Fallout (video game)

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Fallout

Developer(s) Interplay Productions[1]

Publisher(s) Interplay Productions

 Feargus Urquhart[2]
Director(s)
 Tim Cain[3]

Producer(s)  Brian Fargo

 Tim Cain

Designer(s)  Christopher Taylor

 David Hendee
 Scott Everts


Programmer(s) Tim Cain[3]
 Chris Jones
 Jason Taylor

Artist(s)  Leonard Boyarsky

 Jason D. Anderson
 Gary Platner

Writer(s)  Scott Campbell

 Brian Freyermuth
 Mark O'Green

Composer(s) Mark Morgan

Series Fallout
 Platform(s) MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS, OS X

Release MS-DOS

 NA: October 10, 1997

 EU: 1997
Microsoft Windows

 NA: October 10, 1997

 EU: 1997
Mac OS

 NA: 1997
Mac OS X

 NA: 2002

Genre(s) Role-playing

Mode(s) Single-player

Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game is an open-world turn-based role-playing video
game developed and published by Interplay Productions in 1997. The game has a post-
apocalyptic and retro-futuristic setting, in the aftermath of a global nuclear war in an alternate
history timeline mid-22nd century. The protagonist of Fallout is an inhabitant of a Vault, long-term
shelters, who is tasked to find a replacement Water Chip and save their Vault.
Fallout is considered to be the spiritual successor to the 1988 role-playing video game Wasteland. It
was initially intended to use Steve Jackson Games' system GURPS, but Interplay eventually used
an internally developed system SPECIAL. The game was critically acclaimed and a financial
success. It was followed by a number of sequels and spin-off games, the Fallout series.

Contents

 1Gameplay
o 1.1SPECIAL system
 2Plot
o 2.1Setting
o 2.2Characters
o 2.3Story
 3Development
o 3.1Influences and references
 4Release
 5Reception
o 5.1Sales
o 5.2Critical reviews
 6Legacy
 7References
 8External links

Gameplay[edit]
Gameplay in Fallout centers around the game world, visiting locations and interacting with the local
inhabitants. Occasionally, inhabitants will be immersed in dilemmas, which the player may choose to
solve in order to acquire karma and experience points. Fallout deviates from most role-playing video
games in that it often allows the player to complete tasks in multiple ways, allowing solutions that are
unconventional or contrary to the original task, in which case the player may still be rewarded, or
earn an unconventional reward. The player's actions and/or inaction dictates what future story or
gameplay opportunities are available, and ultimately dictates the ending of the game. Players will
encounter hostile opponents and – if such encounters are not avoided using stealth or persuasion –
they and the player will engage in turn-basedcombat. Excepting conversations with non-player
characters, non-combat portions of the game are played in real time.
Combat in Fallout is turn-based. The game uses an action-point system, wherein each turn, multiple
actions may be performed by each character until all points in their pool have been expended.
Different actions consume different numbers of points, and the maximal number of points that can be
spent is determined by a character's total agility statistic and modifying elements such as chems
(which are temporary) and perks (which are permanent). "Melee" (hand-to-hand) weapons typically
offer multiple attack types, such as "swing" and "thrust" for knives. Unarmed attacks offer many
attack types, including "punch" and "kick". Players may equip at most two weapons, and the player
can switch between them at the click of a button. The "perception" attribute determines characters'
"sequence" number, which then determines the order of turns in combat; characters with a
higher statistic in this attribute are placed at an earlier position in the sequence of turns, and
subsequently get new turns earlier. Perception also determines the maximal range of ranged
weapons and the chance to hit with them.
A diverse selection of recruitable non-player characters (NPCs) can be found to aid the player
character in the post-apocalyptic wasteland. Examples include Ian, an experienced traveler and
gunman, who can use pistols and submachine guns; and Dogmeat, a dog the player may recruit in
Junktown by either wearing a leather jacket or feeding the dog an iguana-on-a-stick. Unlike Fallout
2, there is no limit to the number of NPCs that the player may recruit, and NPCs' statistics and armor
in Fallout remain unchanged through the entire game; only their weapons may be upgraded.

