I don't remember getting this bored in a long time, a frustrating bugfest. I have almost every item and every stat i need to finish the game right now (i suppose), but nahhh i can't continue this game. I did enjoy some parts of the game, but no i can't continue this game any longer. Quests, gameplay etc everything feels soooo outdated and boring. Not to mention my save files getting corrupted. And those constant random encounters... yuck. Overall a bad experience i don't recommend it.
This review contains spoilers
At the time I'm writing this, I got the GECK and am levelling up in order to fix the tanker and get to the oil rig base, and I'm really torn on whether I enjoy this game more than 1. In essence, this game is everything the debut title was but bigger and better, with a bigger map, more factions, more mechanics, and of course, the Enclave being the coolest looking faction of Fallout to date.
That being said, expanding Fallout also highlights its limitations a bit more. What were annoyances in the first game become bigger gripes in the sequel due to how much more time you spend encountering them. I'll list a few that I have so far:
- The biggest one I have is the encounters. I swear they tripled the rate and arena sizes in this game. If this game has so many skills unrelated to combat and allows me to (initially) tag only 3, why do 90% of random encounters involve combat? Why are the exit bounds so far away from where you spawn every time? WHY CAN I ENCOUNTER LIKE 10 ENCLAVE SOLDIERS SO FREQUENTLY? Why does the car feel like it DOUBLES the encounter rate instead of reducing it?
- Why don't the SPECIAL skills, especially Strength, not highlight the implications that they have on your playthrough? Skills do, the small guns skill tells you exactly what weapons they aid, why can't strength also say something like "this will also affect what weapons you can carry"?
- Why don't speech skills have some sort of indicator during dialogue that it IS a speech skill, instead of guessing if an encounter can be altered or not?
- Very disappointed on how little impact a 10 Luck build has. I built my character with 10 Luck and 10 Agility, and chose Jinxed, thinking that I can make what would essentially be Fortune from MGS 2. But nope, it's almost like I only handicapped myself by making me drop my weapons and having Cassidy pick them up every time...
- Why is the second act (after retrieving the GECK) so cryptic to get going? Getting to Navarro doesn't help at all, especially if, like me, you already went to Navarro. I'm guessing what the devs intended is to listen to the guy at the gas station talking about San Francisco and go there, but if I already visited both places, idk it just felt very "up in the air".
I'll come back to this review when I finish it later this week and summarize my thoughts, and try and make it more positive, because it is a great game! And probably even better with a better built character lmao
EDIT: I have now just beaten the game, and I must note something of importance: I NEVER KNEW THAT THE BOOKS' SKILL BOOSTS WERE PERMANENT!!! I JUST STOCKPILED THEM FOR WHEN I'D NEED THEM FOR ONE SKILL CHECK!
Needless to say, that discovery made my experience with the game much better :)
But yeah, overall a very fun game that even with its quirks, I kept thinking about it when not playing it, and the final arc at the oil rig was great as well, much more interesting than the vault under the Cathedral in the first game. Also even with me missing the deathclaw massacre at Valut 13, Frank Horrigan leaves the same sort of impression as Legate Lanius, where you only have one short encounter with them, but it sticks with you a lot (Frank's definitely due to the voice/sound design).
Will definitely revisit for another playthrough with all I learned throughout, it'll make it a much smoother experience.
That being said, expanding Fallout also highlights its limitations a bit more. What were annoyances in the first game become bigger gripes in the sequel due to how much more time you spend encountering them. I'll list a few that I have so far:
- The biggest one I have is the encounters. I swear they tripled the rate and arena sizes in this game. If this game has so many skills unrelated to combat and allows me to (initially) tag only 3, why do 90% of random encounters involve combat? Why are the exit bounds so far away from where you spawn every time? WHY CAN I ENCOUNTER LIKE 10 ENCLAVE SOLDIERS SO FREQUENTLY? Why does the car feel like it DOUBLES the encounter rate instead of reducing it?
