Nostalgia Gaming: Fallout (1997)

Fallout originally released in 1997 making it 20 years old already. That, for me, is nuts, because I remember playing this game at a friends house on his PC. Those were really good times (I was 10 at the time). Fallout was a game that was hard and is a breed of RPG that really just doesn't exist anymore. It never held your hand, it never gave you quest markers or told you were to go. It was a game that hadn't departed completely from the pen and paper games that inspired it (like Dungeons and Dragons). It's the kind of game I really miss and wish still was being made today. Recently I purchased Fallout again and started running through it and a flood of memories from 1997 started pouring in for me.

The current Fallout games, while fun and addicting like crack, are really only a pale ghost compared to the original in my opinion. Simply because, as I stated, the original game really stays true to the pen and paper roots that inspired it. The current games are really an instant gratification kind of game where you need fat loot drops injected intravenously in order to keep you hooked. This first one is not like that at all, it's a Roleplaying Game through and through. Lets start by looking at character creations.

You are given the option of picking various stock characters or you can create your own. I opted to created my own because of course that's way more fun.

The fun thing, is that I decided to make a character that is more focused on agility, being sneaky, and a fast talker. I didn't want to play a "Hulk smash" kind of game. As a side note, I've tried playing this kind of character in Fallout 4 and it's pretty hard. It seems like the game really wants to force you to be a brute force kind of character which is obviously very limiting game play wise. I think a game has failed on a fundamental level if they call it a "roleplaying game" where "you are free to do what you want" but then the game funnels you into very specific styles of play.

Now that the character is made, lets start playing.

It's pretty old school looking isn't it? But this is a game where the is "gamemaster text" fed to you that further describes the scene. You move my clicking where you want to go. Movement costs "action points" and so does attacking with specific weapons. The visuals were definitely trying to give the game a more "Tabletop" feeling. Honestly, the newer Fallout games like Fallout 3 and up (though New Vegas did try to return to the tone of these original games), are just really bad shooters when you think about them.

Sure, they are fun. I've sunk hundreds of hours into Fallout 3 and and hundreds into Fallout 4. They are slick, polished games, but they are really only related to the original Fallout games in name and setting only. One thing that makes these older games interesting is the lack of hand holding. Modern games are so full of tutorials, hints, quest markers, mini maps, and tips, that you are not so much playing a game as following prompts and pecking the button for corn like a chicken. This game just drops you in the first dungeon and says "good luck!"

You perform special stuff, like sneaking, by performing "skill checks" kind of like traditional tabletop gaming. The caves were infested with rats and I was able to sneak past most of them by performing a stealth check. After you exit the cave (by the way, you are on a quest to get parts to fix your people's water filtration system), you are treated to the world map which looks something like this:

Sometimes you get "random encounters" as you travel by selecting quadrants to move to. I was jumped by rats but was able to sneak my way out.

You are told you need to head east, and as you move east, you run into the first settlement, "Shady Sands". I like this kind of discovery. I remember being a kid and being excited that I found my first town. There were no markers that told me where to go, you just discover it organically. That's how an RPG should be designed. Organic game play, not floating names, compass markers, and lit up pathways that tell you the best way to go.

Once there, I tried to barter with some woman at the gate.

The other guy at the gate told me about how "radscorpions" were messing with his town. He needed help. This is what I like about these older games. It doesn't tell you how to solve the problem, it only gives you goal. After talking to the town leader, I was able to recruit a more experienced fighter to accompany because, while I'm a smooth talker, I'm not the best fighter. I feel modern RPGs are just to explicit on the "one way" to complete a quest. I like that these older games emulate the pen and paper days by leaving the options open (or at least giving that illusion) and allowing the player to solve the problem their own way. Whether it's manipulating people like I did with my character, or going in guns blazing.

I guess the point of this post is just to enjoy a bit of nostalgia and look fondly at a time when games were still rough around the edges. I miss those times. I love the polished games of today, but sometimes these modern games just seem too patronizing and condescending to me. Maybe it's because I'm older and played different games like Fallout 1 or Baldur's Gate, so I just never really became used to being told how to play the game by the game.

I think that is a feature younger gamers these days will just never experience or understand.