FALLOUT 2 - A SCI-FI RPG

                 Reviewed by Stefan Herber

Although I far prefer the traditionalist RPG with dwarves, orcs etc
(and no, I am not a bearded sandal wearer who has not washed in the
last week) I did enjoy the original Fallout released at a time when
new RPGs were matters of wonder and celebration. It had some
significant flaws that one might hope were all going to be fixed in
the sequel. Dared we be right?  Despite its futurist setting which
is a post nuclear war scenario beloved of strategy game makers it's
almost a traditional RPG.  Character generation is possible and
there are a host of stats and bonuses to be picked up with
development.  Trouble is that you can only control the stats of
your leading character - recruits to your team advance as you
advance but what happens to them is always unknown. Control of
their behaviour in combat is apparently detailed but this doesn't
seem to work in the game itself where despite telling a character
to stick close to you he may well wander off to a dangerous area.

Also your recruits have a habit of getting in the way of your
bullets and have a habit of shooting you if you are not careful.

Despite its setting the task is fairly traditional. You are the
chosen one of a dying village and have to find a GECK (a Garden of
Eden creation kit, no less) which may have been left in a Vault
many years ago. You have one or two leads to go on and that's it.
On the way you will meet all manner of strange folk, do a lot of
monster and baddie killing, do some good deeds and gradually
develop, make money buy better weapons and so on. I don't have to
spell out what you do in RPGs for this audience, do I?

So - is it any good? The first thing to mention is that as I always
do I checked the Net for the latest patch and downloaded it. I
think this affected the game in that some quests alluded to in the
various walkthroughs I found never appeared. Basically they were
those with children who are conspicuous by their absence.
Apparently in one of the other versions you have an option to bump
off thieving street urchins and earn the accolade of child- killer;
this never happened in this version. But then we don't want to run
the risk of being turned into serial child murderers by a computer
game, do we?

So - likes: Just about the right length (I think about 100 hours);
strong story; some characterization; combat tough but not
impossible; no monster reincarnation; varied and plentiful side-
quests; more than one way of solving problems (i.e. you don't
always have to go in all guns blazing).

Dislikes: Character stupidity (see above for combat) - they also
have a habit of blocking your way and not having absorbed the
manual it took me ages to find out how to move them; it takes an
age before you get your hands on any decent weapons; random
encounters in the desert with parties much stronger than you
(either reload and pray or run like hell); being forced in certain
scenes to take sides which means massacring lots of people who may
not be evil but merely misguided.

No doubt there'll be a sequel. Overall I'd give this a strong
recommendation.               - o -