Ever since the release of Obsidian's Mojave-based spinoff, the debate between Fallout 2 and Fallout: New Vegas being the best in the series has persisted and left the fanbase even more divided than it already was, and since the latter game is in my top 10 of all time, I was really curious to see how I'd feel about the former game. Not counting the two spinoffs released before Bethesda's acquisition of the IP, Fallout 2 was the game in the series that I knew the least about aside from its troubled development and focus on a tribal protagonist, and so I found myself starting off my playthrough with the game just hours after beating the first game. As much as I loved Fallout, I honestly ended up liking Fallout 2 even more, although I totally understand why someone would prefer its predecessor.

Among other things, one aspect of Fallout that made it work so well was prioritization of tight narrative focus and compact world design through the small scale of its story, but its sequel greatly benefitted from the wider sense of scope. Fallout 2 maintains a delicate balance between giving the player a lot more to do than the previous game and retaining the harsh difficulty that made it so daunting and rewarding in the first place, as the increased amount of factions and settlements made the pace of the story much more natural while also exploring the fascinating social, political, and economic tensions between these groups and giving the player plenty of ways to intervene through the excellent and multifaceted quests. While the California wasteland still feels pretty bleak in its grimy art direction and the threats of slavery, sex trafficking, drug addiction, and the genocidal Enclave looming at every turn, Fallout 2 had a slightly wackier tone than the first game, with the surreal random encounters, fantastic and memorable character writing, and some of the more comedic sidequests being genuinely hilarious without taking away from the game's more serious moments. The increased amount of pop culture references in Fallout 2 have always been controversial, and while not all of them were winners (especially the ones where an NPC would just say a famous line for no reason and the whole joke is that it's a famous line), I didn't find them nearly as intrusive as everyone else did and felt that they gave the game a bit more identity.

Out of the many things that Fallout did right, the only element of the game that really disappointed me was its lackluster inclusion of companions, and so I'm glad that Fallout 2 was able to expand upon this aspect greatly. Instead of just two different humans and a dog, Fallout 2 features an awesome lineup of companions ranging from fellow tribals to Super Mutant sheriffs to scholarly deathclaws reflecting just how much the wasteland has changed since the events of the first game. Some of the smaller nagging aspects of Fallout involving dice rolls made their way here, though, and while none of them were as bad as those doors in the first game that required a repair skill check every single time you wanted to open them, I still found myself getting routinely annoyed by these whenever they came up. Fallout 2 managed to take an already fantastic game and make it even better, and while Fallout: New Vegas is still my favorite entry in the franchise, I'd say that it pairs well with the first two games to make for a phenomenal trilogy of RPGs.

When I started, I wanted to make a character that was completely different from the one I made for Fallout 1. I decided to pick two perks that looked fun and interesting, only to find they are by far the weakest perks in the game, and I would need to restart the game if I wanted to remedy this.

I was having a decent time with the storytelling, I really enjoyed the high concept stuff they have introduced here, with shamans and all that. I love the mystery they have set up here with the guys in power armor as well. For as cool as the concepts are, there's some truly awful dialogue in this game, featuring a malaise of sexism that is shockingly incessant. It also features constant pop culture references that I found to be so grating.

There's also some really frustrating quest design here that felt spotty, just like the first game. You're never really able to tell which of your actions have consequences, which makes it nearly impossible to dive in and roleplay.

I appreciate the improvements that have been made from the first game that help to bring this world more to life, with updated menus, combat, and random encounters.

I also really don't like that this game practically begs you to savescum, even more so than the first game, with the way that combat encounters, quests, and pickpocketing are designed. I'll probably come back later, but it sucks I'm not going to be able to play the character I wanted to due to the bad balancing.

Um passo para frente e outro para trás
Quase o dobro de conteúdo do original, uma engine melhorada, uma história que quebra expectativas daquilo que se espera dos clipes de fallout, um grande vilão com ótimos plot twist. Sem dúvidas fallout 2 é incrível mas infelizmente cai na armadilha de maior e melhor, já que o sistema é basicamente o mesmo que o Fallout original, depois de certo ponto na quest principal, começa a se tornar cansativo pelo seu tamanho, algo que pode ser compensado pela enorme quantidade de conteúdo extra