Fallout 4 is, far and away, the best “game” of the modern ones. It feels much better to play in almost every way than the other ones. Especially the combat. There’s some interesting stuff in it, but it’s largely the mechanics that keep you coming back, not the RPG or world.
Fallout 3 has perhaps the better realized world out of them all; the way it all fits together is great and there’s a lot of rewarding exploration in it.
Fallout: New Vegas is, far and away, the best Fallout game…it harkens back to the roots way more and is the best RPG – by a long shot – of the 3.
Obviously YMMV and others will feel differently, but that’s how I’ve parsed out this series so far.
100%
I have copies of those games that consistently follow me on every computer I build and transition too. Always ready just to spin it up and take down those nasty slavers!
The skill system worked just way better in a turn based game. Don’t get me wrong I love New Vegas ans 3, no so much 4, but 1 and 2 just had a different feel with the game and the skills.
I got that free game from Epic a while back: Encased. It took the isometric gameplay/feel from the first 2.5 fallout games and modernized them pretty well. I haven’t finished it (my character is a psychic god. it’s fun, but I’ve kind of lost the thread of the story. I think I’m in act 3 or something) but a mod porting FO1 or FO2 to that engine would be sweet.
It’s less the age and more that they just plain don’t play well. They always feel like you’re supposed to be in control of a full party but you never are, even once you finally get companions they’re AI controlled (and it’s not even a good AI).
Fallout4 has so much nonsense “game” in it with the way levels work. All of the modern ones are pretty bad about it (“headshot on the naked bandit! … he’s fine, he’s level 30”), but FO4 was especially egregious.
Also the way it does power armor is kind of stupid. You can tell they wanted to have power armor early on for some marketing wow, but it cheapened it for me.
I eventually got a cocktail of mods that made fallout4’s progression bearable to me. A headshot on anyone without a helmet was always deadly, armor mattered, hp barely scaled with level. Endurance and its perks were more important.
The best solution for me is probably combining horizontal progression with some constraints in stats.
Imagine the toughest guy possible. Pick some numbers to represent that. Maybe 200 hit points for a simple, familiar, system. Now figure out what sort of abuse he can survive. 10 handgun shots to the stomach? Ok, let’s say a handgun does 20 damage. Then just keep going. How many shotgun blasts? Don’t let stats exceed the caps casually. This should hopefully let you avoid the “naked bandit takes forty shots to put down” problem.
The other part is to focus on horizontal progression. You start as a dude who can fire a pistol. Later you learn rifles. Then first aid. Repair. A trick shot to trade damage for accuracy, or the other way around. You’re gaining new stuff to keep things interesting, but your numbers aren’t really going up up up. Guild Wars 1 is probably one of the best examples of this.
Thinking about it, I really liked Sekiro. It had very limited stat progression, but it was also winnable without ever increasing your stats. Games like fallout4 tend to create stat checks where you’re losing because your numbers, not your tactics/execution. That’s deeply unsatisfying to me in a game pretending to be an action game. Like, in fallout 1 it feels better when my level 2 dude misses a shot. In fallout4 I clicked on his face he should be dead, but the numbers say no.
But to your last point: people do like progression. It let’s people feel like they’re improving without actually needing to improve.
See, what they need to do is update the graphics on 1 & 2. I would definitely replay those, bugs and all. Bozar was of course OP but the way it was so story driven was excellent.
Not only the graphic, the control is clunky and the UI is hard to navigate, it need to be remastered with QOL update to modern standard. I can look past the graphic but the control really need a lot of getting used to.
Yeah, not many people played those interplay one, which i guess is in critical need of remaster or remake. It’s a really good game, especially 2 simply because of that cloaked companion.
I played 3 and NV on 360, both games were badly marred by being as much loading zone as they were game. Ruined the experience of snooping around for loot and side quests as opening a door back into the wasteland could take minutes. I had to stick to mostly the main quest.
4 was a far better “game” for being played on PC, but I agree NV plot was great. I just didn’t want to replay and get the different endings, as the game itself was painful to play.
I should replay them on PC someday, especially if there are graphical update mods available.
I do have the mod that cuts the PC voice lines. Essential imo, as it’s very, very immersion-breaking. You chug a beer, go to a merchant and you do that drunken awkward “Helloooo” which is cool, but in the following convo, you are sobering up immediately. Makes no sense and thus doesn’t work.
The problem with the dialog itself is that it’s always the same for every convo: up for “More info/repeat info”, right for “No/Not now”, down for “Yes” and left for “Sarcastic/more money, but yes”. In NV, you could get locked out of conversations if the NPC didn’t like your response (like Arcade permanently leaving if you tell him “Don’t like it? Leave.”). No such thing in FO4. It’s just too tailored to console controls to accommodate for interesting dialog trees. Dialogue options being summarized in a bad or misleading way is just one issue.
Btw, if you like settlement building and spend a lot of time there, I highly recommend a mod called Icebreaker. It adds a ton of voice lines to your settlers, so it’s not the same line over and over again.
I describe it to people I know as:
Obviously YMMV and others will feel differently, but that’s how I’ve parsed out this series so far.
People really are afraid of Fallout 1 & 2’s age, it seems. But they are still the best.
