The Fallout Series

The nuclear weapon, as well as being possibly the worst idea ever conceived by mankind at least until the day they're launched across what would soon cease to be the world, has also become a great tool of the science-fiction-fantasy variety of modern fiction. The post-nuclear wasteland is a blank canvas with which any aspiring and cynical author can meld whichever aspects of civilization they want into anything they so desire, creating a world that’s both recognisable yet completely different, and where nuclear fallout can simply be replaced by ‘magic’ and be used to create whatever monstrous antagonists and situations the pacifistic fantasist could wish for. The nuclear wasteland is, ironically, fertile territory for modern science fiction.

The Fallout series of videogames have recently become a majestic example of this pessimistic young sub-genre. Inspired by the brilliantly nihilistic A Boy and His Dog, which I may review later if I can manage to remain happily unemployed, the Fallout universe is, technically, a continuing work of those ‘alternate history’ sort of fictions, the kind that somehow seem disappointed that the Cold War ended with the dissolution of the USSR and would’ve much preferred it to escalate into a planet-destroying apocalypse if only for the sake of being a whole lot more interesting. In this instance, the two bomb-lobbing superpowers are the United States and China, who after a large amount of fairly unimportant back story have obliterated civilization by the year 2077. However, for reasons I don’t feel particularly compelled to discover, by this time the technological peak of the world has barely improved since around the end of the 1950s, and the result is one of Fallout’s main courses of art direction – the juxtaposition of optimistic, idealistic fifties American culture with the grim prospect of what very well could’ve been if the right buttons were pushed (Well, what could’ve been to a point, as far as the ghouls, two-headed cattle, super mutants and aliens are concerned). The games take place at various times and centuries after the ‘Great War’, and work both as an outlandish fantasy of inventive ‘what-if’ scenarios in the hypothetical post-nuclear world, as well as a nightmarish satire of American mores and ideals.

Fallout was originally released in 1997, with an incredibly similar sequel following the very next year. The games were classics of the 90s PC gaming era, critically acclaimed and praised for their imagination, writing and mythology, and for taking the usual wolves-witches-and-goblins formula of the RPG into interesting new territory. However, the games are brutally outdated by today’s standard. They’re buggy, they’re slow, they’re confusing as hell, and, to be honest, don’t really need to be played anymore now Fallout 3 is out and about. The third game, released a whole ten years after Fallout 2, was created by Bethesda, who already had a name for themselves in the ‘Action RPG’ genre, and had the genuinely great idea to take the world of Fallout and make it essentially an FPS with heavy RPG elements. Crossing the FPS and RPG genres together could easily have ended up going badly and becoming a total mess, like splicing a panther and a dolphin and being disappointed when both of them die, or at the very least your veterinary qualifications are revoked. Luckily, Fallout 3 managed to work both aspects out excellently. The running, gunning and first-person perspective were exciting enough to avoid the boredom of a turn-based system, and the traits and skills held all more immersion than you’d have thought from a series of numbers that dictate your imaginary personality. Even the V.A.T.S. system was brought in to add a little turn-based combat to the mix, even if it felt less like a useful strategy and more like an excuse to freeze time while you aim your gun at an enemy’s gonads and tally up the exact chances you have of blowing them off. Nevertheless, there’s nothing more awesome than watching a slow-motion bullet fly into the head of a luckless raider and turning it into a slow-motion water balloon burst of blood and skull. The spectacle never gets old, either, and even by the thousandth slow-motion full-body explosion you’ll still be grinning with excitement. I hope that doesn’t sound too weird.

Fallout 3 is fantastic, and one of my favourite games ever, if my favourite games ever didn’t change with every sunrise, but it’s also riddled with a whole horde of design problems. For one thing, the game’s design was pretty much an exact replica of Bethesda’s earlier generic orcs-and-bollocks action RPG Oblivion, and all its numerous problems, errors and issues remain with it, only this time they’re wallpapered over with some decent story and setting. But the dialogue system’s still a bit of an awkward series of straight-staring, time-stopping weirdness, and many of the options are so transparently ordered into ‘good’, ‘neutral’ and ‘dickwad’ options, placing the entirety of conversation into simple deeds. The existence of morality, or karma, in the game anyway is a little bit bullshit in itself, particularly in the context of a post-apocalyptic wasteland. For one thing, it seems to serve no actual gaming purpose whatsoever, besides changing the names and haircuts of the people who eventually come after you from the opposite side of the moral spectrum. It’s a wasteland! All established authority has dissolved! Who the fuck cares if I stole a bottle of whisky from the friendless hermit, or used a minigun to turn a defenceless woman into a human colander for no other motive than to steal her very fetching hat? It detracts from the immersion, rather than adding to it. It’s as if the game feels it should give me all the freedom of an open world environment, but make a point of judging me for everything I do.

