Just replayed Fallout 1 and holy crap, I'd forgotten how awesome this game is. But I'm a bit curious about XP. I finished the game at level 13 (including the final XP you get for winning the game). As far as I know, I completed every quest in the game unless it was mutually exclusive with a quest I completed. I even checked it against quest lists online. I see people talking about how you'll be somewhere around level 14-15 when you finish the game and I have no idea how you'd get that high without grinding. Hell, I see people talking about how you should make sure to aim for the Slayer or Sniper perks and I can't even imagine getting to level 18 without some serious grinding.

I did notice that there are a few quests where I missed out on some XP because of the path I chose, but all of that combined was still less than 10000 XP or so - not really even enough for a single level at this point.

So did I miss something? Or do people just like to grind or use exploits to get double XP? I did all the Glow and Boneyard stuff, too.

Not that it matters, level 13 was more than enough to level everything. Hell, you could probably beat the game in the early single digits without too much trouble. I'm more curious than anything. The game also was a lot shorter than I remembered - I did everything in about ten hours or so, which seems wrong? I did close to completionist, which according to howlongtobeat.com should take over 30 hours. Obviously that's an estimate, but I'm still just left feeling that I accidentally missed part of the game somehow.

Actually, Fallout 1 can be beaten in under 10 *minutes* (the world record is under 5). Of course, this involves using exploits and only doing the bare minimum needed to beat the game. You know that water chip you are asked to get right away, and that you have to get quickly or the game will end? The speedrun doesn't get that; who needs water anyway?

2, 3, and New Vegas can be beaten in 15 minutes; 4 takes closer to 45.

It's interesting how, for many of these open world WRPGs, a speedrun is so much faster (and different) than a casual playthrough.

I can't recall the exact level I finished this last time I played, but it was definitely nowhere near 18. The number 13 does seem to ring true, so it's probably about right.

Like you said, it's not like you need higher levels to beat it comfortably.

The only thing I can think of is that maybe these others completed the game a long time ago, and it's possible that back then random encounters occurred more often (e.g. maybe running it on older hardware gets you more encounters due to the way timing was done in the game)? I'm just wildly guessing here though.

It's also possible that these players grinded like crazy. It wouldn't surprise me.

I just played Fallout 1 recently myself and manged to finish it on level 21. To get there all I did was spend many a happy hour wiping all the Super Mutants off the face of the map.

You guys call it grinding, but it really wasn't a problem for me - I loved every blood-drenched second of it! Plus don't forget that the more you level up the more you can improve your skills, and that is bad, bad news for your enemies in the game.

Grinding galore. :) There is one mission, where you have to get rid of deathclaws infestation. If you don't finish it properly and kill only the ones roaming freely in the infested sector of the map and then you retreat - they respawn and you can gain virtually unlimited XP there. Just pick them one by one and aim for their eyes.

GOG should use this phrase in game descriptions!

Fallout is one of the few games that does "grinding right". By which I mean, there's nothing stopping you from roaming the map killing everything that gets in your way if you so choose; however, it's also possible to beat the game without killing anything at all.

TBH blowing limbs off, or creating a splatter of red, or melting someone (or something) in a pile of ash... those are some of the things that make Fallout great. Even with the graphics of the day, those things are immensly satisfying.

Apart from the Fallout 1 and 2, the only other old-school game I can think of that had that level of gore is Moonstone on the Amiga (actually this was more gory + multiplayer - a game that could do with a modern remake now that I think about it).

What about the original Wasteland? While you don't get to see a graphical depiction, the text displayed during battle, especially when an enemy is killed, can get pretty gory.

Yeah, I quite like the idea of playing these games again as a different type of character. It'll be hard not be a shooter guy, but a stealth character might be a good one to try next time around. Or maybe try something outrageous like a play through using just the Super Sledge! Then again, maybe that wouldn't be such a good idea - beating The Master would probably be pretty hard without ranged weapons.

I got to agree, the animations of enemy deaths in these games are amazing - I really don't understand why people complain about the graphics in retro games. My favorite one at the moment is killing the Aliens in F2 with a one-shot kill to eyes with the Gauss Rifle and seeing them explode apart - one of the most dramatic deaths in the game for me.

One tip I always give is to make liberal use of the First Aid and Doctor skills. Don't ever use stimpaks unless you are in the heat of battle and never Rest Until Healed. Relying on these two skills as your primary source of healing will net you quite a bit of XP by the end of the game, possibly enough to add a level or two by themselves.