_Antithesis_
First time out of the vault
Before reading, I'd like to point out that this wasn't originally written for you grizzled Fallout vets. This is probably nothing more than preaching to the choir, but eh. I thought some people might find it interesting, so decided I might as well post it here, as well. It's a wall of text, so enjoy. 
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So I just beat Fallout again. Playing the game again made me realize, more than ever before, just how well-designed it really is. It's position as one of the best cRPGs of all time is well-deserved, even more so when you realize that Fallout was pretty much made from the scraps off of Interplay's plate at the time, the game being a secondary concern for the company while it had the D&D license. What follows is a long, in-depth, and, most likely, very sloppily-structured look at everything Fallout did so very, very right and everything it did wrong. So GET PSYCHED.
Fallout's beginning is straight-up solid. You're pushed out of Vault 13 temporarily to get a new water chip to replace the failed one. You have a limited amount of time before the Vault runs out of drinking later. Everyone's lives depend on you, lives of people that your character has known his entire life. It sets up a wonderful sense of urgency, while still giving you a forgiving time frame, letting you learn the mechanics of the game at your own pace. As a reason for launching your story, it's a damned good one, and the criticism this part receives from people is criticism that I don't agree with. On your first playthrough, you're meant to stay at least somewhat focused. When you find the chip, you bring it back, and the following main objectives (of which there are a grand total of three in the entire game) do not have a time limit attached. Thus, on subsequent playthroughs, it's really not a problem. You can go about the side quests and such without needing to worry. You'll level up while you're dicking around, and when time starts to run out, you just go and grab the chip with no problem. It's a small diversion by that point, taking maybe 20 minutes at most to get it. It's a miniscule price to pay for a compelling start to the story, a thing a lot of games these days can't seem to get down.
Intelligently, the game's opening also makes sure that your backstory is very vague. The only backstory you have is that you lived in the Vault, thus any kind of character you can think of can still work in terms of role-playing. Your character has an entire life that is left up to you to imagine. This, obviously, ties into the character creation as a whole and the systems that govern how the entire game works. This needs to be talked about now, as a large part of the positives I have regarding the game tie into this system, what it accomplishes by itself, and how it makes every other action you make in the game work so well.
Fallout was originally supposed to use Steve Jackson's Generic Universal Role-Playing System (GURPS), though, deep into development, it switched to the trademark system of the series, SPECIAL. I've not used GURPS and, thus, can't give a comparison as to how in-depth you can customize your characters via that system, but I do know that SPECIAL gives unbelievable control over how you want your character to turn out. Pretty much any kind of character you can think of can be made. Want to make a compulsive gambler that has violent tendencies? That can be made. Want to make a violent psychopath that beats to a pulp anyone that disagrees with him? Definitely can be made. Charming sharpshooter that can shoot someone's head off as easily as make them divulge their secrets to him? Can be made. Through the use of the titular statistics, Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck, 18 skills that govern your efficacy in combat, perks that can benefit you in all sorts of ways, and optional traits that give you bonuses as well as weaknesses, every character you make can be wholly different and make the game feel very new each time you play. SPECIAL as a system, though, simply works better than most other systems I've experienced in role-playing games. The synergy between every part of the system is something that is rarely matched, in my experience. A lot of things feel very distant from one another in other systems. Yeah, you'll level up, put a few points into some base stats, and you'll pick some perk or ability, but those abilities probably don't synergize with the stats you pick. In Fallout, they go through a lot to make sure everything is connected. SPECIAL stats effect your skills, as well as their own things such as carry weight, number of action points you start with, the number of skill points you get per level, etc. Certain SPECIAL stats and skill percentages must be reached to unlock certain perks. Traits affect both SPECIAL stats and skills. Everything connects with something else in some way, and your strengths are typically well-defined, as are your weaknesses. It's in that way that makes every character unique. This is something that The Elder Scrolls once understood, or at least to some extent, but has completely forgotten now. Every character in Skyrim, for instance, can feel exactly the same. Fallout was a game that realized that doing everything in one go might feel satisfying at the time, but you'll never return to it and feel satisfaction for trying something different if it did that. It's a testament to how intelligent the designers were, too, that this was a late addition, yet it feels as though it were there the entire time. The system is so strong that a non-Fallout game used it, Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader, though that game wasn't very adept with the system and ultimately punished any builds that didn't support a Diablo-esque melee character playstyle. It's a shame, too, because such a great system in competent hands could certainly help to create more amazing role-playing games.
