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Having played through and thoroughly enjoyed the first Fallout game, I was obviously looking forward to playing through Fallout 2. Widely regarded as one of the best in the series, Fallout 2 had a lot to live up to. A difficult task, especially considering the troubles Black Isle Studios went through during development. So, does Fallout 2 live up to its predecessor?

Be warned, there are some spoilers.

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The game is set 80 years after Fallout 1. After saving the wasteland from an army of mutants and subsequently being exiled from Vault 13, the Vault Dweller, along with some other members of the Vault, headed north and founded a small village, which they named Arroyo. The Vault Dweller’s experience in the wasteland proved useful in teaching the others skills such as farming, combat, and engineering, and the group grew to eventually become a large tribe. Years after the Vault Dweller’s death, the Chosen One, a descendant of the Vault Dweller and the protagonist of Fallout 2, is born. In 2241, when the game starts, the Northern California area faces a horrific drought. Arroyo’s crops and animals begin to die, causing a great threat to the village. The Chosen One is sent on a journey across the wasteland to locate a G.E.C.K, a mysterious terraforming device issued to almost every Vault with the intention that its inhabitants would make the wasteland livable again.

The tribal aspect of Fallout 2 was a little jarring to me at first. While the idea of tribalism in Fallout does make sense, this is a tribe that formed entirely from members of a technologically advanced Vault, and yet now the tribals are wearing loincloths and embracing weird ideas of spirituality, as well as having no idea how to use technology. There’s also the tutorial area for the game, the “Temple of Trials”, which contains all sorts of traps. At first, it didn’t seem all that believable, but thankfully that changed for me when I began to consider how isolated Arroyo had been from the rest of the world and how much time had passed. It makes sense for each generation in this tribe to be more primitive than the last. I do still think they were made a bit too primitive, but as I progressed more into the game I became okay with it. I even felt a bit of sadness at a particular event that happens towards the end of the game regarding the tribe.

As mentioned before, the tutorial area for the game is the “Temple of Trials”. Regardless of whether it fits into the universe or not, I have to praise this area from a gameplay standpoint. The player is thrown into this temple with no form of guidance and has to make their way through it using the skills they chose when creating their character. There are many different ways to get through it: you can charge in head-first and kill every enemy if you’re playing as a more combat-oriented character; you can sneak through the temple, keeping combat to a minimum; and at the end you can either fight the boss, talk him out of it or steal the key to the exit from him. The area lets you experiment and get used to your character’s strengths and weaknesses before you venture out into the wasteland.

And that’s really what the game is all about. Fallout 2 allows for an even wider range of character types than its predecessor does, and there are always multiple ways of handling a situation, giving the game a lot of replay value. The combat system is greatly improved; it flows much more smoothly and you can now tweak your companions’ specific behaviours. There are many new weapons and armours to collect and a lot of interesting new enemy types. In general, the game is more difficult than Fallout 1 and more unforgiving, but in the rewarding sense rather than the frustrating one. There are still some issues, however. For example, when faced with a massive amount of enemies, it’s easy to find yourself in a crowded mess, which can be slightly annoying. Companions can still get in your way, but fortunately there is now the option to push them if that happens.

As before, your actions affect the fate of each settlement you come across. This time, however, the outcomes for different settlements can affect each other, leading to even more combinations of endings. Each of these settlements is unique and interesting, and there are even a few from the first Fallout. The map overall is significantly bigger than that of Fallout 1, with more places to visit and more secrets to find. Thankfully, the player can get a car, making those long journeys much quicker and easier.

The tone of the game is a lot lighter. There are many humourous and strange moments throughout the game, and hopeful ones too. Settlements are more civilised and there are even areas where humans and mutants are coexisting peacefully. That isn’t to say the game doesn’t have its fair share of harshness. You will meet some of the worst of humanity, most notably the Enclave. The game does an excellent job of portraying them as truly despicable while still making them believable villains. The conflict in some ways is a reversal that of Fallout 1. Whereas back then the protagonist was fighting to save humanity from an evil army of mutants, this time the player is fighting to save mutants and “mutated” humans alike from an evil army of genetically “pure” humans. This really shows how much the wasteland has evolved since the events of the first game.

The writing in the game is brilliant. The Chosen One encounters a diverse set of characters such as Marcus the mutant from Broken Hills or Goris the talking deathclaw. The script is smart and often hilarious and some of the conversation trees are very detailed. The main quest evolves naturally without forcing the player down a certain path and all of the side plots are nicely integrated alongside it. This time, there is no time limit (unless you count the 13-year one implemented for technical reasons), but the game still manages to convey a sense of urgency.

Being a game from 1998, the visuals are obviously going to look a bit dated. That said, the various environments all have their own unique look and feel to them. There are some new, particularly gory death animations. One animation at the end of the game is especially entertaining. All of these things, along with the writing and the music, support the game’s immersive atmosphere.

In my experience with the game, the only bug I encountered was one where my car disappeared from the game (I kind of cheated and placed it back in using a save game editor). However, I have heard that there are a few bugs, so it’s advised that players save often. You’ll probably find yourself saving often regardless out of fear that you’ll mess up your entire playthrough in the next area.

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Fallout 2 is a game that encompasses everything people love about the series. The gritty-yet-quirky post-apocalyptic world, the diverse, interesting characters, the sheer amount of freedom that you’re given and the impact that you can have on the story. Fallout 2 takes all of those things and amplifies them. The combat is definitely an acquired taste for many people, but for those like me who enjoy it, this game is essential. While I wasn’t keen on things at the beginning, the game quickly grew on me, and by the end it became my favourite Fallout game alongside New Vegas. This game does everything the first Fallout does and more.


Next up, Fallout Tactics!

you find a fourth wall breaking monk guarding a bridge.

Oh, that fucking bridge. I was expecting some seriously creepy shit to go down when it told me to save my game, but instead the guy asks me a question about one of the perks in the game and my response causes his head to explode. Fucking brilliant.

There's also the encounter where you find a giant stone statue of the Vault Dweller's head and you argue with it, which devolves into an exchange of "uh-huh" "nuh-uh" for twelve hours.

Play a good RPG like dark souls

Hey Fedorekd.

How the HELL did you get the game to work?

I have it on Steam but it crashes on the main fucking menu.

Mine worked fine for me straight away. What OS are you on?

Quote from: Fedorekd on April 24, 2016, 12:21:31 PM

Quote from: Pip on April 24, 2016, 12:19:51 PM

Hey Fedorekd.

How the HELL did you get the game to work?

I have it on Steam but it crashes on the main fucking menu.

Mine worked fine for me straight away. What OS are you on?

Windows 10(yeees I know. Don't make the joke.)

Oh, I'm on Windows 8.1, so I can't help you there.

move this to news mods

verb add this to the review thread please

OH YEAH SORRY