Don't Be Afraid To Try The Original Fallouts

Intellectually I know it's fine. I know there's plenty of time to complete the game. I just can't stand a ticking clock counting down, constantly. It makes me anxious and completely ruins my enjoyment of the game. I also have this problem with Stardew Valley where I constantly feel like there's not enough time and I'm being pulled in several directions at once and I can't focus on anything. It's a nightmare.

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With Stardew, really?

You can start making friends at year 58 if you want, there's no consequence to anything in that game... You can forget your animals for a year and start giving them love again and they'll start producing again... It's a game where each day you can decide to focus on one thing and it doesn't matter if you forget about the rest...

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- It took me a while to figure this out during my first playthrough. Once you realise it's not like harvest moon and there is no end to the game and you can just do what you want for as long as you want, the game became much more enjoyable for me
  
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- It's not about worrying that I won't be able to do stuff again, just the existence of the ever-looming timer is stressful. And you have to water your crops every morning, and harvest them when they're ready. You can only plant certain crops in certain seasons. There are requests on the bulletin board that have time limits. Shops are only open on certain days, and I know if I don't do that thing today I won't be able to tomorrow because it will be closed. If the timer didn't matter, then there wouldn't be a timer.
  
  Don't get me wrong, I like Stardew Valley. But I stopped playing it, partly because I found it too stressful. Which isn't great cause people always advertise it as this really relaxing game, and I'm sure it is for them, but I guess my brain just works differently. And I really want to like Stardew Valley more, I want to be able to play it and relax.
  
  I'm not even trying to minmax or anything, I try to take my time, but it doesn't really work. I can't just ignore the timer, cause then I'll pass out and wake up with hardly any stamina.
  
  Edit: Also "you can just focus on one thing" sure, but then what do I do for the rest of the day?
  
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I know people say it doesn't matter but I'm the same way with Stardew. I ended up downloading a cheat mod that lets you freeze time because I realized it's supposed to be a nice, relaxing game, and I wasn't feeling that way. I don't use the freeze much, but it lets me enjoy the game without stressing.

13
That’s less of an issue with the second game, as you can ignore the timer, but yeah that’s part of why I never really tried the first game.

7
- I think its harder to ignore in the second game, since the shaman dude constantly telepathically calls you up like "So uh, you find that GECK yet? Shit's starting to get kinda bad up here." Every now and then. The first game just has the post-it note with how many days you got left that you can ignore.
  
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Fallout Fixt mod allows you to increase the time limit and practically disable it, among many other tweaks

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You would have hated the original Stardew Valley Gramp Pa, would give you a stern talking too and declare his immeasurable disappointment (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

I can somewhat understand though, I like the timer aspect even if I do not like the feeling of being "rushed". But I understand, you would hate pathfinder:kingmaker though

2

I'm a huge fan of the OG Fallouts, played them many times. I replayed Fallout 1 just a week ago and it's great but... I would be hasitant to recommend it to someone who never played it. It is really archaic and I'm not talking about the graphics as that's fine. It can simply be a bit hard to operate to people used to modern games.

You don't have any tutorials telling you how to play it. If you actually find a quest log in Pip Boy, it turns out it only lists some quests and doesn't have any details on them, only a vague one-liner title.

Figuring out that a randomly found item called Junk with an absolutely general description is actually an item needed to fix some machinery and that you need to hold right button on said machinery, from the drop-down select backpack, scroll to said junk and click it to use... isn't really straight forward. Same goes for using some skills (repair, science etc.)

The game is also incredibly unforgiving and even when using all 10 save slots you can get locked out. Saying the wrong thing often causes an NPC to attack you, and when you kill them, everyone around turn hostile. Sometimes you don't even need to talk and get attacked on sight.

You go to the Glow without a stock of Rad-X and you can go through it thinking everything's fine and you'll heal that radiation later. Your character seems to be fine, until you try to leave the location and you just keep dying in the Wasteland, seemingly for no reason. This happened to me last playthorugh and after 20 attempts I finally managed to survive by eating every drug I had with me xD. Only some (real) hours later I noticed that my SPECIAL stats were permanently lowered. The game makes it really hard and rare to permanently increase those stats and easy to lower it (drug addiction will do the same, or I think attacks from the Master and/or his Nightkin).

There are also bugs. It's super frustrating when a BoS companion blocks you elevator exit in Mariposa Base. Had to force them to run through force fields multiple times so they die...

