Fallout 2

"Quest for the Holy G.E.C.K"

Are you still suffering from radiation sickness? No? Gotten rid of that extra toe yet? Yeh? Well good! Because its time to slap on that dusty old Vault Suit and get back to the wastes because we are going back to 1998 to look over Fallout 2, an amazing classic PC RPG that, like the original game, set new standards in fun and writing for RPG's everywhere.

Some of you were probably raised in a Vault, so let me give you the story as to what this game is about. The game is set in an alternate timeline where we never got out of the cold war and the world's powers got into a massive resource struggle. Eventually things got hot enough for the US to build massive underground bomb shelters called ‘Vaults' to protect people, about 1000 in each vault, in the event of a nuclear attack. Well it's not long after they are completed that the bombs start falling and people rush into their Vaults to wait out the nuclear war. Eventually the vaults open up and the people leave to make a living for themselves, or at least try to in the nuclear wasteland that was the United States, roaming bands of raiders and slavers making life a living hell as does the lack of clean water and the horrible eradiated creatures roaming about. The last game set the first chapter of the story, telling how years after the bombs fell a citizen of a unopened vault (dubbed the Vault Dweller, from Vault 13) is forced by his vault to venture into the wastes in search of a Water Purification Chip to replace the one that burnt out in the vault, and failure to do so in a timely manner would result in the death of the citizens of the vault due to dehydration. The Vault Dweller accomplishes this only to realize that a new threat, a super mutant army controlled by a horrible mutant super intelligent blob called ‘The Master' intends to find all vaults and transform the inhabitants into more super mutants to make his army unstoppable. With the help of the Brotherhood of Steel (a secret military group, descended from a pre-war splinter military guard unit, that worships technology and fights to preserve it) the Vault Dweller was able to destroy the master and put an end to his base containing vats of the FEV (Forced Evolution Virus) that was turning people into super mutants. How is he rewarded? He is banished from his vault by the Overseer, who does not want his experiences in the wastes to encourage people to leave the safety of the vault. The Vault Dweller is forced then to wonder the wastes once more alone. He eventually heads north with a group of displaced followers and forms a village name Arroyo. That's where you come in. It's been nearly 80 years since then and you are a direct descendent of the original Vault Dweller from Vault 13. The village has fallen on hard times and its up to you to search out and find a G.E.C.K. (Garden of Eden Creation Kit) from a vault to save the village from dying out. A G.E.C.K. can turn a wasteland into a life sustaining area and you have to find a Vault that still has one as they were standard issue for each vault. Once more you have to race against the clock, now as the Chosen One, to save your people from death before time runs out, dealing with the hazards of raiders, slavers, and the wastes themselves.

Those familiar with the first Fallout will notice that this game is very similar. The game play is roughly the same, creating a character using attributes like strength and perception and such, adding traits that can help and hinder a character if you want them, and adding perks every few levels to help boost and customize your character. The graphics are nearly identical with the exception of new bits here and there. Of course, the environments are different (though a few places you visit are places visited in the original game such as Shady Sands and Vault 13 and 15) with almost twice as many places to visit as the original game. There are more people to interact with, more places to go, more things to do, more quests to take care of. The number of weapons as well has skyrocketed. Your selection of small arms has gone up significantly as has the number of weapons of other classes (energy weapons and big guns). The number of characters you can recruit also has increased significantly, though unlike the first game the number you can hire is restricted based on your charisma level. Your characters can be instructed how to fight in more detail and ordered to equip certain items and armor as well, but it still is a bit flawed. One other change is that now you can tell your allies to equip armor you give them and now you can actually trade with them, however the glitch that let you plant an infinitely heavy load of items on your team mates has been removed, so they can only carry so much swag at any given time. The story has also been expanded to include more references to sex and slavery, both mentioned more in passing in the first game while it moves to the forefront in this one. One special note is that the number of zany random encounters and Easter eggs to find has also massively exploded. One fun little encounter has you being asked questions by the bridge guardian from ‘Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail', said encounter having a particularly funny and messy end if you remember the movie well enough. Lastly this is 80 years after the events of the first game, so there is still plenty of mention of the past events. The Brotherhood is still around, and thanks to the Vault Dweller's incentive to get them out and about, they are now influencing events from the background. Harold is back as well, and old mutant who told the Vault Dweller about the base that spawned all the super mutants in the first game, and now he has a tree growing out of his head that he named Bob.

The game still has some flaws, however. For one, yes, the graphics are STILL the same. Granted there are new sprites, animations, and scenery to look over but you are essentially looking at the same game as before with new content, like an upgrade. The random encounters can get rather brutal. I've had times where I have wanted to move to an area just a few squares on the map away from where I was, and I'd run into one random encounter after another just a few steps from the last, literally each one happening so fast that I'd already be in another encounter by the time the map loaded up. This can be a pain if you have some weaker party members with you and you want to take them some place to heal, one encounter after another will just grind them to dust. The AI is improved but it still lacks. My party members still have a habit of choosing single fire when faces with a group of enemies and no allies around, but always choosing burst fire when there is only one enemy but the rest of the ally party is surrounding the enemy for melee attacks. Also your allies will run like cowards the moment they start taking a bit too much damage, and if you let them run long enough they will run out of the map entirely. The game world is a lot bigger now but sometimes you will find yourself wondering what you need to do next. I recently started playing the game again but since your pip boy only gives you vague summaries of your missions.

The game has flaws, most of those being simply that it's so old and it shows, but it is still one of the best PC RPG games ever made. It harkens back to a day when graphics were not the focus of a good game, gameplay and story was. It's sad but this would be the last of the main series to be created by the original team. After this game Black Isles, the game company that worked on this game, closed their doors. 3 of the main figures behind the game would go on and create a few more games with their own company, creating games like Arcanum. Sadly they went out of business as well. Bathesda made Fallout 3 recently, and it is a good game, but it feels as if they tried to hard to fit everything from the other games, including throwing in Harold without explaining how he made it from the town of Gecko in the west cost area all the way to DC on his own in just a few years (game says he arrived in DC 20 years before the player finds him, but the game takes place just 30 something years after the events of Fallout 2). In short, a lot of fans are still burned on the fact that this series is now in the hands of new people and it has a different feel. There is good news that Interplay has the rights to make a Fallout MMO but there is no word on how much of the original team will be returning for it, the 3 major project leaders now all 3 working in separate jobs and keeping a low profile. If you enjoy good solid gameplay and fun yet dark comedy in your game, Fallout 2 is something you will not soon forget, or ever match.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/02/08

Game Release: Fallout 2 (US, 09/30/98)