Fallout 1 / Fallout 2 Bundle (Jewel Case)

Fallout 2 takes place 80 years after the events in the original game. You are the Chosen One, a tribal ancestor of Fallout's vault dweller. Your tribe has built a modest settlement in an isolated corner of the futuristic Californian wasteland, but you must find a Garden of Eden Creation Kit to sustain the village. During your adventure, you'll encounter misfits and monsters ranging from gangsters to supermutants. Twice as many weapons are at your disposal, including the M72 Gauss Rifle, M3A1 "Grease Gun" SMG, Louisville Slugger, H&K CAWS, and the Solar Scorcher. In addition, you can give your character combat postures such as berserk, aggressive, defensive, or cowardly.

Parents should be aware that the games contain violence and some sexual situations. Though you can adjust the tone down a bit through the main control panel, developments that occur on the adult setting are integral to the story.

1) Emphasis on character development. A karma counter keeps track of your overall good/badness, and as you progress you are offered various 'Perks' that enhance or define your character, such as Salesman or Demolition Expert or Kama Sutra Master. Others you earn through gameplay itself. Multiple avenues of play exist for any type of character..while your first character in both games is probably going to emphasize gunplay and high Agility, later on you can try a diplomatic or manipulative or pure thieving character as you see fit, and play what amounts to an almost completely different game.

2) So many explosions. These games have lots of fighting, on a turn-based system allowing for micromanagement of both yourself and your 'friendly' NPCs. Use burst fire to take out packs of charging wolves, aim your scoped hunting rifle at someone's leg to keep them from chasing you, send a rocket down a corridor into a pack of unsuspecting guards. It's all there..and the death animations are not for the faint of heart.

A few negatives:

1) As is typical in RPGs, making 'bad' or 'evil' decisions or dialogue choices tends to screw you. If you want, just pretend your evil character secretly enjoys the hypocrisy of agreeing to rescue someone's orphaned kitten with a boo-boo on its paw; it would be nice someday if RPGs rewarded evil characters for doing evil things.

2) Armor. Basically the goal of both games is to get your first suit of Power Armor. This transforms both games from a grueling, constantly-reloading ordeal of random accidental deaths and burst-fire horrors to a breeze. This, of course, makes perfect sense...once you're a walking tank, most things bounce off. However (although Fallout 2 handles this a bit better) there is very little middle ground..even with Combat Armor II (the next step down) you get mauled a lot.

3) Uncontrolled NPCs. Sure, by definition you shouldn't be able to control an NPC, but it can get truly annoying when one of your NPCs blasts something, and then moves 1 space directly in front of your other NPC for no reason, and then that second NPC, naturally, fires a machine gun directly into his head. It makes you wonder if 'friendly fire accidents' are really accidents. Depending on your party size, you can spend a lot of time watching your allies gun each other down like post apocalyptic three stooges.

Those aside, the games are very detailed and can be played as quickly or as slowly as one wishes, with numerous subplots branching off the main plot. The first game does have a timer for the completion of the main task, but that can be extended during the game, and in fact the game goes on (sans timer) once that task is completed. Fallout 2 does away with that completely, allowing you effectively all the time you want to explore. So if you always wondered if how Mad Max would have done if he'd had more ammo for his shotgun and access to the occasional flamethrower, pick them up.


A must-have for any collection.   February 1, 2001
 21 out of 21 found this review helpful

Fallout, originally released in 1997 by Interplay, shook the world of computer roleplaying games. Quite simply, it redefined the structure of the computer RPG. Most CRPGs followed simple linear scripts: King Groo needs the Sword of Spork. So you go to the Cave of Fear to get it... et cetera, et cetera.

Fallout shattered all preconceptions about story progression. In Fallout, you can go where you want, do what you choose. Unlike other CRPGs, you don't spend your time playing "delivery boy" for other characters. There is a guiding storyline- an extremely good one- but how you accomplish your goals is entirely up to you. The plot will change and adapt based on your actions in-game- it's like a new story every time you play it.

Every obstacle in the game has numerous possible ways to surmount it. Need a nice gun from a local arms dealer, but can't afford it? Do the gun merchant a favor and he might let you have it. Sweet-talk him into giving you a discount. Or steal it when he's not looking. If all else fails, blow him away and take the loot from his steaming corpse. Fallout really IS that open-ended.

