Fallout (series)

[CitizenGeek]

My interest in Fallout has been consistently growing ever since the first previews of Fallout 3 surfaced not so long ago. And so, posessing, as I do, none of the appropriate consoles for playing Fallout 3, I turned instead to the Fallout Collection, which contains all 3 previously released games in the series.

I've been kind of enjoying Fallout 1, though my patience is wearing out with the frustrating "openness" of the game. I much prefer linear games, or at least games that have an obivious path. It seems as though Fallout 1 is supposed to be played by trial and error, which is increasingly irritating. I would be lost without this succinct and helpful walkthrough. I can see great potential in this game (the style is impressive, the battle system is fun and the setting is very cool) but it's all been bogged down under the enormous failure it's application of the free roaming concept :/

So, what are you're thoughts on the series?

 

[kupocake]

My experience of Fallout 3 so far has been that the first hour or so after being released from the vault gives you a real rabbit in headlights shock with the knowledge that there's so much out there to do. In a way it's a good effect: it makes you pine for the linearity inside the vault, so you're attached to a place your character has been in for 19 years yet you've played through for an hour.... but it's still a weakness.

The first thing I did when I exited the vault was explore the nearby scorched village. I ended up conning some woman for protection money without understanding what I was doing (My character even miraculously knew that bottle caps were currency. 10 hours in and I'm not convinced anyone has told her. I know I put a fair few points into perception, but still...). My next stop was the local elementary school, overrun with Raiders who's function in the game was explained to me by the simple application of clubs to skull. I then dragged myself to the nearby town that the developers actually wanted me to look around. Plenty of shakily acted conversations later and I started to feel a little disappointed.

But venturing outside of the walls to do some of the quests, Pip-boy warbling "Anything Goes" and all of a sudden, it started becoming extremely fun. One thing the game does have, which you do not get in the prequels, is a thirst for exploration. It's quite simple: because of the perspective, you see stuff on the horizon, you go towards it, and you're always wondering what's over the next hill.

The game doesn't feel that 'open' to me. It just arranges ultimately Linear tasks in a different way to a conventional game, and sometimes the integrity of the game is threatened by you jumping the game's hidden but overarching linear plot and going places you shouldn't. The problem is that clear space when you have to go gather more linear threads to pursue. It's either tedious or perplexing.

As you know, I'm no fan of Fallout 1. I can't speak for Fallout 2, I haven't tried it. I don't feel particularly compelled to try either further. Sure they've dated poorly, but I've never 'got' the appeal of top-down PC RPGs. It's not a graphical problem, they're just not fun to play. You spend hours pointing and clicking at monsters (or, in my experience, hours of mashing the front of your mouse and wrestling the interface to speak to someone who inevitably has nothing to say), saving, dying, reloading, and finding it all very dull. As long as there are other games that are fun to play, I won't shed a tear for the occasional in-joke I miss in Fallout 3. Those games are titles in the "PC in-crowd"'s canon that I can do without.