Fallout (video game)

This article deals with the 1997 video game. For the similar saga to which it belongs see Fallout (series).

Fallout is a 1997 role-playing video game developed and published by Interplay Productions. In a post-apocalyptic, retro-futuristic world in the mid-22nd century, nine decades after a nuclear war, the protagonist, the Vault Dweller, lives in the underground nuclear bunker Vault 13. After creating the character, the player must search the wasteland a computer chip that can repair the shelter's water supply system. He also interacts with other survivors, some of whom assign him missions, and participates in turn-based combat in which he fights until his action points are exhausted.

Tim Cain began working on Fallout in 1994. The project began as a video game engine based on Steve Jackson Games' GURPS role-playing game system. Interplay canceled the license after Steve Jackson Games objected to the game's violence, so Cain and designer Christopher Taylor created a new character customization scheme called SPECIAL. Although Interplay initially did not give priority or attention to the project, the development ultimately ended up costing $3 million and employing around 30 people. Interplay considered it the spiritual successor to Wasteland, a role-playing video game they published in 1988. Fallout was artistically inspired by the literature of the 1950s and the culture of the atomic age. Their missions were intentionally created to be morally ambiguous. After three and a half years of development, Fallout was released in October 1997 in North America.

The video game received critical acclaim for its gameplay, character system, plot, and setting. Fallout has also been credited with renewing consumer interest in the role-playing genre in video games. It won the «Role-Playing Game of the Year» from GameSpot and Computer Games Magazine, was nominated for the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences at the Spotlight Awards, and is frequently listed as one of the best video games of all time. Fallout was a commercial success for Interplay, selling 600,000 copies worldwide. It also spawned a successful series of sequels and spin-offs, the rights to which were purchased by Bethesda Softworks in 2007.

Gameplay

Character creation

The player can select one of three pre-made characters, or create one with custom statistics. The protagonist, known as the Vault Dweller, has seven main attributes: strength, perception, stamina, charisma, intelligence, agility and luck. Each attribute has a range of one to ten, and their total sum cannot exceed forty. Two other statistics to select during character creation are "skills" and "traits". There is a total of eighteen skills and their effectiveness is determined by a percentage value. The effectiveness of these are determined by the primary attributes, but three can be given a 20% boost. Traits are character qualities with positive and negative effects; the player can select two from a total of sixteen. While playing, the character can gain experience points through various actions. With the points obtained, the player levels up and can increase his skills by a certain number of points. Every three levels, the player can obtain an "extra". There are fifty extras and each one has prerequisites that must be met. For example, "Animal Friend", which prevents animals from attacking if you do not provoke them, requires the player to be level nine, have five intelligence points and the "Survival" skill at 25%.

Exploration and combat

In Fallout, the player interacts with non-playable characters and explores the game world from an isometric perspective. The characters' dialogue varies in amount, some have short messages, while others speak in more depth. Featured NPCs are illustrated with 3D models during conversations. The player can trade with other characters and purchase goods with bottle caps as currency. The game has companions that the player can recruit, they serve as help in combat and follow you in exploring the world, however, they cannot be controlled.

There are three main missions that require completion, two of them after finishing the first. The first mission has a time limit of one hundred and fifty days within the game. This ends if the player does not complete it within the allotted time. Some characters give the player side quests. To track these missions, the player can use the PIPBoy 2000, a body computer. A large number of missions present various forms of resolution, often can be completed through diplomacy, combat or stealth, and some allow unconventional solutions or contrary to the original task. Depending on how they completed missions, the player can gain or lose karma points, which determine how others treat them. The player's actions dictate what future story or gameplay opportunities are available and the ending of the game itself.

The combat system is turn-based and uses an action point system. During each turn, the player can perform various actions until these points are gone. The player can switch between equipped weapons, and can acquire a wide range of weapons, many of which can target specific areas of enemies. Melee weapons generally have two attacks, swing and thrust. If the player is not equipped with weapons, they can punch with their fists or kick.

