Fallout 2

About Fallout 2

Fallout 2 (1998) is Black Isle Studios' post-nuclear RPG sequel, in which the Chosen One leaves a drought-stricken tribal village to find a G.E.C.K. and runs into the Enclave, made in about nine months and ranked among the best RPGs ever.

Fallout 2 in Depth

In 2241, about 80 years after Fallout, the tribal village of Arroyo suffers its worst drought on record, and the village elder, daughter of the first game's Vault Dweller, sends her child, the Chosen One, to find a Garden of Eden Creation Kit capable of turning wasteland into a thriving community. The trail leads to Vault 13, now inhabited by intelligent Deathclaws, and on returning home the Chosen One finds the village captured by the Enclave, the remnants of the US government. On the Enclave's offshore oil rig, its people plan to release an airborne version of the Forced Evolutionary Virus to kill anyone with mutated DNA, and the Chosen One must free the captives and destroy the rig, killing President Dick Richardson and the cybernetic Super Mutant Frank Horrigan.

Players pick a pre-made character or build one from seven statistics, strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility and luck, plus 18 skills, optional traits and 69 perks earned while levelling. The world is seen from a trimetric view; players barter, recruit any of fourteen companions and track quests on a PIP-Boy 2000. Quests often allow diplomacy, combat or stealth, karma and new faction reputations change how people respond, and combat is turn-based with action points. Unlike Fallout, play can continue after the main story for thirteen in-game years.

Making Fallout 2

Black Isle Studios developed Fallout 2 and Interplay published it. Cain said work began before Fallout's launch because that game had caused "a buzz in the studio", and Feargus Urquhart said Interplay's financial difficulties left the studio "basically nine months to make the whole game", forcing crunch. It received critical acclaim; GameSpot called it "a bigger, better Fallout", GamePro praised its mix of action, character interaction and non-linear play, and IGN applauded the developers for "not fixing something that wasn't broken", though critics noted frequent bugs and little change from the first game. It was nominated for role-playing game of the year by the AIAS, Computer Gaming World, GameSpot and IGN, losing each to Baldur's Gate. It reached third in PC Data's US chart in its first week of November 1998 and sold 123,000 copies in the US by March 2000, though it did poorly in the UK. PC Gamer ranked it third among the best RPGs in 2015, and Bethesda's Fallout 3 followed in 2008.