- Why don't the SPECIAL skills, especially Strength, not highlight the implications that they have on your playthrough? Skills do, the small guns skill tells you exactly what weapons they aid, why can't strength also say something like "this will also affect what weapons you can carry"?
- Why don't speech skills have some sort of indicator during dialogue that it IS a speech skill, instead of guessing if an encounter can be altered or not?
- Very disappointed on how little impact a 10 Luck build has. I built my character with 10 Luck and 10 Agility, and chose Jinxed, thinking that I can make what would essentially be Fortune from MGS 2. But nope, it's almost like I only handicapped myself by making me drop my weapons and having Cassidy pick them up every time...
- Why is the second act (after retrieving the GECK) so cryptic to get going? Getting to Navarro doesn't help at all, especially if, like me, you already went to Navarro. I'm guessing what the devs intended is to listen to the guy at the gas station talking about San Francisco and go there, but if I already visited both places, idk it just felt very "up in the air".
I'll come back to this review when I finish it later this week and summarize my thoughts, and try and make it more positive, because it is a great game! And probably even better with a better built character lmao
EDIT: I have now just beaten the game, and I must note something of importance: I NEVER KNEW THAT THE BOOKS' SKILL BOOSTS WERE PERMANENT!!! I JUST STOCKPILED THEM FOR WHEN I'D NEED THEM FOR ONE SKILL CHECK!
Needless to say, that discovery made my experience with the game much better :)
But yeah, overall a very fun game that even with its quirks, I kept thinking about it when not playing it, and the final arc at the oil rig was great as well, much more interesting than the vault under the Cathedral in the first game. Also even with me missing the deathclaw massacre at Valut 13, Frank Horrigan leaves the same sort of impression as Legate Lanius, where you only have one short encounter with them, but it sticks with you a lot (Frank's definitely due to the voice/sound design).
Will definitely revisit for another playthrough with all I learned throughout, it'll make it a much smoother experience.
- War, war never changes.
Fallout 2 was the first RPG game that has grasped my imagination as 12-something year old way back in the late 90s. I could not recall much from my first playthrough as I was just learning English, but those warm post apocalyptic sprites, the mix between tribal survivalists using primitive tools and "modern" tech had me play through most part of the game breathlessly.
My second "proper" playthrough was when I was 16-something and I went with a thiefing sniper. This time around I understood the lore better and Fallout forever became one of my favorite gaming universes.
So, 20 years from my last playthough how does it hold up?
Note: I've played with outstanding Fallout 2 Restoration Project mod to add a bit onto something that I would have expected to be quite a familiar game to me.
When compared to Fallout 1, this installment definitely expanded in all directions while also debuted the now signature Fallout Wild Wasteland (tm) with talking plants, ghosts, supermutants carrying gag balls and other assorted humorous troupes.
The story is simple yet it elegantly follows from the first game, find your first game protagonist's home and retrieve Garden of Eden Creation Kit. By modern standards it is by no mean an outstanding narrative, but it works and ebb and flow of the game have you chase one Mc. Guffin after another.
Graphics and engine. Compared to Fallout 1, you could see how the engine got better at a time + the locations are much more fleshed out. I've used HD resolution mod and I've found 1366×768 resolution to be quite a good balance between old and new with the models on the screen keeping some distinct look and scale instead of way small models on 1920×1080.
Gameplay. I've played a charismatic leader and this time around took Sulic, Vic and Cassidy with me. Surprisingly, I've enjoyed party gameplay and their behavior (once I've confiskated SMG party killed from Sulic) was surprisingly good, companions frequently saving my butt that is. Early to mid game is absolutely great, you have some weapon and build varieties in place. I've mostly used pistols this time around, with late game bringing in energy weapons (classic). Turn based (agility is king) and I went with quick shot build. Only ever had some difficulties late game.
