I have heard a lot of good stuff about fallout 1. I have for many years, and its critical acclaim and rabid fanbase only backs up what I've heard - an excellent story with a vibrant, interesting world filled with its own stories, and immense replay value, i.e. how to solve the various quests lying around.

About a week ago, I finally sat down to play it, and having finished it, I was left with the thought... that's it?

I feel like just about all I haven't seen are the rest of Decker's quests (since I turned him in) and the various random encounters. once I got into the flow of it, I certainly enjoyed the flow of gameplay... to a degree. What really bothers me is that I'm not seeing any of the much touted choice in the game - or even much of the excellent writing. The main plot was... vaguely interesting, with some good voice acting, but all I can really say about it is that there weren't any plot holes that I can think of. Granted, this sets it miles beyond Fallout 3's plot, but that really shouldn't be something to massively recommend it. It had no twists, was pretty linear in its gameplay, was all too easy to break as a result of happening to find something ahead of time... Hell, one of the most interesting conversations of the game is only viewable if you consign your character to a game over. The main villains had no particular nuance and just came off as one-dimensional and one-note, cashing in on the gross-out factor of his final lair and appearance.

I invested heavily in science and speech, recalling how universally useful those were in new vegas, and I figured that with the original's reputation, that would be even more true.

Nope.

Nope.

I can think of one time when Speech actually got some use, and NO times when science was actually useful. Repair was only useful when fixing that pump and shutting down the force fields for a few seconds... and all the narrative choices were pretty much binary. Kill Darkwater or Gizmo? support the Regulators or the Blades? Fix the pump or don't? Do Decker's dirty work or rat him out? None of these were anywhere near as meaningful or intriguing as I'd hoped, from the mountains of praise this game received. I've played through it twice, and found no more hidden depth.

So, in the end, I really have to ask... am I missing something? are there vital quests or approaches or strategies I'm missing so that I also miss the best parts of the game? What did people love so much about it that I'm just not getting?