Fallout 2: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game

If you have a list of games you should play in your life time—Fallout and Fallout 2 should most definitely be on that list. Beautiful isometric graphics, unforgettable characters, unbeatable game-play and an intriguing story to back it all up. Both are a must play!

This might be a very controversial opinion, but I think Fallout 2 is actually a big downgrade compared to Fallout 1. That's mainly because the developers preferred quantity over quality. Bear with me for a moment.

FO1 was a very short experience, sure, but the devs and writers definitely had a precise vision in mind. The story was intriguing and well paced. The antagonist was menacing. The dificulty was often quite high, but fair. The world-building was great and it made post nuclear in the game's title mean something. Survivors struggled for food, water and with constant danger from mutated creatures roaming the wastelands. It felt like a harsh, but belivable reality. It was a masterfully crafted and original approach to CRPGs, which stuck with me for a long time after I finished my playthrough.

Now FO2 scratches tons of this stuff. The very first minutes of the game already suggest that something in the design department changed for the worse. The tutorial is not some seamless 5-minute cave, which pretty much any character build can finish and start the real game (like in FO1). No, here you have a really badly designed temple section. In my first attempt, I created a character focused on small arms with quite low charisma, which made the tutorial impossible to finish, since you don't get any firearms at this stage yet. I had to restart with a more balanced character to pass the charisma check and skip the fight entirely.

Then you arrive at Klamath and get your first firearm, but there's not enough ammo to buy in the whole city to kill all of the geckos nearby. This is when I realized that the struggle will continue far beyond the botched tutorial. In another location (I think it was Redding), there are caves with enemies, which are immune to everything apart from fire. So you need a big arms focused character to handle a flamethrower. Otherwise this location is either impossible or extremely difficult. And there are more such examples throughout the whole game. FO2 is a mess when it comes to balance. At many points I considered quitting because of this.

But the story and world-building are no better either. I can't imagine how the vault dweller from FO1 founded the village, but even with his immense knowledge of the outside world and pre-war technology, it still somehow degraded into tribal community in a matter of few generations. Then there are all the supernatural elements, like telepathy, which in FO2 are not even suggested to be true, they straight up happen before your own eyes. The Monty Python references are awful and randomly break the tone of the whole experience. In FO1 they had this rule that cultural references had to be constructed in such a way, that if the player was not familiar with their topic, they wouldn't notice them. Here the devs just shove them forcefully with no consideration whatsoever.

Another issue is that the locations of FO2 are pulled straight from a theme park. Don't tell me that a wild west Redding, highly futuristic and hermetic Vault City, mafia-riddled New Reno and so on, belong in the same setting of post-apocalyptic west coast. They feel disconnected, because separate teams of devs worked on each location and then they tried putting them all together after, instead of crafting a conscise experience from the beginning, like they did in FO1.

I feel that this might have impacted the plot of the game a lot as well. While in the first game it naturally progressed, here I felt as if I was just randomly strolling from one place to another, while always feeling somehow lost with the actual point of the main story - the search for the GECK. Speaking of which, the GECK, being some kind of a miracoulous device fit into a briefcase, which can basically rebuild a whole civilization is just absurd.

When it comes to the antagonist of the story, the Enclave is not nearly as interesting as the Master and his army. I think Fallout series struggled with trying to live up to his legacy, but most titles in the series failed in this endevour. Here it is no different. Am I seriously going to care about Frank Horrigan, who is seen maybe two times before you face him at the end of the game? He's an imposing force, sure, but that's it. There's no fascinating backstory or motive to his character. Same for the Enclave president. I first meet him at the Oil Rig. Why do I care about him? He's just there to explain some plot elements about the Enclave at the last minute. Compare that to FO1, where there was a lot of buildup to the Master and you slowly discovered bits and pieces of his plan. They didn't tell you too much though and left the rest to the imagiation. They built anticipation before you encoutered the man himself.