These are just some examples and even though some of these issues get fixed or improved in Fallout 2, they illustrate what I mean - a modern gamer can simply bounce back from OG Fallouts and I wouldn't blame them.

Also - since when anyone cares what "tik tok says"?

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I started playing FO1 for the first time on my steam deck. Maybe I ought to have a walkthrough handy as push my way through it.

6
- Its useful. I remember playing 1 when I was a kid, no guides just bump around until something works. I also remember asking the older kids in the neighborhood what a Jimmy hat was and one getting in trouble for asking their parents.
  
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I didn't like the 3D Fallouts but I had fond memories of the original two, so I tried to replay Fallout 2 a few years ago. The writing is great but the gameplay has not aged well. Combat is simply tedious, especially against many enemies at once. You have to wait for them to slowly take their turns one by one, then on your turn you often just stand still and shoot once. Outside of combat, there's a lot of running back and forth which gets quite tedious too. I guess I had more patience twenty five years ago than I do now...

24

I kind of did the opposite but ended up in the same place - I loved the newer Fallouts so I thought I'd give 2 a shot and combat was just so bad that I couldn't get more than a couple of hours in. I tried it again a couple years later and same thing. I know a lot of people would riot, but I kind of wish they'd remake the exact same story/writing with modernized gameplay so I could experience it.

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- There are some fan made 3D remakes as mods for FONV and FO4 to poke around at.
  
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I guess I had more patience twenty five years ago than I do now…

yeah, and fewer options back then too. it was a great game; now, it's a game that was great once heh. Still a classick

5

Fallout 1 and 2 are the only games in the series I've put any significant time into.

20

Boy are you in for a treat! 3 is amazing. 4 is good (I'm not a fan of base building) but the far harbor dlc specifically was great

5
- You'd think so, but I have trouble staying engaged with that type of game.
  
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I will also say, the original Fallouts are games of its time. It sold itself off its narrative and as I am playing Fallout 2, it is still enjoyable but I do concede there are moments of frustration that one learns to work around.

It is not a perfect game, but it is a game that was written in a plausible manner that could be considered too real look at human nature at times and in the same breath going off the rails crazy with something out of pocket that can catch one off guard.

It does a great job of allowing one to make it their story, although some of the writing might not gel with everyone it at least framed it well in setting.

It think it gels well with people that can roleplay in a setting as even the combat logs have humour to it. It requires a lot of reading and the people in the videos look like clay dolls but it is bound to envoke something in someone if they are enjoying themselves playing these types of games.

The turn-based nature of the combat can turn people off, but I cannot deny the charm of running up to someone and giving them a concussion by wolloping their head and then going in to gouge their eyes to make them useless in combat and finishing them off with a shot to the groin.

13

Been having a hell of a time installing the resoration patch for Fallout 2 with WINE. The last issue I noticed was with the inconsistent character case in the config and install files.

13

Well, buddy you should try it sober instead then

6
- It’s just a small drop of wine in a very, very large bucket of drugs.
  
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I could never get into the new ones except for FONV since I felt the writing in 3 and 4 didn't capture the satirical feel of the first two games.

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I put a lot of hours into Fallout 1. What a great game.

10

Inspired by the show, I just completed my first run of both. While it took a not insignificant chunk of time to "see past the age" and acclimate to the clunky mechanics, I'm really glad I did. Honestly two of the best RPGs I've ever played.

9

Let Larian have a crack at fallout, classic style.

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No, unless they ditch their terrible Divinity style of gameplay.

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- They literally make games like Fallout 1 & 2. What are you on about? Bethesda?
  
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Ah the days of counting your action points and watching that first uzzy crit make a raider dance. If only we could get all of that artwork remade in 4k...

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It would be glorious but that level of attention to the art of "dancing" is a dying breed in games, personally a fan of the "one-stop drop shot" and the "fire man shuffle"

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Imagine if they made a deal with Larian to make another installment in the franchise (not Fallout 5, just something like New Vegas by Obsidian). How cool would that be? They specialize in turn-based, top-down RPGs and would fit perfectly.

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Although Larian and Black Isle have both excelled at novelistic (as opposed to Bethesda's simulationist) games, what a lot of people loved about Fallout 1+2 was how the storytelling was regional, factional, and political. The payoff was how the denouement responded to your in game choices, and how your story could be contextualized in a larger living world.

