In a time where the instant gratification of shooters and thrill of leading nations in strategy games had brainwashed me into this strange thought process dictating that “all games have to be unfathomably epic”, the original Fallout game came out of left-field and hit me over the head with a bat. Written on that bat were the words, “You’re God damn wrong”. The bat was right.
Never in my life had I even considered playing a classic isometric RPG, or even a modern isometric RPG, because I was so brainwashed by the intensity of modern AAA gaming that the thought of having to read paragraphs of dialogue to get any story, from an ocean of unvoiced NPC’s, numbed my mind. In fact, the only reason I played the original Fallout was out of curiosity, not because I legitimately cared about the roots of the now great franchise.
But something about the game enticed me, drugging me with love in a way no amount of breath-taking visuals or fast-paced decision making could.
I think it might have been how absolutely sad and gut-wrenching the world was, because what had begun as me playing the game for an hour, just to see where the series started, turned into me roleplaying as some morally-dubious psychopath, not unlike the Punisher, who just wanted to kill everyone who made this sad world even worse for the poor people living in it.
Because despite the presence of Fallout’s signature dark humour and pop-culture references, it wasn’t as goofy or played up as it would become in later entries in the series, which gave the future games a much more light-hearted tone. No, in this game those inclusions were quite tragic; The humour seemed like a coping mechanism for the people of the wasteland, and the references were reminders of a better world, now destroyed by mankind’s own mistakes; A world to which we could never return.
Though much of the gameplay is largely unsatisfying and ruthless towards the uninitiated, this is more than made up for by the subtle stories everyone has in the world, and your unrivalled ability to interact with those stories.
Having now experienced the original game, it is baffling to think how this quite depressing take on the post-apocalypse would soon turn into a goofy, watered-down and light-hearted shooter. And no, I’m not throwing shade at Bethesda for making these changes when they acquired the Fallout series, because Black Isle, the original developers, contributed to setting Fallout down this weird path with their sequel, Fallout 2.
Unlike nearly all of its sequels, the uniquely antagonising atmosphere, conveyed through the soundtrack, characters and tragic ending is what, in my opinion, sets this game aside from the other Fallout games and makes it the best entry in the franchise. What it lacks in replay-ability and satisfying gameplay, it makes up for by giving you an experience, be it good or bad, that you will never forget after playing. In this respect it is a game that makes you think, and not just about the game itself, but also about the ideas and concepts that it presents.
I highly recommend that all Fallout fans, or just RPG fans in general, visit this game, as it is a truly beautiful work of art and now, rather unexpectedly, one of my favourite games of all time. It’s what broke me out of my comfort-zone of fast-paced games, opening up a sea of new games for me to play, and for that it has my upmost respect.
And I’m not exaggerating when I say that it always will…
Alex Jordan 