Okay so here is the next game in the series. Fallout 2 is set again in the post-apocalyptic world from the first game but takes place about 80 years in the future and covers the descendants of the protagonist of the first game. Released in 1998 by Interplay with design from Black Isle, this installment of the series is very similar to the first game in a lot of mechanics but advanced some new aspects of the game play.

To begin with I’d like to point out that the character design is very much the same, relying on the SPECIAL system with skills, traits, and perks again to round out the design. There are however new high level perks and the unarmed system was reworked slightly so you got new, more powerful strikes and kicks as you reached higher levels. This made it so you could literally go kung-fu the whole game and be as awesome and the sniper or Mr. Bullet-Hose. At the same time your fighting specialty was not a boring copy of the super-sledge wielding melee specialist. Again, non-combat skills come in handy granting access to gear and some side-quests that are – while not strictly necessary – very helpful. Targeting enemies and interacting with the world remained virtually unchanged, including those fun low-blows, with shiny new weapons of varying levels of destruction to use. Included in these new toys is one of my favorites, a car. It’s simple and speeds up transit time between locales, but it does have a massive inventory, not to mention the cool factor of possessing one of the only functional cars in the world.

One of the biggest new developments is you can now bring more than one person along in your party to help you kill things and provide comic relief in commentary and who they shoot. One big thing I wish to get clear immediately: never give them automatic weapons. In these games the burst fire and such takes all targets in the firing line into account. Your party usually follows RIGHT behind you. See where I’m going? I didn’t at first. Then I got a skull full of lead and a very confused leader-less party. Other times I actually thought they did this deliberately when in one fight my ally with a mini-gun moved behind me point blank before unloading. Point blank considers that target as absorbing ALL the bullets fired. He did this three times in a row after loading just as many times. However, give them non-auto guns and they are great support in a fight. Avoid shotguns too though, and don’t even get me started on the auto-shotguns. They have crazy good overkill on everyone, including you. Sadly, grenades are still rather somewhat lacking in power, not to mention accuracy, making it possible to huck it at your feet. Fun times. The number of people you could have skipping through the wastes with you is decided by your Charisma and can be boosted by a perk even, for those that love personal armies. Also, if I remember, your allies required ammo or else they wouldn’t use the guns they had, so party management was required at least to a small degree. I usually went solo as a sneaky, neck-breaking, pistol-sniper. Parties don’t sneak so well.

Overall, the interaction system for the world, from movement to item collection and the whole-sale slaughter of anything that looks like it may interfere is simple and very rewarding. Character creation I found was simple to plan and fun to play through, with inventory management for both you and the party being kept simple and effective. The story line is once again very detailed and easy to get drawn into, with plot twists and various advances in the story kept well paced and clear without being horribly obvious and over-played. Also for those of more sensitive mentalities the gore and language filters were kept in so some mature content could be filtered. However there is a focus in parts on slavery and drugs, though you can choose to support or shut down these “businesses”.

In finishing, I loved this game and found that despite some of the glitches it was well worth the play time sunk into exploring both the story and the broad selection of weaponry. Good writing, easy and effective game mechanics, and the same crazy and often twisted sense of humor combine smoothly to make a very entertaining and satisfying game that should leave you satisfied but looking forward to the next adventure.

Written By Patrick Keith. Edited by Tyler Clapp. All references, icons, and imagery are trademark to their appropriate owners, and author and editor take no credit for creation/ownership of these things, only the opinions stated in this article.