The Larian house style is great, but more focused on characters, interpersonal storytelling, dialogue and forensically detailed narrative exception handling. There are voiced lines and detailed writing intended for even the most abstrusely sequenced playthroughs that few players will ever see. Black Isle did something similar, but with less graphical acumen and in more factional terms.

It would be interesting and likely profitable to see how Larian's style came across in a Fallout game, but I'm not sure it's a perfect fit for a story that's at its best when it's critiquing society and human nature at large.

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Please don't kill me, but I hate those games. There are very few 2D games that I like and fallout 1 and 2 are not on the list.

7

screams in isometric projection

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- Leave ~~Britney~~ isometric projection alone!
  
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Curious what’s your year of birth?

FO2 is a great game but there’s no way my kids, who have only known 3D, could get into something so old.

7
- I can't imagine anyone not enjoying Super Mario World or Mario 3.
  
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- Liking or disliking a 2D game is not a generational divide.
  
  Fallout never was everyone's cup of tea.
  
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- I was around to play games from the NES and SNES. I particularly enjoyed Zelda 3 and Super Metroid, both on the SNES. Heck, I even enjoyed The Lord of the Rings Volume 1 by Interplay on the SNES. But I don't really like Fallout 1 or 2.
  
  Whether someone likes some 2D games or not has absolutely nothing to do with their age.
  
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I don't know if you've ever tried GTA 1 or 2 but you could tell Rockstar was on to something fun even if they didn't have amazing graphics.

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Most games I like are 2D, so that's kind of a weird statement. I grew up on SNES, though. My family skipped the N64, so I didn't even get a 3D console until the GameCube... Which I didn't even get until years after it launched.

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- I liked them when I was little, because that's all we had at the time and we didn't know any better. Now, that we have amazing games with insane graphics, 2D games look like shit to me. I'm so sorry if that's offensive, but that's how I just feel about them, genuinely
  
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I played them when they came out and Ive played them again recently... time has not been kind to the UI. The game is great, but the dated UI and graphics feel it.

3

Pirate the old uncensored version so you can blow up kids!

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If someone wants to try an updated version of the isometric Fallout games, check out Wasteland 2 and 3. Wasteland 3 has a lot less micromanaging inventory because there is no weight limit. The main difference in gameplay is you control a squad of 4 players instead of one, and you can hire a few NPCs along the way. It's a different backstory, but the environment is similar with remains of real cities in a post-apocalyptic future. They are all on Gamepass and there is a refreshed version of the 1988 original that can be played on an Xbox or PC if you don't like keyboards and mice.

5

Sounds like kenshi with less suffering.

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Just a reminder that Fallout was not just inspired by but basically an indirect sequel to Wasteland.

1

Also everyone should play Arcanum

5

I wanted to love this game so much back in the day but sadly it seemed to have a lot of bugs. Are there any fan patches to make it playable on modern systems?

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- There is some fan patched version of the game but I haven’t tried it.
  
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I remember editing the files for that game and giving myself many many action points so I could practically kill every single person in one turn.

5

Actual hacking when it was cool and not a dick move.

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I’m replaying the first Fallout since the show release and as much as I love it the controls suck. I would like to see a remaster that fixes that. Graphics are fine to me though.

5

I spent eight rounds failing to reload my gun and died to the first rat

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I can see getting killed by a rat, but I don't know how it would repeatedly fail to reload. Using a gun on rats is a waste of ammo anyway. You don't need to reload a spear.

2
- I lucked out and ran into 5 radscorpions on my first encounter. I died.
  
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As someone who started with 3 and is enjoying a replay and low key excited to do the dlcs on that one for the first time, these comments are making me more optimistic about trying 1 and 2.

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There are mods to fix some of the bugs and add some quality of life but they're still pretty janky and obtuse. That being said, they're still fantastic and engrossing games that are absolutely worth trying.

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Fallout 3 my favourite and that new TV shows not bad

1

Use a mod to remove the day limit and the experience becomes much better, you can play at your own pace.

1

Brotherhood of Steel is usually omitted but it deserves to be mentioned. It is a good game in its own right, even if it lacks some of the staple lore and story building of 1 and 2.

1

Eh. Tried fallout 2 a while ago because the lore is interesting… Boring. Too much grind, too much emptiness.

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