A phenomenal start to one of gamings most iconic franchises that manages to get the gameplay and setting so right despite some mechanics not aging the best.

In comparison to the rest of the series, Fallout 1s general story and atmosphere are a bit of an oddball, with the focus of its main quest mainly centered around saving the Vault Dwellers home of Vault 13. Of course things don't finish this way but the escalation that does occur feels incredibly natural. The various towns and such are also one of Fallout 1s strongest points, with each brimming with fun and interesting Characters that play off the world well (my favorite being Junktowns mayor Killian Darkwater). Gameplay wise Fallout 1 also rocks, with the turn based system working incredibly well making each fight pretty exciting (especially with Bloody Mess). The games non-combat options also work well in the world, with special mention to how dealing with the endgame quests in the most efficient way requiring both a high speech and science to circumvent some pretty brutal mutant encounters.

While I adore the turn based system of Fallout 1 I can't say the same about navigating its world. Even with numerous patches and mods NPCs have the worst tendency to block you from important areas or bunch up in fights leading to lots of unintentional carnage in fights that should be relatively simple. The final areas in particular have so much splash damage going around that 90 percent of my groups casualties came from my own group (fucking Blades). Another odd quirk of Fallout 1s is how some systems tend to break quests and other relatively simple systems, with one in particular locking out an early set of high tier armor requiring a fight I wouldn't have done otherwise. Speaking of fights Fallout 1s balance is perhaps the most fucked I've seen so far, with Energy Weapons clearly being top tier making some early investments feel a bit squandered (though Guns still stay effective for the minor skirmishes of the game).

Despite all that I'd still say to give Fallout 1 a shot because behind all the clunk is a phenomenal CRPG that laid the groundwork to some of my favorite games of all time (and Fallout 76).

9/10.

it makes me really sad to say this considering the hotline miami series' legacy and its impact on games, but... this game is bad. really bad

the story, what little there is of it, is fun! its nice and engaging, and the music work is top notch as always. so why did i give this game half a star?

because the game itself is terrible. it is THE worst video game experience i have ever had in my life, and im not exaggerating. to sum things up, enemies lack reaction time, you can be shot off screen, taking damage can sometimes instakill you but sometimes doesnt with no consistent patterns, and overall the game is a horrible mess.

the custom levels in this game can only carry it so far, sadly, so yeah. i dont have much more to say, please dont play this game, save yourself the pain and money

Have you guys ever heard of the term “burned out older brother films.” It's a term to describe a sub-genre of movies that your brother would watch, but your parents wouldn't let you hang out with him in order to watch it. Stuff like Natural born killers, Jarhead, The man who stares at goats, and Etc. basically just movies of your brother trying to remember the glory days of his past but seems to forget and wants to talk about them with you and how shit it was living in it. This includes Hotline Miami 2 wrong number which a game like itself, reminds me of it. Anyways not to bore you, but here’s my honest thoughts on this game.

For one the gameplay stays the same but with a few interesting gimmicks to it. Which I truly fucking hate about it. The idea of levels/stages having gimmicks to him feels weird and off but I can see why the dev wanted to include them. But honestly some of them fall flat or just ruin the flow of the game. I can see why I felt like this since coming from replaying Hotline miami 1 and now playing hotline miami 2 for the first time. It feels off. The only levels I wish they would only keep the gimmicks were probably Evan and the twins. Especially Evan since quite fits his character. Another thing I wanna point out is some of the stage or level design goddamn sucks. Hell some of the levels are just reused and just slapped with a different texture all together.

I for one... I’m not the type of person who plays hotline miami for its story but after replaying it. It’s nice to know the creator generally wanted to write an actual story that is not something that happens left out of the field. Heck the dude made character’s who died in the first one a flesh out story and backstory for all of them in the second, which I gotta respect. But that ending feels like a cop out from the creator, which in his own words just wanted to end the series after two. which is fine. But sad for the fans of this game just wanting more. But hey at least got some fun mod for it.

Hotline miami 2 wrong number, is a game that is a big disappointment to me especially after getting back into it. But do I hate it…No. There's quite a lot of things I see from the fandom that talk about this game. Ether being a big improvement or just one big disappointment. Which is fine. But if there's one thing I hate about this more then.. What I just talked about is forcing my pinky finger on shift from almost the game. Hotline Miami 2 is probably of the the greatest torture game ever made for your pinky.