Fallout 1

Revision as of 18:22, 2 February 2010

Fallout's box as seen in 1997.

Fallout is a computer role-playing game developped by Black Isle Studios and produced by Tim Cain. The game was released in 1997. It's often considered as one of the best role-playing games ever, as it received many awards placing it among the top of the video games. Its main designers were Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky and Christopher Taylor.

Gameplay

Except for the fights, gameplay in Fallout is real-time. You can freely discuss with NPCs and achieve your quests, as well as travel across the worldmap. The levels, action points, hit points, skills and SPECIAL systems are pretty much the same as in FOnline: 2238, but the main difference - except the fact FOnline is a multiplayer game and Fallout a single player game - comes from the combats ; combats in Fallout 1 & 2 are in turn-based system while the most used system in FOnline is real-time.

Background

The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting in the mid-22nd century, influenced mostly by the post-World War II nuclear paranoia of the 1950s, that is supposed to grow up until 2077, since the Cold War continues to dominate the American lifestyle well into the 21st century. This has been considered as an alternative gold age, with robots, energy weapons, nuclear-powered cars, but still old transistors and 1950s lifestyle. An increasing energy crisis caused by the depletion of the petroleum reserves all over over the world turned into a Resources War, with Chinese invasion to Alaska, for example. The timeline of this period is known, and led to the Great War, a total nuclear war.

Some of the United-States' inhabitants were able to save their lives by running into enormous shelters, the Vaults, made by the Vault-Tec company contracted by the USA's government. They were each able to support up to a thousand people. Except some of them such as Vault 8 (That would eventually turn into Vault City), they were never intended to work as they were supposed to : Vaults were rather a sinister social experiment, since the government had its own shelters - to, later, become the Enclave. One Vaults had no protection against radiations, another one had only young people in it, another one was intended to stay shut forever.

The game takes place in the mid-22nd century United Stats of America, that have turned into a post-apocalyptic wasteland, commonly known as the "Wasteland". The war and subsequent nuclear fallout have severely depopulated the country, leaving large expanses of abandoned property decaying from neglect. In addition, virtually all food and water is irradiated to some degree, and radiation exposure has caused mutation in all forms of life. Several factions have emerged, such as the Brotherhood of Steel, the Enclave, the Khans, the New California Republic state...

Plot

The Master, Fallout's end boss.

• Warning ! This section may contain spoilers.

The game begins in 2161 in Vault 13, home of Fallout 1's hero, the Vault Dweller. The water chip, responsible for water recycling in the Vault, has broke, and the protagonist is tasked to find another one. When he finally returns the chip, the Vault Dweller is then tasked to destroy the Mutants army that plans to destroy humanity. The Master is the final boss of the game, as the Mutants' leader. To achieve his goals, the Vault Dweller will have to destroy the Mariposa Military Base ran by Super Mutants and the Cathedral, but he can also join the Master and help him to destroy humanity by becoming himself a mutant, dipped in Mariposa's vats containing the Forced Evolutionary Virus that turns humans into Super Mutants. If the Vault Dweller destroys the Mutant threat, he can return to Vault 13. There he is told that he has changed too much and his return would negatively influence the citizens of the Vault. Thus he is rewarded with exile into the desert, for, in the Vault Overseer's eyes, the good of the vault : "I'm sorry. You are a hero... But you have to leave."