I'm an old Fallout player, from the time it first came out in the 1990s, and this is the single most important thing I'd like you consider.

Please don't ask for hints about the story or the puzzles in Fallout and Fallout 2 unless you're absolutely, utterly stuck.

I know it's common nowadays to reference fansites, guides, walkthroughs, FAQs, and forums like this one as you play games. Heck, I even do it myself for certain games, maybe because I'm pressed for time, or maybe because I'm just impatient. I know sometimes you really are stumped and just need a nudge in the right direction. But I beg you, don't spoil your first playthrough of Fallout and Fallout 2 by constantly referring to the net for hints. Every time I see someone doing this, it makes me sad because I know you're spoiling it for yourself, and I guarantee you will regret it in the end.

You never get a second chance to play a great game for the first time, so go slow and relish the experience. If you get stuck on something and find it frustrating, take a break and come back later. Practice patience. Go to another part of the game and try something different before coming back to the part where you got stuck. In short, exhaust every possibility before you accept having the answer handed to you. If you must seek help, ask for only the hint or information you absolutely need, and no more. There will be plenty of time later for speed runs and powergaming.

Heed my advice. You will be glad you did.

I'd agree with that, I'd also recommend players avoid save scumming. Fallout 1\2 aren't that hard anyway, compared with something like Wizardry 4...

I doubt most of today's gamers would get through one Gold Box battle :p

I've played Fallout 2 using a walkthrough and still it has become my all time favourite game and only RPG I have finished more than once

blind wandering around if you don't know how to solve some quest makes any game ten times less enjoyable than having a look into a walkthrough... who has the time these days to play in a stuck momentum for 2 hours trying to figure out what to do ?

but I agree it's not worth looking for a story plot If you haven't played the game yet... some time ago I was just watching some youtube RPG videos and accidently got told by some PRICKS the plot of Planescape Torment and KOTOR 1

some youtube star-wannabies just can't do a review without blasting out spoilers all around them
it¨s dangerous to read anything about a game if u haven't played it yet


and one memory which just came up to my mind, when Gothic 2 came out and have been reviewed by PC gaming magazines I have read a review that was completly spoiling the story of first Gothic, which I have been playing at that time, I was like 12 years old and I have spent all night crying because I knew what was going to happen in the game
hell yes I was trying so bad to pretend I don't know whats coming next... but it was there, deep inside my head :( dang!

I would disagree with you there when it comes to Fallout. I had hours of fun just wandering around the desert, never knowing exactly what might show up.

Eh, with games like Fallout/Fallout 2/Arcanum its often prudent to save often just in case you hit a game breaking bug.

Definitely! Although I regard Fallout and Fallout 2 as the best RPGs ever made, they are riddled with bugs. Mostly small bugs, but lots of them.

Although I too would avoid against "save-scumming", sometimes (usually due to aforementioned bugs), dialogs may not go as you would have expected. While you can (normally) continue with the game, there are a number of situations where you effectively lock yourself out of a quest, or are unable to complete a quest - sometimes due to dialogs having the wrong scripts associated to them, and sometimes due to the way the game does "speech checks". I'm sure there are people on here who would regard this as "part of the game", but to be locked out of a quest or not receiving the rewards due to a dice roll is a bit crappy, and often it's difficult to tell if it's due to that or a script bug. There are cases where these rolls are fine (e.g. bargaining for a better price for mission completion), but in others it's just annoying.

I tend to never save-scum on random encounters though - unless I get wiped out of course!

I'd recommend using the RP 2.2 Beta or RP 2.1.2b, as they not only fix bugs but also add in bits that were missed. The devs of the RP have tried to remain close to canon, so they don't change the game drastically.

One final thing: although I wouldn't look at a walkthrough unless you have to (and I agree wandering around aimlessly can be fun - there are lots of "special" encounters to find and I haven't found anywhere near all of them yet!), it <i>might</i> pay to check out a character creation guide. Character creation guides are typically created with the bias of the creator, and may not reflect your style; however, there are some skills that are more useful than others in Fallout than others (some are actually totally useless). Fallout 2 fares a little better, but the rule still kind of holds. Personally I would be a bit annoyed to find out that skill X actually doesn't do what I think it does due to the way the devs designed it - although it's pretty easy to level up in both Fallout and Fallout 2 anyway, so if you discover this on your own you're probably not going to be <i>that</i> far out. Hopefully...

