What is the best way to play Fallout 1 in 2024? I found myself pondering this exact question after watching the Fallout TV show, which touches on lore from the classic isometric games. I was particularly keen to learn about the history of Shady Sands, given its prevalence in the narrative.
Well, a month and a half later, I’ve rolled credits on Interplay’s 1997 CRPG classic with plenty of stories to tell from the West Coast wasteland. There was a lot to love about the experience, as well as some teething problems that come from trying to play a game that is pushing 30 on a contemporary system. In this guide, I’m going to give you a quick and dirty explanation of how to enjoy the first Fallout game in 2024, complete with my preferred installation process and some tips that I’ve picked up along the way.
Installing Fallout Et Tu
There are countless Reddit threads full of people arguing about the best way to play Fallout 1 in 2024. Purists believe you should install the version you own on Steam, GOG or Epic Games Store and go from there. Others suggest modding the game first to fix a bunch of its most annoying bugs. I read the debates until my eyes bled, but I believe I have found the definitive answer: grafting Fallout 1 into the Fallout 2 engine.
It sounds ridiculous and perhaps a bit overkill, but trust me, it’s worth it. This process, dubbed Fallout Et Tu by its creators, is a thoughtful, vanilla-friendly conversion mod that fixes heaps of bugs, restores cut content and allows you to play the original game at a modern resolution with countless quality-of-life features. Crucially, though, almost all of the changes are optional, so you can customise the experience to your liking.
You can follow the Installation Instructions on the Fallout Et Tu Github page, but I recommend the video linked above from GamerPoets. It’s easy to follow and gets straight to the point in under 12 minutes.
What does Fallout Et Tu fix?
Some of the fixes in Fallout Et Tu don’t make sense unless you’ve played Fallout, but in retrospect, I’m convinced a lot of them are vital. For example, the mod adds a highlight button to illuminate lootable items so you don’t have to pixel-hunt. You can also ‘Take All’ when looting and pass through unlocked doors without interacting with them, which saves a frankly hilarious amount of time across your 20-ish hour playthrough. Another underrated addition is the ability to push NPCs out of the way if they’re blocking a doorway, which stopped me from losing hours of progress at one point.
One of the most frustrating things about Fallout 1 is its inventory management system and carry-weight limitations. If you’ve grown up min-maxing encumbrance in Bethesda RPGs and holding onto potions and weapons that you never use, then Fallout is going to annoy you. In the vanilla game, you can use the Steal skill on NPCs to dump items into their inventories. In Fallout Et Tu, you just click on a companion and then click the ‘Trade’ button. This doesn’t eliminate the issue entirely, but it makes one of the worst parts of the game a hell of a lot easier. As well as the ability to trade, you can also access a combat menu for your companions in Fallout Et Tu, which allows you to manually equip them with the best armour and weapons that you’ve dumped into their inventories.
There’s also some existential fixes in there, like making it so you can Alt-Tab without completely breaking the game. It’s not perfect – I still encountered a handful of crashes during my playthrough, but I assume it would have been miles worse had I been playing the vanilla version of Fallout. There are so many more fixes to highlight, but I hope that gives you an understanding of why Fallout Et Tu is worth it. The only addition that could potentially annoy purists is that the mod grafts in a few random encounters that leverage content (including weapons) from Fallout 2. They don’t intrude on the experience or hurt the game balance, and I think you can turn them off during setup anyway.
How to get started with Fallout 1
Now that you’ve got Fallout Et Tu installed, you can boot it up via the shortcut and start playing. If you’re anything like me, though, the character creation page will stump you and set you off on another Google adventure. You’ll have to pick your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. points, tag three skills, and sift between some optional traits before you can start playing. Here is where I feel it’s appropriate to provide you with a sacred text of Fallout 1 – The Nearly Ultimate Fallout Guide by Per Jorner. If you’ve got two monitors, you’re going to want this on your second screen permanently as you play through the game.
In addition to explaining the character design process in its entirety, TNUFG also provides suggested character builds (I went with the Sniper) and features a complete walkthrough of Fallout 1. It covers every quest in the game and the possible outcomes, including fun flavour about the game’s development and some exploitable glitches.
