Weapon damage: This is a tricky topic because if weapons were too realistic, the game wouldn't be fun. But, OTOH, there is something intrinsically absurd about me and a raider taking turns shooting .44 Magnum bullets into each other's chest. Bullets should be more or less deadly. Ditto for melee weapons. How many spear thrusts does it take to kill someone?
This is an issue with pretty much any RPG system, because they are dealing with many factors in a simplified and abstract way. Especially uncalled shots, in Fallout's case they include the victim's willpower and ability to function with injury, the severity and location of impact, sheer chance/luck/divine influence, armor, etc. Keeping in mind also that experience level represents exceptional attributes in a person; most level-0 civilians in the game wouldn't take more than one or two shots.
Anyway, it can be quite suprising how different people respond to wounds in real life depending on the circumstances. Soldiers and law officers have emptied magazines into people who keep coming, with and without drugs in the equation. You can take a bullet to the head and live. Rounds have been known to richochet off bone and travel extensively throughout the body for better or worse. Melee combat is particularily unpredictable and sensitive to placement--it could take quite a few stabs and spear thrusts to kill someone if you don't know what you're doing
. Some of these situations are unusual yes, but again hit points scale with experience level, which represents an unusual luck/ability/skill/etc
I actually think that Fallout handled damage very well; it managed to remain a very deadly game where nearly anyone could get a lucky shot and kill you instantly even in APA--you were still human under all that protection. Also, armour and different ammo types actually served an interesting function, and equipment scaled pretty well to keep a challenge up while giving a massive advantage over foes in old locations.
Bah! BOo! Booooo to you! Fallout had the best score of any game I've ever played. It did at least as much for the atmosphere and mood as any other single element in the game. Hell I have the extracted .wavs in my playlist; they still sound wonderful. But we are all free to our opinions
I also don't understand the graphics complaint. Fallout has some of the most visually compelling artwork and visual design I've seen in a game. It not only serves the atmosphere but provides new meaning to the overall piece that is not intrinsic to the storyline or gameplay. It might be low resolution/color depth, but the concept and artwork itself is beautiful. When I try to think of successful
mis en scene in computer games, Fallout is one of the few examples that comes to mind.
And they looked great to me in 97 anyway
Stuff I didn't like (and hasn't been mentioned AFAIK):
Ammo types didn't have much of a noticable impact to me. I found AP rounds useless; their reduced damage and hollow-point's multiplier were redundant, making the gap ridiculously wide. You would still usually do more damage with HP rounds anyway. AP rounds shouldn't have had a divider, and/or had a better chance of bypassing armor completely.
NPCs always having the same graphics. Well, I'm not sure how they would have handled telling them apart other than their floating text.
I really wanted to retain an NPC's personality (or have some impact on function) in the brain bot
I never thought the aimed shot chart made much sense. There really should be a couple more targets in the torso itself at least. The groin-eyes were pretty much the only useful targets (usually in that combination). It would have been nice to have crippled arms prevent he use of weapons completely, useless legs drop the person, have more useful crits to the torso (lungs, liver, heart, solar plexus).
The seperation of small guns, heavy guns, and energy weapons was a little awkward. It took so long to find any heavy/energy weapons that it didn't make much sense to tag or even raise them in the early game, even with the Tag! perk. On the other hand, they shouldn't be introduced any sooner (if anything, later and more rarely), and it doesn't make sense to be learning about handling a plasma rifle you've never seen "just in case it works that way." I dunno how to handle this one.
The combat inventory solution. I would have rathered see it take 0AP to open the inventory and have each action take some AP depending on complexity. In Fallout, between magnum shots you could organize your trinket collection, get drunk, reload all your weapons, etc... or, you might need to pop a quick stimpack, but you only have 3AP left. Great.
And lastly, I hated not being able to "attack ground" or something with grenades, flares, and rocket launchers.
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