I once stumbled upon Fallout in the 90s by sheer luck. Don't look at my time, I still know how to solve its quests and game its systems. If this is your first rodeo, add another 10-50 hours of figuring things out or trying a genocide run. And, for your sake, leave the difficulty dials alone. Fallout doesn't hold your hand, yet it's sensible for an old title. But let's rip some band-aids first. The game doesn't hold up in all places (didn't know about Fallout FIXT patch, dammit). Make notes and save in different slots! Expect broken dialogues, journal entries, quests, annoying bugs and alt tab crashes. Besides, it's the kind of game where a sarcastic remark during an innocent conversation might lead to a brawl with a town full of people, their dogs, and their... Hold your horses, cowboy! Child-killing got cut by Bethesda. That's all they did... Hey, some of these brats carried grenades, alright?

Welp, no way but up from here! On October 23, 2077, a global nuclear war between the US and China defiled the planet, laying waste to civilization. One century later, you emerge. A Vault Dweller, born and raised in an advanced fallout shelter under the mountains of Southern California, Vault 13. You're not the Chosen One, just a goof who got the short end of a stick, tasked with obtaining a new water chip for the alma mater. Akin to a lost house cat, you're now free to find your own trouble in the bumf%ck nowhere. What shall become of you is to be defined by your ways with words and guns in relation to the many tribes of new Californians. A bunch of ruthless and rude madmen who use bottle caps as currency! See, in their world, the nuclear night is young. What's a century to half-life? The communal nightmare is still an open wound.

Fallout stuffs it chock full of clever homages and the joys of violent existentialism. Throwing together Dr Strangelove and Mad Max, fusing Day of the Triffids with Monty Python, it soaked up every drop of popular culture and spat it in our faces. Stylistically, Fallout is a post-apocalyptic Spaghetti Western set in a retro-future. Its prairies and canyons are a morbid eye candy. Smooth animations, great sprites, quality renders, and detailed backgrounds only punctuate the surrounding desolation. It sounds the part. Mark Morgan's music adds a sting to the bleak appeal, reflecting the scorched barrens dessecated by famine and blight. Poetically Jungian writing follows suit by driving heartbreaking narratives across a radioactive world while posing ethical dilemmas concerning the nature of mankind and death.

At that, Fallout is on pace with a movie, which always distinguished it from other CRPGs. There aren't that many personal quests or dialogue branches, but characters and morbidly wacky conundrums shine bright without outstaying their welcome. You can usually solve and create all problems in any given town in a matter of one or two hours like in an action flick. And it's all about you looking badass in a starring role, even your companions are but temporary sidekicks. These redshirts can be memorable, however, they also can't be directly controlled, so their stupid ass eats a burst of lead from someone's SMG point-blank before you know it. But hey, never refuse an offer to join! You can legally shoot any party member in the eyes and loot the corpse.

"Have you ever danced with the Devil in the pale moonlight?"

We're talking serious pacing in a game that has a turn-based combat system with Action Points at its core! Combat goes by quite fast most of the time. However, if a fight breaks out in a crowded place, you'd have to wait for every junkie in the vicinity to make a move. Go boil a kettle, save your nerves for the dicey rolls. Devastating crits, misses, and brutal takedowns with gory animations also apply to you in all of their isometric glory. You'll be slaughtered by people, rats, horrifying Deathclaws, and all kinds of abominable Cronenbergs. Blast their arms off, shoot them in the nuts, watch them drop to the ground squirming. Location-based damage allows you to put your victims in a world of pain before putting them out of their misery.

Now, spread that grim jam on top of iconic armour and guns of all types and sizes. At first, it would be hard to imagine anything louder than a .14mm. Then you'll find That Gun! A .223 hand cannon, which RIPS. And there's so much more. Pick a pulse grenade, a Molotov, or even a throwing knife - they all work in capable hands. Good old pistols, SMGs, and rifles are reliable, but it's not on until you hear Gatling miniguns singing rhapsodies over the violent parades on the streets of ruined cities. Where laughing mutants burn each other with flamethrowers and tear bodies apart using Ripper electric blades, power fists, and super-sledges. Living a dream! The spectacle is flavoured with a pinch of vivid text descriptions: "It knocked her over like a bad blind date", "his eyes popped like overripe grapes".

