Fallout 2
After finishing fallout 1, I started fallout 2 immediately. I will just be totally up front about it: mostly everything I said about fallout 1 stands true for fallout 2. Gameplay, concept, user interface, visuals – all practically identical.
A few major differences with the sequel: length of game, overall storyline, and general plot movement.
The story here, while not terrible, certainly was not as good as FO1. As a descendant of the FO1 vault dweller, it is your job to save your village by finding the legendary GECK (garden of Eden creation kit). Along the way you wind up dealing with the Enclave, the last remnants of the now totally corrupt federal government. The story isn’t bad, but it just doesn’t feel as deep as the first game. That being said, everything that happens in FO2 does wind up being an important part of the series’ canon.
The other two issues, plot movement and length of game, are directly related. While the storyline is much more direct than in the first game and requires less “reading between the lines”, the pacing is much slower. My biggest gripe is that some of the biggest plot reveals aren’t made until the very end of the very last area, and if you don’t follow the conversation paths with certain characters just right, you may not get that big reveal at all (in this case, the big reveal is intent – sure, the Enclave is bad, but WHY?).
During my playthrough I felt like I was spending an awful lot of time doing relatively remedial things in between major plot points – for me, it just didn’t flow as well as FO1. The developers definitely address one of the big FO1 complaints by making the game significantly longer (I’d estimate my FO2 playtime is triple that of my FO1 playtime); while this would normally be a great thing, in this case the game is longer because there is more extra unconnected stuff to do, and not because the game really needs to be that long. This definitely comes off to me as adding fluff with no real substance to a short game. “You want a longer game? Great. Here’s more shit to do.”
This all sounds much more negative than it should. FO2 is still a great game, especially when you consider that it is ten years old. Like I said before, mostly everything I said about FO1 still stands true for FO2, including the most of the things that made FO1 so fantastic – but the things that changed did not all change for the better.
FO2 is a must for anyone following the series, and many things in FO2 are referenced in FO3, so it’s definitely worth the playthrough.
One last difference between the two games: FO1 ran like buttah on my quad core AMD computer. FO2, which for all practical purposes uses the EXACT SAME engine, crashed to desktop frequently – sometimes after ten minutes, sometimes after two hours. Regardless of timing, one thing was a given: save frequently, because the next crash was always right around the corner. How the same engine can produce such different stability results is above my paygrade, but it doesn’t make much sense to me.
A final note: The guys who crafted the FO universe began answering fan submitted questions and compiled a huge PDF called the Fallout Bible. It explains and expands tons of things in the FO universe and timeline, and is generally considered canon (even by the folks who did FO3). Good stuff – check it out if you’re a fan.