Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel

The Good
Fallout Tactics is easy to learn, especially if you're already familiar with the combat system (which is a slightly expanded version of the one used in Fallout and Fallout 2). The learning curve is balanced just right, just steep enough that you have to work to complete each mission, but not so difficult that you have to constantly restore and try again. The emphasis on tactical combat, while retaining the RPG elements from the first two games, keeps the play fresh.

Where the game really shines is in the area of intangibles: the ability to thoroughly immerse the player in a post-nuclear Midwestern world, to the extent that you merge yourself with the game. I found myself making up little back-stories and personality quirks for all my squad members. The AI is random enough that you don't get the same behavior every time, which can give your heroes all kinds of cool stories to tell their buds back at the base: Like the time Stein, my sniper, was really badly wounded, and probably would have died if the raider'd gotten off another shot, but then Keith my medic (who's normally a miserable shot) hit dead-on, saving his life. Or the time Farsight ducked just in time and the rocket went over her head and hit a group of enemies behind her. It has the same open-endedness as the original Fallout RPGs. There are no "right" or "wrong" choices. THAT'S immersion done right. Fallout Tactics OOZES with intangibles.

Using vehicles in combat is particularly fun, especially if you try to run down enemy raiders.

The Bad
The bugs. 1.25 is the minimum acceptable version for playing. Anything less, you'll want to download the patch Interplay has at their site. Even so, it's still prone to occasional screen glitches, random crashes, and long delays that make you wonder why it's pounding the disk so hard. I thoroughly agree with the previous reviewer who said Interplay shoved the game out the door about a month too early. It shows, and it hurts my overall impression. Game publishers, are you listening?

Also, the AI is a bit uneven. Most of the time it's good, but the enemies usually behave the same way (blindly attacking). Only rarely will they use any sort of strategy, such as trying to sneak up on you. Sometimes the AI exhibits outright stupidity, like the raider who blows himself to pieces with his own grenade. Also, enemies only react when you're close enough that they can see or hear you. They don't really patrol the area actively looking for intruders, which mars the realism a bit.

I also had some trouble getting used to the continuous turn-based mode, and found my characters dying before I had much of a chance to react. Unless you're a keyboard god and can master switching between six characters while keeping track of what they're all doing, you may prefer the individual turn-based mode, which is more like the RPGs. CTB is great fun with the vehicles, though.

The Bottom Line
Fallout Tactics is overall a very good real-time strategy / combat game with some nice RPG elements, and a welcome departure from all the fantasy and historical titles out there. It's a great game for people who like to really get into their games, but be prepared to have the illusion shattered every now and then with a GPF message.

The Good
Plenty of lattitude in character design, almost all the traits, perks, and skills require some sort of tradeoff. The wide variety of weapons and ammo available can be overwhelming... There are DOZENS of weapons in the game... From spears and throwing knifes all the way up to rocket launcher and gauss gatling gun, and each of them have different pros and cons. The graphics are quite detailed and interesting. Availability of both "real-time" vs. "turn-based" combat modes is good.

The Bad
The sheer number of weapons makes choosing the right one quite difficult. Tradeoff among the different character decisions are unclear at times. The bartering interface needs a LOT of work, as it's extremely cumbersome. Inventory management is a REAL PAIN. Graphics have occasional glitches that distracts from the overall detailed look. Random encounters can become quite tedious as it gets extremely repetitive. The plot encounters can be extremely long as you're essentially forced to travel every corner or the map (though the map designers tried their best to provide multiple paths in some of the maps). The story does not really fit into the Fallout universe according to Fallout "purists"

The Bottom Line
Fallout Tactics is essentially The tactical combat of Fallout, strapped to a random mission generator and a overall plot that spans 20 campaign missions, with updated graphics. For those of you who haven't played Fallout, think XCOM with a ton more weapons and no research, with possibility to improve your characters in more detailed manners.

I have NOT played the two Fallout RPGs, so I would not know how faithful the game is to the universe. This review, in any case, is about FOT itself.

The graphics of FOT is quite good... For a 2D isometric viewpoint game. However, it has several glitches here and there that distracts from the details. The nitty-gritty look is good, but then you realize a lot of the maps are identical. It also has problem handling multiple levels, as it struggles to redraw just the objects that are visible from your viewpoint. It has problem handling slopes and how to render vehicles on a slope. The tiled-look is quite obvious on slopes as characters don't walk down smoothly... They walk a bit, fall down a bit, and so on.

The sound and music are average and adequate, nothing special to them.

The tactical missions are quite impressive. The interface is VERY similar to the XCOM, except you can't reserve "action points". Instead, you must reserve ALL action points for "overwatch" mode where the chanacters will shoot if they see a target with good chance of hitting. You can do unarmed, melee (hand-to-hand), small guns, big guns, traps, mines, grenades and thrown weapons, and more.

The tactical approach are varied and is all up to you. Do you do a frontal assault? Sneak through the backdoor? Clear the room with shotgun or go for sniper attack? How about lure enemy into ambush or minefield? There are even some maps where you can sneak through tunnels and perhaps hit the enemy from behind. There are even a mission or two where you need to rescue hostages and defend a town from attack.

A lot of the equipment comes from salvage after battles, and the process can be quite tedious, as you must manually salvage individual bodies for leftover ammo, drugs, weapons, and so on. An "auto-salvage" like XCOM is sorely needed.