An example of dialogue between characters in Fallout

SPECIAL system[edit]
The protagonist is governed by the system called S.P.E.C.I.A.L (an acronym for "Strength,
Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck"), designed specifically
for Fallout and used in the other games in the series. The player begins Fallout by selecting one of
three characters to play as the protagonist, or alternatively, they can create one with custom
attributes using the system. Character development is divided into four categories: attributes, skills,
traits, and perks. These have been copied or otherwise adapted in some form or another through the
ensuing iterations of the series.
Strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility and luck are the seven basic
attributes of every character in the game.[4] The SPECIAL stats continually add bonuses to skills.
This is done automatically, i.e. if the SPECIAL stats change, the bonuses are instantly adjusted.
Some "perks" and coded events within the game require that the player has a certain level of
particular SPECIAL stat before accessing it.
There are 18 different skills in the game, ranging in value from 0 to 200%. The starting values for
Level 1 skills are determined by the player's seven basic attributes, and most initially fall within the
range of 0 to 50%. Every time the player gains a level, skill points are awarded, which can be used
to improve the character's skills. The player may choose to tag three skills that will improve at twice
the normal rate and receive a bonus at the start. Skills are divided into three categories: combat,
active and passive. Books, although scarce in the early game, can be found throughout the game
world and permanently improve a specific skill when read. However, after a skill reaches a certain
level, books no longer have an impact. Some NPCs can also improve skills by training. Some skills
are also improved by having certain items equipped. For instance, a lockpick improves lock-picking
skills. Stimulants can also temporarily boost a player's skills, however, they often have adverse
effects such as addiction and withdrawal.
Traits are special character qualities that can have significant effects on gameplay. At character
creation, the player may choose up to two traits. Traits typically carry benefits coupled with
detrimental effects.[4] For example, the trait "small frame" improves agility by one point, but negatively
affects maximal carrying capacity. Once a trait is chosen, it is impossible to change, except by using
the "mutate" perk, which allows a player to change one trait, one time.
Perks are a special element of the level-up system. Every three levels (or every four if the player
chooses the "skilled" trait), the player is presented with a list of perks and can choose one to improve
their character. Perks grant special effects, most of which are not obtainable through the normal
level-up system. These include letting the player perform more actions per round or being able to
heal wounds faster. Unlike traits, perks are purely beneficial; they are offset only by the infrequency
with which they are acquired.
The game also tracks the moral quality of the player character's actions using a statistic called
"karma", as well as a series of reputations. Karma points are awarded for doing good deeds and are
subtracted for doing evil deeds. The player character may receive one of a number of "reputations",
which act like perks, for meeting a certain threshold of such actions or for engaging in an action that
is seen as singularly and morally reprehensible. The effect of both karma and reputations is subtle,
altering the reactions of some NPCs in game altering ways (for example, the player may complete a
quest, but not receive the greatest possible reward due to their low karma).

Plot[edit]
Setting[edit]
Fallout is set in a timeline that deviated from between the end of World War II and the start of
the Apollo program, where technology, politics, and culture followed a different course. While
technology advanced, cultural and societal progress stagnated, giving the general world a Raygun
Gothic appearance with advanced technology.[5]
In the mid-21st century, a worldwide conflict is brought on by global petroleum shortage. Several
nations enter Resource Wars over the last of non-renewable commodities, namely oil and uranium
from 2052 to 2077. China invades Alaska in the winter of 2066, causing the United States to go to
war with China and using Canadian resources to supply their war efforts, despite Canadian
complaints. Eventually, the United States violently annexes Canada in February 2076 and reclaims
Alaska nearly a year later. After years of conflict, on October 23, 2077, a global nuclear war occurs.
It is not known who strikes first, but in less than two hours most major cities are destroyed. The
effects of the war do not fade for the next hundred years, and as a consequence, human society has
collapsed leaving only survivor settlements barely able to eke out a living in the barren wasteland,
while a few live through the occurrence in underground fallout shelters known as Vaults. One of
these, Vault 13, is the protagonist's home in Southern California, where the game begins in 2161, 84
years after the war.
Characters[edit]
The player controls a Vault resident sent into the Wasteland to save their home. The player can
create a custom protagonist or choose to be one of three already available:

 Albert Cole, a negotiator and charismatic leader, whose background is somewhat in the legal
system;
 Natalia Dubrovhsky, a talented acrobat and intelligent and resourceful granddaughter of a
Russian diplomat in the Soviet consulate in Los Angeles;
 Max Stone, the largest person in the Vault, known for his strength and stamina, but lacking
intelligence.
Each of the three characters presents either a diplomatic, stealthy or combative approach to the
game. Games set later in the Fallout series refer to the player's protagonist as "the Vault Dweller".
Official canon states that the Vault Dweller was male, but his name is unspecified.
The player is allowed to recruit four companions to aid them in their quest – Ian, a guard in Shady
Sands, Tycho, a desert ranger in Junktown, Dogmeat, a dog in Junktown that was formerly pet of a
man who bore a great resemblance to Max Rockatansky, and Katja, a member of the Followers of
the Apocalypse, living in the remains of Los Angeles (now known as the Angels' Boneyard). Other
characters in the game include Aradesh, the leader of Shady Sands, Killian Darkwater, the mayor of
Junktown, the Master, the leader of the super mutant army, and Morpheus, his right hand as the
leader of the Children of the Cathedral.
Story