The real strong point about the game is how well this system is implemented. The game has so many ways to accomplish most goals in the game, it's kind of amazing. The number of times you can just talk your way out of an otherwise big fight is impressive, or you can just sneak in, or whatever. That's not to say that EVERY skill is useful, however. Gambling, for instance, is usually a waste. While I'm sure you can make good money via gambling, it's not necessary to do that. By the end of my most recent run, I had nearing 70,000 caps and nothing to spend it on. I had the enhanced version of the best armor in the game, the enhanced version of the best gun in the game (well, with out getting the alien blaster, that is, which is a random encounter thing). I had ludicrous amounts of ammo, and stimpaks (over 100), and chems, and anything else I could ever need. All I did was pick up everyone's shit and sell it, making the use of the gambling skill a bit pointless. Outdoorsman is also a bit pointless, since encounters in the wastes aren't too huge a problem in the grand scheme of things. The Barter skill is also a bit of a waste since plenty of money can be made without it. Past some of these pointless skills, though, is plenty of flexibility, and the game recognizes pretty much all of it. Even the main villain of the game has three different ways of defeating him, one of which allows you to bypass him altogether.
Also impressive is that the game recognizes that players will do things in different orders and other methods will be used, and makes new routes through quests to accommodate. You can get power armor in three totally different ways. For non-violent approaches to the main antagonist, you can use your speech skill, though it has to be very high, or you can talk to another character that provides information that can be shown to the main baddie. Didn't bother getting a key from one guy? One of his lackeys might have it. It's a game that understands how people who play RPGs work. They will ask, "Well, can I do this?" to which the game, knowing they'd ask that, goes, "Why, yes. Yes, you can." Many games these days don't seem to know how to do this. It's the great difference between Deus Ex and Deus Ex: Human Revolution, basically. Deus Ex: Human Revolution had around three different solutions to most problems, whereas the original game counted any way you managed to do something as a solution, even if it was through some method even the developers didn't think about.
Mechanics aside, the game is wonderful. While it's not graphically impressive, and wasn't, even for its day, it gets its presentation down so well. Most music is experimental and very atmospheric, save for the Ink Spots' "Maybe," which plays only in the intro and the end credits. Mark Morgan's music is haunting in the same way that Thief: The Dark Project's was. It's so strange, so dark, and slightly creepy, blending together to lend an air of hopelessness about the experience. This blends well with the brown and grey-reliant color scheme, part of the run-down retro-futuristic aesthetic which isn't highlighted very much, unlike Bethesda's Fallout 3, which brought it to the forefront. For the longest time, I thought I liked seeing the 50's-inspired visuals more than the original but, playing through it again, I actually think I prefer how low-key it is. It's not like it isn't noticeable, but everything that once looked like that is now rusty as hell, half-buried into the dirt. It melds well with the soundtrack, and makes you think about the world before the bombs fell. The environments all show a moment, somewhat frozen in time, though altered by the changed landscape over the 84 years between the time the bombs fell and the game's start. The architecture across the game is also vast different to that in Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Whereas those games took retro-futuristic at face value, taking actual 1950s architecture and keeping it, Fallout 1 and, of course, Fallout 2 have more futurism and art deco influences. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of the 1927 classic, 'Metropolis'. I appreciate the differences in aesthetic between the original Fallout games and the new, but personally, the tone given off by the original aesthetic edges out the brighter, more colorful '50s Americana vibe given off by the Bethesda-published games in the series.
