Fallout 2 remains one of the finest examples of what an RPG can achieve when it prioritizes player agency and world-building over hand-holding. This is a game that respects your intelligence while simultaneously mocking your every failure.


Immersive RPG Systems: The character creation and progression systems are heavily inspired by GURPS, creating a depth that modern RPGs rarely match. Every stat point matters, every skill choice has consequences, and your character build fundamentally changes how you experience the world.

Consequences That Matter: This game doesn't pull punches. I once failed a timed quest and watched an entire peaceful community get annihilated because I didn't track the time properly. The guilt was real, and that's exactly what makes this game special.

Dark Humor Done Right: The world has a wicked sense of humor. NPCs call me "Virgin of the Wastes," rats literally know my name and flee in terror, and yes—you can deal with those insufferably annoying children in ways that would make modern game developers faint.

Environmental Storytelling: I once dug up an entire town looking for a necklace. The fact that this is not only possible but makes perfect sense in context shows the game's commitment to player freedom. Oh, and ghosts are real—because of course they are.


Technical Issues: Let's be honest—this game has bugs. Lots of them. Some sections are downright broken, and the pixel-perfect precision required for certain interactions can be maddening.

Quality of Life: The interface hasn't aged gracefully, and some mechanics that felt clever in 1998 now feel needlessly obtuse.


Install the Restoration Project immediately. It's not optional—it's mandatory. This mod fixes the vast majority of bugs and restores cut content that makes the experience significantly better.

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Fallout 2 is a game that trusts you to be an adult. It doesn't apologize for its complexity, doesn't hold your hand through moral dilemmas, and doesn't care if you make mistakes that haunt you for the rest of your playthrough. It's brutally honest about the post-apocalyptic world it presents, and in return, it offers one of the most rewarding RPG experiences ever created.

If you can handle the technical rough edges and don't mind actually thinking about your choices, this is essential gaming.

While it took me multiple attempts to get into the game even for someone who has played quite a few isometric turn based games before, I'm glad I stuck with it. I would love to see a return to the themes and feel of the older games but I doubt that will happen. Fallout 2 is not flawless, but with how inexpensive it is compared to how much it has to offer, I would recommend that almost anyone give it a genuine chance and play with it for a couple of hours to try and get a feel for it.

I haven't been able to get out the first stage, but fallout 1 was good and im guessing this one will be too lmfao