I played Fallout 1 in 2022 and here are my thoughts.

Now, let me give a disclaimer and say that I have played Fallout 1 as a kid when the game is still in a CD. I remember positive emotions playing the game but all I remembered as an adult before playing it again was that you are the Vault Dweller from Vault 13 and you need to find a water chip within some kind of a time limit.

One thing that's refreshing, as expected, is the lack of any guidance that littered modern games today. There is no tutorial, no quest markers, no compasses, nothing. In the areas you visit, exploration is the first thing I would instinctively do, which allows me to pick up the details of the map.

I know this in theory, of course. Although I have been a game developer on the programming side of things, design is still one of my bigger interests; I just happen to like programming more. If the idea that quest markers and compasses distract you from noticing the world is something that I believe 90% in. playing Fallout 1 made me believe in it 100%. I got lost a few times, find my way back and at some point have an idea of how to get around.

In my way.

I don't doubt that different people will have different ways of exploring the world. And thus, different people will have their own story to tell and I think that it wonderful.

The different areas in the game are rather well made. Each area has their own unique issues, problems and people. In each area, you learn the origin of the place through your exploration via bits of pieces of information either from talking to NPCs, looking at the aesthetics of the place or even descriptions when you highlight certain key objects in the world. They all make sense and tie in to the overarching world that is the desolate wasteland of Fallout.

What I really liked is that at the end of the day, despite killing mob bosses, nuking a cathedral, thwarting an oppressive mutants armies, you are not some god of the wasteland or something. Even though you felt like changed the course of history for the future of the Fallout series, but you are not celebrated as a hero. And if you think about it, what exactly did you change in the grand scheme of things?

Not much really.

You return home with the water chip only to get banished. Wars go on. Blood continues to shed. Even though there's hope that what you did in the game lead to a slightly better future, who really is it beneficial for?

It's as they said in the opening cutscene: "War never changes."

I give this game an 'old but refreshing' out of 10!