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Americans have always had a facsination with Nuclear War, which makes sense seeing as to how we have so many missles sitting around. Add in a good dose of movies like Mad Max and The Day After, and you have come up with something that people just can't resist wondering about. I mean how bad will it be? What will happen to humans?

Fallout helps you delve into the dark side of the whole destruction and rising from the flames thing. You get to actually BE Mad Max! What can go wrong with such a concept? In my opinion absolutely nothing is wrong with that, as a matter of fact, I consider it a winner. Everyone wants to destroy mutants in defense of mankind, as well as declare themselves the world's savior. You can do that in Fallout, or you can watch mankind lose to the Mutant race.

The guys that came up with Fallout did an incredible job making this game. I would like to tip my hat to a team that can come up with twisted games like this one. Shall we get into the meat of the game and stop listening to me rant? I thought so. Gameplay:

The best thing about Fallout is the gameplay. I look for a few key things when it comes to games. The main one: Is it worth keeping on my system and playing? That translates into just how fun a game is, boring games do not stick around long. Fallout is the ONLY game that has stayed on my system since I purchased it.

Picture this: During a nuclear war you and your family are put into an underground vault to repopulate the world once the war is over. After years of peaceful vault life your water purifier is broken, leaving only 150 days of stockpiled water. Someone has to go out and find the parts to fix it, who can do such a thing? You of course! Who else is capable?

Over the course of your search for a water chip you have to take on numerous beasties, find the chip, and eventually save humankind from a diabolical mutant supremecy plan. Sounds simple, but trust me it really isn't --there are numerous side plots and quests you have to contend with. I have never had so much fun in any one single game I have ever played, and that includes the venerable Wasteland.

True to a classic RPG game, Fallout is turn-based, allowing you time to think before everythings starts mutilating you. This is a nice feature when you run into a large band of opponents, otherwise you would stand no chance. Some people find turn-based games annoying and slow. One suggestion I can make to speed things up a bit is to go into the options and hit "Run - Always". Just adjusting something like that makes the game much quicker when you aren't in a combat situation.

Fallout is not as quick paced or as gory as a game like Quake, nor is it as slow and tedious as most of the Strategy games. The storyline allows for flexibility to develop a character and the action is oriented to fine-tune your character, not just to get him/her better gear (although that does happen). True to the RPG format you have to start a character, build it up, and then win with it. The technical aspects of the game aren't incredibly earthshattering or revolutionary but they are adequete for what Fallout is trying to do, which is to put more into the story and gameplay and less into the lights and frills. Overall Fallout classifies as a classic. That is saying a lot considering the sheer numbers of bad games that come and go on a daily basis these days.

Longevity:

The longevity of a game in the current state of the industry amounts to approximately 3-4 months before something else comes along and topples it. That type of market really doesn't foster a atmoshpere of "Let's take our time and make a good game that people will want to play over and over". What it does promote is "Hurry up and get it done before someone else does, who cares if it is good". BAD way to go about making any game, much less an RPG.

Few games in my book qualify as true "Classics". Just what does it qualify to be classic in my book? Gameplay, gameplay, and originality. Fallout has all of those in abundance. As I have just mentioned the gameplay is extrodinary and complex, as is the originality. There is something that can't be described about a classic, it grips you and doesn't let you go until the game is over. That still isn't enough, it has to do that EVERY time you play the game. Fallout has that something. I would not make an alltime classic list without this game near or at the top.

Away from Fallout for just one second I would like to comment on Fallout 2. To give you an idea of just how classic this game really is, the creators of Fallout 2 decided to stick with the Fallout engine and world- that engine and world happen to be 2 years old. That doesn't sound like long, but if you think about it it is an eternity in today's gaming world. That within itself shows something of the games staying power. Fallout is one of those games that will stay on my system for a long time.

Controls:

The interface and controls are crucial to any game, especially ones in the RPG genre. Everything in Fallout is controlled by the mouse, no memorizing 20 or 30 hotkeys. All weapons controls are accessed from one single main weapon control, including sniping (which, by the way, is fun for taking out legs and such). The inventory screen is a simple scroll style.

Movement is as simple as pick where you want to go and click there. Combat movement gets a little stickier when you factor in action points per turn. You are allowed only so much action before it is your opponent's turn to shoot back or chase you. Movement gets a little tricky if you are trying to tell your character to walk a long way in a town setting; for some weird reason, you can only move so far even out of combat. All you have to do though is tell your character to go somewhere in increments, not the best idea, but you can get around it.

Outside of the individual city or wilderness tiles you have a large overhead map to navigate. All you have to do is pick a place to go and your character goes there, maybe encountering things on the way, maybe not. The tiles themselves are various sizes, but to get out of them and back into the large map just look for the shaded area. The same holds true for towns, if the town covers multiple tiles you look for the shaded area to get to other areas. Inside the cities you can also access your map which will show you where those areas are, and if equiped with the proper device can show you movement as well. It takes getting used to but you will find it second nature after a few minutes in the first city you encounter

Graphics:

Visually Fallout is very nice, not stunning or amazing, but nice. Functionally it is perfect, I ran into no graphic related problems or crashes. As far as the actual "look" of the game it is offset isometric view much akin to the likes of Diablo or Ultima VII. Towns and environments are well defined, as well as visually enhancing the game. The towns you encounter are very much what you would expect a ruined Los Angeles to look like, as well as having a humerous twist if you look close at the signs and billboards.

One thing I found a little lacking was the wilderness tiles. Visually they are all the same, no variation. I would have liked to have seen something other than one mountain tile, one desert tile, etc. It would have been nice to have three or four random tiles for each setting.

Fallout is not even close to the most advanced graphics engine for this style of game, but it really doesn't need to be. What it lacks in power it makes up for in finesse. The game does not suffer from not having the most advanced engine or graphics available, as a matter of fact I think it succeeds because the designers spent more time on the game and less time on the engine.

Sound:

Most people like a lot of sound effects to be included in games- explosions and such. If these effects aren't stunning people aren't happy. I really don't mind if a game doesn't have these things. Don't get me wrong it has to have sound effects that are believeable, but not incredible. If I can tell it sounds like an explosion, then it is an explosion. Fallout does well with sound, the weapons sound real enough, for example. When you shoot it sounds like a large caliber weapon, or an M16 burst, or a rocket launcher, whatever you are fireing. That is all I need, just a little realism.

As far as soundtrack and music goes I will be honest with you.I haven't really noticed if there is one or not. That is fine by me, I usually only notice music if it is annoying. On that basis alone I give Fallout points. I know my job as a reviewer is to notice such things but I got wrapped up in the game and really didn't care.

Installation:

Installing Fallout is simple, choose an installation size and let it rip. If I may make a suggestion, go with the Huge install, having everything on your harddrive impoves the performance, that is of course if you have the extra space 300mb install will cost you. The only other things you need to worry about is that you set "Run = Always", "Gore = On", and "Language Filter = Off". The game is much funner if you make sure your settings are set for the maximum fun.

Overall:

My overall opinion of Fallout is that it is a classic, it goes down as one of my top 10 games of all time. You will spend hours of time trying to destroy mutants and save your Vault all of mankind. Fallout is a winner in every aspect and I am eagerly awaiting Fallout 2. Hurry up guys, I want that game bad.