Sound in this game is amazing, the universaly praised music is as good as gaming music can get, but also gunshots, NPC voices, everything is top notch.
All in all, the game is as beautiful as the day I've first played it and plays great. Some dated elements are part of a learning curve. Would love if they somehow made a new Fallout game in isometric perspective or even remaster this for modern machines or see you again in a decade or so,
P.S. my full mod list and useful links:
- Fallout 2 Restoration Project - restores a lot of cut content and overall fits the tone of the game like a glove. Besides fixes a lot of bugs and has an assortment of quality of life improvements.
- Fallout 2 Inventory Filter - this mod allows for much better inventory management by allowing filtering items by their types.
- Nearly Ultimate Fallout 2 Guide - outstanding classic guide to Fallout 2 by Per Jorner, used it sparingly, but it is absolute treasure trove of additional information on the game.
- Fallout 2 Restoration Project Guide - done by mod development team as a supplement to the mod. Used to cross check that I did not miss any restored content.
Fallout 2 was the first RPG game that has grasped my imagination as 12-something year old way back in the late 90s. I could not recall much from my first playthrough as I was just learning English, but those warm post apocalyptic sprites, the mix between tribal survivalists using primitive tools and "modern" tech had me play through most part of the game breathlessly.
My second "proper" playthrough was when I was 16-something and I went with a thiefing sniper. This time around I understood the lore better and Fallout forever became one of my favorite gaming universes.
So, 20 years from my last playthough how does it hold up?
Note: I've played with outstanding Fallout 2 Restoration Project mod to add a bit onto something that I would have expected to be quite a familiar game to me.
When compared to Fallout 1, this installment definitely expanded in all directions while also debuted the now signature Fallout Wild Wasteland (tm) with talking plants, ghosts, supermutants carrying gag balls and other assorted humorous troupes.
The story is simple yet it elegantly follows from the first game, find your first game protagonist's home and retrieve Garden of Eden Creation Kit. By modern standards it is by no mean an outstanding narrative, but it works and ebb and flow of the game have you chase one Mc. Guffin after another.
Graphics and engine. Compared to Fallout 1, you could see how the engine got better at a time + the locations are much more fleshed out. I've used HD resolution mod and I've found 1366×768 resolution to be quite a good balance between old and new with the models on the screen keeping some distinct look and scale instead of way small models on 1920×1080.
Gameplay. I've played a charismatic leader and this time around took Sulic, Vic and Cassidy with me. Surprisingly, I've enjoyed party gameplay and their behavior (once I've confiskated SMG party killed from Sulic) was surprisingly good, companions frequently saving my butt that is. Early to mid game is absolutely great, you have some weapon and build varieties in place. I've mostly used pistols this time around, with late game bringing in energy weapons (classic). Turn based (agility is king) and I went with quick shot build. Only ever had some difficulties late game.
Sound in this game is amazing, the universaly praised music is as good as gaming music can get, but also gunshots, NPC voices, everything is top notch.
All in all, the game is as beautiful as the day I've first played it and plays great. Some dated elements are part of a learning curve. Would love if they somehow made a new Fallout game in isometric perspective or even remaster this for modern machines or see you again in a decade or so,
P.S. my full mod list and useful links:
- Fallout 2 Restoration Project - restores a lot of cut content and overall fits the tone of the game like a glove. Besides fixes a lot of bugs and has an assortment of quality of life improvements.
- Fallout 2 Inventory Filter - this mod allows for much better inventory management by allowing filtering items by their types.
- Nearly Ultimate Fallout 2 Guide - outstanding classic guide to Fallout 2 by Per Jorner, used it sparingly, but it is absolute treasure trove of additional information on the game.
- Fallout 2 Restoration Project Guide - done by mod development team as a supplement to the mod. Used to cross check that I did not miss any restored content.
the 13 years time limit is hilarious ngl
frank horrigan literally me
Por fin pude entender como jugar al 1 asi que cuando termine ese voy a retomar este
frank horiggan experiance
dream town and underground troubles are my favorite songs
More than anything, just the start of a lot of the series' bad habits and an absolutely bloated game sitting precariously on top of Fallout 1's great base.
