Fallout Tactics

Developer: MIcroForte
Publisher: Interplay

 

System Requirements Pentium 200 Mhz, 32 MB RAM

Recommended Athlon 600MHz, 192+ MB RAM, 17 inch monitor, 8 megs video card

Ratings
Code Issues Graphics: 9.0 - The game looks great. Nice animation and very detailed environments. Audio: 8.0 - The music is strange, but very atmospheric. Nicely done voice acting as well. Interface: 9.0 - The game is extremely easy to play. Even newcomers will be able to jump right in.	Pla Issues Solo Play: 8.0 - The game is a real challenge, and the combat is fast and furious. Multiplay: 7.0 - There is a number of different game types and options for mutliplayer games, but the lack of a dedicated server hurts this aspect. Get a couple of friends to buy it and you can easily bump this score up by two points. This game is perfectly suited for making your bud eat his words as you blow off his virtual head. Not a huge amount of maps, but adequate. Replayability: 6.8 - The missions are diverse, but a skirmish mode should have been a no-brainer. Learning Curve: 8.5 - Despite the deep gameplay, everything is presented in a straightforward and easy to learn manner. Kudos to the design team for not bogging the game down in needlessly complex menus.
Other/Notes Documentation: 6.5 - Good detail, but every time you read it you're reminded that the game was rushed. Pros: Great atmosphere and tight, challenging gameplay. Cons: Bugs, missing a few promised features, heavy system requirements for smooth gameplay. Overall: 7.8 With the right fixes, this one could go into classic territory. It’s just a shame Interplay didn’t think of that before publishing it.

If you have never heard of the Fallout series created by Chris Taylor, please stop reading now, go out and find a copy, and buy it. Two of the most beloved RPGs for the PC, Fallout and Fallout 2 depict a gritty post-apocalyptic landscape that has all the elements of an epic. Heroes, villains, and nuclear mutants all make the rounds as the player attempts to make a name (and some profit) for themselves in this ultra-violent environment. Besides an incredible amount of gameplay freedom (if you can imagine it, you can probably try it), a large part of these games' success is due to the combat. As you build up your character you can specialize in and wield an impressive array of weaponry, and all of this action is encased by a tight story and detailed graphics. With so much going for it, the series could probably branch out into every genre and never get old. But, instead of drastically changing the series image with the creation of an RTS or first person shooter, the designers have chosen to build a game around the intricate tactical combat. The result is Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, and while not perfect, it is an extremely well crafted game. Good enough to recommend despite the fact that it does not deliver on a few of its promises.

In keeping with the unique brand of humor of the previous games, the Pip Boy--a cute but disturbingly violent character that fans know and love--is back. But delve further and you'll discover just how dark this game really is. Playing as a new recruit of the Brotherhood of Steel, an organization that helps protect villages from raiders and other dangers in exchange for supplies, you'll engage in incredibly gory combat as you rise through the ranks. Bringing some of its RPG roots along for the ride, Fallout Tactics has a detailed character creation system, though perhaps not as varied as the Jagged Alliance series. Players of the previous Fallout games will feel right at home when creating their in-game persona. There are general stats like Endurance and Strength that can be increased by experience points, as well as a wide variety of skills and option traits that allow you to create a character suited to your specific tastes. You can have an energy weapon wielding doctor or a pistol savvy warrior-proficient in gambling no less. Some of the skills and traits, however, are not that important in terms of the actual use they'll receive over the course of the game. In a game focused on combat, why would I choose to excel in lockpicking when I could be improving my weapon skills? Still, there is nice amount of skills to choose from, and just browsing through them is a treat. Choose wisely, however, because your character will be with you for the entire game. You will, however, have plenty of opportunity to gain experience and build him/her up throughout the 20 missions, as well as hire and customize new recruits. There are also random encounters between missions that can provide some much-needed experience. Though, not surprisingly, they lack the intricacy of the scripted missions. You can also do other RPG-like things such as barter for goods and weapons. But lets focus on the real meat of the game: combat.

