Tags: Fallout   Games


I still have the manual for Wasteland, that old Commodore 64 classic RPG that might get a sequel (see my previous article about Wasteland 2). I was reading through it and was surprised at how complex it was for such an old game.

If you've ever been on a forum about Fallout 3 or Oblivion, then you've probably heard fanboys regurgitating the same complaint: games today are dumbed down! Old games are better! They often use Fallout as the standard against which today's role-playing games are compared. But how does Fallout compare to its ancestor, Wasteland? I'll compare Wasteland with Fallout and we'll see if Fallout was just a dumbed down game for noobs.


Skills

One way that fanboys like to make their point is by using numbers. If old games have more stuff, then they must have been more complex, and thus better. Here are some numbers:

Wasteland had 27 skills.
Fallout had 18 skills.

That's a huge difference! So, I guess the Wasteland fanboys would have said that Fallout was dumbed down by 50%!


Another big difference is that Wasteland's skills had prerequisites. A character needed a minimum Intelligence score before he/she could use a skill. In Fallout, all skills were available for all characters, with no prerequisites. Sure looks like Fallout was simplified to me. Dumbed down? Well, maybe not. Let's look at the skills:

Wasteland skills:
IQ 3: Brawling, Climb, Clip Pistol, Knife Fighting, Pugilism, Rifle, Swim
IQ 6: Knife Throwing, Perception
IQ 9: Assault Rifle, AT Weapon, Submachine Guns
IQ 10: Acrobat, Gamble, Picklock, Silent Movement
IQ 11: Confidence
IQ 12: Sleight of Hand
IQ 13: Demolition, Forgery
IQ 14: Alarm Disarm, Bureaucracy
IQ 15: Bomb Disarm, Medic, Safecrack
IQ 16: Cryptology
IQ 17: Metallurgy

I like that a character needs to be smart in order to take the Medic skill. If you want to be able to fix your own wounds, you may have to sacrifice other attributes in order to have a high intelligence. On the other hand, some skills seem to be redundant. Why are Brawling and Pugilism separate skills? Are all those gun skills necessary? If I can use a Rifle, can't I also use an Assault Rifle?

Fallout skills:
Small Guns, Big Guns, Unarmed, Energy Weapons, Melee Weapons, Throwing, First Aid, Doctor, Sneak, Lockpick, Steal, Traps, Science, Repair, Speech, Barter, Gambling, Outdoorsman

Even with fewer skills, some were redundant or useless. There's no need for both First Aid and Doctor. In practice, Doctor could do everything that First Aid could and more, and cost the same number of points. Gambling was a waste of points, and Outdoorsman was a novelty at best.

The screenshot on the right shows a level 10 character of mine that already has two skills above 100. Talk about min-maxing!


Dumbed Down, or More Fun?

Fallout 3 will have 14 skills, which sounds about right once you get rid of the useless Fallout skills. But what about Wasteland's specialty skills like Cryptology and Confidence (whatever that's supposed to do)? In practice, I suspect those skills came up very rarely in the game compared to weapon skills and Medic. As Fallout did, it's probably best to roll them up into more general skills like Science and Speech. This isn't dumbing down, it's just an attempt to make skills more useful and fun. Spending (wasting?) points on something that you use once is not fun.

Another difference: in Wasteland, you could improve your skills by using them, not just by spending points on them. It's a hybrid of Fallout and Elder Scrolls, except that it preceded both of them. I'm a big fan of systems that reward you for using your character's abilities since it encourages you to role-play your stats, not just assign points to them. Fallout had no such incentives. You could only put points into your skills, even if you never used them. You could be an expert with lasers even if you had never owned or used a laser. But that's standard in most RPG systems.


Breaking Up The Party

One feature that was great in Wasteland was the ability to split up your party into any number of groups. If you have four characters, you can split them into four parties of one character each if you wanted. There were certainly times where having two parties was beneficial. Since you made each of your characters specialists in something, it became interesting when it was time to divide your party. Which party will get the doctor? Can the sneaky guy survive in a party by himself?

This brings me to another huge difference between Wasteland and Fallout (and all other modern RPGs): Wasteland let you create four characters, while Fallout gave you only one. Each game allowed you to have other characters join you, but they played a supporting role.

At some point, party-based RPGs went out of fashion. It used to be that all RPGs allowed you to create a group of characters. Bard's Tale, Wizardry, Might & Magic, Final Fantasy. Ultima is the only one I remember that let you create only one character.

The last time a party-based RPG was attempted was Temple of Elemental Evil by Troika. RIP Troika. RIP party-based RPGs.


Enough Comparison

Now I'm supposed to make a conclusion. I certainly can't say that Fallout is a dumbed down successor to Wasteland. In many ways it is more complex. The combat system itself is far more fun and complex than Wasteland's. Some fat was trimmed in some areas (no one misses the Confidence skill), and more important features were enhanced. It's how games evolve. Wasteland was clearly a computer adaptation of a pen-and-paper style system, but some things don't quite work in the translation.

Looking forward to Fallout 3, I would say that the original Fallout games need to evolve further. Min-maxing was far too easy and effective, making the latter half of the game very easy. All characters ended up wearing the same armor in the same order, no matter what skills you chose. Leather jacket, metal armor, power armor, power armor mark 2. And so on. But these are just details that didn't detract too much from the fun, but should not find their way into modern sequels.

As Fallout 3 is unveiled, I look forward to the evolution of this series. It's already clear that some big changes are in order, but the game sounds fun to me so far! If we could just figure out exactly what this VATS thing is...