2.5/5 ★ – Kalle_Deimos's review of Fallout.

TLDR: It's a 90's CRPG through and through. But I don't think I'll be revisiting this one much. Gameplay: Many of the skills seem, underutilized if not completely worthless. Outdoorsman has very little uses. Lockpick can just be used over and over til it works. Gambling has just one niche use. Traps I don't even really know how to use at all. Some of my favorite skills from the later Fallouts (Science / Repair) seem to have a combined total of 10 uses throughout the entire game, making choosing these skills for either your Tag Skills or putting any points into it feel almost worthless. Skills also go above 100% so at a certain point I gotta ask myself if I'd rather put a couple points into Repair for a MAYBE scenario that might come up, or just put more points into Smalls Guns just because I can see tangible improvements from it. Inversly, attribute points are much more important. Making any stat lower than 5 or 4 feels incredibly detremental to gameplay. On my first attempt, I gave myself a 3 in strength and I couldnt use almost any weapon effectively because they all have moderate requirements. My idea was to make a High PER High INT long distance build but I get a big aim penalty for not being strong so I can only reliably use a 10mm Handgun and its just miserable really. I DO genuinely enjoy how your Charisma and other attributes can completely change your options in conversations and how well characters recieve you. Thats another thing I think Fallout 1 does well, is how easily you can make characters hate you. I feel like in most RPG's you can be pretty mean to NPC's and they'll just kind of take it with no reprocussions. But in Fallout you can completely ruin your relationship with people by being a jerk. Realistic. When gameplay is actually present, Fallout is a lot of fun. Even now Fallout is quite an intuitive game and you can easily control the entire thing with just your mouse. Early game is a lot of fun, feels very free. But once you complete your first main objective and move onto the second act of the game, I feel a little cheated. It feels less urgent, a lil forced and can be frustrating for you to complete your goal considering the massive difficulty spike as soon as a Super Mutant is involved. I genuinely think this game is unplayable with low agility because every single thing in this wasteland moves faster, hits harder and has more health. You're either going to need a certified build to take on the end, or get Power Armor. But your companions can't use any so get ready for them to be killed by a super mutant doing almost 1000 damage to them with a minigun WHAT. Basically, you're going to play Fallout how it wants you to play or you can diverge from the beaten path to your detriment. You can do a low INT playthrough with some completely unique dialogue and interactions but you will be bricked out of most of the game. And that's just how it is. I just wasnt a fan of how Fallout is structured. It feels like there is too little places to go with quests that can be completely obscure. Story: The timer to find the Water Chip is really cool. Unfortunately that timer dissapears very fast and a lot of tension and urgency dissapears. It is neat to see how much of the later Fallouts were taken straight from the OG and it's a real trip to see the source. NPC's and plotlines can feel very underwhelming, especially the ones that end so abrubtly. A big peeve I had was how I spent so much time convincing the Brotherhood to send backup and then the backup did not actually go into the facility I needed them to. I could have engaged in the Followers of the Apocalypse questline but the prompts just didnt show up when I needed them and I decided to just destroy everything myself instead of figuring out what went wrong. Dialogue can also be very boring. Graphics: Fallout has a pretty cool style that aged pretty well. It doesnt necessarily look 'good' per se, but its got a vibe that fits the game very well. The Talking Heads are freaky but are always a treat when you come across one. Those facial animations tho, WOOF. The in-game animations tho are very cool. Bloody Mess feels like a must for any playthrough because you get very interesting death animations instead of things just collapsing. And the running animation is very funny. Sound: Fallout 1 has a bizarre cast of real world celebrities and plenty of voices that you're going to recognize. And their voice acting is very good. I wouldn't be suprised if thats where most of the budget went. Music is essentially non-existent and instead we get some minor ambience which is fine. Sound effects are very cool tho. Not a huge fan with how LOUD certain weapons are tho. Extra: Well. There's extra quests and numerous endings. But they are really only minor variations. Repeat playthroughs seem to consist of the same general activities. Maybe if there was more side things to explore I would spend more time with Fallout 1, but I feel like I dived in and got everything I could have out of it. Favorite Thing: You cannot dismiss Dogmeat so I had to bring him into the final zone where we was instantly evaporated by a minigun. It was hilarious. Not My Favorite Thing: You cannot dismiss Dogmeat so I had to bring him into the final zone where we was instantly evaporated by a minigun. It was so dumb.