Both easier and harder than the first in different places, but it mostly gets credit for being the only one in the series to get charisma actually right. Play with stat modifiers for long enough and you can get an army of up to 5 companions (6 if you use an exploit). The companions are given a lot more characterization this time around some having unique scenes and endings but again, like the first it's entirely uneven. The world in general is entirely uneven, but unlike the first instead of blank spaces theres gags. Lots and lots of gags. I know 90s PC nerds ate up pop culture references and 4th wall breaks like candy but this is just so fucking obnoxious. Look we had a character acknowledge how little sprites we have instead of scaling down the to focus on making existing locations interesting. Look at the star trek reference you dumb fucking rube.
Storywise its like if you tried to make the worst possible sequel to the first. Your character from the first went off to establish his own civilization with a bunch of his other vault dwellers who left, but over the course of literally one generation they regressed to tribalism??? Everyone in the starting village speaks as though they are from a different era despite their parents being some of the most educated people in the world, but your character can opt out of this and choose to instead speak in detached sarcasm. Its so wimpy. We made our world really obnoxious and nonsensical, but don't worry, we gave you the ability to show how cool you are by not engaging with any of it.
The cool bits everyone uses to show you how cool the game is are few and far between and almost never relevant to how you'll play the actual game. The enclave are fun villains but you don't really get to do anything with them until the end of the game. The master in the first comes a bit out of left field but theres plenty of clues about what hes doing before you actually uncover him, the enclave just sort of show up and gun down some people occassionally and then the brotherhood finally decides to tell you what they're up to at the end before disappearing entirely. The final act is decided by a conflict between a scientology riff and a giant reference to chinese kung fu movies. Why should I care about anything when so much time is dedicated to joke characters whose schtick can barely survive one dialogue but dramatic moments like Goris' entire family getting killed get one or two lines max.
Going back to this, I don't really see how anyone could see a distinction between this and Bethesda Fallout. If anything, Bethesda has been markedly more reserved with it's tone!
Both easier and harder than the first in different places, but it mostly gets credit for being the only one in the series to get charisma actually right. Play with stat modifiers for long enough and you can get an army of up to 5 companions (6 if you use an exploit). The companions are given a lot more characterization this time around some having unique scenes and endings but again, like the first it's entirely uneven. The world in general is entirely uneven, but unlike the first instead of blank spaces theres gags. Lots and lots of gags. I know 90s PC nerds ate up pop culture references and 4th wall breaks like candy but this is just so fucking obnoxious. Look we had a character acknowledge how little sprites we have instead of scaling down the to focus on making existing locations interesting. Look at the star trek reference you dumb fucking rube.
Storywise its like if you tried to make the worst possible sequel to the first. Your character from the first went off to establish his own civilization with a bunch of his other vault dwellers who left, but over the course of literally one generation they regressed to tribalism??? Everyone in the starting village speaks as though they are from a different era despite their parents being some of the most educated people in the world, but your character can opt out of this and choose to instead speak in detached sarcasm. Its so wimpy. We made our world really obnoxious and nonsensical, but don't worry, we gave you the ability to show how cool you are by not engaging with any of it.
The cool bits everyone uses to show you how cool the game is are few and far between and almost never relevant to how you'll play the actual game. The enclave are fun villains but you don't really get to do anything with them until the end of the game. The master in the first comes a bit out of left field but theres plenty of clues about what hes doing before you actually uncover him, the enclave just sort of show up and gun down some people occassionally and then the brotherhood finally decides to tell you what they're up to at the end before disappearing entirely. The final act is decided by a conflict between a scientology riff and a giant reference to chinese kung fu movies. Why should I care about anything when so much time is dedicated to joke characters whose schtick can barely survive one dialogue but dramatic moments like Goris' entire family getting killed get one or two lines max.