Some parts of the game are quite automatic while other parts requires too much hands-on. One of the activity in the game is barter with the various merchants and the BOS Quartermaster (who's in charge of all the equipment), and he drives a VERY hard bargain. To afford some of the fancier items, expect to find and give up a LOT of weapons, and the prices are dependent on the negotiator's bartering skill. So you end up transferring a LOT of equipment around. You basically end up using other characters as mules, as they haul the surplus to the quartermaster's room, then transfer all the equipment to the designated negotiator (who has the highest barter skill), and let the negotiator do the dealing. Then you need to redistribute the equipment (that you choose to buy from the quartermaster). Repeat for the medical officer (who sells drugs and first-aid related supplies)... And perhaps other merchants that you run across. Don't be surprised if you end up spending 30 or more minutes just to manage inventory at every visit back to the bunker. A far more streamlined bargaining process is needed.

The actual combat is quite well done, as the variety of weapons, who can use what, and so on. As new equipment become available (both on the field and in the bunker) and you struggle to afford them, and constantly changing ammo situation forces you to switch weapons, you'll develope a nice stash of weapons and matching ammo. The tactical line of sight is important, as scouts are needed to locate the enemy, and proper tactics used to flush the enemy out of cover. Most enemies use cover effectively, though they don't really attack you. Most of the time you're on the offensive as you simply clear the entire map of enemy presence. This makes a lot of missions quite tedious as you move carefully from corner to corner, maintaining overwatch and firing lanes to prevent friendly fire, only to find nothing there.

Some times the battle sure gives you a great sense of satisfaction. In one engagement, I need to kill three bandits in the first burst without them raising the alarm to the rest of the compound. I decided to sneak three people near them (they're behind a bar), then have all three pop-up, weapons blazing at point-blank range. When your plan unfolds perfectly, and the three bandits fell to the floor, spraying blood all over, perforated with bullets and birdshot, you sure felt as if you accomplished something.

The game also left the final ending up to you... There are actually FOUR different endings, depending on what you chose at the very end.

All in all, Fallout Tactics is NOT a classic. It is a very decent isometric squad tactical combat game with a random mission generator and some plot missions. It reminds me a lot of XCOM, but some of the interface issues needs serious work, and thus, it is only an average title overall. If you need your XCOM fix, give Fallout Tactics a try.

The Good
I don't care if Fallout Tactics isn't Fallouty.

I don't care that Fallout Tactics isn't an RPG.

Most people seem to care a great deal about those two areas. Fallout Tactics is a squad-based strategy game set in the Fallout universe. It takes place between the first and second games, but takes place in the Midwest rather than the West Coast. While not an RPG, FT does use the SPECIAL attribute system and the other RPG devices used in the Fallout games. At times, FT feels like it could be an RPG, with your squad acting as a party, but the linear design and lack of conversation options will remind you that this is a combat centered game.

FT supports three modes of gameplay. A turn-based mode similar to the original games, a squad turn-based mode (where all your members move then the enemies move), and a real-time mode called the continuous turn-based mode. Each method has its advantages, the turn-based mode allows for complete control over your squad while the real-time mode makes for white knuckle game playing.

There are 20 primary missions in FT and they show some variation early on in the game. One mission has your squad escorting a supply vehicle down a sniper alley, another one has you defending a town. The best mission involves a series of hostage rescues which must be carried out covertly or the enemies will sound an alarm.

Fallout Tactics preserves the wide range of weaponry and armor, it favors combat centered characters, although you'll want a medic along most missions. They also have a number of vehicles. Sadly, only a few levels actually allow for vehicle use, usually they only help in getting around the map faster.

The Bad
I loved the early part of the game and disliked the end. At the beginning, you can only withstand a few hits. Caution and stealth are rewarded, once you get towards the end of the game, your characters are basically tanks. Enough shots will kill them, but it's rare. Level design reflects this too. Early missions are varied, later missions are all about combat. Early missions seem to have more avenues towards completion, but end levels are extraordinarily linear. My biggest complaint is that missions never deviate from what is stated in the briefing. Some games (Tie Fighter comes to mind) had missions that varied wildly from the briefing, you had to use your best judgment and play it by ear, not here.

Squad members are personalized by portraits, but don't have any personality. At least in the earlier Fallout games they used floating text to communicate. Because they aren't personalized, it really doesn't matter which ones you pick. Even the nonhuman characters that open up don't matter. Mech Commander, flawed as it was, personalized the characters with animated faces and messages. Also, while in turn-based mode, you have complete control, there is no control in real-time. Fallout 2 had a customizable combat option of members of your party, I wished that I could have told Jax to stop hitting me with the damn Uzi. Also it would have been nice if they had the initiative to heal themselves or switch weapons if they ran out of ammo.

RANTS

Bandaging isn't funny! Performing first aid a lot does NOT turn people into mummies.

Enough with the random encounters! I would have loved to have adjusted the frequency of random encounters.

Four endings is nice, but getting the best ending is so hard I consider it a major bug!

WORST MANUAL EVER! Fallout games should at least have kick ass manuals. This one sucked. Cheaply made, lacks vital information, and has many typos (as the in-game text has too). "Levle 9"?

SPECIAL NOTE- The game has a tough guy option that gets rid of in-mission saves in return for much more experience. While missions are very long, I can see using this option for all the extra xp BUT this game tends to crash so keep that in mind if you choose that option.

The Bottom Line
Bottom line, Fallout Tactics is mostly good, and well worth the $20 I paid for it. It isn't an RPG, but were you pissed when LucasArts released Dark Forces instead of another X-Wing game?

Oh, get the latest patch (God help you if you need the 80 meg one) the game will still be buggy, but at least it's playable.