Subset Games did it again. After addictive and highly replayable FTL, they came up with a turn based puzzle strategy that you gotta play one more turn. Into the Breach combat mechanic is unique in the sense that you know exactly know what enemy monsters will do each turn, and for how much damage. It's up to your squad of mechs to destroy, push out of harm's way, or even block their attacks from destroying key objectives and residential blocks. Given that most of the time you will be outnumbered, you have to be creative: e.g. you can push one monster in another's path, and let them kill each other. And often you will have to make a hard choice between sacrificing a residential block (something you can do a finite amount of times before losing the game) in order to accomplish a key objective or save a pilot (while mechs are repaired between battles, pilots die, along with their highly useful skill set and experience). Mechs themselves and their skills are customizable. Preset squads have complementing skills (e.g. Tachyon squad has two mechs that can line up monsters, while the 3rd one can shoot every monster in a straight line), but as you progress, you might find even more interesting weapons for awesome combos. If this game sounds like something you might like, don't hesitate: it is worth much more than what the price tag implies.
You are no longer weighted down by your class, alignment and other concept that have been choking the creativity out of RPG titles. This game's selling points are S.P.E.C.I.A.L. system and intelligent script. S.P.E.C.I.A.L. character development system basically lets you be anything you can be. There are no classes (thus no class restrictions), the only limiting factor is how many points you have placed in that skill. And considering the sheer amount of options during point distribution you can play the game several times and have a unique experience each time around. The other ace up Fallout 2's sleeve is interaction with the world that is intelligent, humorous and extremely interesting. If you focus your points on sweet talking you can cross almost the whole game without firing a single bullet. Fallout 2 takes the brilliant concept of Fallout and takes it to the next level. Pretty much everything from Fallout 1 ius here, but on larger scale. New improvements are drivable vehicle for quick transport across the wastes and enhanced control over the NPCs in your team. It will make you laugh. it will make you cry. It is everything a role playing game should be.
