Young generation today has everything oldschools didn’t have: fast internet, cheap flight tickets, wireless gadgets and safe sex. Living now is amazing, it’s a brand new world. But there is something, that they will never have – a chance to experience original Fallout firsthand, back when it was a revolutionary game, unbiased by diverse modern market. That thing alone is worth everything.

I was s.p.e.c.i.a.l. enough to live at the time where Fallout brought life to RPG’s and set the standards for reactive worlds. It is a medium where choice and consequence exists on a game level, not on a pamphlet that comes with it. Its strong features haven’t yet been surpassed by any other game. Not only Fallout has a very distinctive gritty and honest writing style, but the dialogues actually go beyond “tell me about [insert subject]” lazy excuse of a chit chat simulation you’d usually expect. It’s not “functional” content; it has a soul, man.

It is said that Fallout 1/2 fans are as dedicated as American football cheerleaders. That’s an understatement. Rumor goes that when Fallout: BOS came out a major disappointment, Interplay’s forums were flooded with so much spam that it crashed the servers.

World of original Fallout was so diverse, that developers created the Fallout Bible – a collection of texts that answer many game related questions. If you’re thinking Warhammer Codex, you’re on the right path. All this by a small development studio Black Isle and a budget that would fund Blizzard’s coffee break. Pretty damn impressive.

So what is it that makes Fallout the holy grail of video role-playing games? To understand what made it such a unique experience for the dirty, gum chewing, VHS watching, Lewis wearing rat slayers of the 90s, imagine it as the Doom of all RPG’s. It was like a Pokemon explosion – nobody knew such thing can exist, and one day it’s there. When my character got it’s way to the world map for the first time, and I suddenly realized I’m free, completely free to go anywhere, talk to anyone and do anything, that blew my godd*mn circuits out. At that time in games you had corridors and triggers. That’s it. And suddenly you get a game that has the most compelling world simulation to date. No, they won’t ask you to feed your character, make him sleep or dress him like a Barbie girl. Instead Fallout offers NPC’s that one can relate to, compelling quests, believable life stories, freedom to play however you like whoever you like. It’s a game where shooting that villain is especially satisfying because it’s not required. In fact, you yourself can be the villain.

Fallout offers a world of yellow teethed raiders that r*pe women. Homeless kids that steal cash. Drunken junkies, slu*s and drug addicts. There is r*cism, strong language and killable children. It’s a world of pain and suffering which will make you appreciate the good guys. It will tease, insult, deceive you, throw in some suspicious friends and tempt you to join your enemies. And in the end of the day, it will make a cynical remark, pretending not to be serious at all.