Whats the best part of Classic Fallout?

SiriusShenanigans

SiriusShenanigans

Those who write on Heaven’s walls...
I feel like this is an interesting subject to talk about because so many people try to go back to the old games and don't see the appeal, but when I see people make videos about the old games it always feels like they don't get the same things I get out of the game. I love the way the old games get me thinking and investigating the world. Simply having to click on eveything makes you really get into digesting information and gives a lot of opportunity for the game to make use of its humor and themes. I like how it forces me to try to think in terms of how something might work in real life rather than sticking to game mechanics that just exist and waiting for the game to tell me to press A.
 
I like the atmosphere of it. It's like the hazy smoke after a fire, and you're just walking through it, maybe sorting through the debris to see if anything survived. And sure enough, you find a few things.
 
In my first playthrough of Fallout 2 (which I played before Fallout 1, despite owning Fallout 1 first for reasons I don't recall), I became a slaver because I thought I had to, then I accidentally blew up the Gecko power plant because I thought that's what Lynette wanted, and I thought I had to win Lynette over. By the time I'd gotten to NCR, I realised Fallout wasn't like other games, and I didn't have to take those options. I'd fucked up, and fucked up badly - and I could still finish the game.

Reactivity and C&C in other words, but a a very specific subset of it - the subset that allows you to completely fuck up, and still finish the game, rather than the variety that allows you to do exactly the same thing in two different ways (eg, New Vegas have a repair skill of 60, or use that scrap metal you probably already have anyway).
 
I also liked how old fallout was centered largely around its towns. I always hated the walks between locations in new fallout games because it felt like there was so much space that was largely boring and uninteresting that it made you feel like you shouldn't observe things. I love the interconnected nature of the towns and how every town encourages you to go back to them. I love the way you have to struggle through dealing with metzger, and I always made vows to return and kill him, and its so cool that Rebecca commends you for doing it after wards and pays you generously for it. That means the creators knew that this was something players would want to do, and so they put in the means to reward the player for doing it, without giving any quest or telling the player that they had to do it.
 
I can't name a singular "best part". The old Fallout's were more like sums of their parts. It's not the lore alone, it's not the C&C and writing alone, it's not the character systems and gameplay or combat alone.... What made the classics classics was how well the parts played together and how the contents were arranged and paced.

The best part is the experience as a whole.
 
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SiriusShenanigans said:
I also liked how old fallout was centered largely around its towns. I always hated the walks between locations in new fallout games because it felt like there was so much space that was largely boring and uninteresting that it made you feel like you shouldn't observe things. I love the interconnected nature of the towns and how every town encourages you to go back to them. I love the way you have to struggle through dealing with metzger, and I always made vows to return and kill him, and its so cool that Rebecca commends you for doing it after wards and pays you generously for it. That means the creators knew that this was something players would want to do, and so they put in the means to reward the player for doing it, without giving any quest or telling the player that they had to do it.
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One thing that can alleviate this, as I mentioned elsewhere, is a second or even third layer of quests per town in the 3d games, maybe unlocked either by level cap or by other quests, or both. Goodsprings might need some help down the road, and going back around to do things for each town later on will make it less of a chore. Maybe that old Prospector has heard about a den of Deathclaws across the river, and his buddy did too, went of towards it - and never came back - you look up to the task, wanna go for one last ride?

And stuff like that. Hell, even giving Jacobstown a few quests either to provide forces for the battle at Hoover Dam or cleaning up Black Mountain would had made it relevant more; I just ignore it for most of the game.
 
The dialogue. There isn't a lot of other reading, so it was where most of the characterization, plot, and lore came from. Tons of 'burst out loud' hilarious lines that I'd reload the game just to hear again. The animated characters also had this quality I can't put a name to. It's not vibrant, lively, or colorful, though all apply. It's just that none of them felt like stock characters. Somehow they managed to make it all seem plausible, selling the atmosphere of it all, with just the right amount of sass, snark, and sarcasm. The world may have changed, but people sure didn't.
 
Honestly, the whole package for me.

The amount of build options, the story telling, the characters, the writing, the combat, the world building, pretty much everything.
 
The atmosphere for me. The feeling of the two classics is like nothing I've experienced in a game before. I highly credit Mark Morgan for this.
 
In addition to the many excellent points already brought up by others here (that I may have likely said myself) I think the "negative space" in the early games is what really allowed them to grow on me.

The fact that the music was present in the background and not distracting but you could still sit and listen and enjoy at your leisure. The fact that traveling wasn't instantaneous "fast travel" but was just greatly accelerated and you still had to wait through it (all the while hoping or not for encounters). The fact that you could arrive at a new location and take your time exploring without being forced to watch (or miss!) a real-time cut-scene story-bullshit conversation-vomit. It was the space and time between events (mostly chosen at the player's discretion) that allowed me to breathe and process everything fully before moving on to the next thing, instead of being forced into ACTION(!) long-play crap in modern games because the devs think that all gamers are medically diagnosed with ADD and require constant stimulus or we'll simply wander out of our chairs because SHINY(!) thing-over-there distracted us. I'm all for some action sometimes, but geez!
 
From my perspective the best Part of Fallout 1 was the freedom, mystery, and wonder players encountered when they attempt their first play through.

Learning in line with the player character was an amazing experience.

I still remember my first character: Burt

If I remember Burt's starting special was: S 7 P 4 E 5 C 3 I 6 A 5 L 5 with the tags of science and repair.

Poor Burt didn't last very long, but he at least got to hub before getting his head blown off by the librarian for trying to steal her desert eagle.

It took me I think a total of 8 different characters before I actually beat the game. I found each of them to be a wildly satisfying experience.
 
Einhanderc7 said:
If I remember Burt's starting special was: S 7 P 4 E 5 C 3 I 6 A 5 L 5 with the tags of science and repair.
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Wait, how did you get that starting special points? Doesn't that means there's still 5 unspent SPECIAL points? Also, where did the other tag go?
 
Black Angel said:
Wait, how did you get that starting special points? Doesn't that means there's still 5 unspent SPECIAL points? Also, where did the other tag go?
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That's from memory from wayyyyyyy baaaack wheeeeen. That's the best I can remember it was. I'm quite aware it's missing info, but I figured trying to be accurate as possible instead of fudging the details on what I could remember was a better choice. Knowing Burt, I probably dumped the rest of the 5 points in luck since it was my first time playing.

To be honest, I honestly can't remember if the other tag was small guns, unarmed or something dumb like traps.

Oh Burt, when will you learn no, means no...
 
Something they broke in Fallout 2, was that Fallout took into account the terrain the PC crossed while traveling. Different terrain styles took different amounts of time to cross, and if the PC made a stop, the engine would depict the specific terrain indicated by the map location.

map2.gif


Also: Yes, The Glow.

And the easter egg; where you enter the word BOOM, and see Tim Cain's head esplode:
Tim_tblcrd-0_zps8ylph4ce.gif
 
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