Chip out the vault

CHENNAI: When people think of the Fallout series, the ones that more commonly come to mind are the trio of games that Bethesda’s put out in the last ten years when it resurrected the series — Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 4. Good as those games are, I’m not talking about them today. Instead, let’s go back to 1997, the golden age of isometric RPGs and incredibly long subtitles. Let’s go back to the launch of the original — Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game.

Fallout opens in the year 2161, 84 years after a nuclear war that wiped out most of humanity and rendered much of the world’s surface a barren and radioactive wasteland. Some pockets managed to survive in massive underground fallout shelters known as Vaults, cut off from the outside world since the bombs started falling. However, in what used to be southern California in 2161, Vault 13’s Water Chip — the technology that allows for water recycling — fails, and a Vault Dweller (ie, you) is tasked with venturing out into the wastes and returning with a replacement chip before the Vault’s water reserves run out.

The world of Fallout is a harsh one, and yet it still manages to be strangely inviting. From the sanctuary of Shady Sands to the strangeness of the Necropolis and the devastated Boneyard, these are all places you want to explore.

And one of the biggest incentives to explore are the characters that you’ll meet along the way. There are games out there with hundreds to thousands of lines of dialogue that don’t manage to give their characters anywhere near as much personality as Fallout does.

Whether it’s the NPCs you’ll encounter, each with their own story and goals, or the companions who you could potentially recruit to your cause, the world is full of interesting people to meet.

As for the story, it is once again a case of a little going a long way. The side quests and the incidental stuff you do along the way is great; they flesh out the wasteland and add colour to what could otherwise be a quite boring backdrop. The main story is arguably simpler and more straightforward than some of the side quests, but there’s a certain purity to be found there. You’re never allowed to forget that there are people depending on you to save their lives, thanks to a countdown that reminds you just how many days Vault 13 has left before it runs dry.

The gameplay can be rough, especially if you’re not familiar with the system. You’ll die a fair amount while trying to figure it out; but keep at it, and you’ll be gunning down raiders or smooth-talking your way past obstacles in no time. You can never get too complacent — there’s a reason the word ‘deathclaw’ has entered the videogame baddie hall of fame — but you can certainly come to terms with the wasteland and enjoy the sheer freedom that Fallout presents you with.

And, if you enjoy Fallout, it doesn’t have to stop there — you can then dive into Fallout 2 which is, in my opinion, one of the best videogame sequels of all time. Then there’s Brotherhood of Steel, which is a strange distant cousin of the first two games but no less enjoyable for that.

So play Fallout! It’s a great game, and it often allows for multiple ways to overcome a problem. Very few games let you find a non-combat solution to some of the more important enemy encounters in the game; but, then again, there are very few games like Fallout.

If you’d like
to explore a wonderful and colourful post-nuclear world to shoot, talk or hack your way through or around the obstacles in your path to experience one of the original great turn-based RPGs ...you should play Fallout!

What’s New?

Fallout 4
Not a whole lot, actually — the videogame release schedule usually takes a bit of a breather in January. Instead, let me tell you a little bit about Fallout 4, which I’ve been playing lately. While I personally prefer the classic isometric turn-based Fallout games to their more recent cousins, I’ve got to admit that Bethesda has done some very interesting things with the gameplay formula. Sure, it is inescapably similar to the Elder Scrolls games — ‘Skyrim with guns’ is a popular phrase for a reason — but there’s enough that’s recognizably Fallout to keep me hooked.

Arjun Sukumaran

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(Arjun is a gamer, book lover and  an all-round renaissance man)