Swagmund_Freud66
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Addictive and really fun in multiplayer but unfortunately the overall experience is somewhat shallow, and easy going. The higher difficulty levels are mostly just done by giving the AI massive advantages and making them really aggressive, instead of making the AI actually more intelligent. Thus making the repeatability a bit low.
That being said I have wasted an immense amount of my life on this game.
That being said I have wasted an immense amount of my life on this game.
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.
This may well be one of the best video games of all time.
Yes it is old. Stop whining and get your ass ready for it. It is a relic of its time, but that relic has such a strong charm to it.
Performance and glitches:
It actually has very few glitches and the whole experience is really polished, for what it was. The only problem is really the Boneyard which was an unfinished area, but the rest is pretty solid from a technical stance.
Gameplay:
Not as bad as people say it is. It is not hard to get after the first two hours, just watch a tutorial or something. The combat is a bit janky and can get a bit infuriating at times, but it is not so much of an issue if you just set your saves up right. The setup of the RPG elements is amazing, obviously - this is a classic for a reason.
Art style:
I have nothing to say but good things. It is very much of its time but I like that for it, for the same reason I like the art designs in old SNES games. There is so much charm and care here and the technical limitations of the time elevate it to the next level. The talking heads in particular look spectacular and hit that uncanny valley right where they need to (remember, this is an apocolyptic horror game).
The art style is very much a cyberpunk apocolyptic one with only a tiny bit of art deco/mid century aesthetic, which unfortunately later fallout titles overemphasize greatly.
Soundtrack:
Amazing. While modern fallout is too high on the fumes of 50s nostalgia bait, this game only has one song from that era and its right in the opening, and is cut short quickly to symbolically represent the old world's dramatic death. The real soundtrack is dark ambient music which is more at home on atmospheric metal demos than on any oldies hits playlist.
Horror and Storytelling:
For a horror game, this is spectacular. I remember when I was twelve, first playing this, and I first entered the glow after the Brotherhood told me to go there. I didn't even know there were more levels to it, the vibe of the place, how far away it was from everything else, the radiation messages, the soundtrack, I was so scared shitless I just grabbed the thing the Brotherhood wanted me to get and got the fucc outta there as fast as me and Ian could. There are lots of moments like that - from the Mariposa base, to Vault 15, to Necropolis, to the Cathedral - such good atmospheric horror.
The storyline is of course excellent. I love how the game builds places that feel so real. Modern fallout is too goofy and even the beloved New Vegas has locations and factions who's whole themes are based in something that feels impossibly over the top, but these locations feel genuinely like people trying to just survive however they can. Their hostility to your character being purely adaptive to their harsh world. The wasteland feels so alive in its reanimated corpse-form.
While I am not much of a fan of where the series tends to go later on, this is still one of the crown jewels of American Culture and I am not exaggerating when I say that. This is my favorite video game of all time, easily. PLAY THIS GAME.
Yes it is old. Stop whining and get your ass ready for it. It is a relic of its time, but that relic has such a strong charm to it.
Performance and glitches:
It actually has very few glitches and the whole experience is really polished, for what it was. The only problem is really the Boneyard which was an unfinished area, but the rest is pretty solid from a technical stance.
Gameplay:
Not as bad as people say it is. It is not hard to get after the first two hours, just watch a tutorial or something. The combat is a bit janky and can get a bit infuriating at times, but it is not so much of an issue if you just set your saves up right. The setup of the RPG elements is amazing, obviously - this is a classic for a reason.
Art style:
I have nothing to say but good things. It is very much of its time but I like that for it, for the same reason I like the art designs in old SNES games. There is so much charm and care here and the technical limitations of the time elevate it to the next level. The talking heads in particular look spectacular and hit that uncanny valley right where they need to (remember, this is an apocolyptic horror game).
The art style is very much a cyberpunk apocolyptic one with only a tiny bit of art deco/mid century aesthetic, which unfortunately later fallout titles overemphasize greatly.
Soundtrack:
Amazing. While modern fallout is too high on the fumes of 50s nostalgia bait, this game only has one song from that era and its right in the opening, and is cut short quickly to symbolically represent the old world's dramatic death. The real soundtrack is dark ambient music which is more at home on atmospheric metal demos than on any oldies hits playlist.
Horror and Storytelling:
For a horror game, this is spectacular. I remember when I was twelve, first playing this, and I first entered the glow after the Brotherhood told me to go there. I didn't even know there were more levels to it, the vibe of the place, how far away it was from everything else, the radiation messages, the soundtrack, I was so scared shitless I just grabbed the thing the Brotherhood wanted me to get and got the fucc outta there as fast as me and Ian could. There are lots of moments like that - from the Mariposa base, to Vault 15, to Necropolis, to the Cathedral - such good atmospheric horror.
The storyline is of course excellent. I love how the game builds places that feel so real. Modern fallout is too goofy and even the beloved New Vegas has locations and factions who's whole themes are based in something that feels impossibly over the top, but these locations feel genuinely like people trying to just survive however they can. Their hostility to your character being purely adaptive to their harsh world. The wasteland feels so alive in its reanimated corpse-form.
While I am not much of a fan of where the series tends to go later on, this is still one of the crown jewels of American Culture and I am not exaggerating when I say that. This is my favorite video game of all time, easily. PLAY THIS GAME.