[Personal Opinion] Why Fallout is awesome

[Gnyahaha]

The original Fallout games, with all their flaws and imperfections (and monstrous bugs as well as rushed development in the case of the 2nd one) were excellent games. Most people recommend them as examples of pc gaming as far as rpgs go and frankly, you'll be hard pressed to find better than those games, with the exception of the Baldur's Gate series.

But what makes the games so awesome?

Is it the genre? Post apocalyptic is indeed a genre that is wide open to consideration, turning our world and its past into a wondrous setting, where ancient technologies and undescribable horrors lie hidden in the ruins of civilization.

Is it their style? The whole style hearkening to the Golden Age of Scifi, but somehow fixed on the aesthetics of Cold war america, with its oldies somehow weirdly fitting to the ravaged world?

No. Fallout is a great game aesthetically, but it is neither the genre nor the style that makes it awesome. Those characteristics are important parts in awesome game design, but require something extra. An ingredient I've hardly seen included in any rpgs (or games in general) since.

You're important damnit! The Vault Dweller and the Chosen One were people who went out there and changed the world! Everywhere you went, this got better or worse, but those places would be nothing without you! You supported a faction and helped it overcome all odds thanks to your actions alone! You went up against a faction? Those guys were history.

The game really made you feel like an epic hero or villain. If you helped people, youd see their support and see their world become better thanks to you and you alone. If you made their lives miserable, they would be destroyed or scattered.

Fallout 3 lacked that element. Yes, you tore the wasteland and the baddies a new one, but you didnt REALLY leave a distinct mark in the world. Evil doers wouldnt tremble and the good guys wouldnt toast in your name. It was Fallout, but not really, no.

New Vegas wasn't fallout either. The game was well made, but it doesnt give you the whole hero feel up until much later, mostly because it is too huge and fragmented to make any sense. It takes a lot of work on your part, more than any gamer should put into a video game really to start seeing results. When you do, you become a true champion of whatever you chose to become, but up to that point, you feel exhausted for going through that.

Thats not to say Fallout 2 wasn't a huge ass game, but it was straightforward. You're the hero. Get the GECK. Wanna be a dick to everybody else? Wanna save every single person from whatever ails them? Do it and get results. Quick and easy.

That's why i consider Fallout 1&2 to be examples of excellent game design. They have style, substance and most of all make the player feel awesome, because, no matter what he does, he changes the world.