West Virginiaaaaaa, Mountain Mam---! (coughing fit)... my apologies. From a strictly chronological standpoint, Fallout 76 precedes all the games in the franchise, but it is not “the first”. Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game hit the shelves in October 1997. A year later it received its sequel, Fallout 2, and in March 2001 Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel appeared, a tactical combat spin-off. These three titles form the roots of the Fallout universe, and they are your free games of the week on the Epic Games Store.
Fallout 1: “You are a hero... and you must leave”
The original Fallout takes us to southern California. On December 5, 2161, a resident over 20 years old in Vault 13 is selected to carry out a life-or-death mission: Locate a water chip that will restore the recycling and distribution system. Equipped with a Pip-Boy and basic weaponry, this Vault Dweller must face the absolute hostility of post-apocalyptic California, locate a spare chip, and save his people.
But this Fallout is not like current titles. First, there is a time limit (the water reserves in Vault 13 will only last 150 days), and second, the lack of a water chip is a trivial problem compared to the real threat: A mutant known as “The Master” seeks to create a race of Super Mutants and gather them all under the Unity, his vision of a perfect and peaceful world. The final reward for the Vault Dweller? Exile.
Fallout 2: “The Chosen One, in search of Eden”
Eighty years have passed since the Vault Dweller was exiled from Vault 13, but some residents decided to follow him, and together they founded the town of Arroyo. His daughter, known as the Elder (or the Matriarch), became a great leader, yet even her strength was not enough to keep the hostility of the radioactive desert at bay. Droughts, dead animals, and sick children are unmistakable signs: Arroyo is dying. The only hope is the GECK, “Garden of Eden Creation Kit,” a device capable of creating abundance from scarcity, life from death.
The Chosen One, grandson of the Vault Dweller, is the one who accepts the challenge of locating a GECK to save Arroyo. But just like in the first game, his adventures lead him to face an even more dangerous crisis: The Enclave, an organization that identifies itself as “the continuation” of the United States government, seeks to eliminate all “mutants,” that is, the humanity that survived the radioactive holocaust, and prepare the world for the return of “true humans,” pure and uncontaminated. In a word, genocide.
Fallout Tactics: “The Brotherhood in Chicago”
The so-called Brotherhood of Steel has been a complicated organization since its beginnings. The desire to preserve technology and the need to add “new blood” to its ranks inevitably caused a conflict among its leaders. The majority position was to maintain secrecy and exclusion. Those who sought an opening of the Brotherhood received orders to pursue Super Mutants to the east and analyze their military potential. The main airship of the fleet was damaged by a storm and crashed on the outskirts of Chicago.
Separated by distance and ideology from the Brotherhood in the west, the survivors of the airship came into contact with the local population, offering medicine and protection in exchange for food and labor. Recruits multiplied, and this new Brotherhood quickly gained strength... strength that would be put to the test by an ancient and forgotten threat, buried in the mountains.
In summary, these are games that are more than twenty years old, but despite their technical limitations, they bring to the table very solid stories, multiple endings, and different layers of complexity that simply ceased to exist in modern games. A complete playthrough of the first Fallout takes between 30 and 35 hours. Fallout 2 demands more than double, and its difficulty rises a couple of notches. Fallout Tactics is a different creature that blends RPG elements with real-time combat, and it still carries certain details like balance issues and the occasional bug, but after having played (and finished) it, I believe it deserves your time.
Available until Thursday. Don't sleep!
