutants will try to pick them up. Goon 2 came across the empty flamer and I was so amazed!
The Glow was another area that I revisited a couple of times. I found the lower levels so intriguing, there was an odd moment of magic when power is restored. I guess it's because the area was so grim to begin with. Restoring the original lighting made it look a lot better!
The final battle itself was pretty rote (hide behind column, fire, hide behind colum), although I almost had to replay it. I thought I had paused the game, but I didn't, and ended up with half the time to leave before the cathedral exploded. There was some odd humour in the upper levels of the cathedral basement, such as when I dispatched the mutants on level 2. You can free some trapped humans on this level, and they come bounding out crying "We're free! We're free!" only to go splat seconds later :-D Similarly, in the little chapel, purple robed worshippers were cannon fodder for the super mutants in there. After all was said and done, only one worshipper was left, and he'd scratch his head every now and then :-D
The final ending was quite satisfying...in some regards the whole game reminded me of Monica Hughes' novel Devil On My Back, a Canadian young adult classic about a teenage boy that escapes from a dome in a similar setting. My favourite RPGs have always been the ones with good storytelling...I almost wish it could be made into a movie. It would be a good one!
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(Anonymous) 2009-01-28 03:13 pm (UTC)(link)If you're restarting, I'd recommend tagging small guns, lockpick and doctor. The doctor skill is brilliant in this game, as you can get some EXCELLENT perks later in the game with a high doctor skill, on top of free healing without using stimpacks! Oh, and take the Gifted trait too, as the extra character points WAY outweigh the loss in skill points.
Don't put any points in melee weapons, it's a waste long term. If you like close and personal combat, unarmed is a lot better (and much improved from Fallout 1 as you get special attacks!). Becomes a useful skill at a couple of points later in the game too!
Oh, and if you can, walk through the radioactive goo without any wellies a bit once you're done; you'll develop a mutation in your foot later on ;)
Did you pay for Sulik? You can get him for free if you're sneaky!
Talk to Torr and say you'll help him guard the Brahmin. Once there, go to the Duntons on the left and help them steal the cattle (not hard). Once Torr has left, kill the radscorpions anyway for XP then get your reward from the Duntons. This will likely drop your karma into the negative, which will make the bad guys in the top bar like you. (don't worry, you can get your karma back in a minute!)
Seeing that you're now a scumbag, might as well pickpocket everybody in sight (save your game before trying!) then sell all their stuff to the guys in the top bar. After a while you should be able to afford some decent armour and a sharpened spear for Sulik (for some reason sharpened spears do more damage than the 10mm pistol!)
Once done, go and see that chick in the other bar who'll be all like "Torr ran away, help!" (if you were nice and helped Torr instead of stealing his cattle you'd never get this quest)
Go and save him, then return to the chick who'll be all like "Thank you! Have Sulik for free!" Little does she know that it was your fault he ran away in the first place. This will boost your karma back into the positive again and everyone will love you! Apart from those blokes in the other bar, but you've already cleaned out their stocks so who cares! Yay!
Er, can you tell I've wasted a lot of my life playing this game? lol
Save your game in a new slot when you get to the Den too, as the kids there nick your stuff when you walk past them, and it's really annoying as you get no indication it's been done until you find something missing. You can avoid it by entering combat mode first, walking past them, then exiting combat mode :)
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Thanks for the advice on melee weapons. I discovered that Anne is better with a knife than the spear! It looks like the Den will be my next stop, so that's good to know...
Heheh! I wouldn't call it a waste. I prefer to see these games as interactive choose your own adventure books :-)