DEVELOPER INTERPLAY PRODUCTIONS PUBLISHER IN-HOUSE
When Fallout arrived in late 1997, the CRPG was dead. PC gaming was all about action and attitude in the ’90s, and Fallout’s success came from channelling some of that attitude back into the RPG. Its satirical post-apocalypse and snappy branching narrative let players be a badass, a hardass, a dumbass, and every kind of ass in between.
Fallout’s isometric perspective and adaptive quest design made it the template for the modern CRPG, and its legacy is still visible in games like Baldur’s Gate 3.