Fallout 2

The Good
Ready for another trip through the wastes? Fallout 2 is the sequel to the critically acclaimed rpg that spearheaded the rpg revolution almost ten years ago (damn, time does fly!). With such a pedigree to live up to, you would expect the sequel to fall somewhat short of expectations, however it manages to be just as good as the original and even surpasses it on many accounts.

Basically what you have here is a good ol' case of "more of the same"-itis, but perhaps for the first time in history taken seriously. With the basic art, engine, interface and gameplay mechanics already developed for the original, the developers used the tools at hand to expand the Fallout universe to gargantuan proportions and devoted their dev. time to populate the game with even more locations, quests, characters and features to toy around with. The story is completely original and works as a retelling of the original with different elements. You are a descendant from the original "Vault Dweller" who lived happily in the rustic village he had erected decades ago, but as luck would have it, the village is in peril and you are selected to go out and find the key for it's salvation. Along the way you'll encounter another plot that threatens the post-apocalyptic world and you'll have to face it head-on once again with whatever allies you can find in the wastes. Perhaps more inspired at times than the original, the story works wonders to immerse you in the post-nuclear world of Fallout once again, but the real star of this sequel is the world itself, with much more in the way of places to go, stuff to do and people to meet.

Roughly 5-10 times larger than the original, the new gameworld features much more varied locations, that not only include the same junkyards and ghost towns of the original but also newly developed civilized outposts like NCR and Vault City, plus equally urbane (but not so much "civilized") locations like the sinful New Reno. The people you meet this time around quite frankly struck me as much more interesting folks than in the original, giving me the sense that the developers had a much looser leash as to what they could and couldn't put in the game. Variety is the word of the day, and each location plays host to a particular group of people with distinct problems and issues. You can encounter for instance, a group of Vault Dwellers so accustomed to living underground that they built their own underground city, an elitist community that aims to be the guiding force in the wastes, a San Francisco overrun by the descendants of the crew of a Chinese submarine (which turn the an entire sequence of the game into an "Enter the Dragon"-like quest), fanatical zealots, aliens and even good mutants that coexist peacefully with their human counterparts in a seemingly peaceful city (but why does everyone talk in hushed tones...?hmmm?). The world of Fallout 2 is not only larger, but much more interesting to explore than the original, with much more imagination and detail poured into it so as to make it a much more interesting gameplay experience for one to get lost into. Now, some people complained that the new quests and situations just went too far when it came to stretching the believability of the game universe, with the most prominent example quoted being the seemingly "heaten" "ghost quest" where you come face to face with a deceased spirit. I have a lot of things I would like to say to the shitbrains that like to pick on small details like this as a way to dismiss the game, but I'd rather just write that I loved this kind of stuff as they added a lot of variety to the game and kept you exploring every nook and cranny of the gameworld to see if you could unearth another mini-Twilight Zone episode, or another ghost story, or gangster drama, or genetic experiment or whatever. And besides the post-apocalyptic wastes of Fallout are no less post-apocalyptic because of their existence. So quit it already, will ya?

As for game mechanics and features the game increases the possibilities for evil characters to do their stuff and has plenty of exclusive quests and subplots to tackle should you decide to be a bad mofo instead of the saviour of the wastes. The sequel also makes a few swift changes in what concerns it's horribly developed party management features, allowing you to select each member's basic strategy, equipment and drug/healthpack usage. Trading with them is also much less of a hassle, but when you find the car you won't be needing to share so much of the loot with them as you go. What's that? Oh, didn't I mention that? Now you have a vintage 50's car available to use (fueled by handy atomic cells) that makes your treks along the wastes much speedier and doubles as a safebox to store stuff in. Now THAT is what I call a cool addition.

And speaking of cool additions Fallout 2 is the first game that introduced sex as a major game feature. Yes, this was also in the original, but now it's MUCH more developed. For starters your gender opens up loads of possibilities and paths exclusive to each one. Make no mistake girls: Fallout 2 takes place in the misogynistic wastes of the future, so this isn't an "equal opportunity" place, where females are often mistreated, discriminated and abused. On the other hand females can seduce their way through places you just can't get through as a man, prostitute themselves for some extra cash, become pornstars, and other assorted extras that use sex as another fully functional gameplay feature. As advertised you can get married and pimp your spouse for cash (What other game you know that lets you do THAT??), get divorced, etc. and even homosexuality is thrown into the mix (the girl-girl shotgun marriage has some of the funniest dialogue ever!). Some "holier-than-thou" types out there seem to think the use of such features under such a misogynistic context is nothing but pure immaturity, yet I love the fact that Fallout 2 is the only game to date that has allowed me to play as an evil, fast-talking, slutty lesbian! And you can chalk that up to whatever adolescent fantasy you want to, but if that isn't roleplaying then I don't know what roleplaying is! (besides you can always play the game as a straight, goody-two-shoes, SWM if you want to, or you can play it as a dumb-as-a-doorknob character with everyone properly reacting to your stats as such ["You are our saviour? May the gods help us!!" :D], or etc. etc. etc. Such is Fallout 2's genius).