100% I have copies of those games that consistently follow me on every computer I build and transition too. Always ready just to spin it up and take down those nasty slavers! The skill system worked just way better in a turn based game. Don’t get me wrong I love New Vegas ans 3, no so much 4, but 1 and 2 just had a different feel with the game and the skills.
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I got that free game from Epic a while back: Encased. It took the isometric gameplay/feel from the first 2.5 fallout games and modernized them pretty well. I haven’t finished it (my character is a psychic god. it’s fun, but I’ve kind of lost the thread of the story. I think I’m in act 3 or something) but a mod porting FO1 or FO2 to that engine would be sweet.
Btw those are also on sale. Steam has a Fallout Classics bundle with FO1, FO2, and FO Tactics for $5
It’s less the age and more that they just plain don’t play well. They always feel like you’re supposed to be in control of a full party but you never are, even once you finally get companions they’re AI controlled (and it’s not even a good AI).
I never had this feeling. It’s an RPG, I can build and control only my character
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Fallout4 has so much nonsense “game” in it with the way levels work. All of the modern ones are pretty bad about it (“headshot on the naked bandit! … he’s fine, he’s level 30”), but FO4 was especially egregious.
Also the way it does power armor is kind of stupid. You can tell they wanted to have power armor early on for some marketing wow, but it cheapened it for me.
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I eventually got a cocktail of mods that made fallout4’s progression bearable to me. A headshot on anyone without a helmet was always deadly, armor mattered, hp barely scaled with level. Endurance and its perks were more important.
The best solution for me is probably combining horizontal progression with some constraints in stats.
Imagine the toughest guy possible. Pick some numbers to represent that. Maybe 200 hit points for a simple, familiar, system. Now figure out what sort of abuse he can survive. 10 handgun shots to the stomach? Ok, let’s say a handgun does 20 damage. Then just keep going. How many shotgun blasts? Don’t let stats exceed the caps casually. This should hopefully let you avoid the “naked bandit takes forty shots to put down” problem.
The other part is to focus on horizontal progression. You start as a dude who can fire a pistol. Later you learn rifles. Then first aid. Repair. A trick shot to trade damage for accuracy, or the other way around. You’re gaining new stuff to keep things interesting, but your numbers aren’t really going up up up. Guild Wars 1 is probably one of the best examples of this.
Thinking about it, I really liked Sekiro. It had very limited stat progression, but it was also winnable without ever increasing your stats. Games like fallout4 tend to create stat checks where you’re losing because your numbers, not your tactics/execution. That’s deeply unsatisfying to me in a game pretending to be an action game. Like, in fallout 1 it feels better when my level 2 dude misses a shot. In fallout4 I clicked on his face he should be dead, but the numbers say no.
But to your last point: people do like progression. It let’s people feel like they’re improving without actually needing to improve.
See, what they need to do is update the graphics on 1 & 2. I would definitely replay those, bugs and all. Bozar was of course OP but the way it was so story driven was excellent.
The only issue is the potato graphics.
Not only the graphic, the control is clunky and the UI is hard to navigate, it need to be remastered with QOL update to modern standard. I can look past the graphic but the control really need a lot of getting used to.
I usually don’t really care about the graphics, but these Bethesda games are just ugly as fuck. It’s the kind of ugly i can’t deal with.
Emm we’re talking about FO1/2 tho.
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Yeah, not many people played those interplay one, which i guess is in critical need of remaster or remake. It’s a really good game, especially 2 simply because of that cloaked companion.
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I think that’s a little harsh. Can I ask what you feel is wrong with the graphics as they are?
I’m currently playing Fallout and my only issue is the UI scaling, the graphics themselves I find quite charming.
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I really like Fallout 3 but the ton of invisible walls and the shitty metro tunnels turn it into a game I often hate to play.
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I played 3 and NV on 360, both games were badly marred by being as much loading zone as they were game. Ruined the experience of snooping around for loot and side quests as opening a door back into the wasteland could take minutes. I had to stick to mostly the main quest.
4 was a far better “game” for being played on PC, but I agree NV plot was great. I just didn’t want to replay and get the different endings, as the game itself was painful to play.
I should replay them on PC someday, especially if there are graphical update mods available.
The main problem with FO4 is the voiced PC and the asinine dialogue structure. The map is amazing, I’d argue it’s better than the F:NV map.
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I do have the mod that cuts the PC voice lines. Essential imo, as it’s very, very immersion-breaking. You chug a beer, go to a merchant and you do that drunken awkward “Helloooo” which is cool, but in the following convo, you are sobering up immediately. Makes no sense and thus doesn’t work.
The problem with the dialog itself is that it’s always the same for every convo: up for “More info/repeat info”, right for “No/Not now”, down for “Yes” and left for “Sarcastic/more money, but yes”. In NV, you could get locked out of conversations if the NPC didn’t like your response (like Arcade permanently leaving if you tell him “Don’t like it? Leave.”). No such thing in FO4. It’s just too tailored to console controls to accommodate for interesting dialog trees. Dialogue options being summarized in a bad or misleading way is just one issue.
Btw, if you like settlement building and spend a lot of time there, I highly recommend a mod called Icebreaker. It adds a ton of voice lines to your settlers, so it’s not the same line over and over again.
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