Fallout Thoughts 2#
+ Okay, it's off to Junktown now that those dirty dirty Vault 15er's have failed to protect their beautiful Vault! It's almost as blasphemous as Vault City turning their Vault into a warehouse! Seriously, though, I wish more Vaults had survived in Bethesda. Either that or lived to have their people form new communities.
+ I love Junktown because as much as junkyard towns are overused in post-apocalypse fiction, it feels like a real classic vibrant place with lots of crime and interesting characters. The Skullz, Killian Darkwater (that's a name there), Gizmo (who I named one of my dogs after for being a fat French Bulldog), and Tycho.
+ I get Dogmeat because I'm wearing leathers.
+ It's interesting to note I find Killian Darkwater and the "good" faction to be scary and unpleasant in this replay. Gizmo seems to employ everyone in town but Killian's General Store & Deputies and everyone has something good to say about him but not Killian. It makes me think the original ending really was a better idea.
+ Despite the fact I consider the "Killian Darkwater ruins Junktown by turning it into a police state" ending to be canon, I side with him anyway because my Vault Dweller is still pretty damn naive and trying to but his nose into matters more complex than simple good vs. evil. I get Gizmo on tape and murder the poor bastard.
+ Dogmeat is the one who kills Gizmo in this playthrough. Vicious little pooch.
+ I like the homage to Wasteland with Tycho and wish they'd shown up more prominently in Fallout: New Vegas. It's a pity they didn't do a CGI scene of him like Darkwater and Gizmo since that would have been badass. I will always choose Ranger Combat Armor over Power Armor.
+ I feel like the "This gang is no future for you" is a after-school special speech and I'm kind of annoyed I talked her out of it. I wish I could have joined the Skullz for more than just these couple of events but I did steal an urn.
+ The Skullz remind me of the Tunnel Snakes and I wonder is that supposed to be sexual? I do think murdering them all if a bit harsh. Still, I appreciate the "evil" options being front and center. They're not exactly well-developed but given the conditions Tim Cain was working under, it's amazing the level of detail they got.
+ AH, I WENT TO VISIT DOCTOR MORBID AT NIGHT AND FIND OUT HE'S SELLING BODY PARTS FOR FOOD! I NEVER REALIZED THAT!
+ Murder murder the Skullz with my new friends. I will say that it was a harsh fight this time around and made me appreciate V.A.T.S much better. I remember that I never quite mastered it in Fallout 2 and that just made every battle a slog.
+ I go to sleep in the hotel and wake up to help Sinthia. My Vault Dweller doesn't turn down a chance to Wasteland Herpes (no, wait, Gizmo runs a clean business or...well....did). This is where I appreciate Tim's philosophy of "talk, shoot, or sneak" out of every encounter.
OFF TO THE HUB!
A Comparison of Fallout 1 vs. Fallout 3
+ So far, I have to say I'm pleasantly surprised and enjoying Fallout 1 much more than I remembered. It definitely reminds me of the parts I enjoyed of Fallout 3 and is a great more violent than I remembered with the sense of leaving the Vault resulting in a savage murderous wasteland where you have to kill over and over again.
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+ The use of violence in this game is well done as while turned based combat isn't great, it's a recaptured feel for the megaviolence of The Road Warrior. I will say it's notable that humans start appearing as the enemies only after you've had plenty of time to adjust to murdering animals in the Vaults and in Shady Sands. So, you don't blow your first human away (Gizmo's assassin at Darkwaters) until you're already comfortable murdering.
+ I know I sound like I'm harsh on turn-based combat but I should note it's very familiar to me as a guy who grew up on D&D and roleplaying games like it which Interplay was producing at the time. I also think they managed to capture the visceralness of it as well as the "everything trying to kill you" sense of the RPGS based on D&D at the time with a more gritty realistic feel. It's more chaotic in the Capital Wasteland but definitely think they drew from this game for the explosive deaths I've witnessed.
+ I do, definitely feel the design philosophy of freedom here at work and I appreciate that. You can side with Killian or Gizmo, the Skullz or the local bartender, with everyone feeling humanized. I think Mister Burke vs. the Sheriff of Megaton was meant to be based on Gizmo vs. Darkwater and there's a lot of similarities. It's just more overthetop with "Nuke Megaton and everyone inside" or "serve as a hitman for the local mob boss against a kindly shop owner/mayor/sheriff."
+ You can really see they were trying to follow the emotional beats of the first game, albeit the absence of a Shady Sands-esque community really does separate Fallout 3 from Fallout 1 and not for the better. Shady Sands shows a new humanity emerging in the Wasteland and while Megaton has that to a certain extent, it's also quite a bit--how do I put this delicately--whiter. Whereas Shady Sands shows the diversity of humanity intermarrying and forming a more cosmopolitan emergent society.
+ It's interesting Fallout chose to use Richard Dean Anderson as an actor for such a relatively bit part as Kilian Darkwater. It definitely is a treat to see his Talking Head and acting even if it's for such a small part. I do wonder, however, if the "celebrity guest star" element was better versus simply hiring someone to do the voice work who wasn't a celebrity. I recall reading about Grand Theft Auto and how much they regretted using celerbities in Vice City.