Some parts of the game feel really unpolished. In FO1 you often encountered talking heads, even if there were not many of them throughout the whole game. That's due to the fact that they were evenly placed throughout the game. In FO2, on the other hand, there are sometimes hours where you don't see any new face and you just read tons of text. Moreover, most assets are reused from the first game, There's not much more new to see. Even music is mostly from the original, adding only a handful of tracks dedicated to FO2.

While there are good parts about this game, like improved inventory and companion systems, it's just not worth it for me. Even if I get those small improvements, the rest is just not nearly as good as what I experienced in the first game. Balance is awful, including tutorial, which sets you up for disappointment from the very start. Immersion often suffers a lot. FO2 simply loves breaking it over and over for the sake of shoving some dull jukes here and there. And I hate that. The story is not as engaging. There's no intrigue and real sense of urgency when it comes to finishing your main quest. Taking all of this into account I struggle to understand why so many people consider this an improvement over the original. For me Fallout 1 will always be a masterpiece, while Fallout 2 is just a sequel trying to live up to the legend by prefering quantity over quality.

crashes often. cant make 4 moves without it crashing

My favorite classic fallout game! I've played this game for weeks as i just got back into it after getting a new steam account. It's very story-driven and if you don't like games where you have to restart a couple times to get into the groove, maybe play some different fallout games and come back to this one. It's really easy to get stuck, so there's nothing wrong with checking Reddit or any of the fallout wikis. 10/10!

Fun. Takes lot of brain power I would recommended that you read everything at the beginning of the game or you'll end up with a person with a stay or trait you don't like. Also their is no autosave so save frequently before and after a hard figth.

This is so bizzare it makes me wanna jump from a 2 story building onto a trampoline 10/10 peak

Not just the best of the Fallout games but simply the best game ever made!

Just like the original it has spectacular writing, immersive atmosphere, meaningful RPG elements and although the graphics are obviously dated the art direction is still as strong as ever. It does lose some of the coherence of its predecessor but ultimately surpasses it by multiplying the amount of content. Fallout 2 gets all over the place in the best way possible.

Word of advice: save a lot and to different save slots as it WILL crash from time to time. Some bugs and performance issues may occur to a game as old as this but a solution to every issue I've ever encountered has been one google search away. Even with the hiccups this is still the one RPG you must play. (And you remembered to save a lot, right?)

Bonus advice: many will tell you otherwise but I recommend to play without the restored content mod at least for the first playthrough. But I do recommend the NPC armor sprites mod if you can bother to find and get it. Its only a visual change but excellently made and looks uncanny authentic.

Fantastic story, challenging and fun gameplay. I like both classic and modern fallout games, but It would be real cool if we got another title like this.

Only a few hours in but there are already some nice improvements from Fallout 1, which was already pretty good in its own right.

"You've got a lot farther than you should have, but then you haven't met Frank Horrigan either. Your ride's over, mutie. Time to die."

The game is gold, the humor to the story to the RPG mechanics. Just... Beware though, the game is NOT made for humans to ENJOY. The game is so far past it's expiration date...

game is classic, but this version is "fixed"
i mean it is broken, pirate it

I finally played Fallout 2 after finishing the first one, and the first thing I have to say is: don’t become a slaver! I accidentally became one without realizing it, and it locked me out of a lot of content. After 20 hours of being stuck as a slaver—unable to access quests, companions, and more—I decided to use a mod to remove it. That was a frustrating experience, but aside from that, I think Fallout 2 is an amazing game.

The quests, NPCs, lore, and overall depth of the game are fantastic. In many ways, I enjoyed it even more than the first Fallout. The classic Fallout games are a must-play for any fan of the series. Despite the slaver situation, I’d give Fallout 2 an 8.5/10!

The pinnacle of the Fallout franchise, right here ladies and gentlemen. Don't mind my "time played" - add in another 1k hours or so back in the day, before Steam was even a thing.

It really is that good.

'You've gotten a lot farther than you should have,
but then you haven't met Frank Horrigan.
Your rides over, mutie. Time to die.

The original Fallout games are the best .. unlike the new ones.