Keeping in line with Fallout's subtle aesthetic are its main antagonists which are nothing short of absolute brilliance. This is where spoilers start to fly, so if anyone who has played Fallout is reading this, let me give you to TL;DR of the review real quick. The games are amazing, so go fucking play them. Anyway, the Master and his army of Super Mutants, to me, are some of the strongest antagonists in the history of video games. The Master's ideals are not one of hatred and world domination for the sake of having power, but rather those laced with good intentions. Similar to the (Spoiler alert for STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl) C-Consciousness in STALKER, the idea was to end up with no infighting between the intelligent species of world, and instead bring harmony. Backed by a bunch of Super Mutants, who unfortunately didn't turn out as intelligent as himself when exposed to the mutagen, who were lead militarily by the Lieutenant (or, as the Super Mutants call him, Lou Tenant), and a group of fanatical cultists, it's clear that he himself is not an immediate threat with unlimited power. He's intimidating because he has the power to create powerful beings and holds so very closely to his ideals, no matter the cost. At the same time, his ideals lend a degree of understanding, making him an enemy that you don't hate, but have to get rid of (canonically, at least) for the sake of humanity's existence. It's just absolute brilliance. Compare this instead to Fallout 2's enemies, the Enclave. The Enclave is ever-present and have seemingly unlimited power in that game's world. They have resources, an absolutely huge military for a post-apocalyptic world, and nothing but the worst of intentions. They're Saturday morning cartoon villains with nothing subtle about them and with no ideals that you can understand. They exist solely for you to destroy with no moral quandaries attached.
Another aspect of the game that I find to be almost entirely missed by most people is that it has something to say, while still being darkly funny about the whole thing. Fallout wants to remind everyone that humans are incredibly destructive. More than that, though, it points out that humans are also capable of great, GREAT things. Even after atomic war, humans band together to try to rebuild. A new currency is accepted, new villages are constructed, and old cities are inhabited once more. Civilization doesn't end just because a bunch of bombs fell. Instead, it just starts anew as though it were a phoenix. Humans, ultimately, for all of our destructive tendencies, are greater creators that we are destroyers, and that is why, even when we hold a global war against ourselves with weapons of absolutely massive destructive capabilities, we still survive and, to a certain extent, thrive. It balances these messages well, making sure the tone is never too depressing. Helping that is a good amount of very dark humor, through both dialog and other places you wouldn't expect, like enemy deaths. When I got a fatal critical hit on a Deathclaw with my plasma rifle (as plasma caster, as it was originally meant to be called and eventually was called in Fallout New Vegas), it exploded into a charred mess on the ground in a very quick, unexpected moment. And I laughed. Hard. It put a smile on my face, and I did it again to another Deathclaw. And I laughed some more. I laughed when a raider walked up to me, pulled our his pistol, shot at me, missed, and landed a critical hit on his buddy, blowing off half of his torso. It's one of the darkest senses of humor I've ever seen in a game, but it's effective. Complementing it are a number of cultural references, though, unlike it's successor, this game applies them in moderation and doesn't always draw a lot of attention to them.
If you haven't noticed, a lot of what his review points out are how almost every element of the game connects with another element. The inventory system is no different, though it's certainly very flawed. On one hand, the game limits your inventory space. You can bring multiple weapons with you, but doing so reduces the amount of loot you'll be able to bring back with you to sell. Thus, you'll tend to just carry the weapons you're most efficient with, further solidifying the dynamic started in character creation of making sure that your strengths are well defined, in turn making your weaknesses well defined, as well. You can't carry the world with you, and thank God (or the development team, take your pick) for it, too, because the inventory screen is incredibly clunky and dated, more so than the rest of the UI. There's too much scrolling, too much dragging shit into proper slots, you can't receive information on how much damage a weapon does or how much protection armor provides unless you equip it, and bartering using this system is made even more annoying when you have to do it on two sides. Another thing that doesn't help that if you want to get, say, 2300 caps from the person you're trading with, you have to scroll down to the very bottom of their inventory where their caps are, drag the caps to the part of the screen that determines what you're bartering for, click 'ALL' (which limits you to 999 caps in one go), then do that again, then drag the caps a third time, but this time specifying to add only 302 caps (since it'd be 1,998 caps from the first two go-rounds), THEN you can hit 'Trade' and finish the deal. It gets tedious extremely quickly, especially if you're selling a lot of loot. Other parts of the UI can be frustrating at times, though these are typically a lot easier to get used to. You'll get used to hitting the space bar or clicking 'TURN' to end your turn in combat, or whatever. Little things like that are just inherent UI problems with any game with turn-based tactics. However, it must be pointed out big problem exists in that, at one point in the game where force-fields are active, you have to bring an item that you didn't know the use for, and then to be able to use it, you have to go through a very specific option in a specific menu that you never had to do ever before at any point in the game. Once you know what to do, yeah, it's not a problem on subsequent playthroughs, but for first-timers, this is a test of patience until they either stumble upon the option by pure luck or they give up and Google what to do. Also, there are a number of grammatical errors that should've been ironed out. 'Mattress' was misspelled as 'matters' more than once, for instance. Another minor complaint is that, in whatever version the GOG release used, merchants never restocked their inventory. Children also aren't in this UK game (which the no-longer-sold GOG release used), which makes sure the players can't kill them like they could in the US version, because they simply don't exist in the game world. There is a fan patch that corrects these and many other issues, to my knowledge, though I've not installed it as I didn't learn of it until I was almost completely through with my current playthrough. Such patches, which also add in previously cut-content, are also available for Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics.
