Thoughts on Fallout

For me, Fallout’s world has always intrigued me, and for years I’ve tried to play Fallout games, always giving up at certain stages. Dying is a big part of Fallout, well for me it is as I never got the hang of V.A.T.S (Vault-Tec Assisted Targeting System) for shooting the enemies.

I loved the post-apocalyptic world, but the whole grinding of stats I found overwhelming at the time. Especially when your inventory was full and you couldn’t run, that just got up my snot.

I’ve always loved the music in Fallout games, and I’ve certainly listened to the music more than I’ve played the games over the years.

My first Fallout game was Fallout 3 on PS3. I picked up the Special Edition with the Power Amour mini-statue in GAME for about 20 euro at the time. I still have the mini-statue but not the game.

I played around 10 hours and got distracted by another game and never went back. I came away from that thinking Fallout is not for me. But it is for me, I’m as fickle as the weather and I’ve gone through so many consoles I could open my own game shop.

Over the years I tried again and again on Xbox 360, Xbox One and even PC, but all came down to me getting frustrated and leaving the campaign unfinished.

I tried New Vegas and Fallout 4…all had the same experience, so fast forward to the beginning of this year.

My friend in GameStop kept banging on about how good Fallout 76 was…yes you guessed it, she loves Fallout.

I picked up Fallout 76 for 30 euro. Yes, I know, people moaning it wasn’t a great game, but I don’t listen to the nay sayers, I make my own mind up.

I installed it and started playing in memory of a good Twitter friend who passed away at Christmas. My main objective was to play it for one hour per day in his honour. He was a Fallout fan, but of course, me being me I didn’t manage to play it every day, but I did try my best.

Three months later I was still playing it, still dying but not as much as when I started in January, while also being motivated by playing online with Friends.

I finally got the hang of the mechanics and how to play the game and manage my amour etc.

I finished the main campaign of Fallout 76 two month ago. I’d finally cracked Fallout. With that in mind I got Fallout 4 on the PS 4 and I’ve been playing it when I can and enjoying it.

So, after many years of trying and failing, I think I might actually have overcome my Fallout frustrations. I’m looking forward to playing and finishing Fallout 4, then I’ll move on to Fallout 3 and New Vegas.

That may take several years but I’ll get there in the end.

Review by Colm.