Fallout

Previewed By: Kirk Hiner

Preview Date: July 7, 2002

Genre: RPG

Format: CD

Developer: Black Isle Studios

Original Publisher: Interplay

Mac Port: The OMNI Group

Mac Publisher: MacPlay

Minimum System Requirements: Mac OS X v10.1.4, 128MB RAM, 600MB hard disk space

Network Feature: No

Mac OS X Compatible: Cocoa

ESRB Rating M for Mature (animated blood and gore)

Price: $19.99

Availability: July 2002

   

This whole thing strikes me as odd, previewing a computer game over four years after I finished playing it. I'll tell you what, though; four years on, Fallout is still one of the greatest games I've played...ever.

Fallout was released at the perfect time for me. It was 1997, and I was about to move back to Ohio from New York City. I was shopping for a Christmas gift for Bill Stiteler when I happened across the game at J&R Computer World. This was right at the time when just about everyone who made Macintosh games (including MacPlay) packed up shop and switched over to selling hot pretzels at the mall. I though Fallout looked good, so I bought a copy for Bill. I also bought one for myself. Couldn't pass it up.

For the next few months, Bill and I played the game in our respective states, calling each other to trade stories and share tips. I was living off severance pay at the time, so I never even had to go to work. I just stayed home all day and worked on my novel, taught myself HTML, and played Fallout. Somehow, Bill still got through the game before I did. He always does.

Fallout comes from a time when men were men, women were women, and computer games kicked mutant butt. There were no warnings or disclaimers or fears of losing buyers because of ESRB ratings. Graphics hadn't exploded to the level they're at now, so developers were still relying on story and tone to move computer games. Fallout was the pinnacle of that era...at least for RPGs. It shattered the mold in multiple ways, and no game has since even tried to swing that hammer again.

Well, except perhaps for Fallout 2.

What makes Fallout so special? We'll get into that in the full review in about a month or so. In the meantime, here's what you can expect. Fallout is an RPG set in a post-apocalyptic future. That's right, the future. There are no dragons or demons in this game (plenty of "fleshiated mutants," though). No spells to cast or runes to collect. This is sci-fi all the way in a genre otherwise dominated by AD&D. It was a welcome change in 1997, and it's a welcome change today.

After the nuclear holocaust, a few humans were able to survive in underground vaults, completely sealed off from the outside world. This was 80 years ago. Now, Vault 13 (the vault in which you live) has a damaged water chip. Without it, your vault will run out of water and the people will die. Of course, you have to figure you'd be the one selected to go find a new one. For the first time in your life, you'll see the sky. Unfortunately, you'll also see plenty of humans, animals and mutants who want to kill you.

This is not the main focus of the game, however. While searching for a chip, you'll uncover a plot of nothing less than world domination. Who's behind it? How can they be stopped? Well, by you. You, a couple NPCs, and a dog named Dogmeat.

There are countless side quests, of course. These not only gain you experience and supplies, but loyalty as well. Help who you like, blow off who you like; your actions will have consequences.

The characters you meet along the way aren't much too look at graphically (although they were great in 1997), but you quickly forgive the "talking heads" approach because you're more interested in what they have to say than how they look saying it. Even to this day, I'm not convinced the story in Fallout has been topped by an RPG. The side quests aren't just diversions, they further the plot. The introduce characters who may seem trivial at first, but who factor in quite heavily later on. Almost every mission and encounter drives you towards bigger things, revealing a bit more about what's going on around you and about the people you thought you knew.

The world in which these adventures take place is barren and gritty. Sure, the war was 80 years ago, but not much has grown back. In fact, that which has grown back has become mutated. You'll be fighting giant rats and scorpions within the first fifteen minutes, and it only gets worse from there. Humans have split into factions; some good, some bad, some a little bit of both. Regardless, these societies can either help or hinder you, depending upon the relationships you set up. Sure, it pays to be nice, but quite often, it also pays to break a few rules...get a few people angry. You can't make it through this game by always doing the right thing. Kind of like real life, which is too bad...we don't have a nuclear holocaust to blame for our behavior, we can only blame the Clinton administration.

Fallout uses a fairly traditional character generation system. You can choose one of three pre-defined characters or you can set up your own (why would you play a game like this and not create your own character). You distribute character points amongst statistics such as strength, perception, charisma, luck, etc. You then select three tag skills that will make you better at certain learned abilities. These include big guns, energy weapons, speech, gambling, and more. Selecting these doesn't hinder your ability to learn other skills, they only start you off higher and increase the speed at which you learn your selected skills.

Traits, however, do have negative effects. Say, for instance, you choose to be a bruiser. Your punches will be harder, but slower as well. Or, you may choose to be a fast shot. You will be able to get more shots off per round, but you won't be able to target your attacks (by targeting, you can actually select the part of the body at which you want to aim). If you're chem reliant, you are twice as likely to become addicted to chems, but will recover faster from their ill-effects. If you're a night person, you'll...well, you probably have the hang of this by now. You can select up to two traits, but you don't have to select any. Again, just make sure you know how you intend to play the game before you set this up. If you don't cater to your strengths, you, your vault, and the whole world, really, will die.

Now, in the old days, RPG combat was what we senior gamers like to call "turn-based." This means, quite simply, that you take your turn. When combat is initiated by either you or your combatant, each (or all) gets his (or her) turn to execute an action. The higher your number of action points, the more actions you can perform in your turn. When your turn is up, the next character gets to go. It's not too different from Baldur's Gate, only you don't have to hit the space bar. And, surprisingly, combat can still prove quite intense even with this stop and go method. It's like coaching a game of football, really; you call the plays, see how the defense will respond, and hope none of your players will get eaten by rad scorpions.

What really makes Fallout come together, though, is the tone. It's dark humor. It's retro-future, sort of like that Starship Troopers movie. Although set in the future, the opening movies and graphics are heavily inspired by 40s newsreels and 50s equipment manuals. I'm not sure yet if the second coming of Fallout will contain the printed, spiral bound Vault Dweller's Survival Guide, but it'd be a tremendous disappointment if it doesn't (I dug my old copy out of the attic for the sake of this preview). This was written as if actually handed to a dweller in a vault. There are tips for survival in there, vault statistics, and a thorough explanation of nuclear blast effects that's hilarious in its sincerity. The manual promoted other fictitious publications such as Coping with Mr. Virus, How to Eat Rat, and the forthcoming How to Dodge Falling Rocks (available in the third quarter of 2078). The manual doesn't just teach you how to play the game, it puts you in the game. It sets up the life your characters live...and it's hilarious. Only the Starship Titanic manual has come close to matching it in inventiveness and entertainment value.

Yes, I know, I just devoted an entire paragraph to a manual. This was before the age of the strategy guide racket, you see, and right at the end of the 900 number racket. Oh, what a wondrous time it was.

The port to OS X was handled by The Omni Group, and they've done a great job. I worked off the gold master for this review, and I had none of the problems that plagued the original. Gone are the frequent crashes and the unbearably long load times. Of course, I'm also running on a computer that's four to five times faster than the old 9600 on which I originally played the game, but it's probably fair to guess that if you have a computer that can handle OS X, it should be able to handle Fallout as well.

Fallout should be available any day now. Watch for our full review soon thereafter. Bill and I just have to fight over who's going to do it. I'm using the brass knuckles, and he's got a sledgehammer. The winner will also get a cash prize of 500 bottle caps and entry into the Brotherhood of Steel.

 

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