I recently picked up a PC and decided to give the original fallout game a try. Do you guys have any tips or tricks I should know before I get started?
I hate to recommend people away from pure, original experiences, but Fallout 1 and 2 are notoriously buggy even on the hardware they were designed for. So I’d at least consider looking into Fallout Fixt. If you end up playing Fallout 2, which I highly recommend as I put hundreds of hours into the game both decades ago and just recently, its equivalent mod is the Restoration Project and I really enjoyed it.
In-game, I recommend making your own character, and saving often and in different save slots. Fallout can be extremely punishing for trivial mistakes, or even if it just feels like being mean during a particular encounter. Also make sure to look through your settings - for example, I believe you can shorten enemy combat animations if you find the AI’s turn takes too long.
Luck does more than you’d expect. It’s worth investing in if you want a weirder time or more loot.
Thank you! We’ll see how this goes, amd I’ll pick up Fallout Fixt for sure. I’m excited to jump into them since I never had the chance to before.
I may slip to two if you think that it might be more enjoyable
I’d definitely give Fallout 1 a run first, it has its own charm, and I think sets you up to appreciate Fallout 2 a lot more. Fallout 2 is much, much larger.
Something important I didn’t mention is to take high agility. I usually go 9-10. It’s a difference of shooting once per turn and shooting 2-3 times per turn. Also, keep an eye out for dialogue above peoples’ heads, even your own character can make important remarks that are easy to miss.
When it comes to Fallout 2, potential pitfalls with character generation are that there are a lot of interesting followers, and a low charisma will lower the maximum amount you can have at a time. A low intelligence will change your dialogue for the entire game, although this is often very funny. Some perks have minimum SPECIAL requirements, so be careful dropping stats that don’t seem immediately helpful.
Another release I wouldn’t sleep on is Fallout Tactics. It’s a really fun and unique spin on the traditional Fallout gameplay and has a lot of its own flavor of soul packed into it.
Fallout 2 is more expansive and adds in every way to the first game. However the first game has both a bleakness and a focus to it that is worth playing.
The first game is not overly long. It’s very much worth playing.
For tips to actually playing the game, since you’ve mostly gotten technical tips to make it run, I’ve got some. When building a character you should probably focus on one combat skill and two utility skills. For me, small guns is an ideal beginner’s skill choice. You can use small guns viably all the way up until the end game if you wish, or at least use them until you decide to get big guns or energy weapons. Utility skills like speech, lockpick, repair, or science are some of the best all-rounders to pick from. In the first game the Charisma attribute it utterly useless, set it to 1 and put points elsewhere.
You should be mindful of the water chip timer, but don’t become paralyzed with anxiety about it. If you take the route that game signposts for you, you’ll get it with plenty of time to go. Don’t go off track doing caravan guard jobs or wandering randomly in the desert. That can happen after you have turned in the chip.
Speaking of caravan guard jobs. They are a decent way to make some cash, however the threat to the caravan is sometimes too great. If you find yourself facing down and overwhelming number of raiders, you can just run. You’ll forfeit you paycheck but you keep your life. You can take new caravan jobs after.
The Glow is radioactive. Just telling you now so you don’t waste your time having to backtrack back to buy anti-radiation items. When you go, bring both Rad-X and RadAway. Stop a couple of squares outside and down some Rad-X. Keep taking it and/or RadAway as needed.
Deathclaws are tough. This isn’t a modern fallout where they are kinda hard but manageable. You need to be geared up to fight them.
Don’t mess with deathclaws. And also your companions might get in the way. Unfortunately the “Bump companion” option wasn’t added till Fallout 2. So keep in mind that they might block doorways or make other things impossible to move around
Thanks for the heads up! I might just run without companions then. That sounds like a recipe for disaster
They do have some good quests though, I wouldn’t say to not do any companions. Unless it’s just F2 that has companions with quests, I don’t remember.
Honestly? Use the wiki to look up quest givers, but don’t use a walkthrough for the quests themselves. Fallout 1 is great and the cities are fun to explore, but the (generous, I should add) time limit stresses me out and I like to be constantly progressing. Instead of wandering around looking for quests, I just find out how to get them in the first place, and complete them as best I can with no other help.
Get rope before you leave the first settlement you encounter in the wastes.
I’ve died more to companions than I have to nearly anything else in that game.
If I’m playing casually, I turn off friendly fire or I keep things like miniguns out of their hands.
It’s really frustrating when you get TPK’d by a companion with burst damage and you haven’t saved in a while! (There’s no autosave either.)
Pay attention to the bottom left screen, with the contextual clues and data. Tons of crucial information is only shown in that terminal, otherwise you might feel like you need a guide.
