I've recently re-played Fallout 1 and decided to give Fallout 2 another spin as well. F1 replay blew me away with tons of content that I previously didn't see, interesting in-game situations and a very deep, imaginative setting. F2 frustrated and eventually bored me. - You start with absolutely no resources and are expected to grind boring fetch quests and low-level enemies. This is just bad design. - The original imaginative setting was "augmented" with lots of nonsense. 1930-style mobsters. Several kinds of aliens. Talking deathclaws. Previously secret remnants of US government that have better technology than Brotherhood of Steel. It's way less coherent than the fist game. - Almost every aspect of F1 was somehow diluted. A lot of lazily designed quests. A lot of lazily designed locations. A lot of encounters that are either absolutely deadly or just boring cleanup depending on whether you're over some level threshold. There are many new weapons, but most of them are only marginally different from one another. Mk II leather and metal armor make upgrades feel less impactful. - F1 had a lot of cross-location interactions. This isn't much of a thing in F2. Locations here feel like isolated theme parks. - There is not enough space here to describe more complex differences in design approach, but the overall philosophy of design is very different between F2 and F1. It's mind-boggling that a low of people don't see that the two games are very different in many fundamental ways. The only aspect of the game that was clearly improved is companion handling. Companions now can level up, wear armor and some of them can help you with non-combat skills. If you want to avoid grinding boring content, you probably want to read about all perks, skills and attribute effects in advance and level up according to some plan. You can't afford to waste anything in the beginning of the game. Overall, for people who liked Fallout 1 and want "more" I suggest to get New Vegas.
I played Fallout many years ago. Decided to give it another spin for no particular reason other than I felt playing a classic RPG. It's actually very enjoyable. My current adventure is very different from the last two and either I forgot a ton, or I'm actually discovering a lot of new content this time around. I think the best part about Fallout gameplay is that unlike most other RPGs it does not have the dominant gameplay "style". You aren't expected to always fight, or always sneak or be a great conversationalist. Not within the same game and using the same character. You can try things and sometimes fail, then recover either by using brute force or running away. You can even partially compensate for your character deficiencies by using in-game objects (books, drugs, explosives, etc). So there are three separate ways in which the game is open-ended. You can chose how to develop your character at each stage of the game. This is somewhat standard for RPGs. Then you can chose how to approach a particular quest or problem. This less standard. Finally, you can largely chose where to go, when to go there and what to do. This is great. I like the diversity of non-combat or "helper" items. (Ropes, tools, books, water flasks. All are usable or useful in some way.) I like the fact that there are only a handful or armors and they provide drastically different levels of protection. Makes each one a meaningful acquisition. Weapons are a bit more varied, but not the same ridiculous level as in most fantasy games. Less is more. The setting is what this game is renowned for, for a good reason. The worst part about the game is probably the awful AI of your companions who don't level up, can't use armor, can't use most drugs and can't be directly controlled. (You can arm them with decent guns, though.) The second worst is the fact that at higher levels of combat it becomes more random. Someone can lend a critical hit that bypasses damage reduction. Hard to mitigate.
It's a very beautiful game. The hand-drawn visuals, the effects, the animations, the music, the voice-overs are absolutely amazing. It's also engaging. I initially though it might be as good as The Longest Journey. The are some similarities. Unfortunately, it's not nearly as deep. It elicits emotions through music and visuals, rather than dialogs and other content. There are no strong overarching themes, and the story-line is pretty straightforward. I like Anne as the character, but the rest of the cast are a bit shallow. Platforming and puzzles are all right. I'm not a big fan of either in any game, but here developers managed to hit the spot where both are challenging without being frustrating. Overall, my rating would is: I do not regret playing this game. For the reference, I use the following linear scale: ★ - Garbage. ★★ - Occasionally entertaining, but mostly a waste of time. ★★★ - I do not regret playing the game. Could be fun, but not something I would urge you to play. ★★★★ - Enjoyable and generally recommended. ★★★★★ - Timeless classic. Everyone must play.