The possibilities for character creation are extremely broad also- instead of a rigid "race/class" system, you can create your character from an incredible range of Skills, Traits, and Perks. Want to talk your way out of problems? Give yourself a high Charisma and the "Good Natured" trait. Prefer more direct solutions? Put extra skill points in Big Guns, and pick the "Fast Shot" trait for extra stopping power. Or create "combination" characters- like a friendly doctor who just happens to be a crack shot with his .44 pistol.

While Fallout 2 doesn't break any really new ground, it is almost three times as long as the first Fallout and takes place in a much larger game world. It's more of the same, but better. Getting BOTH of these excellent games for one super-low price is an incredible bargain. If you like science fiction, or you like RPGs, buy this software. You absolutely will not regret it.


One of the finest games in existence, regardless of genre...   December 31, 2000
 17 out of 17 found this review helpful

Fallout is one of the few games that is worthy of being made into a full scale movie, simply because it has the few ingredients that most other games lack, namely a realistic, utterly immersive setting, a powerful storyline and, more so than anything, pure class. Fallout is rather irritatingly addictive simply because the world is so vast, so varied and with so much to do. The game has character you can taste, it has a personality that is strong and only gets better as the bold storyline, which takes risks that most other games would never dare take, progresses. Fallout FEELS real, the characters in the game, as far as you are concerned, are real people, the world acts and REacts to you. I ask you... Give me a game that left you breathless at the end, sad to see it end, yet proud, amazed at what you have seen. Give me a game that, in its every niche and pore, shows just how moch love and soul its creators poured into it. Give me a game that YOU feel, should be made into a movie and spawn countless sequels NOT because you want more of the same, but because there is far too much potential NOT to explore the possibilities in a world as rich and tangible as this. Give me a game that you think about, reminisce and dream about years after you last played it. When you do, I will die happy, but for now, I give you Fallout. Full stop.


Sweet   December 16, 2000
 15 out of 15 found this review helpful

The fallout series of games is the best computer role playing game I have ever had the pleasure of playing. One the greatist things about the game is it's setting. If your tired of fighting orcs and exploring castles let this game take you away from that. How about a tour of secert millity bases and burned out cities? Fallout does a wonderful job of taking role playing and setting it in a post nuclear-world. the fallout games really gives the player the feeling of advancing in power and maybe more importently of discovery. One of the things that kept me hooked was uncovering old secerts and visting long lost places. You really get the feeling of exploring and uncovering a wonderfully created world full of detail. The game also provides lots of quests and options. You can play how ever you like. A hero or a villain with out getting locked out of places because of your choices. The game also plays very well. the fire fights you get into are fun. You have a lot of control over how you want to fight. For example you can even chose to fire your weapon in diffrent ways depending on what it is. All in all this is a great game for anyone who enjoys computer roleplaying and would love to explore a post-nucler world filled with mutants, lasers and power armor


You'd be stupid to pass this up!   February 13, 2001
 13 out of 13 found this review helpful

Only**** for 2 excellent games. Fallout won Role-Playing game of the year back in 1997. With fantastic graphics, a good story, and good game play, this was very enjoyable to play. In this game, you learn about the Vaults that were built when nuclear war became imminent. Years after the war, you are sent out as many others were to find a water chip as your supply depleting. You have a time limit to find the water chip, but when that task is done, the game is not. There is much to do in the Fallout world where you will find friends to help you out and will have many weapons at your disposal. Fallout2 take place 80 years after the first. You are the Chosen one. A descendent of the original character from the first game, you are sent on a mission to find the Garden of Eden Creation Kit which will restore the land in your village. This is a very large game. More area to cover, more missions to accomplish, more weapons, and more enemies to thrash. The gameplay and graphics are slightly better than the first, but this is also a very enjoyable game. Both games are turn based when fighting and you can create your own character. There is lotsa blood and very graphic when killing an enemy and there is plenty of adult themes and adult language, but you can tone it down with the adjuster. Overall, you will not find a better value and will be hard pressed to find games that are much better than these.