Oh, and as a side note, I'm aware that, upon initial release in the US, Fallout had more strict time limits. The water chip part of the story still had the initial 150 day time limit, which can be extended to 250 days in every version by buying water for the Vault. The remaining parts of the game had a limit of 500 days, though if you bought water for the Vault, that was reduced to 400 days. In the first patch for the game, this was changed. Buying water for the Vault has no negative repercussions, and the rest of the quest has an entire 13-year time limit (a hard-coded part of the engine, to my knowledge), which is something you'll never hit unless you spent probably a couple dozen hours doing literally nothing but walking around. Doing every quest I could on my playthrough, and even dicking around a decent bit, I completed the game with less than 18 months passing in-game. Even in Fallout 2, you'll never hit the time limit unless you go way out of your way to do so.
And so there you have it. A long, probably poorly-worded and error-filled review/analysis of one of the best games of all time. It's actually aged fairly well, considering it's only a few months younger than myself. I have to say, I pretty much NEEDED to write this. Even with what little we've seen on the whole of Fallout 4, I can spot numerous canon-breaking shit and a new system that isn't even the adapted system of SPECIAL used in Fallout 3 and New Vegas, which was actually a pretty damned good adaptation, despite the change in gameplay style. This... does not bode well for the series' identity, which Bethesda damaged pretty heavily with Fallout 3, and Obsidian had to desperately patch in New Vegas. As good of an open-world post-apocalyptic shooter as Fallout 4 appears to be, I know that, as a Fallout game, it will be a further bastardization of a series that Bethesda Game Studios seems to have very little love for and understanding of. If you've gotten to the end of this review, then you're truly one SPECIAL (Fallout jokes, yeah!) person and I thank you for your dedication in reading this ridiculously long little essay of mine.
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So I just beat Fallout again. Playing the game again made me realize, more than ever before, just how well-designed it really is. It's position as one of the best cRPGs of all time is well-deserved, even more so when you realize that Fallout was pretty much made from the scraps off of Interplay's plate at the time, the game being a secondary concern for the company while it had the D&D license. What follows is a long, in-depth, and, most likely, very sloppily-structured look at everything Fallout did so very, very right and everything it did wrong. So GET PSYCHED.
Fallout's beginning is straight-up solid. You're pushed out of Vault 13 temporarily to get a new water chip to replace the failed one. You have a limited amount of time before the Vault runs out of drinking later. Everyone's lives depend on you, lives of people that your character has known his entire life. It sets up a wonderful sense of urgency, while still giving you a forgiving time frame, letting you learn the mechanics of the game at your own pace. As a reason for launching your story, it's a damned good one, and the criticism this part receives from people is criticism that I don't agree with. On your first playthrough, you're meant to stay at least somewhat focused. When you find the chip, you bring it back, and the following main objectives (of which there are a grand total of three in the entire game) do not have a time limit attached. Thus, on subsequent playthroughs, it's really not a problem. You can go about the side quests and such without needing to worry. You'll level up while you're dicking around, and when time starts to run out, you just go and grab the chip with no problem. It's a small diversion by that point, taking maybe 20 minutes at most to get it. It's a miniscule price to pay for a compelling start to the story, a thing a lot of games these days can't seem to get down.
Intelligently, the game's opening also makes sure that your backstory is very vague. The only backstory you have is that you lived in the Vault, thus any kind of character you can think of can still work in terms of role-playing. Your character has an entire life that is left up to you to imagine. This, obviously, ties into the character creation as a whole and the systems that govern how the entire game works. This needs to be talked about now, as a large part of the positives I have regarding the game tie into this system, what it accomplishes by itself, and how it makes every other action you make in the game work so well.
