Fallout 1 & 2

You can also get a squad of Enclave marines to help you out in the final battle, and the president can be killed with Super Stimpacks.

I've always loved Fallout, and for good reason: most role-playing games rely on hack and slash (typically in a medival setting) with ranged weapons as a distant afterthought.

Not so in Fallout. The game has GUNS, baby, and a combat model to back it up. It's one of the few true science fiction RPG games out there. Combine that with its intricate character system and plot, as well as the twisted humor and Wasteland spirit, and you've got a real winner.

I always played a diplomat, myself--Fallout is one of the (very) few games where your dialogue options change significantly based on your intelligence. But it's also fun to play someone with an intelligence of 1; the programmers actually coded quite a bit for that.

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Originally Posted by Skexis

...but the best one sounded like it would be the "mysterious stranger" perk. Apparently with this one a mysterious guy would turn up out of nowhere sometimes and help you out in combat. I seem to remember this happening once or twice, but I can't remember what weapons he was using or how effective he was.

It's not that great. The stranger has an SMG and is only really effective at the beginning of the game; plus, if he's killed, you don't get a new one.

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Originally Posted by Bradylama

It's more accurate to call Fallout a true post-apoc RPG, since the science fiction aspects are a bit suspect. Fallout's design was made from a retro sci-fi perspective, in that the world was designed using the future vision of a 1950's sci-fi writer. While a lot of the principles behind the world are scientific, Fallout is ultimately a human morality play set against the backdrop of a dead world as opposed to one which thrives on scientific knowlege.

I've always thought of post-apocalyptic as a sci-fi subgenre. Besides, it doesn't matter what the design principles were if the game lets you hack computer terminals and use laser weapons. When I say "true science fiction" I'm contrasting Fallout to games like Star Ocean (which bills itself as a sci-fi franchise but then goes out of its way to put its characters in castles with swords).

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Originally Posted by Bradylama

Science Fiction with castles and swords doesn't exactly keep it from being "true" science fiction.

No, but it does kind of spoil the mood.

Originally Posted by Bradylama

The Post-Apocalypse is considered by many to be a sub-genre of Science Fiction, but it doesn't necessarily have to be. Take the Postman, for instance. What part of the Postman was very science-fictiony?

In the book, supercomputers, genetically-engineered viruses ("bad measles" or something like that), nano-enhanced soldiers, and EMP pulse weapons are all involved, though to be fair they're not the focus per se.

Originally Posted by Bradylama

Does the inclusion of energy weapons also automatically make something a science fiction story?

No, but it helps. The proliferation of melee-based combat engines in fantasy-style RPG's makes me pine for something with big futuristic guns.

Originally Posted by Bradylama

In my opinion, true science fiction is that which uses the prevalence of science to play out its effects on humanity and society as a whole.

Fair enough, though I would say that Fallout does that in spades

Originally Posted by Bradylama

...because ultimately it's a Space Opera.

Again, I'm not really looking to split genre hairs here. As far as gameplay goes, I'm more interested in the trappings of science fiction as a gameplay mechanic than neatly pigeonholing a given game into a subgenre.

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