Fallout: The original small child killer

I started Fallout for the third time this week. I just couldn't resolve the fact that I adored Torment but was bored and annoyed by Fallout the previous times I tried it. The two games share many similarities gameplay-wise and I figured I owed it one more chance (and I think third time's the charm in this case but that's not the point of this thread).

This time around I'm really noticing how ridiculously violent this game is with the blood setting set to high and if your character has the Bloody Mess trait (in which "“By some strange twist of fate, people around you die violently. You always see the worst way a person can die.”) Women and children violent too. There's one scene where this psycho kills a whore with a shotgun (if you don't say the right things to him) and the death animation is almost hard to watch; her arm flies off, her head explodes, bone fragments and blood abound.

On one of my own murderous rampages [see pic below], I was reminded of the recent child-killing screenshot posted here (what game was that from? doesn't matter). After checking gamefaqs I also saw that Fallout was released a few months before the original Grand Theft Auto. Interesting. I don't think GTA copied Fallout (not enough time between their releases) but maybe it wasn't as anti-socially groundbreaking as many have assumed. The biggest difference might be that Fallout is damn hard to play as a ruthless butcher -- there are serious consequences for your indiscrminate slaughtering.

http://home.earthlink.net/~compass14/smallchild.GIF

Also, Fallout fans, convince me to keep playing after the Hub (where I lost interest last time due to the awful NPC AI, inventory management, and walkthrough-required [or constant save and reload-necessant] conversation trees). I really want to love this game like I did Torment.

[edit]:One thing I love is if you start killing little kids for no reason, your party members won't ask questions but instead just join in and fight the whole town to the death if need be. Gotta love that kind of loyalty. :sniff:

Fallout has been sitting on my pile 'o shame since it came out in '97, never could get very far in it without losing interest. Mebbe I'll give it another try now that I'm older and, supposedly, more mature.

I think one reason for the violent nature of the game is because of the realistic post-apocalypse world it's trying to creat, which I'm sure would be pretty darn vicious to anyone and everyone.

Ahh...I don't know why my first reaction was to say:

"Don't take the bloody mess trait, just boost your luck higher and you'll get more criticals and get the super death animation anyways, and it's an overall better strategy".

Doesn't have anything to do with the topic. *shrug*

As far as the child killing goes, yeah you can do it. But if you pick up the 'Child Killer' karma, it does become a lil' difficult to play some parts. People don't like to co-operate with ya for some reason.

A friend of mine would enjoy emptying his inventory,except for a time bomb set for like 5 minutes and walking around in high pick-pocket areas.

After a while, some kid will just explode.

The deaths can be fairly violent, particularly if you get anything fully automatic (not sure if you have yet).

But while that's visual, the game can be just brutal. I played through one time maxing out my strength and hand to hand combat and I'd just go around crushing people in the leg with a power fist.

They'd often fall because I broke thier leg. Which might just sound like flavor text, but they can't move as far or as fast as you because it costs a ton of action points to move. But that wouldn't matter because a prone targer has like a 95 for a head or even eyeshot. And a powerfist to the eyes is just shy of lethal, and you'll probably blind them (which also sounds like flavor text, but just watch them try and hit you).

So I sorta think that although watching someone burn to a sizzling corpse is pretty cold blooded, the way the game makes you think about attacking is just as bad. "I'll break his leg then blind him. It's easier to kill someone who can't walk or see".

For keeping you interested at the hub, that really doesn't tell me a whole hell of a lot about your progress so far. The game is nicely semi-linear, so you could have done a lot of stuff before this point. I don't wanna tell you what I'd look forward to because I have no idea if you can even do any of it depending on your stats, your previous encounters, your karma..etc.

Suffice to say, if you find a way of prolonging your deadline before the vault runs out of water, you're give a ton of leeway into side quests and other adventures (where a lot of the fun lies).

But if you're not enjoying it at this point, I'm not sure if you would enjoy it any point in the immediate future.

It's a good game but it's not for everyone. You can at least say you tried it and it wasn't your style.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Blaine

A friend of mine would enjoy emptying his inventory,except for a time bomb set for like 5 minutes and walking around in high pick-pocket areas.

After a while, some kid will just explode.

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:lol: That'll learn 'em.

Oh yeah. You can also tweak the strategy as a useful attack.

Say...you have a high steal skill and maybe in conjunction with some good sneak or even speech skills.

There are occasions that you know in advance you'll have to fight this person but you can still approach them and jaw jack (perhaps convince them that you're cool or you'll come back, whatever depending on the speech tree).

Then you pick thier pocket, place an active timebomb in thier inventory and if you're successful, just wait for the explosion and finish them off if necessary. Many won't survive the inital blast.

I think...if your explosion skills aren't that high, and the bomb detonates prematurely, then you won't recieve 'blame' for the killing. But if it does go off when it's supposed to, you will (that is the town or whatever will turn on you). I don't remember it's been a while. Maybe you don't get blamed either way.

Ah, Fallout. Been playing a lot recently. It holds the record for the RPG I've beaten the most times. (3, currently) The customizable characters warrants at least two play throughs.

Haven't beaten the second one yet. That reminds me, I was going to make a fallout related sig/avatar combo today.

Oh, and some other neat-o traits you can get besides Child Killer are Grave Digger and Gigolo. You can even become a porn star in FO2. :)

Fallout is perhaps my favorite RPG of all time (apart from Fallout 2 that is)...

I've played the game so many times in so many different ways, I can't even remember all the twisted ass shit I've done in the past.

I remember I passed the entire game once without ever using any non-sledgehammer weapon. That was perhaps the most fun I've ever had.

Hell yeah! The super sledge is my favorite weapon in the whole game.

Oh, and I'd like to add that the most awesome death animation is when you kill the Liutenent. He tries to stop his guts from spilling out of his stomach by desperately holding them in with his hands. :nod:

I still plan on buying the Fallout 1&2 combo package, on the recommendation of so many TNLers. But I really don't like Time Killers-type senseless violence.

I'll just turn the blood setting down low.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RoleTroll

I still plan on buying the Fallout 1&2 combo package, on the recommendation of so many TNLers. But I really don't like Time Killers-type senseless violence.

I'll just turn the blood setting down low.

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No, no you're missing the point. Probably my fault with the way I presented the first post. It is violent (or it can be) but it's like someone said above, it's just trying to accurately portray how life might really be after a nuclear holocaust has left the world (or SoCal at least) a wasteland. Though brutal, I'm not so sure I'd call it senseless. And you can be super-peaceful if you want and keep the bloodletting to a minimum; it's all up to you in the end.

I'm not a huge fan of ultra-violence myself (still haven't played a GTA :chick: ) but I must admit I see its appeal in a game like this (and am glad for my Bloody Mess trait).

Also, track down the original release on ebay (or elsewhere) 'cause it comes with this great spiral-bound manual that stays within the retro-futuristic fallout theme from cover to cover. Might be the coolest manual I've seen (if you care about these things) and I don't know for sure, but I'd be very surprised to hear it came with the double-pack.

http://home.earthlink.net/~compass14/bloodymess.GIF