Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel

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.

The Good
The strategy and RPG elements of Fallout Tactics are top notch. It is possible to create just about any character or combination of characters you ever wanted to play either single player or multiplayer. The variety of play modes (Continuous Turn-Based, Squad Turn-Based, and Individual Turn-Based) allow you to try out a lot of different playing styles. Finally, the addition of vehicles and better traps (land mines, remote detonation devices) to the game was a great enhancement to an already fun combat system introduced in the RPGs.

The Bad
The Fallout series is known as much for its glitches and bugs as for its engrossing story and distinctive characters. Fallout Tactics is no exception. Unfortunately, random crashes and a lack of polish abound, giving me the impression that the game was released a month too early. Examples of the more glaring problems include: random crashes, misspelled dialogue, and making a mission unsolvable if you don't do objectives in the "correct" order (this happened to me in Junction City).

Finally, the opening movie and cutscenes in Fallout Tactics are not nearly as fun as the movies in the previous Fallout games. This may be a minor point, but it is a shame they didn't continue the great Fallout tradition of having excellent opening movies.

The Bottom Line
Fallout Tactics is an impressive blend of an RPG and turn-based squad warfare that is a fun single or multiplayer game despite its lack of polish.

The Good
Overall, the combat system worked, the battles were interesting, and the "flavor' of the Fallout world was mostly maintained.

The Bad
The story puts a very different twist on the Fallout world. It doesn't break continuity with the original RPGs, but it changes directions radically. The BOS in the first game was heroic, in the second enigmatic but helpful, in the third fascist. It's a jarring change that wasn't necessary.

Although much is made of the ability to have Supermutants, Deathclaws, and Robots on your team, these are available so late in the game, and have such severe limitations, that it's not really practical to use them.

The SPECIAL system was designed for RPGs, and has some flaws for a tactical game. Reusing code by replacing Speech with Driving only made this worse.

Driving vehicles would have been a neat feature if it had worked, but between bugs and bad design decisions the only viable tactic is to bail out as soon as you enter a combat map. Even the missions that focus on recovering a vehicle are best approached by neutralizing all opposition before attempting to get the vehicle out.

The Bottom Line
Taken on its own, a decent but not great tactical game with a strategic layer and background story. Given the Fallout name, sorely disappointing in story and role-playing.