Fallout

Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game - the first game in the Fallout Series, developed and published by Interplay in 1997. The game was initially intended to use Steve Jackson Games's GURPS system, but that deal fell through, supposedly when Steve Jackson realized how violent the game was. Fallout is seen as the "spiritual successor" to Interplay's classic 1987 CRPG Wasteland. There are a few references to this game in Fallout that post-apoc fans will instantly recognize.

Attributes
Fallout uses a character creation system called SPECIAL. SPECIAL is an acronym and initialism of Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. These are the seven basic attributes of every character in the game. They are used to determine the skills and perks of the given character.

Skills
There are 18 different skills in the game. They are ranked from 0% to 200%. The starting values for those skills at Level 1 are determined by the player's 7 basic attributes, but most of those skills would fall between 0% and 50%. Every time the player gains a level, he will be awarded skill points to be used to improve his skills, equal to 5 points + twice his Intelligence. The player may choose to "Tag" 3 of the 18 skills. A tagged skill will improve at twice the normal rate.


 * 6 combat skills: Small Guns, Big Guns, Energy Weapons, Unarmed, Melee Weapons, Throwing.
 * 8 active skills: First Aid, Doctor, Sneak, Lockpick, Steal, Traps, Science, Repair.
 * 4 passive skills: Speech, Barter, Gambling, Outdoorsman.

Books found throughout the gameworld can also improve some of those skills permanently, although books are scarce early in the game. However, after a skill reaches a certain level, books no longer have any impact. Some NPCs can also improve Skills via training. How high a Skill can be developed is affected by the character's Attributes - a character with a low Intelligence will not be able to boost their Science rating as high as a character with high Intelligence, for example.

Some skills can also be improved while having certain items equipped. (E.g. equipping a lock pick would improve lock picking skills.) Stimulants can also temporarily boost player's skills; however, they often have adverse effects such as addiction and withdrawal. As Skills grow higher in rating, they begin to cost more Skill Points to increase.

Traits and Perks
Main articles: Traits and Perks

At character creation, the player may choose 2 optional traits for his or her character. Traits are special character backgrounds. Most traits have profound effects on gameplay. A trait normally contains one beneficial effect and one detrimental effect. They are listed under perks in the character sheet. Once a Trait is chosen, it is impossible to change, except by using the "Mutate" Perk that lets them change 1 Trait, 1 time.

Perks in the game are special elements of the level up system. Every 3 levels (or every 4 if the player chose the "Skilled" Trait), the player is granted a perk of his or her choosing. Perks grant special effects, most of which are not obtainable via normal level up in the game, such as letting the player have more actions per round. Unlike traits, most perks are purely beneficial - they are usually offset only by the infrequency of acquiring them.

Setting
The game is set in a post-apocalyptic world following The Great War, a nuclear war that occurred on October 23, 2077 and lasted less than two hours but caused immense damage and destruction. Before The Great War were the Resource Wars, during which the United Nations disbanded, a plague rendered the United States paranoid, and Canada was annexed.

The game takes place in 2161 in Southern California and begins in Vault 13, the protagonist's home. Vault 13's Water Chip, a computer chip responsible for the water recycling and pumping machinery, has broken. The Vault Overseer tasks the protagonist with finding a replacement. He or she is given a portable device called the "PIPBoy 2000" which keeps track of mapmaking, quest objectives, and various bookkeeping aspects. Armed with the PIPBoy 2000 and meager equipment, the protagonist is sent out into the remains of California to find another Water Chip.

Protagonist
The player or protagonist of Fallout is an inhabitant of one of the government-contracted fallout shelters known as Vaults. In subsequent Fallout games, he is referred to as the Vault Dweller.

The protagonist is governed by the SPECIAL character system, which was designed specifically for Fallout and is used in the other games in the series.

Recruitable NPCs
A diverse selection of various recruitable Non-player characters (NPCs) can be found to aid the player in the post-apocalyptic wasteland. Unlike in Fallout 2, there is no limit to the number of NPCs that the player may recruit in Fallout. NPCs' statistics and armor remain unchanged through the entire game; only their weapons may be upgraded.


 * Ian can be found in Shady Sands and is the first recruitable NPC that the player meets. He is an experienced traveler and gunman.  Ian can equip any pistol or SMG, and wears a leather jacket.


