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I still fondly remember playing Wasteland. I remember following the directions to read the game's text out of the manual when someone spoke or an event occurred. That was how it was done in those days. Last year Interplay released Fallout, a more graphic interactive post apocalypse role-playing game (RPG). It was, by far, one of the best games of that year, and easily one of the best RPGs of all time. It was voted RPG of the year by numerous publications, but it went pretty much unappreciated by the general public. I didn't think any other game along the lines of Fallout could do what Fallout did. It blended humor and disgusting visuals into a wonderful game. Well, the guys over at Black Isle and Interplay have done it again.

Fallout 2 starts in a village founded by your character in Fallout, and carries on with the descendants. The perfect blend of humor and game play are found here just like in the original. Instead of finding a water chip and saving humankind from Super Mutants, you have to find the Garden of Eden Creation Kit (a.k.a. GECK) and save humans from a failing environment. You set out in your grandfather's vault suit into the vast wasteland to find Vic the trader. Along the way you will run into giant lizards (which are a pain to kill), the Rat-God, a robot, and various other obstacles. What is really scary is that this is just between your village and the first town!

If you have read my review of Fallout, you know that I loved it and would consider it one of my top 10 games of all time. No other series of games in history has 2 of my top ten, so this is a first. If you haven't played Fallout, that is ok since you don't need to have played the first one to play this one, just make sure you read the first 10 pages of the manual to get the background story. Better yet, go out and get the original Fallout before you play Fallout 2. It is worth it.

OK, picture this: you are called by the village elder to be the chosen one after you pass a test. You pass the test and go out into the world to find the GECK. Unlike Fallout, you start out with nothing other than a spear and a few mind altering healing packs. So don't expect to go blowing people's heads off right away. Make sure you visit all of the tents in town before you leave, you will get some valuable lessons there. I have only put about 12 hours into this, so I really haven't gotten all that far, but I can tell you that those hours have been great.

100% fun is all I can tell you about this one. At the start, you are pretty weak and you won't be able to tackle too much without getting your butt kicked, but you will try. When you die you will immediately load it back up and try again. It will grip you in a fervor and you will not quit playing until you can't hold your eyes open any longer. That is what I consider a game with truly great gameplay. Fallout has that by the bucket load.

Here are my suggestions for you before you dive in and explore the outside world: take your time, kill what you can, and run from what you can't. It is that simple. I unfortunately don't follow my own advice very often and have a tendency to not give up until I win. I am happy to say that that just doesn't work here-- if you aren't smart you can't win. The side quests and subplots are intricate and sometimes hard to spot. Make sure you talk to everyone you can, get a few people in your party, and in general have fun.

So far I have made absolutely no headway on the main quest of the game, all I have been focusing on are the subquests. They do take time and are completely absorbing, but if you are like me you want to do everything in an RPG that you can. It makes the game fun. Thank god Fallout 2 takes people like me into consideration, there are more subquests than I think I can deal with.

If Fallout 2 is as good as Fallout was then, it will be on my hard drive well into next year waiting to be replayed time after time. The sheer number of hours required to win this game guarantees you will be playing for a long time, and you will be happy about it. I still play Fallout to this day, and I think it has been suplanted by Fallout 2 for the #1 slot on my top ten list.

Longevity of games is a funny thing. Some types of game are considered long living if they last a month yet others can hang around for months to years and still be considered new. Role-playing games fall into the second of those groups I just mentioned. A good role-playing game will stick around for years. Fallout and Fallout 2 are going to be around for a long time, I just hope there is going to be Fallout 3 and 4. The way these guys wrote these games makes them instant classics.

Controlling anything in Fallout 2 is as simple as a click of the mouse. Your right mouse button will allow you to change the function of your cursor, then you use your left mouse button to perform whatever function you just decided on. Simple as it gets. Of course there are some other controls you will need to use but the mouse is the only input device you need to play.

Inventory is one of the many things accessed from the main interface bar at the bottom of the screen. Others that are there are your vital statistics, character stats, weapon status, secondary skills (like lockpicking), and your Pipboy2000. If you played Fallout you are familiar with the Pip, but if not here is a brief description: Pipboy stores your quest status information, any logs you have made, maps, and your all important alarm clock. This is the same exact pip your grandfather used in Fallout and is considered holy by your tribesman. Use it wisely.

The other main aspect of controlling things is when you get into a converstation. To an extent you are allowed to say what you want to whomever you are conversing with. Below their potrait is the text of the conversation from them, and a list of choices for your responses. These responses range from courteous to downright vulgar. How you respond is up to you. On the same screen is the barter option, I suggest you don't anger someone before you try to buy something from him or her, not a good business practice.

The classic overhead offset isometric view is the only option. It works quite well. The only time you can really complain about this view style is when you are beside a wall or such and can't see anything, which is usually not a problem due to your transparent bubble effect.

Animation is incredibly smooth and I have yet to find any glitch on any of the animations for the conversation window or during combat situations. As far as environmental effects go, Fallout 2 is great. You would expect after a nuclear war that everything would be ugly, drab, and dark. Bingo! Spooky as hell is the best word for it.

The texturing for all of the tiles are great, but I do have only one problem with the tiles themselves. There aren't enough different wilderness tiles. That was my only complaint with Fallout, but when weighed out against gameplay it really amounts to nothing. After all, this isn't about amazing graphics, it's about gameplay. Movement is carried out via a hexagon (6-sided polygon) cursor. The overall map is set up as a series of tiles. All in all it works and looks great.

Graphics are very important, but another aspect of the game can enhance or detract from the mood of the overall game. Sound. Music scores can make an eerie landscape downright frightening, and sound effects can make combat feel more solid. Fallout has one of the spookiest soundtracks I have ever heard, totally enhancing the mood of the game. Sound effects are nice as well. Whether it is the muzzleblast of your pipegun or the squealing of a mutated gecko, the effects are brilliant.

Installing this game is a breeze. You have four options for install size, ranging from small (20mb) to huge (600mb). If you have the room I would recommend the larger install, it reduces loading time and everything will run smoother.

When starting for the first game on Fallout 2 you will have to design or pick a character. You are supplied with 3 choices for pregenerated, or you can make your own. For you first time players I would suggest one of the pregenerated, you can always come back and start a new one after you get a feel for what you need. You can also modify any of the pregenerated characters if you feel the need, this is the option I went for when I modified Narg at the start.

My only other suggestion is that as soon as you get into the game go to the settings and turn RUN=ALWAYS. You will get tired of you character walking all of the time-- trust me on that one. As far as the other settings, you can turn off gore, taunting, or foul language, but why would you do that? It takes away from the game if you do. But, as I said, that is your decision.

Overall I would call Fallout 2 hands down one of the top 5 games of the year, and easily the best RPG game yet this year. If you are a fan of RPG's then you have to give this one a shot. If you don't particularly care for this style of game I would suggest you give it one last chance. Fallout 2 could easily sway your opinion.

I would like to congratulate Black Isle and Interplay on another great game in this Post Nuclear Series. Great work, great game. Make sure to talk about Fallout2 in our Fallout 2 forums!