Going back to this, I don't really see how anyone could see a distinction between this and Bethesda Fallout. If anything, Bethesda has been markedly more reserved with it's tone!
Better than NV
It just amazes me how good classic fallout are. It's sad to know that we probably won't see another isometric fallout ever, and I hate that becasue this format it's also great for a franchise like Fallout. I wish Bethesda lets another studio make isometric fallout that could serve as spin-offs to the main entries that could still be FPS developed by them. A man can only dream.
When it comes to the overall writting compared to the first game, its a massive downgrade. Possibly the earliest example you can find of the oversaturation of what has come to be known today as "millenial writting" (alot of your dialogue choices can be pretty much boiled down to being a goody two shoes, a snarky asshole for no reason, or some reference to american pop culture, the last one not even making that much sense considering your character is a tribal). However that is not to say that the overall writting in this game is bad, matter of fact i would dare to even say FO2 has some of the best world building i have ever seen in a game, each town being rich with lore and characters, each one having its own purpose and its own set of rules and culture, quests dont feel like a checkmark on your long list of chores as each one will affect the world around you immensely, its a kind of weight and purpose attached to how you interact with the game that you dont see alot of these days, and its honestly a feat how a game from 1998 managed to do all that. Incredibly ambitious. I still prefer the 1st one though >:)
Gameplay is miles better then the first
Narratively weaker and more bloated than the original, but with significant gameplay improvements and an absolutely killer ending. The best locations (Vault City, NCR, Jacobstown, New Reno, Navarro/The oil rig, The Den) are all stellar, but unfortunately this is where the goofy ahh vibe of the later fallouts originates, and it is not because it is a part of the game but because this game was actually inferior in its formulation.
The basic main quest at the beginning makes no fucking sense and I hate the vaguely racialized 'tribal' society. I don't see this being the kind of society former vaultdwellers would create, I'd expect something more like Fallout 1's Shady Sands. But once you get past that, it's not so bad. The worst part of this game is easily the first two hours.
The same with the getting-sidetracked-by-random-BS. That wasn't really a thing in the first game. Sure, killing Gizmo is not related to the main quest but why and how you do it (do you follow the law and get the evidence and do everything Killian says, or do you just throw a grenade at him before getting Killian's blessing, etc.) sets the tone pretty well for other quests, and NPCs react to you differently depending on how you do it. But in this game, it feels like how you deal with Klamath's problems aren't really a big deal for the wider world, they just feel like random filler bullshit. But it is easily ignorable bullshit, leaving the stuff I actually engage with of very high quality.
The basic main quest at the beginning makes no fucking sense and I hate the vaguely racialized 'tribal' society. I don't see this being the kind of society former vaultdwellers would create, I'd expect something more like Fallout 1's Shady Sands. But once you get past that, it's not so bad. The worst part of this game is easily the first two hours.
The same with the getting-sidetracked-by-random-BS. That wasn't really a thing in the first game. Sure, killing Gizmo is not related to the main quest but why and how you do it (do you follow the law and get the evidence and do everything Killian says, or do you just throw a grenade at him before getting Killian's blessing, etc.) sets the tone pretty well for other quests, and NPCs react to you differently depending on how you do it. But in this game, it feels like how you deal with Klamath's problems aren't really a big deal for the wider world, they just feel like random filler bullshit. But it is easily ignorable bullshit, leaving the stuff I actually engage with of very high quality.
still haven't finished, The ending area with the tanker is so tedious, I will someday finish this game, but for what it is, I love it, though deeply flawed. New Vegas still reigns supreme in the fallout world, but the classics are close to F:NV's perfection. The classics did begin the series and have the best aesthetic of all the games, and I do love the gameplay, even when it is downright unfair at times, and frustrating. But when I do finish this game, I will have completed a goal I have been wanting to complete since I was a kid.