Plot

Place

On October 23, 2077, a nuclear war destroyed the world and annihilated modern civilization. The events of Fallout take place almost a century later, in 2161, and follow the Vault Dweller, a human who was born and raised in Vault 13. This is one of the many nuclear shelters built. to protect the population. The survivors on the surface live by salvaging the old world. Vault 13 is located beneath the mountains of Southern California. The Vault Dweller can explore various settlements such as Dump City, which is mired in conflict between the local sheriff, Killian Darkwater, and the criminal Gizmo. The Hub, a bustling trading city with job opportunities, and Necropolis, a city founded by ghouls, humans who lived in Vault 12 and became radioactive creatures. Throughout his journey, the Vault Dweller also comes into contact with factions, including the Brotherhood of Steel, a group with religious overtones based on technology and military warriors. The Children of the Cathedral, an optimistic religious cult, and the Super Mutants, an army of virtually immortal monsters immune to radiation.

Characters

The player controls the Vault Dweller, who is sent into the wasteland to save the Vault. The Vault Dweller can be customized or created based on one of three pre-generated characters. These are Albert Cole, a charismatic leader and dealmaker with a legal background; Natalia Dubrovhsky, a talented acrobat, and also a witty and intelligent granddaughter of a Russian diplomat in the pre-war era; and Max Stone, the biggest person in the shelter who is known for his strength, stamina, and lack of intelligence. These characters present a diplomatic, deceitful and combative approach, respectively. Although the characters can be male or female, the Vault Dweller is canonically male.

The five companions the player can recruit are: Ian, a Shady Sands guard; M Tycho, a desert ranger; Dogmeat, a loyal dog; and Katja, a member of an organization called Followers of the Apocalypse. Other relevant characters are Vault Boy, the mascot of Vault-Tec, who are the creators of the shelters and PIPBoy 2000; Killian Darkwater, the mayor and salesman of Dump City, and the Master, leader of the Super Mutants and main antagonist.

History

In Vault 13 the water chip, a technological component responsible for the refuge's water pumping and recycling machinery, stops working. With 150 days until the shelter's water reserves run out, the shelter supervisor orders the Shelter Dweller to find a replacement. Equipped with the PIPBoy 2000 and little equipment, the Vault Dweller leaves Vault 13 in search of the nearest source of help, Vault 15, but finds it abandoned and in ruins. The Vault Dweller explores the wasteland and finds a replacement chip in Vault 12, below Necropolis.

The Vault Dweller returns to Vault 13 with the water chip and the Vault's water system is repaired. The Overseer worries about the mutants the Vault Dweller found. Believing that the mutations are too widespread and extreme to be a natural phenomenon, the Overseer tasks the Vault Dweller with finding and stopping the source of the mutations. Information found in the wasteland reveals that humans are being captured and turned into super mutants by being exposed to the F.E.V.. The super mutants are commanded by the Master, who attempts to turn all humans into super mutants to establish unity on Earth.. The Children of the Cathedral are a front created by the Master, who uses them to deceive humans into peaceful submission.

To stop the mutations, the Vault Dweller must destroy the barrels of F.E.V. and kill the Master; The order in which both tasks are performed is up to the player. The shelter dweller travels to the Mariposa Military Base to destroy it along with the barrels, to stop the creation of more super mutants. To kill the master, the Vault Dweller travels to the Children's Cathedral and locates a prototype Vault beneath him, from where he commands his army. The Vault Dweller infiltrates the Vault and can choose to convince the master that his plan will fail because the super mutants are infertile, kill him immediately, or trigger an explosion that destroys the cathedral. Subsequently, the resident returns to shelter 13 but is denied entry by the supervisor, who fears that the resident has changed because of his experiences and the stories of his exploits and achievements encourage the inhabitants to leave the shelter. The Overseer exiles the vault dweller to the wasteland. Fallout concludes with the legacy of the Vault Dweller's decisions about the societies and people he encountered.