Fallout was originally supposed to use Steve Jackson's Generic Universal Role-Playing System (GURPS), though, deep into development, it switched to the trademark system of the series, SPECIAL. I've not used GURPS and, thus, can't give a comparison as to how in-depth you can customize your characters via that system, but I do know that SPECIAL gives unbelievable control over how you want your character to turn out. Pretty much any kind of character you can think of can be made. Want to make a compulsive gambler that has violent tendencies? That can be made. Want to make a violent psychopath that beats to a pulp anyone that disagrees with him? Definitely can be made. Charming sharpshooter that can shoot someone's head off as easily as make them divulge their secrets to him? Can be made. Through the use of the titular statistics, Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck, 18 skills that govern your efficacy in combat, perks that can benefit you in all sorts of ways, and optional traits that give you bonuses as well as weaknesses, every character you make can be wholly different and make the game feel very new each time you play. SPECIAL as a system, though, simply works better than most other systems I've experienced in role-playing games. The synergy between every part of the system is something that is rarely matched, in my experience. A lot of things feel very distant from one another in other systems. Yeah, you'll level up, put a few points into some base stats, and you'll pick some perk or ability, but those abilities probably don't synergize with the stats you pick. In Fallout, they go through a lot to make sure everything is connected. SPECIAL stats effect your skills, as well as their own things such as carry weight, number of action points you start with, the number of skill points you get per level, etc. Certain SPECIAL stats and skill percentages must be reached to unlock certain perks. Traits affect both SPECIAL stats and skills. Everything connects with something else in some way, and your strengths are typically well-defined, as are your weaknesses. It's in that way that makes every character unique. This is something that The Elder Scrolls once understood, or at least to some extent, but has completely forgotten now. Every character in Skyrim, for instance, can feel exactly the same. Fallout was a game that realized that doing everything in one go might feel satisfying at the time, but you'll never return to it and feel satisfaction for trying something different if it did that. It's a testament to how intelligent the designers were, too, that this was a late addition, yet it feels as though it were there the entire time. The system is so strong that a non-Fallout game used it, Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader, though that game wasn't very adept with the system and ultimately punished any builds that didn't support a Diablo-esque melee character playstyle. It's a shame, too, because such a great system in competent hands could certainly help to create more amazing role-playing games.
The real strong point about the game is how well this system is implemented. The game has so many ways to accomplish most goals in the game, it's kind of amazing. The number of times you can just talk your way out of an otherwise big fight is impressive, or you can just sneak in, or whatever. That's not to say that EVERY skill is useful, however. Gambling, for instance, is usually a waste. While I'm sure you can make good money via gambling, it's not necessary to do that. By the end of my most recent run, I had nearing 70,000 caps and nothing to spend it on. I had the enhanced version of the best armor in the game, the enhanced version of the best gun in the game (well, with out getting the alien blaster, that is, which is a random encounter thing). I had ludicrous amounts of ammo, and stimpaks (over 100), and chems, and anything else I could ever need. All I did was pick up everyone's shit and sell it, making the use of the gambling skill a bit pointless. Outdoorsman is also a bit pointless, since encounters in the wastes aren't too huge a problem in the grand scheme of things. The Barter skill is also a bit of a waste since plenty of money can be made without it. Past some of these pointless skills, though, is plenty of flexibility, and the game recognizes pretty much all of it. Even the main villain of the game has three different ways of defeating him, one of which allows you to bypass him altogether.
Also impressive is that the game recognizes that players will do things in different orders and other methods will be used, and makes new routes through quests to accommodate. You can get power armor in three totally different ways. For non-violent approaches to the main antagonist, you can use your speech skill, though it has to be very high, or you can talk to another character that provides information that can be shown to the main baddie. Didn't bother getting a key from one guy? One of his lackeys might have it. It's a game that understands how people who play RPGs work. They will ask, "Well, can I do this?" to which the game, knowing they'd ask that, goes, "Why, yes. Yes, you can." Many games these days don't seem to know how to do this. It's the great difference between Deus Ex and Deus Ex: Human Revolution, basically. Deus Ex: Human Revolution had around three different solutions to most problems, whereas the original game counted any way you managed to do something as a solution, even if it was through some method even the developers didn't think about.