 * The player first meets Tandi in Shady Sands. She is bored with the town, and yearns for excitement.  She is eventually kidnapped by the Khans, and the player may choose to rescue her.  After she is rescued, she will follow the player anywhere as long as she does not return to Shady Sands, thus functioning like a recruitable NPC, although not officially.


 * Dogmeat is the only nonhuman NPC that the player may recruit. Dogmeat can be found in Junktown, outside of Phil's house, preventing him from entering his house.  The player may attract Dogmeat by either wearing a leather jacket or feeding the dog an iguana-on-a-stick.  After that, Dogmeat will follow the player.


 * Tycho is a former Desert Ranger, now living in Junktown. He can wield rifles, shotguns, and spears.


 * Katja may be recruited in the library in the LA Boneyard. She can fight unarmed and wield pistols and SMGs.

Story
The player initially has 150 days before the Vault's water supply runs out. This time limit can be extended by 100 days if he commissions merchants in the Hub to send water caravans to Vault 13. Upon returning the chip, the Vault Dweller is then tasked with destroying a mutant army that threatens humanity. A mutant known as "The Master" (previously known as Richard Grey) has begun using a pre-war, genetically engineered virus called Forced Evolutionary Virus to convert humanity into a race of "Super Mutants", and bring them together in the Unity, his plan for a perfect world. The player is to kill him and destroy the Military Base housing the supply of FEV, thus halting the invasion before it can start.

If the player does not complete both objectives within 500 game days, the mutant army will discover Vault 13 and invade it, bringing an end to the game. This time limit is shortened to 400 days if the player divulged Vault 13's location to the water merchants. A cinematic cut-scene of mutants overrunning the vault is shown if the player fails to stop the mutant army within this time frame, indicating the player has lost the game. If the player agrees to join the mutant army, the same cinematic is shown.

In version 1.1 of the game, the time limit for the mutant attack on Vault 13 is eliminated, allowing players to explore the game world at their leisure.

The player can defeat the Master and destroy the Super Mutants' Military Base in either order. When both threats are eliminated, a cut-scene ensues in which the player automatically returns to Vault 13. There he is told that he has changed too much and his return would negatively influence the citizens of the Vault as a negative role model. Thus he is rewarded with exile into the desert, for, in the Overseer's eyes, the good of the vault. There is an alternate ending (available if the player has the "Bloody Mess" trait, or has accrued significant negative karma throughout the game) in which the Vault Dweller draws a handgun and shoots the Overseer after he is told to go in exile.

Vault 13
Vault 13 is the Vault Dweller's home. The first quest in the game is to find a replacement for the Vault's broken water purification chip. None of the inhabitants are permitted to leave the vault, under the leadership of the Vault's overseer, who is dedicated to protecting and sheltering them. Vault 13 was probably located under Mt. Whitney, as it roughly matches the location of the mountain. Vault 13 may also refer to a mountain in Indian Wells Valley, within the bounds of the Naval Air Weapons Station at China Lake, known as B-Mountain. The mountain looks very similar to illustrations of the location in the game, and is rumored to have a large underground research center inside.

Vault 15
Vault 15 was once occupied by an enormous number of people of very different ideologies and cultures. The overcrowding and the diversification led to the leaving of four different groups, three of them forming each one raiding group - the Khans, the Vipers and the Jackals - and one of them settling down and founding Shady Sands. The Vault 15 is now lair to several mutated animals. This is (probably) the Dweller's first attempt to find a water purification chip, although it is nowhere to be found here.

Shady Sands
A group of former Vault 15 inhabitants have founded a small village between Vault 13 and Vault 15. Shady Sands is ruled by Aradesh, who asks the Vault Dweller to help get rid of the radscorpions who are threatening the village. Here, the Vault Dweller can recruit Ian, an experienced traveler and gunman, to his group. It is also possible to "recruit" Tandi, the daughter of Aradesh, by failing to return her to town after her kidnapping. An obelisk in the center of the city has the inscriptions "In remind of hope and peace".

Khans Raider Camp
A clan of raiders known as the Khans, led by a man named Garl, have set up a camp near Shady Sands. Tandi, Aradesh's daughter, is eventually kidnapped by the camp's raiders, and it is up to the Vault Dweller to save her, choosing from a variety of methods.

