Fallout 2

All right, okay, I will sit down and write the Fallout 2 review, but then I'm going back to playing it again. You see, I've rediscovered those glorious days when I could stay up all night playing a CRPG. It has been a long time since I felt that way about a game. Well okay, not so long--since the first Fallout actually.

And right from the opening strains of the song played in the opening movie, it's evident that Fallout 2 is going to be awesome. And it is. It perfectly recaptures what made the first so great. The mock-50s presentation. The black humor. A good, involving story and plenty of distracting mini-quests. An excellent RPG engine. Then they offer you more bang for your buck by adding a few things that wasn't in the original--cars, party member control, and the ability to modify weapons.

The story is a neat reversal of the first Fallout. This time you're from a primitive tribe that lives on the surface. Your village is slowly dying. However, according to tribal lore, this village was founded by the Vault Dweller who completed the first Fallout. According to the Vault Dweller's Guide, every Vault Dweller is entitled to a Garden of Eden Creation Kit (GECK) which can make the village healthy again. As a blood descendant of the Vault Dweller, the tribe reckons that Vault 13 owes you a GECK. So off you got to find the legendary Vault 13. As before though, there's a lot more going on in that wasteland than just your quest, and like your ancestor, you'll be butting heads with a large, powerful menace that threatens your entire way of life.

As with the first Fallout, there are lots of colourful characters and interesting quests. So far, I've repaired a nuclear reactor, busted up some slavers, raided a few mines, stolen incredibly sophisticated technology, and I'm also hauling around a dead dog carcass everywhere (don't ask, but if you see the Pariah Dog, reload).

That's just a handful of the things you can do--I've done much more already, but who wants to read a review full of spoilers? There is also a lot of things in Fallout 2 you can choose not to do. You can be a really nice guy (I'm more or less an Angel right now, though I am tempted to take the Kama Sutra Master Perk and start sleeping around), or a total bastard. Instead of solving a problem so that both parties walk away happy, you can just kill or screw one side over. There are different approaches to just about everything in the game.

There's a lot of "More" in Fallout 2. More cities. More special locations. More weapons. More monsters. But there are changes from the original. The first major change, and the most important, is in your companions. You now have a much greater degree of control. Once someone joins your party, you can give them equipment, such as armor and weaponry, and even drugs like Stimpacks. If they're able to, they will use them in combat. You cannot control your companions in combat. Before hand you must set their behavior (Aggressive, Defensive, Cowardly, etc.), and they will act accordingly. Your companions will reload and sometimes switch weapons, and they will also flee if they take too much damage, or use a Stimpack to continue the fight. They will even pick up dropped weapons. Overall their intelligence is not bad--and the enemy intelligence is better too. Super Mutants (there are a few left) can no longer be counted on to be their own worst enemies. That moron with the rocket launcher has figured out that firing it while he and his three mates are standing right in front of you is not the best plan. Mistakes are still made--enemies and your characters occasionally do dumb things. For example, your mates might run in front of you, taking away your shot with heavy ordinance like the flame thrower. And friendly fire certainly hasn't ceased to exist. Occasionally both sides will clip each other, or even kill someone accidentally.

While this character control is a large improvement over the first Fallout, and it is perfectly functional for the game, it would probably be more efficient to have some kind of paperdoll or character screen, much like your own in order to manage your characters. Or at least a communal inventory. You still use the Trade interface to give them equipment, it just doesn't cost money to exchange equipment while they're in your party. If you've got a lot of equipment stored up (and what RPGer doesn't?), it can be tedious to shift it all from character to character.

Some might also be at issue with the lack of direct control during combat. In many RPGs, you can coordinate the exact movements of your party in battle. That way you always execute your own plans, which are not ruined by somebody in your party running in front of you, spoiling your chance to toast three guys with the flame thrower. Personally, I didn't mind this--I liked the lone gun aspect of Fallout. It also adds a more realistic flair to fighting, as you never know what your brothers in arms are going to do during a fight, let alone the enemy. Others though might prefer to have precise control of all party members at all times, with all the abilities of the main character. I get the feeling that this issue will be a major gameplay decision in Fallout 3 (There WILL be a Fallout 3, right?).

Finally, to conclude the few downsides, there are glitches in the game. I've noticed that sometimes the game can behave erratically, such as not showing what happens (my character was supposedly knocked down, but he was still standing). I've also noticed the occasional tendency to click on your weapon bar and have your character walk south, rather than prepare a shot. However, I've not discovered anything so bad as the corrupt save game files that plagued the first Fallout before the patch.

Oh yes, the game has robbed me totally of a social life and I am beginning to deeply resent anything that takes me away from playing it. That's not really a design flaw, though. In fact, that's proof that it's doing its job very well indeed.

I've spent too much time talk about the downsides. Once you're tracking down a lead to that Garden of Eden Creation Kit, fighting gangsters with your companions (I called my crew "The Wasteland Posse"), you'll hardly notice any rough edges...or the time clicking steadily by ("&*#$, I have to be at work in two hours!).

Fallout 2 is a must for any RPGer. I'm hoping that Fallout 2 will receive critical and financial success, because it could lead to a new renaissance of good top-down RPGs. I can easily see the Fallout engine be given a slight tweaking here and there and be used in virtually any genre of RPG--a supernatural one, futuristic, swords and sorcery...the potential for more great RPGs seems endless.

There's been a lot of hoopla about the "Rebirth of RPGs" and as far as I can see, Black Isle is doing all the work. The next thing we're waiting to see from them is Baldur's Gate--which, if it ships before the year is out--is Fallout 2's only competition for RPG of the Year. Everyone else is left far, far behind.

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