The Bad
The original release is reeeeeeal buggy, almost Ultima IX-class buggy, but subsequent patches make the game adequately playable (if still slightly buggy). Furthermore, the AI and gameplay system while improved is still prone to some fuckups (allies still do retarded stuff and god help you whenever Marcus takes out his mini-gun or a rocket launcher).

Besides that there's the issue that the game uses exactly the same engine, art, music and sfx than the original (with additions of course) which is something somewhat... hmm.... tiring? Anyway, there also seems to be a few forced situations and loose ends when you try to assemble the full continuity in the game's many sidequests and plotlines. I haven't a major problem with this as I understand it's a major issue to create a cohesive plot in a major gameworld like this and have it properly respond to every situation taking into account if you are male/female, good/bad, smart/stupid, etc... (and Fallout 2's achievement is astounding). However, some of our more anal retentive counterparts seem to be making an issue out of it. So what the heck, right?

The Bottom Line
Take the "bottom line" of any Fallout 1 review and to that add it more of the same. But not just "more", better, more imaginative and interesting. Another masterpiece of deep yet enjoyable mature gaming with the most successful use of sex and gender as an game feature.

Required gaming for people with brains.

The Good
Sorry, to be the one to bear the bad news, but a lot of people seemingly ignore some glaringly obvious faults in Fallout 2 that deserve more than just casual attention. But I’ll get to that later. First, the positive sides to Fallout 2:

• Same engine as the original . Good thing since it was a good engine, but I wish it hadn’t taken them another 3 years (when Brotherhood of Steel came out) to move it to 16-bits. The dithering and lack of colour depth are more obvious in this game than the first, probably due to the more diverse landscapes.
• Massively larger game world than in Fallout, with about 5 times as many places to visit and 10 times as many things to do in each place. This is the major reason people like Fallout 2 more than the original (you can probably see this in the other reviews), however it is most likely the reason for one of Fallout 2’s major downfalls (more about this later).
• Speaking of which, the landscape is far more diverse in Fallout 2 than it is in Fallout. Here you have both Fallout’s vaults, caves and primitive cities (although I miss the Necropolis) and Fallout 2’s landmarks, such as a post-nuclear Vegas-esque New Reno, a relatively new city (San-Francisco rebuilt), the futuristic Vault City, the Ghost Farm – in short, much more to explore and be impressed by.
• The music is in the same vein as in Fallout; that is, it’s very good – but there’s not much of it. More on that later.
• Many, many obscure allusions to obscure books and films and such – more so than in Fallout, so there’s more to laugh about (my personal favorites are the “Dragon-Lo Pan” and the robot in the canyon).
• Still, despite its flaws, the game is fun to play and can keep you glued for hours. Just don’t expect the kind of satisfaction from it you got from Fallout.

The Bad
Unfortunately, Fallout 2 has a great deal more problems than its predecessor. There are obvious problems in this game, and I attribute most of them to the fact that Brian Fargo is sorely missing from the game team.

