Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game Review (Amy Loves Pizza)
PROS:
-Tremendous player agency. Not only does Fallout 1 give you choices to do just about anything in the game world, it also makes you feel like success or failure is up to the player. The viability of your character build, the chances of who you kill or who ends up killing you hinges entirely on the choices you make. Something that is VERY unique, especially compared to modern games.
-Rewarding advancement. Every level gives you a sense that your character is advancing in meaningful ways. Perks feel powerful and significant, your skills matter, and endgame abilities can make you feel like a powerhouse.
-Memorable characters. The story characters have unique graphics and interesting personalities that are well voice acted.
-Humor. The game has a unique sense of dark comedy that makes the game fun to play while still preserving the bleak and serious atmosphere.
-Replayability. Even after beating the game more than once there is still motivation to go back and play, making a different type of character or making different RP choices that lead to different outcomes.
-Unique aesthetic. The setting and artstyle is unlike anything else, blending retro vibes with bleak cynicism.
CONS:
-Not much to look at. Even for a 20+ year old game, the graphics are very rudimentary. There aren't that many sprite variations so many characters, including important NPCs and story characters, look like indistinguishable clones. Since the art is low-res, you're forced to either up the resolution which makes everything look tiny or lower the resolution in which case everything looks kinda pixelated.
-Unbalanced skills. Some abilities (small guns, energy weapons, speech, gifted) are incredibly powerful while other abilities (almost everything else) are next to useless. You might actually use skills like Science or Repair maybe once or twice in the entire game. It makes the game feel like you need a guide to tell you how to make your character due to there being so many useless choices.
-Small world. While the game makes the world feel big by making you walk long distances in the overworld, there are only a handful of locations in the game. The time you take to beat the game is on par with other RPGs (about 20-ish hours) but you spend most of your time in just a few areas comprising only a few of the same tilesets.
-Slow combat. Being turn-based is okay, but the battles can at times feel like it takes forever for people in the game to do what they're doing or walk where they're going to walk, especially when there's lots of enemies in the area.
Overall though, Fallout 1 is an amazing game that produces a really unique experience that feels fulfilling in a way you don't see to much of anymore.