The S.P.E.C.I.A.L. progression system in place wasn’t designed to give you "a balanced experience", it's here to deliver all of the above while also providing all the hilarious ways dialogs and ending cards can go. This thing is the bomb! Don’t be overwhelmed by its red herrings. It merely teases you to break the game and have a good time. S.P.E.C.I.A.L. involves several main things: Karma, stats, skills, and the most fun part - diverse traits and perks, basically passive abilities. You pick a perk every few levels from a list or receive freebies for certain in-world actions. Those aren’t always positive! Say, not everyone likes a graverobber. Your Karma goes up or down, depending on the ways you interact with the game’s world and often defines how badly certain characters or whole factions want to kick your ass.

"That's right. I've killed women and children. I've killed just about everything that walks or crawled at one time or another. And I'm here to kill you, Little Bill."

Morality is the spice of it all. You can make a man angry or drive a whole city to extinction. I role-played as a good guy for a long time but kept salivating over the fun lines I can't say, the crimes I can't commit. Since then, I aced a murderhobo turbo-junkie, a boxer porn star, a prostitute slaver with a heart of gold. I made badass entries, used my friends as meat shields, lied through my teeth, and doomed whole communities! I saw that one can play sub-optimally and still find a way. Say, raiders hold a hostage you need and they're too strong. You can bluff your way through bloodlessly or have enough Unarmed to beat their leader in a duel. Maybe just inject yourself with two doses of Psycho and slip a fistful of dynamite into his pocket? Or come back with a Stealth Boy device, turn invisible and gaslight the leader by pretending to be a ghost! Try, die, experiment with drugs, find workarounds. That's the sh#t!

Fallout is as much about freedom as it's about war. Lurking in its shadow, you are sometimes a mediator, sometimes an instigator, always a profiteer and a stranger by design. What a sandbox! A grave world to quench your God complex. Walk the path of a messiah, be the scourge of the wastes, end up a junky, or a grifter's grifter. Each lonesome road you take shall stay imprinted on your mind. Fallout's influence never goes away. It's the son of the regiment, a by-product of a pop-cultural orgy, bearing its progenitors' genius as well as their flaws. Sure, it coughs up blood nowadays, but it still has the power to slip into your dreams. Don't let some petty grudges take over when dealing with a marvel that turned the tables on the whole industry. Of course, it isn't perfect. It's janky, it's vulgar, and it bleeds over everything. Because Fallout is quintessential punk.