Junktown
Surrounded by junk heaps of cars, Junktown is run by the shop owner Killian Darkwater, who is also the sheriff and grandson of the town's founder. Junktown's gates are closed in the night, and drawing weapons is not allowed except in self-defense. Gizmo, the town's casino owner, wants Killian dead, because he "cramps [his] business". The player can choose to either help Killian or Gizmo. The Vault Dweller can also recruit Tycho, a ranger, and Dogmeat, a wild dog, to his group. Junktown may be located in Mojave a small town where two highways 58 and 14 meet in Southern California, also known for being the original launch point for the Spaceship One test flights (although that occurred after the game was made) and a very large commercial airliner boneyard.

Hub
As a major commercial town, The Hub is the most quest-filled location in the game. It is divided in several districts, each one controlled by a powerful group of people: the Water Merchants, the Crimson Caravan and the Far Go Traders. Here the Vault Dweller can send water merchants to Vault 13 to extend the time limit in which he must find the water chip. The Hub's approximate location corresponds to Lancaster in California.

Necropolis
A city possibly built upon the ruins of Barstow. It also closely corresponds to the Hesperia / Victorville areas. Overrun by ghouls and containing a vast sewer system, Necropolis is the aftermath of Vault 12. Vault 12 was designed by the Enclave so that it's door couldn't close and the vault's occupants would be exposed to high doses of radiation. This led to the transformation of it's inhabitants into ghouls after the Great War. The ghouls were divided in three groups: the surface dwellers, who are the most numerous, and paranoid about non-ghouls and outsiders; the Glowing Ones, heavily irradiated ghouls, rejected even by their own ilk; and the so-called underground ghouls, living in the city's sewers. It is here that the Vault-Dweller finds the water chip whilst observing an unusual super-mutant invasion, which may be a serious threat to humanitys' future.

Boneyard
The Boneyard, also known as The Angel's Boneyard, is the remaining portion of the Los Angeles cityscape. This is one of the later towns that the Vault Dweller may visit, receiving upgrades for end game equipment: the Turbo Plasma Rifle and Hardened Power Armor. He may also recruit Katja here.

The Glow
Formerly known as West Tek Research Facility, The Glow is now an irradiated ruin. It is here that experiments were conducted on laser and plasma weapons, and the development of the FEV and Power Armor took place. The Glow is controlled by a mainframe called "ZAX". It is the Vault Dweller's objective to retrieve a piece of evidence for the Brotherhood of Steel, which is a holodisk left by a fallen Brotherhood of Steel member, that proves he entered the location. The difficulty in this assignment is that The Glow is highly radioactive, and the player must consume anti-radiation drugs to survive his visit. A player unaware of this zone's high radiation levels will find himself quickly succumbing to radiation poisoning.

Mariposa Military Base
This former Military Base is where research was conducted on the FEV (which were previously conducted in the West Tek Research Facility). This is where new Super-Mutants are created.

The Cathedral
The Cathedral is the place where the Children of the Cathedral organization, which is a facade for the Master's plans, can be found. Beneath the Cathedral lies a secret vault, wherein the Master resides.

Developers
The Fallout developers team had nearly 100 members (mostly artists). Most of the team dissolved after Fallout was released, about 1/3 of them formed Interplay's Black Isle division that was responsible for Fallout 2. Some went on to work in future projects, and several key players left Interplay altogether to form Troika Games.

International versions
The game was censored in various international versions, which included the removal of all children from the game in some of the European versions (e.g. British and German ones). This was arguably done because of the possibility to kill children in the game, although not directly promoted (rather the opposite, in fact, discouraged but still possible to keep the freedom. It had its consequences, however, such as a bad response from NPC's, bounty hunters on your neck at all times and fewer henchmen being willing to side with you). Besides being frustrating for many of the game's players, the removal of children from the game caused a number of bugs. This was later fixed in a fan-made patch that put the children back in the game.

Current availability
New boxed editions of the game are published from time to time, usually included on one DVD together with Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics. Fallout is also available as a free download at GameTap (this version requires the GameTap client to play), and can be purchased for $5.99 at GOG.com (DRM-free version). Interplay has also struck a deal releasing their own DRM-free copies of Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics as a set for $14.99