Fallout 2

Taking place many years after the original Fallout, Fallout II places you in the gecko gut-stained boots of your own descendant. For your withering tribal village, you seek a Garden of Eden Creation Kit, a miraculous and fabled gizmo issued to the Vaults (surprise, surprise), intended to miraculously terraform the Earth and recreate civilization. You, who automatically earned the status of Chosen One due to your lineage, get to take a spear and the treasured Vault 13 jumpsuit, and go find it.

My dry description aside, I haven't played any RPG that had the same strange appeal and lasting quality. Fallout redefined RPGs with its post-apocalyptic gunslinging gameplay, now Fallout II takes the redefinition and makes a whole lot of fun of it.

Though it retains the ragtag, gritty backdrop of Fallout, the sequel takes itself *far* less seriously and keeps an attitude of upbeat, perky cynicism combined with silliness throughout. Movie quotes and inside jokes abound, from "The Wizard of Oz" to "Austin Powers," from Macbeth to Mike Tyson. Everywhere you go, somebody's got a snide comment that is a reference to something, somewhere. I've learned more movie lines from Fallout II than from movies themselves. It's a cross-section of American pop culture, to be sure.

The graphics have changed little from the original Fallout, but it's hard to mind, because nothing was really wrong with them in the first place. The music is unobtrusive and always appropriate, it truly evokes the wandering-the-dusty-wastelands feel the Fallout universe has always intended to have. Sound effects are roughly the same but effective as always, lots of very nice, appetite-inducing sounds of gunfire and its effects. The voice-acted characters are enjoyable as ever, and your choices for responses in dialogue are sometimes so side-splitting that you'll have just one more reason to save your game before talking to *anybody*. ("Hey! I worked hard to earn the 9 Perception and Intelligence required to reach this dialogue node! Who are you calling a moron?!")

Despite the fact that there are almost no changes in the interface, Fallout II has enough adventure, storyline, and lung-destroying humor to keep both fans of the original game and newcomers playing, and almost certainly multiple times, because there are many things you will miss on the first go-round. To fully appreciate everything Fallout II has to offer, you'll have to go through it a few times with different characters - which, by the end, will feel like a very, very good idea, because Fallout II is every bit as good as the original, with a delightful new pretension towards cynical humor to boot.

Within the world of isometric RPGs, it's my firm opinion that this game is the best. Obviously there are some minor problems, but these pale beside the retro-style kitsch, the incredible humour, the easy interface and the free-form play available.

The only pathetic gripes with the game are that the graphics are perhaps a little mediocre, but the point is that these games centre more around what you do then what it looks like.

It's unfortunate that the idea of a sci-fi roleplay has slipped into the background in favour of the standard fantasy genre, because if people checked out the Fallout series then I'm sure many would change their minds.

Some of the little touches that make this game so great are the kitschy references to current pop culture. The opening sequence resembles a 50's bomb-shelter public service film, while all the interfaces have the old-style push buttons and heavily-riveted construction common to Korean War era military equipment.

During game play, look for some of the computers to randomly display messages such as "just what do you think you're doing, Dave?" (2001) and "you now have 30 seconds to reach minimum safe distance" (Aliens), and so forth.

If you like your combat a little grittier than in Baldur's Gate and other CRPG's, set the gore filter (the game is designed to be played by most age levels) to maximum and enjoy the carnage. Or, you may be more involved by the puzzle-solving aspects of some of the missions, such as solving a murder or repairing a nuclear reactor.

This game feeds both the hack-and-slash and intellectual needs of today's computer role-player.

How many times have i played and finished this game?

I have no idea! I bought this game when it came out. I had never played the first part but this game got so many good reviews, i had to see it for myself. Life has never been the same again.

This game really is the Ultimate RPG game. You can do almost anything you want.

-Be a good guy -Be a bad guy -Become a price fighter -Buy/Sell Slaves -Go visit a Prostitute, or star in an adult movie -Get a car and cruise the wastelands

And many more things. You get lots of different skills which you can apply to your character. Do you want to specialize in Big guns or small Firearms? Do you prefer sharp weapons like knifes or spears? Or do you specialize in using your fists in battles. I always go for the last one.

There's nothing like the satisfaction you get when you take on a

heavily armed opponent and win. I usually aim for people weak spots. The eyes (so they can't see anymore), the arms (so they cant use their weapons) or their legs (a crippled opponent can't run fast.

If you like you can also try to recruit people. Ofcourse your charisma and other skills have to be right for that, but once you get your own party together, you can really go on a killing spree.

The party-members are very diverse too. You can choose to pick only human-like characters (humans,ghouls,mutants) but i prefer to have a party with animals around me. One vicious dog and 2 robot ones. I also try to get Gorus with me, he's a deathclaw, one of the many species in the game.

Ofcourse it takes a lot of time to get to the point in which you are able to do all the things i mentioned. But it's never boring.

Once you start the game, it grabs you.....and never lets go.

I'm gonna start again this weekend!

Aah The Fallout games , which those first 2 games always have some special place in my heart and it always be . This game in my opinion specially talking on The Fallout 2 game is the best game ever created soo far . With brilliant minds behind of the scene of making this game , i specially thank Tim Cain , Brian Fargo , Leonard Boyarsky and other magnificient people for making this game . You maybe can't express yourself when you met your first live . This game is my first love and it will ever be . Excelent dialogs , Excelent depths and soo many good stories behind , this game is the one of the maybe the only Flawless game ever created . With this game it helped me soo much on to understand the English Language and made me realize how wonderful RPG games are . I can't thank you enough , i hope all you guys whose working on those games are living happly . THANK YOU.