CLASSIC GAMING
Fallout
Developer:  Black Isle Studios
Publisher:  Interplay
Genre:  RPG
Year:  1997
System:  PC

When most people think of RPGs, they think of the Japanese kind of RPGs.  Huge swords, magical guns, hair that can only be achieved in reality by antifreeze and bleach soaked in for an hour every day.  We all know of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, but then there are other games, those not of the East that are RPGs and should be noted for being not only radically different in style, but in gameplay.

Story - You live in a post-apocalyptic world after The Great War of October 23rd, 2077, a nuclear war which lasted two hours and resulted in ungodly destruction, followed by a war of resources and then the disbanding of the United Nations, a plague in the USA and the annexing of Canada.  You are a member of Vault 13, residing in southern California in the year 2161, chosen by your leader to traverse the wasteland in order to not only gather information of the strange new world, but also to find a replacement for the water chip to recycle fresh water for your people, or else they will die.
On your journey you encounter various tribes, merchants, raiders, and mutants, all of whom are trying to survive this harsh world, and soon culminating in a great battle for humanity itself.  Already a vast grittier distinction of an RPG story then most people know of.  And not a single strand of hair that's closer to heaven than *insert dead celebrity joke*


Gameplay - Whereas Japanese RPGs deal with wide inventory systems, item combinations or magical combos, Fallout is an American RPG and deals more with statistics.  Fallout begins with an impressive statistic system that has roots from Dungeons & Dragons.  And don't fret all you anti-tabletop guys, this can work.  There's firstly a name, age and gender for your character, then a range of bodily stats of strength, agility, intelligence and charisma.
Then there's the choice of two traits ranging from having a fast metabolism to being a night person, and lastly the range of skills such as doctor, small arms proficiency, thief and survivalist.  Already you are given so much to use and create essentially yourself or whoever you want to be, and for such an early RPG, this is an amazing amount of character creation ability you're given.  You can even be a good guy or an evil guy with the game's tracking of a stat called Karma, which affects how others interact with you, and even with a set of three reputations called Berserker, Champion and Childkiller.

The game, unlike Japanese RPGs, also does not shift visually between battle and field, but rather remains the same.  When in field mode you wander around, obtaining items, talking to people, bartering with items or caps (the currency of the game) and finding information from computers to books.  In battle, the screen remains the same as the enemies are highlighted in red and you begin a turn-based battle with a slight twist.
You have a set of Action Points, which depending on your action are used up until you either run out of them or skip a turn.  Walking one step equals one Action Point, opening your inventory costs three Action Points, and weapons have variable Action Point usage depending on what it is.  Weapons deal moreso in the hit/miss percentage factor which in most RPGs is never really decided with what weapon you're using, but in this game the accuracy of your weapon depends on your proficiency with the weapon as well as how far the enemy is from you.  A simple but decisive system.  There is also your PIPBoy 2000, a personal PDA that not only keeps track of your time limit in the game, but also objectives, bookkeeping and maps, all fronted with the classic Fallout lad logo


Graphics - A game from the awakening age of the 32/64-bit generation, Fallout has decent graphics that while looks dated by its isometric perspective, the characters, scenery and violence still hold up, even if the characters look like someone's covered all their faces with Nutella, but then again being in a post-apocalyptic wasteland does give you a great tan for both your heads.  The cutscenes, while few, are quality of its time with a great detail of machinery and ambience in its retro-futuristic setting.
And you will never be tired of Bloody Mess, because when you can't decide on a trait to have, Bloody Mess is always fun.  You pick it, and most enemies you kill will die VERY violently, or rather suddenly fucking explode.  You essentially become Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star.  Actually you could pretty much make Kenshiro in the game and have Fallout of the North Star.  I mean both of them ARE set in post-apocalyptic Earth, so there's an idea already for ya!

Music/Sound - The music is of the Silent Hill kind whereby most of it is not so much music but rather ambience, and doing so well, ranging from the gentle tribal beats of villages to the eerie emptiness of underground vaults.  It does a good job of immersing you deeper into the game, especially if you play it with the lights off while exploring a long abandoned vault.
As for sound, the voice acting is surprisingly good.  There is a wide cast of talented known professionals such as Ron Perlman, Keith David, Richard Dean Anderson and Clancy Brown, and Dwight Schultz.  A fantastic cast indeed.


When most people think of RPGs, they think of Final Fantasy.  But they should also remember that the West does them too, and sometimes make them far more interesting.  Yes Japan has their huge swords, armageddon scenarios and disturbingly pretty men, but America has gritty worlds, D&D roots and character creation.  The choice is yours.

Fun and Innovation - 3
Replayability - 4
Gameplay - 4
Presentation - 3