Hey, so I’ve been meaning to get into the Fallout series for some time but haven’t been sure where to start. I’m a big fan of games like the Borderlands series and am wondering if there is some overlap in appeal between the 2 franchises if anyone’s a fan of both. I know that Fallout is definitely more RPG-y.
I have Fallout 1, 2, 3 and New Vegas from Epic and sales. I’ve heard a lot about New Vegas and I’ve heard that the first 2 are very dated but I’m not opposed to dated visuals if the game itself is still relatively playable. Chronological or is there a recommended game? Thanks.
I love the originals and like the new ones because it was really cool seeing everyone go into a FPS.
Deep down, I love RPGs, so the new ones, while fun, never sucked me in like the originals. Few things to think about though. The original fallout was unlike anything else I’d ever played. The story was amazing, the characters felt realistic… But I’m not sure how well they would hold up. That really depends on your age. Fallout 2 is one of my favorites of all time. Amazing story, multiple story options, great RPG. But they both suffer from the same thing - they were so revolutionary, they’ve been imitated repeatedly, so they won’t be “fresh” at all to someone used to playing games today - they’ll be clunky since they literally popularized the genre.
Fallout 3 super cool to see everything from a different view (C&C renegades anyone?), but dropped a huge portion of the RPG elements. Kept a good chunk of the story telling. You could go into it without 1 & 2 and be fine, but you’ll not get a ton of references (not only call backs, but motivations, history, twists, etc). Fallout 4 almost entirely dropped the RPG elements and a good chunk of choice - you no longer have multiple options, outside of a few big things, you just get to choose how to do it (stealth, assault, etc). It’s fun, great with mods, but has no heart. It feels like a really good shooter RPG with lots of bugs and a fallout skin on top. Without playing them this phrase won’t have much meaning, but it doesn’t have Fallout’s soul. I’d even dare to say after the first hour or so, there’s not much that even makes it a fallout game story & feel wise. With all that said I probably have the most hours in this one because it’s a great game, a blast with mods… Just not particularly fallout.
NV is by far the most “fallout” of the FPS games. Great story, pretty good RPG (great for the FPS fallouts). Hard to really classify into either of the groups because it straddled the line so well.
So the real question is what do you want out of them? If you want a great story, lots of lore, a genre-defining at the time RPG, grey options and choices (not black and white) - start from the beginning, read every thing you can. If you’re younger or want more action, the FPS will explain enough to get by and the OG two will probably be clunky and boring.