
World on Fire: The Oral History of Fallout and Fallout 2 - danso
https://www.shacknews.com/article/114982/world-on-fire-the-oral-history-of-fallout-and-fallout-2
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jvanderbot
I must have played fallout 2 thirty times through as a kid, and Fallout 1 a
half dozen. I'm now (finally) giving 4 the time it deserves. It's truly a gem
on par with 2, IMHO, especially a after playing New Vegas and wanting to have
the kind of options I have in 4 (settlements, crafting to the extreme, etc).

Perhaps I'd have been a more productive member of society had I started
businesses, graduated earlier, or done more R&D with these hours, but these
were real parts of my life then and now, like stories or movies or beloved
books. Part of the measure of my life's accomplishments is having time to
indulge in these interactive art pieces.

~~~
slphil
I have bad news for you: Fallout 4 is an incredible game the first time, but
the second time through you notice that the game has very little depth. I had
a blast the first time, but couldn't force myself to finish a second. I say
this as someone who beat New Vegas at least a dozen times.

Fallout 4 has tons of options that are flavorful and make you feel like you
live in a dynamic world, right up until you realize there's not much actual
dynamic content.

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jvanderbot
That is a shame. But Fallout 2 had ... zero dynamic content? It was absolutely
the same scripted events and environments every time, with the exception of
random encounters, which I never prioritized "farming".

New Vegas was a special beast, with its myraid choices and great writing. I
will have to replay that. But FO4 on survival mode is a great experience, with
plenty of danger and tradeoffs, and so much that I literally cannot do
everything (I fail quests just due to lack of fast travel sometimes). And for
that, I can thank Bethesda for a new kind of "more real" fallout experience.

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Ralfp
> zero dynamic content

This is true, but the reason why Fallout 2 is considered great (and why so is
New Vegas), was in number possible paths that player can take during gameplay.
Writing in those games was all about presenting gray and grayer dilemmas to
the player and leaving it up to them to follow quest lines for either of
those.

It was rarely things like "take the lost kitten from a tree or set the tree on
fire" types of "good and evil" pseudo-dilemmas that end with player being a
paragon of justice or chaotic evil, something that keeps plaguing role-playing
games to this day.

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mauflows
Fallout 3 doesn't get enough credit here. Maybe not the whole main quest, but
there are tons of side quests that get this for me. Some that I remember
toiling over are whether to set Harold on fire and what to do about the Pitt
considering I thought the leader was had a set timeline and seemed trustworthy

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k__
Fallout was a game I found by accident in a games magazine back in the days.

Was my favorite game, but somehow nobody knew it until the second part came
out.

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AdmiralAsshat
The now-defunct Gametrailers did an excellent video Retrospective on the
Fallout series around the time that Fallout 3 originally came out:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSarFcMkw5c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSarFcMkw5c)

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petetnt
For those yearning for another Fallout, I heartily recommend Atom RPG [0].
It's not perfect (for example the combat was pretty unbalanced when I played
it), but at its best it's the Fallout 3 that never was. Haven't played it
lately, but it even got an isometric mode in a free update which have been
plentiful!

[0]
[https://store.steampowered.com/app/552620/ATOM_RPG_Postapoca...](https://store.steampowered.com/app/552620/ATOM_RPG_Postapocalyptic_indie_game/)

~~~
ubermonkey
FYI, but the new game Outer Worlds is absolutely a Fallout in everything but
name and setting. The mechanics are all there.

I'm enjoying it more than I did F4, honestly, but that's partly because I
really really hated the "build and support villages" aspect of F4.

~~~
petetnt
I am currently playing Outer Worlds (~15 hours in) and it's a huge improvement
over say Fallout 4 but I think that Atom RPG scratches that Fallout 1 & 2 itch
much much more closer.

Outer Worlds is well written and funny space romp with rather little
roleplaying (you have seemingly tons of options, but often the results only
affect the next dialog line and the game is so easy that the player quite
often can pass any skill test) while Atom RPG is dark, hard and bleak post-
apocalyptic role playing game where almost any situation can play out in so
many different ways depending on your skills and luck. Atom RPG is Fallout 1&2
worship to its core, with all of the flaws of the original 2 included.

I am not saying that Outer Worlds is objectively a worse or better game, it's
just different.