One of the best CRPGs of all-time. The level of choice & consequences and the freedom to approach quests is mind-boggling. The weak point is the combat, which serves its purpose but lacks tactical depth.

i spend a whole hour trying to figure how to press the main menu buttons, only to find out that it was just the actual buttons. 10/10

A true pathfinder in the PC RPG space of the late 90s, Fallout 2 shares its DNA with modern masterpieces like Baldurs Gate 3 or Disco Elysium. The sense of exploration, progression, story, and worldbuilding is unparalleled by most modern games which have abandoned these features for better graphics or multiplayer.

While archaic and clumsy due to its age, there is a reason that hundreds of thousands of people are still coming back to it to this day. The freedom your player has to do and be whomever you want them to be is without peer. You can be good, evil, ambiguous, or inconsistent, and the story will find a way to continue to flow. Instead of 4 dialogue options, there are dozens, and each has a chance to revealing new locations, quests, items, and skills. You can play a character with no combat skills and still win in Fallout 1&2.

Did you enjoy how Fallout: New Vegas actually tests your characters skills and abilities, and rewards them with new paths if they pass the test? Of course you did, its the part everyone loves. This is the main mechanism for progressing in Fallout 2, unlike modern Fallout games which just cares if you can aim.

Brutally ruthless RNG means you could get lucky and critical strike your target in any number of interesting ways, be it blinding them with a well placed knife swipe, or blowing their brain pans out with a lucky headshot. Or get very unlucky; accidentally eject your mag, or shoot your friend instead of your target. This highly detailed world tends to build its own narrative like Rimworld or Kenshin.

After being bitten by a wild animal and crippling your leg, you get lucky and find a traveling doctor who can patch you up. But he demands an outrageous fee, so instead you kill the doctor, since there were no witnesses, and take he supplies to patch yourself up with. Luckily he had a book on Doctoring, and a surgeon's bag, meaning you've learned just enough to set your broken leg. Now you can make it on time back to town for your wedding.

This is Fallout 2.

When this game was published, it must have been great. It is a clear upgrade over fallout 1, has a lot of interesting lore/a good story. However, 20 years later, the gameplay mechanics feel frustrating and outdated. Vanilla, the game is very hard to play due to a near endless stream of bugs. Using mods to fix these bugs (liek Killap, which I recommend), the game becomes playable. I would only reccomend this game to people who really like fallout and want to play all fallout games, as I did, but besides that, it has little "value". I would still recommend it though, as most issues are caused by the game being outdated.

Fallout 2 and 1 Both have a Special place in my heart both Still repercent what Gaming was like back in the Windows 98 Days when we didn't need Remakes when we didn't have 4090's and 4K Grapichs cause the game might be 480P but don't let that keep you away! This game has a great Storytelling and gameplay still is pretty good! 10\10

70+ hours recently and way to much time on it as a kid , still have yet to beat it! well worth time and money!

Great game. Have a lot of praise for it.
Bought it few years ago, after hearing so many great things about it(they were right).
It was tough, but i managed to find my footing eventually.
My recent run was far from perfect, i saw some people building power builds to solo endgame dude, i am still not there yet.
But it was impressive to see, one day i guess.

Felt like my recent run was gonna end badly, as i messed up my save files, i was worried.
But i ended up using other skills and items(super stimpak is op) to get around that.
Was so happy game has so many creative ways of getting things done.

Once again, great game.

This game is awful, but fun. Regardless of how fun it is, it's awful. It's awful because of how unfair it is. It is nothing like Fallout 1 in terms of combat, but so much more otherwise. If it weren't for the random encounters that you literally just cannot win, and other unfair aspects I'd find this game worth playing, but it isn't. Stick to 1 for the classics.

The product of it's time, but with all the mods and cut content restored, still a fun adventure!

Amazing RPG.

Fallout 2 is the second best fallout with the only problem being the tutorial dungeon thats unskippable. Other than that its great with multiple great quest and removes the hard and soft timers of fallout 1 (the game does game over if you take a few in game years to complete your quest, that shouldn't really ever come up though)

Plus it works on the deck (trackpads) so its great to play on the go

must play if your a fallout fan from the story the atmosphere and just all around world building with characters and world design puts bethesda fallout to shame

this game is good and if you can deal with how it works then its really good i don't like it that much just cause im not a fan of 3rd person game like this though i still bought it if you area fallout fan then you'll like it like how i did love the story just cant deal with the way its played still good though! 7/10

more goofy than 1, but man is it much more playable and fun.