But the real grizzly bugbear of the first-person Fallouts is the fact that the game’s got more bugs than the South American jungles, and constantly it feels as if the biggest danger the game has to offer is the stability of the game itself. Total freezes aren’t uncommon, graphical errors are frequent, and the chance of becoming irreparably trapped by an invisible obstacle is very real and very, very frustrating. Even parts of the game’s quest designs could break the game or leave certain quests unintentionally impossible. The problem is that the game is just so massive, not just in size, which it is, but in scope and complexity, in the various possible ways of going about your business. In Deus Ex there were multiple solutions to achieve your objective, but in the context of a linear game structure. Here, you don’t even have to really participate in the main missions if you don’t want to, or any missions for that matter. If you want to run around dressed in nothing but sexy sleepwear and a cowboy hat, murdering everyone you meet regardless of need or necessity, you can go right ahead. Of course, the missions are all fantastic. Each miniature story and objective you come across plays off as an oddly paced episode of The Twilight Zone, another work of 1960s American nuclear paranoia. The characters are great, and the individual set pieces of the wasteland are even better. The town that’s populated entirely by little kids, the individual abandoned vaults, the town where two wannabe superheroes do battle daily to the annoyance of the citizens, and the excellent pisstake of fifties suburbia in Tranquility Lane are all highly engrossing examples, even if the achingly boring stints through the sewers or the subways briefly bog down your enjoyment.

Fallout: New Vegas was released recently and, apparently keeping with Fallout tradition, the recent sequel if pretty much a direct repeat of its predecessor, albeit with a totally different setting and storyline. While Fallout 3 took place in the Capital Wasteland of Washington, D.C., New Vegas, you’ll be surprised to discover, is set in the Mojave Wasteland of Nevada, changing the colour palette from depressing greys and greens into equally depressing greys and browns. I, like so many others, expected the game to simply be a glorified expansion pack to Fallout 3, but considering Fallout 3 rocked so fucking hard, I didn’t at all mind. And that’s exactly what I got. The thing is, New Vegas is just not as good as Fallout 3. It’s not bad, at all, it’s still entertaining as all hell and you’ll dispose hours of your life into it. There’s still the same great writing, same great Fallout feel, and there’s even two particularly great changes in gameplay. The first is the fact that you can now look down the sights of your gun to aim at your enemies, which is an absolute godsend in that it balances out the gameplay even more so that you don’t have to constantly rely on V.A.T.S. for any sort of reliable accuracy. Hardcore mode is a great addition too, where you can opt to make the game that little bit harder but, theoretically at least, a lot more immersive by requiring your character to receive a steady supply of food, drink and sleep to avoid status drops and, well, death. It’s not perfect, for one thing there’s no arguable reason why soft drink dehydrates you so much, if, you know, at all, and sleep deprivation doesn’t seem to be a problem at all compared to how you feel it should be.

But these are all great added extras. The factions system is another big alteration to the game format, whereby the wasteland is populated by various gangs, towns and wannabe countries, and it’s one I’m currently undecided on. While your reputation amongst towns makes a whole lot of sense, and you’re not so easily forgiven for being a murderous dickhole to the more civilian populations anymore, the whole overarching dispute between the big factions, that is the NCR, Caesar’s Legion and Mr. House, doesn’t come across as interesting as it probably thinks it is. And that’s the real trouble with New Vegas. While Fallout 3 had some really stellar writing, New Vegas seems to come up a little short when it comes to the main objective. You kind of feel as if you just don’t care all that much, particularly after you’ve sorted out the only business you were presented with at the game’s beginning. The game’s intro also doesn’t match the awesome first half hour of Fallout 3, which literally takes your character’s entire back story and has you play through it in tiny, baby-sized segments. New Vegas understandably couldn’t simply repeat it, but, still, you kind of feel underwhelmed as you set out playing the game, compared to how impressed and enthralled I was with how Fallout 3 set things up. And the main storyline doesn’t really take off from there. Even the iconic Pip-Boy and vault suit are handed to you in a way that feels half-hearted and blasé. Again, New Vegas isn’t bad at all. Like I said, it’s essentially just a glorified expansion pack. If you’re a hardcore Fallout 3 fan like I am, you’ll find that great news. Otherwise, well, probably not so much.