Development

Development of Fallout began in early 1994. The game was developed by Interplay's role-playing division, under the direction of Feargus Urquhart. The game took 3 years and medium to be completed, and cost around $3 million. In the first six months, Tim Cain was the only one developing the game. Over the course of development, the Fallout team gained up to 30 people. Cain considered the team "excellent," even though Urquhart considered Interplay a ";chaos" at the time. Fallout was originally treated as a side project. Interplay considered Fallout a risk, because it was not like the other games Interplay had developed., and came close to cancellation at least three times. Fallout completed development on October 1, 1997.

A proposed title for the game was Vault-13: A GURPS Post-Nuclear Role-Playing Game, but it was rejected as inappropriate. Armageddon was also considered as an alternative, but was already in use for another Interplay project, which was later cancelled. Fallout was proposed by Brain Fargo, president of Interplay. The company tried to use I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire by the Ink Spots as the title song, but they couldn't due to copyright issues. Finally they used the song Maybe, also by the Ink Spots.

Engine and design

Fallout began as a video game engine that Cain began developing in his spare time, based on the Generic Universal RolePlaying System (GURPS). He entered into a more coordinated development after Cain convinced Fargo of his potential. Likewise, Interplay had obtained the GURPS license in 1994. The first prototype of Fallout was completed that same year.

The team considered making the game in first person and 3D, but they discarded the idea because the models would not have the amount of detail they wanted. The team insisted on opting for an oblique projection, producing a trimetric perspective. Designed to be a non-linear open world, Fallout was balanced so that, although side quests are optional, characters who do not improve their skills through them would be too ill-equipped to complete them. However, Taylor also added the one hundred and fifty day time limit to keep the player focused on the main quest.

The game was almost canceled in late 1994 after Interplay acquired the Forgotten Realms and Planescape licenses from Dungeons & Dragons,but Cain convinced Interplay to let him finish the project. After the success of the January 1997 role-playing game Diablo, Cain resisted company pressure to turn Fallout into a real-time multiplayer game. In March 1997, Interplay canceled the GURPS license due to creative differences with its creator company, Steve Jackson Games. According to Interplay, Steve Jackson had complaints about the amount of violence and gore in the game. Due to this, Interplay was forced to change the game system to the SPECIAL system, developed by them. Taylor and Cain were each given a week to design and program it, respectively.

Influences

There are many references to post-apocalyptic science fiction classics in the video game. One of the first armors that appear is the same as the one worn by Mel Gibson in the Mad Max saga. A player wearing this armor can find a dog named Dogmeat (which is the name of Mad Max's dog in the movie) in Junktown. In Fallout 2, if the player hits the dog, a non-player character with the suspicious name of Mel will appear to defend the dog. Many of the references appear in random encounters, such as a Godzilla footprint. Others are simple quotes, like a madman in The Hub who walks around in circles mumbling phrases, one of which is: Let's Play Global Thermo-Nuclear War, a clear reference to the 1983 film Games of War. There are also references to other films such as Robin Hood.

Fallout takes as its sources the science fiction and superhero magazines and comics of the 1950s. For example, computers use vacuum tubes instead of transistors, and there are energy weapons that remember to those used by Flash Gordon. The inhabitants of the bunkers wear a tight blue suit with a yellow horizontal line on the chest, very much in the style of what was considered futuristic clothing at the time. The interface is designed to remind you of advertisements and games of the time. For example, the drawings that accompany the character sheet are similar to those on the Monopoly box. The absence of this retro-futuristic style was one of the reasons why the game's spin-offs were criticized. In Fallout, the player encounters a character named Tycho, who claims to be Desert Ranger, and under the right conditions, talks about his grandfather, who told him about Fat Freddy, a Las Vegas character in Wasteland.