• I’ll start with the bugs. Other have said this before, both about Fallout 1 and Fallout 2. I’ve been lucky enough to play these games 2 or 3 years after they came out (and so patched to the latest version), but still experienced dozens of bugs – minor and major alike – with my UK version of the game. First of all the game is ridiculously prone to crashes and hangs. I had to restart it anywhere from 2 to 10 times per session. It is particularly annoying in the middle of a successful combat where I rarely save. A far worse problem was not being able to save during the final combat with Horrigan – whenever I tried to load, the game gave me a “Save Game Corrupt” message or some-such.
• Seems the team still hasn’t shaken off the tendency to build on “go there, get me this, do that” missions – why is it that none of the characters in the Fallout world are capable of doing things on their own? What’s the deal with Eric not being able to go fix his electricity problem, or the guys from Vault City not being able to take care of their raider/ghost problem? Or, for that matter, the NCR taking care of the squatters on their own? How come everyone is so damn incompetent in the future?
• The dialogue in Fallout 2 varies widely in its consistency, it’s validity and most importantly, its level. It’s most obvious when some of the dialogue options link to other sections of the dialogue tree in a way that’s just not correct (somewhat evident in the dialogue with Marcus but more obvious elsewhere). This also means that in some cases (for example, talking to the vice president) you can say something like “I’m going to kill you”, then get away with it because you’re linked to an earlier section of the tree which allows you to exit the conversation without combat. Worse still, some of the dialogues are actually poorly written (can’t think of an example off the top of my head, but there are too many out there).
• Some of the side-quests in this game are a result of very poor design decisions. One of them is the ghost a fellow reviewer mentioned; another is the “intelligent scorpion” you can’t really do anything with other than piss off. There are also the aliens scattered about the game (along with the Wanamingos that are ridiculously powerful), the bizarre business with Melchior (what’s up with “summoning up” Deathclaws? This is supposed to be a <u>futuristic</u> game), and dozens of other assignments that are less than inspired. (Get me this, get me that – get me 10 Cat’s Paws magazines?!)
• Last but not least, there are some extremely lame design faults in this game; the worst one being the Enclave doctor at the end. He’s been working on his modification of the FEV for what, thirty years now? And all it takes to change his mind is one mutie and an entire minute of thought? And even if we ignore that, what’s up with all of the Enclave (including their non-armoured president and vice-president) being immune to the FEV, particularly when the president tells you they have not been inoculated as of yet (another design mistake of biblical proportions, might as well tell you “go release the virus”?)
• The end part is one of the worst I’ve ever encountered in a game. First off, there’s no way to avoid fighting your way past Horrigan; no matter what you do, you’re going to need a ridiculous amount to hit points and stimpacks to get past him (just ask Tony Van). Despite a Sex Appeal perk and high (over 70%, can’t remember exactly) speech skill, I still couldn’t convince the Enclave guards to join up with me, and because of my character’s relative ineptitude in combat, I couldn’t handle the guards and therefore had no way to get the president’s access card. In short, there was no way to get past Horrigan. I had to, for the first time in my life, use a character editor to finish a game. Classic design problem.
• Minor issues: While the music in Fallout 2 is very good, there’s very little of it. In fact, a vast majority of the game is played with no background music (which becomes very annoying during long dialogue sequences).

The Bottom Line
A game with much promise, much potential - and unfortunately, many problems.

The Good
Many of the best things from the original were kept and improved upon: Although there was a main plot, you really did feel that you were travelling and exploring a complete world. You had real, meaningful choices in character design and development, both mechanically and in roleplaying - and your actions toward NPCs had realistic lasting effects - without an artificial "alignment" system. Virtually any character development path was entirely playable, even to the extent that a reasonably clever player could complete the whole game with a pure diplomat player, barring bad luck on random encounters. The worst mistake of the original - the hard gametime limit - was avoided cleanly.

The Bad
The larger map and longer gameplay did expose the biggest weakness of the Fallout team - their sophomoric (and arguably misogynistic) mentality. While much was made of the fact that your character could actually get married in the game, in fact the only marriage available was a shotgun marriage to a useless wimp, and all the roleplaying choices related to the spouse after that emphasized a really grotesque parody of the worst and most misogynistic teenage male ideas about it. The clever melding of memes and imagery from the Cold War 50s that characterized the first game was exposed as a happy chance, as the sequel broke continuity in various ways (especially in computer technology) and threw in some trendy antiauthoritarian government-conspiracy themes. The original story seemed to be set in the future as imagined during the Cold War, and worked very well. The sequel's backstory is a pastiche of 1998-era X-files influences, random gaming memes, sophomoric humor, and shreds of the original, that really doesn't hold together unless you forget the original entirely.

The Bottom Line
Purely from a gameplay standpoint, it was an excellent game, better than the original and a lot of fun. From the standpoint of storytelling and worldbuilding, it was clumsy, sophomoric, and terribly disappointing. If you have the chance, play both Fallout and Fallout2 in proper order. They are landmarks in real roleplaying on a computer, and very fun to play. In particular, if the shoddy worldbuilding and sophomoric culture and character portrayals of Fallout2 overshadow the fine gameplay for you, you might find the mix in the original game more to your taste.