"No artist is ahead of his time. He is his time; it is just that others are behind the times."Fallout 2 is unequivocally, one of the greatest games of all time. There are very few individuals who played through this entire monolith, and come away with it with the same opinion. There are many different reasons for it's brilliance, and every single explanation is perfectly valid. Black Isle Studios was fresh off the success of Fallout 1, and in one year, were able to craft one of the most legendary video games of all time. It shows their sheer talent as game developers; something we would see them do again with the release of Fallout: New Vegas. Throughout my play-through of this game, I am in complete awe of how marvelous this video game is.
Mechanics:
Fallout 2s game mechanics are why so many seem to have difficulty getting into this game. They're rather unorthodox to someone who is coming off New Vegas. I think that they are very much improved upon what Fallout tried, yet they still can be inaccessible to players looking for a more casual experience to the game. I will try to explain the game mechanics to help anyone get into this game, but if these don't sound fascinating to you, it might be in your best interest to skip out on this game.
Fallout 2 is a turn based strategy game. Each hit has a percentage to actually hit; making planning out your actions the most effective way to win your encounters. Most players recommend similar builds, since there is some imbalance to the games stats system. I recommend most builds only have 1 perception, luck, and charisma, since these skills are not very necessary. 10 endurance and agility is a must, and that leaves the rest to strength and intelligence.
I find the mechanics to be very engaging, and the randomness of it all creates more unease at times. Critical misses/Getting critically hit can mean disaster if you're not equipped to deal with things, and add some difficulty to even the most prepared individual. There's some instances where the combat becomes annoying, such as when there's enemies surrounding you and burst weapons tend to do small amounts of damage to multiple enemies; thus making the fight take forever. Though most of these complaints aren't that serious. Non-combat mechanics are great though, stuff like lockpicking, repair, sneak, stealing, and other things are RNG, meaning that you'll usually be able to succeed eventually, though some things are very difficult to do without high enough skill. I found it rewarding a lot of the time when I succeeded at a task. Usually the rewards are handsome.
With all the praise, comes the gripes. This game is not for casual players; who are used to Bethesda Fallouts; which offer a lot of convenience that modern RPG's have. You will mess up, and find you can't fix your situation. It is recommended to save often; before doing just about anything that you think will require precise actions to get your desired outcome. Players will also find that their builds matter, and like I have discussed before; there are skills that are objectively better than others, and are priorities for any player to level. Cities and towns are not very navigable if you're looking to do specific quests, and some people will have trouble finding certain areas that they need to find to do quests. Characters may sometimes be hard to find too, and I struggled to find characters and buildings a lot. Some areas have puzzles, and these are often very difficult too. Fallout 2 is very similar to old action-adventure games, and has become a lot easier to figure out how to play within the internet age. Everything dealing with the main quest is impossible to mess up if you do the wrong things, so if you don't care about getting every side quests outcome perfect, it's not a big deal.
Plot:
Fallout 2's plot is masterfully crafted, and is the primary reason that this game is so legendary. Everything you do affects the outcome of the story. The best part about it is that the game actually shows you your efforts throughout the game. Once you complete the game, you get to hear the narrator tell you the results of everything you did, and didn't do. It is a wet dream for someone like me who loves games that make you feel like you're affecting the world around you. It is a major reason I found a full Fallout 2 playthrough satisfying.
The game immerses you in a post-apocalyptic world, set a few decades after the events of the first Fallout. The world has changed drastically as time has passed, and you embark upon a new world. You need to find a Garden of Eden Creation Kit: powerful technology given to Vaults to rebuild vegetation when they were able to leave the Vault; to save your village from dying from famine. You get to experience the changes of the world before your own eyes as you try to find the GECK. Eventually; you run into the primary antagonists of the game; a fascist, post-government faction known as the Enclave. They become your biggest problem very quickly, and you realize you need to do everything in your power to stop them. Or else; humanity is doomed.
I encourage those not interested in politics to skip this paragraph. This game is notorious for its embracing of anarchism. Every positive outcome of the story centers around keeping anarchy alive. Examples of this include
informing Marcus, a super mutant, of Jacob; who is racist, and plans to kill the mutant citizens in Broken Hills. Failure to do this results in them dying, and Broken HIlls dissolving in a much more sinister manner. Although it is bugged, and possibly not canon;
you can save the intelligent deathclaws of Vault 13 a tragic genocide as well. This games embracing of anarchy, and powerful displays of character development are the biggest reasons why I felt uplifted after playing Fallout 2. Being able to
persuade one of the Enclaves top scientists to release their genocide virus inside the oil rig to kill the Enclave was one of the most satisfying things I've ever experienced.
The captain of the Valdez spilling all of the Enclaves plans and locations to you, explaining that he was once an Enclave member before realizing they were for "the rich, old bastards", and not the people, was also one of the most uplifting things I've experienced. The creators of Fallout are well-known for being socialists and communists; thus why they created this game. It shows the horrors of us continuing to repeat history as we are today. Why we should stop oppressive governments and markets from ruling the world. They don't care about us.
Conclusion:
No amount of words can explain everything great about Fallout 2. It serves as a testament to how much effort and love went into this game. There are so many amazing things I skipped out on discussing, so as to not pad this review out. It is still amazing to me how Black Isle Studios was able to develop this game in just a year, and how they was able to do this exact same thing with Fallout: New Vegas. While the gameplay may have aged, and is a relic of the pre-internet past, it's story continues to be one of the greatest plots ever conceived. It's overarching messages were heard very strongly by most who played it, and it exists in such a weird bubble. It is ahead of its time, but it really shouldn't be. People are still behind the times, and it only makes games like this that much more special. Fallout 2 is without a doubt, one of the greatest video games of all time. It changed my outlook on life, and I will forever love it for that.
PS. I recommend installing Killap's restoration project. It fixes many bugs with the game, and includes content that was cut just before the games release. You can download it here:
https://falloutmods.fandom...oration_Project