Mechanics aside, the game is wonderful. While it's not graphically impressive, and wasn't, even for its day, it gets its presentation down so well. Most music is experimental and very atmospheric, save for the Ink Spots' "Maybe," which plays only in the intro and the end credits. Mark Morgan's music is haunting in the same way that Thief: The Dark Project's was. It's so strange, so dark, and slightly creepy, blending together to lend an air of hopelessness about the experience. This blends well with the brown and grey-reliant color scheme, part of the run-down retro-futuristic aesthetic which isn't highlighted very much, unlike Bethesda's Fallout 3, which brought it to the forefront. For the longest time, I thought I liked seeing the 50's-inspired visuals more than the original but, playing through it again, I actually think I prefer how low-key it is. It's not like it isn't noticeable, but everything that once looked like that is now rusty as hell, half-buried into the dirt. It melds well with the soundtrack, and makes you think about the world before the bombs fell. The environments all show a moment, somewhat frozen in time, though altered by the changed landscape over the 84 years between the time the bombs fell and the game's start. The architecture across the game is also vast different to that in Fallout 3 and New Vegas. Whereas those games took retro-futuristic at face value, taking actual 1950s architecture and keeping it, Fallout 1 and, of course, Fallout 2 have more futurism and art deco influences. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of the 1927 classic, 'Metropolis'. I appreciate the differences in aesthetic between the original Fallout games and the new, but personally, the tone given off by the original aesthetic edges out the brighter, more colorful '50s Americana vibe given off by the Bethesda-published games in the series.
Keeping in line with Fallout's subtle aesthetic are its main antagonists which are nothing short of absolute brilliance. This is where spoilers start to fly, so if anyone who has played Fallout is reading this, let me give you to TL;DR of the review real quick. The games are amazing, so go fucking play them. Anyway, the Master and his army of Super Mutants, to me, are some of the strongest antagonists in the history of video games. The Master's ideals are not one of hatred and world domination for the sake of having power, but rather those laced with good intentions. Similar to the (Spoiler alert for STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl) C-Consciousness in STALKER, the idea was to end up with no infighting between the intelligent species of world, and instead bring harmony. Backed by a bunch of Super Mutants, who unfortunately didn't turn out as intelligent as himself when exposed to the mutagen, who were lead militarily by the Lieutenant (or, as the Super Mutants call him, Lou Tenant), and a group of fanatical cultists, it's clear that he himself is not an immediate threat with unlimited power. He's intimidating because he has the power to create powerful beings and holds so very closely to his ideals, no matter the cost. At the same time, his ideals lend a degree of understanding, making him an enemy that you don't hate, but have to get rid of (canonically, at least) for the sake of humanity's existence. It's just absolute brilliance. Compare this instead to Fallout 2's enemies, the Enclave. The Enclave is ever-present and have seemingly unlimited power in that game's world. They have resources, an absolutely huge military for a post-apocalyptic world, and nothing but the worst of intentions. They're Saturday morning cartoon villains with nothing subtle about them and with no ideals that you can understand. They exist solely for you to destroy with no moral quandaries attached.
Another aspect of the game that I find to be almost entirely missed by most people is that it has something to say, while still being darkly funny about the whole thing. Fallout wants to remind everyone that humans are incredibly destructive. More than that, though, it points out that humans are also capable of great, GREAT things. Even after atomic war, humans band together to try to rebuild. A new currency is accepted, new villages are constructed, and old cities are inhabited once more. Civilization doesn't end just because a bunch of bombs fell. Instead, it just starts anew as though it were a phoenix. Humans, ultimately, for all of our destructive tendencies, are greater creators that we are destroyers, and that is why, even when we hold a global war against ourselves with weapons of absolutely massive destructive capabilities, we still survive and, to a certain extent, thrive. It balances these messages well, making sure the tone is never too depressing. Helping that is a good amount of very dark humor, through both dialog and other places you wouldn't expect, like enemy deaths. When I got a fatal critical hit on a Deathclaw with my plasma rifle (as plasma caster, as it was originally meant to be called and eventually was called in Fallout New Vegas), it exploded into a charred mess on the ground in a very quick, unexpected moment. And I laughed. Hard. It put a smile on my face, and I did it again to another Deathclaw. And I laughed some more. I laughed when a raider walked up to me, pulled our his pistol, shot at me, missed, and landed a critical hit on his buddy, blowing off half of his torso. It's one of the darkest senses of humor I've ever seen in a game, but it's effective. Complementing it are a number of cultural references, though, unlike it's successor, this game applies them in moderation and doesn't always draw a lot of attention to them.