Personally I wouldn't suggest looking at a character creation guide until after your first game. Yes, some skills are better than others, and some don't work the way they're supposed to, but sub-optimal character creation is not going to prevent you from winning, and in some cases it opens things up that you might not otherwise see. Both Fallouts even have special dialogue and quest-solving options for characters with Intelligence scores of 1.

Like I said, once you've enjoyed discovering the game on your own, you can go back and create the most powerful character possible. It's easy to do, and makes the game really easy. Doing that the first time is going to take some of the fun away though.

Not everyone has weeks to spend on a single game. GOG backlog can be dozens of titles, plus new AAA and indie games arrive all the time.
I see nothing wrong with checking a guide for the town when you are ready to leave it. Otherwise, you will not know about the stuff you missed until a subsequent playthrough (if that).

You're only cheating yourself. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Why does getting 100% matter, is the important bit here. Just roleplay through the game and get what you get!

I remember playing Fallout 2 years before, and remember there's a particular button for quick switch weapon during combat. Right now I'm trying to play Fallout 1 and can't find the correct button. Even the manual didn't say anything about switching weapon except by spending 4AP opening my inventory. Help.

Edit: Never mind. Found it. It was B. I swear that I already hit every button available on my keyboard before this.

If you have sfall, you can use middle mouse button to switch weapons.

So that you experience more of the story, and when someone mentions a fragment from the game, you are able to relate.

That assumes you play multiple times, which can be too much to ask.

I agree that using a character creation guide can skew things - that's why I mentioned that you need to be aware that these guides are written with the biases of the author. It's mainly useful in F1/F2 because the game looks like you can play the game using many more styles than is the actual case. There are lots of styles that will work, but there are some things that don't actually do anything - often due to not being implemented properly. That's what I used it for - I didn't take all of the advice, and I certainly didn't want to create the "ultimate" character, on my first or <i>any</i< playthrough, since it's an RPG and there need to be strengths and weaknesses to every character IMO (otherwise you could just play an adventure game).

On getting 100% - I too like to try to find everything possible, and so I tend to have the habit of checking guides for an area <i>after</i> I've finished it. It's handy to know you've missed something, so you can do it next time - or possibly to see if you could have gotten a better reward or handled something differently. True you could play the game again, but to truly find all the possibilities you'd have to replay the game many times. Additionally, there are times when I find that my way of doing things was actually better than that suggested by a particular guide - which makes me glad I didn't refer to the guide until after the area...

@cah - not sure playing through multiple times is too much to ask, unless you either have a vast library of games to play through, didn't like it enough to replay it, or work too much to enjoy life (or care about strange things such as family or friends, which you humans are wont to do sometimes).

Personally, I'd rather replay Fallout 2 100 times (on my 4th or 5th playthrough now, trying the latest RP) than spend the same amount of time (or more) grinding my way through some game designed to be a grind-fest so that the players spend as many months (with subscription) on it as possible - IMO that's crappy game design. F1/F2 are great in that you NEVER have to grind, there's always something interesting to do (but if you want to explore the desert you're free to do so).

I think spoiler-free guides that don't hint at things to come are fine. Explaining just how important combat skills are, in general, is not a bad idea. I don't even mind a vague suggestion of "don't expect to see much use out of this skill".

Now I HATE guides that say "don't do x, because you can expect to bump into y later on in the game, which will make x moot." I do not want to create a character in a game I've never played before based on clairvoyant prediction about specific future events. Yes, on a second playthrough you can't help it, but it's definitely a first time buzz-kill.
I also hate guides that practically hint at you being stupid if you dare to go outside established "good" character builds.

There's no need to play to perfection. There's room for error. But not too much! The first Fallouts are survival games. Some bad decisions can haunt you the rest of the game. Some guidance seems reasonable.