You can also add the Fallout Et Tu shortcut to your Steam library as a Non-Steam Game, and then you can use Shift-Tab to access the Steam Overlay, which features a bunch of community-made guides, including a fork of TNUFG. There’s also the Wasteland Survival Guide by KRostik, which features embedded pictures that helped me figure out the locations of certain NPCs and quest objectives when Jorner’s text wasn’t cutting it. Once you’ve perused some guides and figured out your build, you should have all you need to start your adventure in the West Coast Wasteland. As soon as you land in the game, you can hit F1 to access the Fallout Quick Help menu, which explains the UI and covers all the basic interactions. I’ve attached it below for your viewing pleasure:
Tips for playing Fallout 1
If you want to go in (partially) blind, then now’s the time to cut and run. Fallout is a deep and reactive RPG that rewards you for following your nose. However, if you’re still looking for some extra guidance, here’s some post-credits perspective:
- Before you do anything, set up a quicksave slot with F6, so you can save scum your little heart out with F7.
- Read the text updates on your Pip-Boy Monitor. This is where the game explains what is going on most of the time. You can also hover on assets with your mouse to throw explanatory text to the monitor, which is always useful (and often funny). Holding left click on an item in your inventory and selecting the binoculars will summon extra flavour text.
- When you’re in an area with multiple map screens, but you want to quickly get to the other side of the map, it’s sometimes easier to leave via a red exit gate and then re-enter to access the overworld screen, which lets you warp to the individual maps.
- Right click on your equipped weapon, and you’ll see a little circle appear in the bottom right corner. With this active, clicking on an enemy will summon Fallout 1’s version of VATS, allowing you to target specific body parts.
- Recruit Ian, Dogmeat, Tycho and Katja as you find them, and keep all companions with you wherever you go. They’re your bodyguards but also your pack mules, and you can use them to draw aggro or distract the enemy while setting up a deadly attack.
- If Dogmeat starts limping, use the Doctor skill on the pup to get him back up to speed.
- In the original game, certain NPCs could warp you to locations mid-conversation. Fallout Et Tu has them add the locations to your map instead, so you have to go out and find Deathclaw Cave and Irwin’s Farm yourself. It’s not clear where they are, and they’re quite hard to find if you haven’t covered the entire grid, so here’s an updated map screen made by ghost32021.
- Speaking of Irwin’s Farm, you should find and complete Irwin’s quest in The Hub because he gives you the .223 pistol. In my opinion, it’s the best weapon in the game if you have a Small Guns build.
- Find Rope and trade it with your companions so you always have one or two on you. The same goes for Rad-X, a Radio, and Children of the Cathedral robes.
- When presented with moral junctures, you can often play both sides and always come out on top. This also lets you experience as much of the writing in one sitting.
- From what I can gather, the frequency of Random Encounters is busted on modern PCs (something to do with FPS + CPU), so you may run into combat every few seconds when you’re charting the open map. I tweaked some of the Fallout Et Tu settings to try and fix this, but even then, it was still a problem. You’ll just have to grin and bear it, especially during the big trek to The Glow.
- Speaking of The Glow, TNUFG suggests that you can lockpick the door at the Lost Hills Brotherhood of Steel bunker and skip the arduous trek for the holodisc. This does not work in Fallout Et Tu – Cabbot just tears you to shreds if you try.
- If you’ve got NPCs that can’t be dismissed following you, but you need to be alone… just kill them.
- If you find a book, you can read it by holding left click and selecting the open palm. This will improve your skills, but keep in mind that it will also advance the in-game clock.
- Sell your unused weapons, ammo and armour, as well as any drugs you find (except Rad-X). You’ll need the money for better armour in the early game and the costly S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stat bumps available from the doctor at the Brotherhood of Steel bunker.
- The easiest way to get Powered Armor (that’s what they call it in this one!) is to clear out a house full of raiders in the Old Town section of The Hub. Free the hostage inside, and then when you speak to Talus at the Brotherhood of Steel, you can choose the armour as a reward.
- If you encounter a rare UFO, remember to pick up the Alien Blaster—it’s OP. The same goes for the Red Ryder LE BB gun from the Bob’s Pre-Owned Car Mart encounter.
