Fallout has become one of the best series in games. It is a golden piece of gaming, no matter what number or title it is, it is hyped up and then lives up to the hype. Fallout 3 was Game of the Year. On October 19, 2010, the next chapter of the Fallout Saga came out, Fallout: New Vegas. This Saturday, lets take a journey down memory lane.
For those of you who don't know, Fallout is a game set in a post apocalyptic earth. Nuclear war took place and almost everyone died, the world has become a wasteland. Those who survived the war had taken shelter in massive underground vaults. The number of those who survived is close to one million out of billions that were wiped out. These games are set hundreds of years after the bombs, the radiation is mostly gone except and those who have come out of the vaults are trying to restart their lives.
The first two titles in the series are Fallout and Fallout: Tactics. Fallout: Tactics was a bit of a squad/turn based combat game. You had a squad of men and you ran around taking people out. It was set the in Fallout universe, while it didn't advance the story, it did have some relevance. It has a very basic concept.
The actual main Fallout storyline took place in the first game named Fallout minus any additional words. You played as a well respected and well known officer in vault. The problem was the vault was running out of water due to the fact that their shipment of water had gone somewhere else before the war. Your mission was to go and get them new water. You had 100 days to do it before the vault ran out of water and people would start to die. The game was good and featured an open world where you could go anywhere and everywhere, so much to explore and do except for one problem, you had a time limit. You had 100 days to get water, and calculate you were traveling on foot and across the mountainous terrain of the west coast, your time would quickly run out. You had to go all or nothing on the quest, exploring was not an option unless you didn't want to beat the game. The question I asked myself was why they gave you an open world to explore but didn't allow you time to explore it. I still beat the game hoping it would allow to me watch the end or continue to explore, it did not give that option.
Fallout 2 was a vast improvement the graphics weren't updated much but the gameplay was amazing, more of the good old turn-based combat and life in a post apocalyptic world. In this game you were a descendant of your character from the first game. A member of a tribe. Apart from that, what made it better? The open world was back along with a quest, but no time limit. You could explore wherever you want and do whatever you want for as long as you want. Sure you could complete the quest quickly if you wanted to but you didn't have to. I myself completed most of the quest in five hours. I got what I needed and made it to the next objective which is the final part but I held off. So after five hours which equals to about 30 game days I stopped working on the main quest and just started doing whatever I wanted. I went to new cities and became a boxing champion. I saved a town from certain death and killed two mafia big shots while at the same time getting in good with one of them by marrying his daughter so he could tie her down by claiming she had a husband to be there for whenever he (that being the player) returned from his adventures.
Sadly, not long after Fallout 2 there was a problem. Interplay and Black Isle, the two makers of it, they went bankrupt. Black Isle vanished and Interplay said they were alive but basically was dead and are now officially after selling all Fallout rights to Bethesda. Bethesda is known for the Elder Scrolls games and is quite successful at making blockbuster games. Bethesda bought the rights for Fallout from Interplay and began to make Fallout 3.
Bethesda changed up Fallout quite a bit. They took the turn-based combat out of it making it real time. But they kept one thing from the combat that most players loved. They kept a system called V.A.T.S. The letters stood for Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System. What V.A.T.S. did was allowed players to pause combat and tell their character to target certain body parts of their enemy, it can make for some very bloody results in combat while at the same time can allow you to take down bigger opponents who would otherwise kill you. Bethesda also made the view point first person whereas in the previous games it was a third person view where you were looking at your character from about 20 feet up in the air at an angle.
Fallout 3 was moved away from the west coast by Bethesda. It was moved to Washington DC. It featured a very in-depth storyline and featured the voice acting of Liam Neeson. I don't want to give anything else away apart from the fact that you never hear about the events of the first two games and you can walk around inside Capitol Hill and check out all the places you only see on C-Span. The game may be on the older side and some people say "You can't spoil it!" Yes you can.
Fallout:New Vegas took the series back to the west coast right next to the Mojave Desert near what is left of Las Vegas. Some of it was spared the war but after spending time around the world you discover that maybe one street was left untouched but other then that, everyone took hits. New Vegas takes place 10 years after the events of Fallout 3, which doesn't seem to matter considering those events are not even discussed. They kept the same perspective but they changed up body types and made the storyline a lot more interesting. Just to give you a taste, the intro features a well dressed man, voiced by Matthew Perry from the iconic TV Show Friends, says a few words to you before shooting you. Your rescued and nursed back to health.
The most recent game (New Vegas) takes a much different approach then all the other games. In Fallout 1 you were in a vault, in the second game, you were descended from someone in a vault. The third game had you back in the vault. Vault, vault, and vault, all of the games centered around them, I understand people survived in them but the game is about a post nuclear war world, not the vaults. Someone at Bethesda agreed, there are mentions of the vault but they are just off hand comments and people don't even seem to care. You can find vaults if you go looking for them but apart from a doctor mentioning it, you can go through the game without even finding one. It was nice change, you were no longer a "vault dweller" or "tribal", you were just you. Mind you that in the previous games you were treated differently due to being a "tribal" or "vault dweller" and especially worse if you were a "tribal" and it got worse if you were a female in that role.
New Vegas also brought back something Fallout 3 missed, and that is, the sex, violence, drugs, and rock. Fallout has been iconic for these features, not porn movies, but the suggestive nature of why you went to "that club" or why your character's vision is blurry and the question someone asks when they come into their house to find you standing next to a pile of something red, "Where is my husband?" Fallout 3 dropped all of that which were staples of the first three titles before it. New Vegas realized that it couldn't let it stay away and it was brought back and the Fallout universe was back as it should be.
With Fallout still going strong and New Vegas still making money it seems another Fallout game will have to come out, Bethesda says they have something in the works, but just what will that look like? No one knows one can only hope we get to see the iconic: Fallout
.4 But more importantly hopefully the famous Pip Boy (Pictured in the Latest Review Corner) will be there!
ReviewFallout:Tactics-Let it Ripen- Amazon
Fallout 1-It Could Grow- Amazon
Fallout 2-Harvest It!- Amazon
Fallout 3-Harvest It!- Amazon and local game stores
Fallout:New Vegas-Harvest It!- Amazon and local game stores
Rating-All Fallout Games hold a M for Mature, Ages 17 and up
Kid Friendly?No, do not get your 12 year old this game, the rating is completely justified!
Overview-Early stumbles but the games are now a staple of what a post nuclear war world would look like
