Fallout Journals: Game Critique Interlude Part 3

I chat with MacRae, the burly fella guarding the door. I expect I'll be introducing his face to my fist in short order, but he actually seems like a great guy when we talk.....

....well, maybe I won't kill them all just yet. I go in to the HQ - man, for a gang, these people look rough. They look more like a group of homeless vagrants than a gang. Their leader is pretty cute, but I can't remember her name for the life of me. She's got a bit of a temper though.



Woah, I guess I struck a nerve when I told her I was sent to kill her on behalf of Zimmerman and the Regulators. She seems particularly incensed by the claim that she is responsible for Josh's death.

The above picture makes me realize that I missed part of the tale to be told. Boneyard is run by Zimmerman, and he wants the Blades dead for the murder of his son, Josh. Apparently, Josh was kidnapped by the Blades, brainwashed, and sent bac into town with a bomb strapped to his chest. OR SO THE REGULATORS WOULD HAVE YOU BELIEVE. Looks like maybe Josh and Potty-mouth here were actually lovers, and Josh was really trying to warn his dad about the Regulators. I'm given a holodisk with information on it that proves Potty-mouth's story, and I'm tasked with getting the info back to Zimmerman; first, however, I need to visit the Gun Runners to the east and get some weapons for a good old-fashioned insurrection of the proletariat.

The Gun Runners are more than happy to help me, but they want me to do a favor for them. If I kill all of the Deathclaws lurking in the slums, they'll give me all the weapons I need.

Coolio. Ian and I head off to kill some Deathclaws. And we'll leave it there for now.

Thoughts on Fallout's Gameplay So Far

I've been enjoying my time with Fallout. The game setting is excellent - really, why aren't there more post-apocalyptic games? I haven't played an RPG in a while either, and this one really lets you customize your character to suit your gaming style. I chose to play a fighter-type character (i.e., high Strength and Agility, low Inteligence), but the amount of dialogue and NPC interaction makes me want to play through again with a diplomat-type character (i.e., higher Intelligence and Charisma ratings).

It's a tough game; I had to restart quite a few times before I found my groove and made any progress. It's very easy to have you game end in a random encounter while travelling from one town to the next, especially in the early game. I was constantly getting killed by scorpions and gangers out in the desert before I got some proper weapons, enlisted Ian's help, and found some armor.

I would argue that the game's open-ended nature may be a source of confusion for some gamers as well. This game does not hold your hand from one town to the next - it's easy enough to get lost or confused as to where you should be headed. Each town has a number of sub-quests to fulfill, but it's not clear which ones will get you closer to your goal of finding the Water Chip. For example: it seems clear to me now that the player should visit Vault 15 fairly early, as you can get a good weapon and a Leather Jacket for free, at the cost of a rope. If I had found the general store earlier, I would have gotten the rope, killed all of the rats in Vault 15 for some easy XP, and geared up a bit for further challenges. Because I was so focussed on making money with the caravans, however (and also because I always seemed to be getting into towns at night, when shops are closed), I missed that option and probably took a lot longer to get things done.

And of course, all the while, the clock is ticking. Brandon (the guy I'm making the game project with - he often posts comments as Beran Senae) has played both Fallouts, and he feels the imposition of a 150-day time limit is a negative, and he prefers Fallout 2's decision to remove any time constraints on player choices. I actually like having to worry about the clock - I feel it adds a nice bit of narrative tension and forces you to make certain choices.

Choice is one of Fallout's strength's - you get to make a lot of interesting choices. You can play as a good guy (which I am) or you can play as an unrepentant bastard. Your choices will affect your Karma rating, which in turn affects your reputation with people and influences their behavior. If you play nice, townspeople are more likely to help you. If you kill and steal everywhere you go, they won't - but you might get some help from all of the bad guys. Every scenario seems to allow you to help either side in a conflict; I'm sure a skiled player can pull a Yojimbo and play both sides against each other.

I only have a few complaints thus far: first and foremost, spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes seem to be on the rise now that I'm about halfway through the game. I do find that annoying - it's just sloppy. There are a few examples in the above screenshots. Second, there seem to be several ways of cheating - Brandon showed me that if you get your Gambling skill to about 60% or more, you can clean up at Gizmo's casino before taking him out, effectively removing your financial problems for the rest of the game. I found a bug that allows to gain unlimited XP: when you are given the holodisk that proves Josh was killed by the Regulators, you can download it onto your PipBoy for 100 XP. Once that's done, you can talk to her again and have the exact same conversation, ending with her giving you ANOTHER holodisk, which you can get another 100 XP from. This creates a pile of holodisks that are worth 50 caps each for trading or selling.

Actually, I'm not sure if that second one is a complaint, because I like finding little cheats like that in a game. Anyway, Fallout is a class game. I'm thoroughly enjoying it, and my appetite is whetted for Fallout 3.