If you haven't noticed, a lot of what his review points out are how almost every element of the game connects with another element. The inventory system is no different, though it's certainly very flawed. On one hand, the game limits your inventory space. You can bring multiple weapons with you, but doing so reduces the amount of loot you'll be able to bring back with you to sell. Thus, you'll tend to just carry the weapons you're most efficient with, further solidifying the dynamic started in character creation of making sure that your strengths are well defined, in turn making your weaknesses well defined, as well. You can't carry the world with you, and thank God (or the development team, take your pick) for it, too, because the inventory screen is incredibly clunky and dated, more so than the rest of the UI. There's too much scrolling, too much dragging shit into proper slots, you can't receive information on how much damage a weapon does or how much protection armor provides unless you equip it, and bartering using this system is made even more annoying when you have to do it on two sides. Another thing that doesn't help that if you want to get, say, 2300 caps from the person you're trading with, you have to scroll down to the very bottom of their inventory where their caps are, drag the caps to the part of the screen that determines what you're bartering for, click 'ALL' (which limits you to 999 caps in one go), then do that again, then drag the caps a third time, but this time specifying to add only 302 caps (since it'd be 1,998 caps from the first two go-rounds), THEN you can hit 'Trade' and finish the deal. It gets tedious extremely quickly, especially if you're selling a lot of loot. Other parts of the UI can be frustrating at times, though these are typically a lot easier to get used to. You'll get used to hitting the space bar or clicking 'TURN' to end your turn in combat, or whatever. Little things like that are just inherent UI problems with any game with turn-based tactics. However, it must be pointed out big problem exists in that, at one point in the game where force-fields are active, you have to bring an item that you didn't know the use for, and then to be able to use it, you have to go through a very specific option in a specific menu that you never had to do ever before at any point in the game. Once you know what to do, yeah, it's not a problem on subsequent playthroughs, but for first-timers, this is a test of patience until they either stumble upon the option by pure luck or they give up and Google what to do. Also, there are a number of grammatical errors that should've been ironed out. 'Mattress' was misspelled as 'matters' more than once, for instance. Another minor complaint is that, in whatever version the GOG release used, merchants never restocked their inventory. Children also aren't in this UK game (which the no-longer-sold GOG release used), which makes sure the players can't kill them like they could in the US version, because they simply don't exist in the game world. There is a fan patch that corrects these and many other issues, to my knowledge, though I've not installed it as I didn't learn of it until I was almost completely through with my current playthrough. Such patches, which also add in previously cut-content, are also available for Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics.
Oh, and as a side note, I'm aware that, upon initial release in the US, Fallout had more strict time limits. The water chip part of the story still had the initial 150 day time limit, which can be extended to 250 days in every version by buying water for the Vault. The remaining parts of the game had a limit of 500 days, though if you bought water for the Vault, that was reduced to 400 days. In the first patch for the game, this was changed. Buying water for the Vault has no negative repercussions, and the rest of the quest has an entire 13-year time limit (a hard-coded part of the engine, to my knowledge), which is something you'll never hit unless you spent probably a couple dozen hours doing literally nothing but walking around. Doing every quest I could on my playthrough, and even dicking around a decent bit, I completed the game with less than 18 months passing in-game. Even in Fallout 2, you'll never hit the time limit unless you go way out of your way to do so.
And so there you have it. A long, probably poorly-worded and error-filled review/analysis of one of the best games of all time. It's actually aged fairly well, considering it's only a few months younger than myself. I have to say, I pretty much NEEDED to write this. Even with what little we've seen on the whole of Fallout 4, I can spot numerous canon-breaking shit and a new system that isn't even the adapted system of SPECIAL used in Fallout 3 and New Vegas, which was actually a pretty damned good adaptation, despite the change in gameplay style. This... does not bode well for the series' identity, which Bethesda damaged pretty heavily with Fallout 3, and Obsidian had to desperately patch in New Vegas. As good of an open-world post-apocalyptic shooter as Fallout 4 appears to be, I know that, as a Fallout game, it will be a further bastardization of a series that Bethesda Game Studios seems to have very little love for and understanding of. If you've gotten to the end of this review, then you're truly one SPECIAL (Fallout jokes, yeah!) person and I thank you for your dedication in reading this ridiculously long little essay of mine.
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