Great RPG, with a lots of different possibilities. Highly recommend using the fallout wiki/guides though, not using guides makes the game almost impossible or extremely difficult.

My favourite Fallout Game, Really does fallout well, Graphically simple yet thoroughly enjoyable

Game is difficult even with a min-maxed small guns build on normal. I recommend saving often. This game is the closest you will get to feeling like you are truly in the wild wasteland I would say. Bump up your outdoorsman skill and buy a mad max car because it's a huge random encounter wasteland out there.

Game can be tedious at times but the story was very good. Npcs felt like real people and dialogue options felt like they held weight. There were wrong dialogue options that would end in combat or cause something bad to happen. Choices felt like they mattered.

Don't play this with a controller
My fingers hurt now
but it is a good game

Great sequel to the original fallout. New enemies, maps, weapons, etc. Once got a critical hit for 916 hit points of damage with a Bozar. It was Awesome.

Well, it's Fallout 2. Many people love it because of it's rich and creamy plot, setting, art direction, and dialogue. Meanwhile, many others hate it for it's clunky controls, lack of player direction, and difficulty.

If you're a casual gamer, stay home for this one -- or power through it and fall in love, I don't care.

not really for me
i'd probably have more fun with it if it was easier to find out what to do, but thats really my only huge complaint, i enjoyed it for the most part it just stressed me out
ill come back to it eventually but rn i just dont think it was worth buying

this game is awesome, install the restoration project to fix bugs, use a guide for character creation and leveling up, go into the text files and enable various settings (mainly extra save slots). Also, make sure to save a lot.

Great game, the Enclave are some of my favorites villains, Bethesda really ruined them.

Good game, not as good as the first for me. A lot more jokes in the writing and most of them fall flat for me. The game also has some nasty performance issues and crashing that come up, along with annoying NPC AI that blocks your path. I imagine a lot of that is fixed with a community patch, but for whatever reason I didn't take the 5 minutes it would take to find and install it.

Excellent game. I prefer the original Fallout as it wasn't quite as buggy as this one, but Fallout 2 is still an excellent game. I wish the game crashed less, and that the main villains of the main story were more present during the game, but overall this is the second best game in the whole series. Even though I say this game is buggier than Fallout 1, it is much more reliable than any of the games that came after.

If you like the modern Fallout games, It is worth trying this and Fallout 1. If you like 90s CRPGs, this is a must play. Solid 9/10 game in my book.

very sigma, i like camp navarro
but the way to get to camp navarro is very hard, be prepared

excellent, though the companion system can be clunky

Took a while to get used to the control but the classic RPG charm still shines tho.10/10 best in the franchise

I wold pay like 200 bucks for the reworked user interface
10/10

this is an amazing classic to fallout

This game is probably the definitive "fallout" experience, although it unfortunately has severe problems.

The port/adaptation of this game is pretty poor. The game crashes any time you exit the window (tab out).
The movement system would only accept inputs of only a few squares .
The highwayman bugged a few times and so on.

Fallout 2 itself is an amazing game but it is rendered virtually unplayable without external mod support

Taking out a catheter with no anesthesia and then putting it back in is easier and less painful than any mild encounter in this game

10/10 goated

24 hours in and I'm not even half-way into Fallout 2 and I'm still an absolute weakling. This is pretty much completely down to the abysmal map and objectives system. You get 0% help - didn't play the game for 2 days and forgot who gave you a mission? Too bad. Gotta run into every building and talk until you find the guy - cos you couldn't recall his tip. Grinding in the overworld is a must which is becoming a chore as the combat is too slow at max speed. Coupled with very poor pacing, world building, a low stakes story - I'm devastated to say Fallout 2 does not live up to Fallout 1 which for me was a masterpiece.

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