Fallout 1/2 Video Critiques

ramblelime

First time out of the vault
Hey guys, long time reader first time poster. I've always though there's been a severe lack of fallout 1/2 content on youtube, so I made two videos of my own. I'll link them here, feel free to watch if you want, or link other fallout 1/2 content you think is great. Always looking for more!



 
Thanks for making these for the younger gamers.
Need to point out an error - you refer to Harold as a ghoul, while he's a FEV mutant.
 
it seems odd we don't have that many critiques of 1 and 2. we get reviews but critiques arnt as numerous as something like deus ex or baldurs gate series.

chris davis made some but he pretty much told people not to play them as they are old. did the same shit with arcanum to.
 
This is pretty familiar territory, but i couldn't leave the screen until the two videos were over.
Congratulation for all the work.
 
@ramblelime Finally got round to watching these bad boys. The intro to the first video was hilarious and I loved your little capital G gamer impression. Agree with basically everything you say,

I like the thematic structures you establish, the "Is humanity worth saving" of Fallout 1, and the "Civil vs Uncivil society" of Fallout 2, the latter is especially interesting given that it's heavily hinted at that Vault City relies on othering of the outside world to even exist, and that the NCR is outright engaging in espionage to forcibly intergrate towns against their will

A few minor points.

I mostly agree with your points about Modoc and the Lassie and Toilet quests being silly, it didn't bother me as much, I can compartmentalise the sillyness and treat it as part of the experience, but I also think you're not giving Ghost Farm enough credit. You describe them as "Vampire people" which I feel is kinda inaccurate. They're mostly just mutants who have adapted to living underground, which I don't think is any more far-fetched than say Ghouls.

Really I think the Slags are actually pretty good thematically: they're using the fear their appearance caused to build a mythology around themselves out of protection, and ultimately I think discovering that is actually a pretty high point.

Also, the Enclave doesn't just hate Supermutants and Ghouls. They deem almost all of humanity to be impure, based on mutations recieved from exposure to the outside world: All of humanity that survived outside is just as impure and corrupted as them. That's a big part of why the Chosen One can never be part of them: they're basically a mutant as far as the Enclave is concerned, a "near-human".

I also think the point you made about Fallout 1 having Mariposa and Cathedral split, while I understand it's irritating, is kinda relevant. The Cathedral is the main ideological base for disseminating information, the true ground work happens up north with the Mutants being created. I also like the Lieutenant and the Master as seperate interpretations of the same belief system, and I like the split between the propagation of the ideology and it's violent enforcement.

I would say the Enclave is humanised by the people in it: a lot of people you talk to have family members, or people they care about on the Oil Rig, and are genuinely just fighting for the Enclave because it's the society they grew up in. It's ireedemably evil and fascistic, but that doesn't mean the people aren't still people. There's even a low int dialogue option where someone tells you that he has a mentally disabled brother on the Oil Rig.

I also think that Frank Horrigan, while I understand your dissapointment, is fairly well established as a character: a brutal monster the Enclave sends in to deal with it's problems. He's loyal to a fault, feared by everyone, and overall just a weapon to be used by the powerful. Plus the added irony that he's a mutant, and thus hated by the Enclave, yet they're willing to use him as a weapon nonetheless.
 
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