War. War never changes…but Fallout certainly has.
By Wesley Eaton
Playing the original Fallout for the first time more than 25 years after its release comes with a fair bit of challenge in terms of evaluating it. In many ways, it’s very different from the modern titles in the series that I grew up with, but in just as many ways it doesn't seem different at all. Bethesda definitely deserves credit in that respect, their take on Fallout feels right and makes sense. The prominence of colorful pre-war clothing and artifacts that starkly contrast the abysmal wasteland, the dark humor, and the seriousness of man’s depravity in the face of near non-existent civilization. Other than existing in two entirely different RPG sub-genres, the two eras of Fallout video games hit the majority of the same notes.
Compared to the modern entries, the original Fallout just feels like a more distilled experience. One of the things I love about older games, especially older RPGs, is that they try to grab your attention in as many ways as they can due to the various limitations of the medium at that time. Music and visual hit harder and feel more bespoke, the writing is punchier and less risk-averse, and the systems have more depth because they’re forced to be simpler in their execution. Nothing can afford to fall flat, and this is exactly the mindset Black Isle Studios had when making Fallout.
GAMEPLAY
Standing on its own, Fallout is a very well-crafted and straightforward RPG. You talk to people, kill people, explore, and collect items. You can interact with the world using your skills in satisfying ways, and even solve some puzzles by way of using the right items in the right place on the map. For instance, dragging a rope from your inventory onto a hole or broken elevator will allow you to climb up and down it. It’s not incredibly dynamic, but none of these things waste your time either. Combat is turn-based, simple, and feels good. I really like the AP (action points) and targeting system (the progenitor of V.A.T.S.) as a spin on the traditional format. Being able to ration out multiple actions in a turn based on their AP cost helps not to belabor combat encounters past the point of fun.
The concept of companions has been with Fallout since the beginning, and honestly until Fallout 4 they’ve worked basically the same this whole time. You manage them entirely through conversation and bartering. If you give a companion better weapons and matching ammo, you can command them to use those. You can also give them very basic combat commands like “stay close to me” or “move out to longer range”, but they’ll take their own combat actions independently. Depending on how you outfit them, I found the companions to be pretty useful. Unfortunately, they can die very easily and there’s only 4 companions in the game, so be careful. I still miss my buddy Ian.
Despite its age, Fallout never feels obtuse. Sure, it’s a little clunky sometimes, but not nearly as much as you'd expect, and for me it was mostly dialogue pathing. We’ve definitely come a long way with games like The Witcher 3 that neatly cycle you through all options in conversation. The game is appropriately challenging, especially in the early portions, and doesn't hold your hand. That might be unattractive for a lot of modern gamers, but it was a breath of fresh air for me. As an unproven vault dweller there is a healthy sense of fear in early encounters and many different things can go wrong for you if you’re not careful, which is something that’s missing from many RPGs today. All the various systems, combined with the relative difficulty, make Fallout a very immersive and memorable experience.
STORY & CHARACTERS
As for the story, it’s fairly simple. Scour the wastelands for a new water chip for your vault, then deal with the super mutant threat. Of course, you come across a variety of side quests along the way, and I enjoyed pretty much all of them. You have 150 in-game days to find and deliver the chip, and before you think that sounds like an awful lot of time, you’ll spend many of those days traveling to various locations through your map screen. The pacing doesn’t suffer though, and the timer stops once you get the chip to the vault, leaving the rest of the side quests and the super mutant threats available to complete whenever you want (technically 13 years, but you can and should look up the fun story behind that).
The water chip is ultimately a MacGuffin to get you out into the world, but the super mutant threat is very compelling. As you’d expect from Fallout, the resolutions are not all cut and dry, especially when it comes to the main antagonist. I dare not spoil any details about the character or your final encounter with them, but the moral and philosophical dilemma that is presented, as well as the grim reality of the encounter itself, makes it’s one of my favorite gaming moments of all time. This is by far the best villain in the franchise. There are a few nice hard-hitting lines in the game that I still think about regularly, and I appreciate the full-circle effect of the main quest. Not only is the main antagonist phenomenal, the ending of the game is just all around really great. Fallout throws its best narrative punches right at the end and not a single one of them misses. Overall, a lot is done with a little story-wise thanks to a great thematic core, and it’s all aided by some killer ambiance and environmental storytelling.
SIGHTS & SOUNDS
Perhaps the single most memorable part of Fallout is its "talking heads". Only a few quest important characters in Fallout have portraits in dialogue (or any sort of voice acting), and they're done in a form of claymation. Initially, I found it quite jarring, but it quickly grew on me. I feel like the 1990’s were really good at depicting a special kind of tactile grubbiness, and that’s what these character portraits provide. They're so strangely unique and perfectly representative of the grisly griminess of the post-apocalypse. It makes me yearn for more alternative methods of presentation in AAA games, especially as the conversation around excessive realism is red hot. What Fallout does instead by taking advantage of it’s limitations is exceedingly charming.
The soundtrack for Fallout is incredibly atmospheric. It’s in the same tier as The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and Final Fantasy VII for me with the way it evokes emotion and makes you feel the true gravity and danger of the world you’re playing in. Tracks like “Metallic Monks” and “Acolytes of the New God” not only have awesome sounding titles, they also help communicate the disparate outlooks and tones of the different factions in the Southern California wasteland. So much could be lost in a game like this if you don’t nail the music and sound design, but Fallout does and it elevates the experience significantly.
FINAL VERDICT
I can’t declare 1997’s Fallout as anything less than a masterpiece. The writing is witty, the atmosphere is exceptional, and the gameplay gives you an exciting amount of control relative to its simplicity. This is one of those games that in the heat of the moment feels like it hasn’t aged a day, and in the few areas that it objectively has, it only adds to its charm. As it turns out, the Bethesda jank was a carryover from the old CRPG days and that only makes me more fond of it. Everything just works, and there’s not a dull moment in what qualifies as a pretty succinct game length among its peers.
The original Fallout is a truly S.P.E.C.I.A.L. game, undeniably a classic, and a tentpole CRPG that should be a priority for every fan of the series, and the genre as a whole, to experience for themselves.
Fallout 1 - 10/10 - Masterpiece