My curator Big Bad Mutuh

I once stumbled upon Fallout in the 90s by sheer luck. Don't look at my time, I still know how to solve its quests and game its systems. If this is your first rodeo, add another 10-50 hours of figuring things out or trying a genocide run. And, for your sake, leave the difficulty dials alone. Fallout doesn't hold your hand, yet it's sensible for an old title. But let's rip some band-aids first. The game doesn't hold up in all places (didn't know about Fallout FIXT patch, dammit). Make notes and save in different slots! Expect broken dialogues, journal entries, quests, annoying bugs and alt tab crashes. Besides, it's the kind of game where a sarcastic remark during an innocent conversation might lead to a brawl with a town full of people, their dogs, and their... Hold your horses, cowboy! Child-killing got cut by Bethesda. That's all they did... Hey, some of these brats carried grenades, alright? [h3]A Game by Brian Fargo[/h3] Welp, no way but up from here! On October 23, 2077, a global nuclear war between the US and China defiled the planet, laying waste to civilization. One century later, you emerge. A Vault Dweller, born and raised in an advanced fallout shelter under the mountains of Southern California, Vault 13. You're not the Chosen One, just a goof who got the short end of a stick, tasked with obtaining a new water chip for the alma mater. Akin to a lost house cat, you're now free to find your own trouble in the bumf%ck nowhere. What shall become of you is to be defined by your ways with words and guns in relation to the many tribes of new Californians. A bunch of ruthless and rude madmen who use bottle caps as currency! See, in their world, the nuclear night is young. What's a century to half-life? The communal nightmare is still an open wound. Fallout stuffs it chock full of clever homages and the joys of violent existentialism. Throwing together Dr Strangelove and Mad Max, fusing Day of the Triffids with Monty Python, it soaked up every drop of popular culture and spat it in our faces. Stylistically, Fallout is a post-apocalyptic Spaghetti Western set in a retro-future. Its prairies and canyons are a morbid eye candy. Smooth animations, great sprites, quality renders, and detailed backgrounds only punctuate the surrounding desolation. It sounds the part. Mark Morgan's music adds a sting to the bleak appeal, reflecting the scorched barrens dessecated by famine and blight. Poetically Jungian writing follows suit by driving heartbreaking narratives across a radioactive world while posing ethical dilemmas concerning the nature of mankind and death. At that, Fallout is on pace with a movie, which always distinguished it from other CRPGs. There aren't that many personal quests or dialogue branches, but characters and morbidly wacky conundrums shine bright without outstaying their welcome. You can usually solve and create all problems in any given town in a matter of one or two hours like in an action flick. And it's all about you looking badass in a starring role, even your companions are but temporary sidekicks. These redshirts can be memorable, however, they also can't be directly controlled, so their stupid ass eats a burst of lead from someone's SMG point-blank before you know it. But hey, never refuse an offer to join! You can legally shoot any party member in the eyes and loot the corpse. [h3]That Gun[/h3] [quote]"Have you ever danced with the Devil in the pale moonlight?"[/quote] We're talking serious pacing in a game that has a turn-based combat system with Action Points at its core! Combat goes by quite fast most of the time. However, if a fight breaks out in a crowded place, you'd have to wait for every junkie in the vicinity to make a move. Go boil a kettle, save your nerves for the dicey rolls. Devastating crits, misses, and brutal takedowns with gory animations also apply to you in all of their isometric glory. You'll be slaughtered by people, rats, horrifying Deathclaws, and all kinds of abominable Cronenbergs. Blast their arms off, shoot them in the nuts, watch them drop to the ground squirming. Location-based damage allows you to put your victims in a world of pain before putting them out of their misery. Now, spread that grim jam on top of iconic armour and guns of all types and sizes. At first, it would be hard to imagine anything louder than a .14mm. Then you'll find That Gun! A .223 hand cannon, which RIPS. And there's so much more. Pick a pulse grenade, a Molotov, or even a throwing knife - they all work in capable hands. Good old pistols, SMGs, and rifles are reliable, but it's not on until you hear Gatling miniguns singing rhapsodies over the violent parades on the streets of ruined cities. Where laughing mutants burn each other with flamethrowers and tear bodies apart using Ripper electric blades, power fists, and super-sledges. Living a dream! The spectacle is flavoured with a pinch of vivid text descriptions: "It knocked her over like a bad blind date", "his eyes popped like overripe grapes". [h3]S.P.E.C.I.A.L.[/h3] The S.P.E.C.I.A.L. progression system in place wasn’t designed to give you "a balanced experience", it's here to deliver all of the above while also providing all the hilarious ways dialogs and ending cards can go. This thing is the bomb! Don’t be overwhelmed by its red herrings. It merely teases you to break the game and have a good time. S.P.E.C.I.A.L. involves several main things: Karma, stats, skills, and the most fun part - diverse traits and perks, basically passive abilities. You pick a perk every few levels from a list or receive freebies for certain in-world actions. Those aren’t always positive! Say, not everyone likes a graverobber. Your Karma goes up or down, depending on the ways you interact with the game’s world and often defines how badly certain characters or whole factions want to kick your ass. [quote]"That's right. I've killed women and children. I've killed just about everything that walks or crawled at one time or another. And I'm here to kill you, Little Bill."[/quote] Morality is the spice of it all. You can make a man angry or drive a whole city to extinction. I role-played as a good guy for a long time but kept salivating over the fun lines I can't say, the crimes I can't commit. Since then, I aced a murderhobo turbo-junkie, a boxer porn star, a prostitute slaver with a heart of gold. I made badass entries, used my friends as meat shields, lied through my teeth, and doomed whole communities! I saw that one can play sub-optimally and still find a way. Say, raiders hold a hostage you need and they're too strong. You can bluff your way through bloodlessly or have enough Unarmed to beat their leader in a duel. Maybe just inject yourself with two doses of Psycho and slip a fistful of dynamite into his pocket? Or come back with a Stealth Boy device, turn invisible and gaslight the leader by pretending to be a ghost! Try, die, experiment with drugs, find workarounds. That's the sh#t! [h3]Lonesome Road[/h3] Fallout is as much about freedom as it's about war. Lurking in its shadow, you are sometimes a mediator, sometimes an instigator, always a profiteer and a stranger by design. What a sandbox! A grave world to quench your God complex. Walk the path of a messiah, be the scourge of the wastes, end up a junky, or a grifter's grifter. Each lonesome road you take shall stay imprinted on your mind. Fallout's influence never goes away. It's the son of the regiment, a by-product of a pop-cultural orgy, bearing its progenitors' genius as well as their flaws. Sure, it coughs up blood nowadays, but it still has the power to slip into your dreams. Don't let some petty grudges take over when dealing with a marvel that turned the tables on the whole industry. Of course, it isn't perfect. It's janky, it's vulgar, and it bleeds over everything. Because Fallout is quintessential punk. My curator [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/35305390-Big-Bad-Mutuh/?appid=262060]Big Bad Mutuh[/url]