Outside Looking In - Tech, Design, Games and stuff

When Phillip wrote about the possibility of a Fallout 3 in his blog, I knew I had to find out for myself. Can it be true? Can one of the most beloved of game franchises be making a comeback? Apparently so. And I’m just tickled pink about it — no mean feat, that, given my complexion.

War. War never changes.

The end of the world occurred pretty much as we had predicted. Too many humans, not enough space or resources to go around. The details are trivial and pointless, the reasons, as always, purely human ones.

One of the most unforgettable lines I’ve ever heard was Ron Perlman narrating that intro in Fallout 2, setting the stage for one of the best games I’ve ever played. And take it from someone who can trace his gaming roots to the CGA versions of Quest for Glory, Scorched Earth and Bard’s Tale, to XCOM, Master of Orion and Master of Magic, to Gabriel Knight and Monkey Island, the hours of sleep that I lost playing this epic on a clunky 486 DX4 75MHz and 8 megs of RAM were well worth it.

And when you consider that load (and save) times can reach upwards of up to half an hour, that’s high praise indeed. In fact, I can directly attribute my mad skillz with the guitar (roll your eyes folks) to playing this game.

Fallout was an instant classic, as oxymoronic as that phrase can be, and Fallout 2 was even moreso. And both came at a time when there were no other RPG’s in the market: the last fairly decent one that I can remember was Ultima 8: Pagan, and even that paled in comparison to its prequels (mainly because of the removal of the party system), and Gabriel Knight: Beast Within was more of an adventure game anyway. Needless to say, gamers like myself with a need for role-playing ate it up.

Of particular note — and probably the reason for its success — was the Fallout series’ SPECIAL System. SPECIAL is an acronym, representing the seven attributes used to define Fallout characters: Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. It was a unique blend of the simplicity of adventure games and the complexity of the D&D system that many role-playing games used. The system comprised of three aspects: attributes (listed earlier), skills (which represented a character’s chance of successfully performing a group of specific tasks), and perks (similar to feats in d20 D&D and advantages/disadvantages in L5R). Since then, the SPECIAL system has influenced n some way a host of other game systems in its wake. Arcanum (obviously), even the Elder Scrolls series (Morrowind and later) and most MMORPGs owe something to the SPECIAL system. The concept of ‘builds’ can pretty much trace its origins to SPECIAL and GURPS (upon which SPECIAL was based).

But if there was one thing that made Fallout just flat out better than just about every game that came before and after it was its compelling storyline, particularly Fallout 2. The best RPGs, like the best movies and books, have the capacity to suspend your disbelief and make you feel like it’s not just a game, and Fallout did that supremely well. In fact, Fallout was such an outstandin piece of Sci-Fi that it did feel like I was totally immersed in the role I was playing, whether I was out trying to supply my vault with water or hunting for the Garden of Eden Creation Kit. There is a sense of urgency to your quests that made it feel supremely important, even in real life. Nevermind the fact that 150 game days were more than enough time to finish the game; I cared for the people in my vault, in my town. After all, I was the Chosen One.

There was only one aspect of the game that made it slightly inferior to another great game at the time, Baldur’s Gate, and that was the Non-Player Characters. With the sole exception of Dogmeat, and possibly Marcus, none really stand out the way Edwin, Jan, Minsc and Boo, Imoen, Jaheira and co. did in BG. But that’s ok, since there’s only a limited supply of 2mm Gauss ammo anyway

Which brings me to the weapons. Bar none, Fallout 2’s M72 Gauss rifle is the most devastating weapon in RPG history. Ever. Yes I’m biased. But try blowing a Wannamingo alien to watery bits with a single shot and tell me you don’t agree. The sound effects, the gruesome death animations, the sheer firepower of this baby are reasons enough to take Fast Shot, Sniper, Sharpshooter, and a maxed out Small Guns and Luck even if you get the gun so late in the game.

And after all this, I can’t help but feel sorry for Fallout 3’s current developers at Bethesda, because I’m joining the fray in heaping a TON of expectations on them. They already struck out with KotOR 2 by rushing it for release, so I’m trying to be patient. Because for the first time in a long time, I want to have insomnia again, and I hope the franchise’s stellar record (not counting Brotherhood of Steel and Fallout Tactics which weren’t RPGs), like war, never changes.