Wasteland, 20 Years Later
October 29, 2008
As a youngster, I was a computer, not video, gamer. While my family wouldn’t dream of having a console in house back in the 80s (”It’ll burn out the TV tube!”), a computer for their aspiring nerd-progeny was A-OK. The Commodore 64 was, pound for pound, the best game machine on the market. One of it’s absolute gems was Wasteland, a challenging and beautifully realized post-apocalyptic computer RPG. Having grown up with the spectre of utter nuclear annihilation under the south of the border, senile ramblings of The Gipper, I was conditioned to regard Armageddon as entertainment. The Day After scared the shit out of me at 14, but also awoke my love for PnP games like Gamma World and Twilight 2000 and other apocalyptic films like the underrated Miracle Mile.
Now, 20 years later, Bethesda has released Fallout 3. Now, before you jump on me about this, I have never played to completion the preceding Fallout games: I don’t have the expectations regarding this game as diehard fans do. Also, in principle I liked Oblivion, but gameplay was sort of meh. I’m only about 2 hours in and have just left Vault 101 for the first time, but I like what I see so far.
Experiencing snippets of your character’s life from birth to adolescence and then adulthood effectively establishes a sense of connection with your father and tiny community. As a 1 year old, you can only stumble about your play area, pick up toys, and babble at your kindly dad. Probably because I’m the father of a one year old boy myself, I was actually a little moved by this scene. It’s over quickly but I already have a feeling that I’ll remember this part of the tutorial more than the blood-splattered post-Vault adventures to come.
I’ve already succumbed to Oblivion-itis, a strange condition which makes my otherwise moral character swipe anything that isn’t nailed down. On my headlong rush out of the Vault, I somehow managed to fill my pockets (does the jumpsuit even have pockets?) with enough coffee mugs to start a post-apocalyptic Starbucks. Is that an empty bottle/rusted can/lump of unknown material on the ground? Better grab it ’cause you never know if it’ll come in handy.
There are some (okay, tons) of concessions you have to make when playing an RPG. If it’s a container of any kind (battered refrigerator, mailbox or abandoned suitcase), you can bet it might contain something valuable. I laughed out loud when I reached into a mailbox and retrieved 2 frag grenades. Honestly, the area had been heavily scavenged for 170 years or so and nobody thought to look in there? Ah well, I’ll just have to explode a mutant or 2 with them.
The dry, desolate landscape outside of Vault 101is beautiful in it’s stark brutality. More so because the air is surprisingly clear and the game engine has an incredible draw distance. Distant landmarks break up the tan hills and valleys; you really get a sense that every turn in the path or behind every massif there’s something new to encounter. I’m on my way to the first quest marker at Megaton and have yet to encounter another living thing. I look forward to playing tonight.
Written by kingmob | Filed under: 360 |