Fallout Tactics is all about turn-based combat--most successfully pulled off by the X-Com and Jagged Alliance series. Basically, all the characters under your control have a set number of action points each turn with which to perform every action, from reloading and shooting to ducking for cover. You can choose to play in this traditional turn-based mode or the faster paced continuous mode. In this mode, everything you do deducts action points from a limited pool, just like in turn-based mode, but rather than receiving additional points at the end of a turn, your bar will slowly refill. The same use of tactics and careful planning needed in the turn-based mode is there, but continuous mode is best suited for those people that may be turned off by the slower pace of taking turns-or those who simply want to try something different. Otherwise, the game couldn't be simpler to manipulate. Fallout veterans will be happy to know that you no longer have to hold down the mouse button to switch combat modes or do anything else-one click will suffice thank you. The interface displays the action point cost of everything you can do, from reloading weapons to crawling and searching dead bodies. Similarly, when you want to fire you simply hold the cursor over the enemy and a percentage value, indicating your chance for a successful shot, is displayed. This percentage is obviously affected by the skill of your character, range to the target, and type of weapon being used. For instance, a shotgun at close range will almost always have devastating results, but at the same range, a long-range rifle is not ideal. Aim from far away, however, and the chance to hit with that rifle may increase as much as 30%. You can also press 'T' and target individual body parts. Phrases such as "wounded" and "nearly dead" indicate the enemies' health level, though the awareness perk will allow you to see their level of health in numeric format (thanks, Tom). It is a simple combat system, one that turn-based veterans and newcomers alike will have no trouble with. Though the combat requires careful planning and tactics, the game's real depth comes mostly from the sheer amount of weapons and items to choose from. There are literally dozens and dozens of guns, close range weapons (from bats to brass knuckles), explosives (grenades, Molotov cocktails, remote bombs), armor etc. There are even poisons you can inject into your enemy and drugs you can take to enhance your abilities. But best of all are the vehicles. You can use tanks and various four-wheel vehicles to your strategic advantage. Or just run over your enemies (sounds pretty strategic to me)! But some of the coolest moments are when you have one squad member driving, the other mowing down the baddies left and right from the back. Vehicles were integrated in a very abstract way in the previous Fallout games, so this addition will surely please many fans.

Thankfully, you'll really be able to see the full effect of your toys. There is a generous amount of animation, so everything is nice and smooth--blood spews from the bodies of enemies riddled by machine gun fire and bodies get blown to bits by grenades. The pre-rendered environments are also meticulously detailed. The settings in the Fallout series-large vaults, barren wastelands, and dilapidated cities--lend themselves perfectly to these types of chaotic battles. Similarly, the CGI cutscenes that help to illustrate the story are top notch. The music, which consists of intense and disturbing mixtures of drumbeats, chorus, and various loud noises, is a perfect accompaniment. While nothing you'd want to listen to outside of the game, it has quite an adrenaline inducing effect. Even the voice acting for mission briefings and character interaction is well done. You can tell the designers spared no expense in making the game look as good as it plays.

But there are a few problems (of course). For one, there are plenty of bugs. I'm not going to hold back-Interplay is notorious for releasing buggy games, and their reputation is suffering because of it. I've been to the forums of a few of their recently published games, including Fallout Tactics and Klingon Academy, and the amount of complaints is astounding. I even know of a couple of people that returned Fallout Tactics because they simply could not play it. Heck, I had to install the first patch to even get the game running due to a CD player conflict. Thankfully, the patch also squashes most of the game crashing bugs and adds some tweaks, so the rest of my experience was bug free. But even if there were no bugs, you'd still be privy to the fact that this game was rushed. The manual, which on the whole is very good, mentions a "single mission" mode that is absent from the game. I'm assuming this was some sort of skirmish mode, which the game sorely needs. While the 20 included missions (originally around 30 or so) are long and very tough, the random encounters between missions are not nearly as interesting, and the lack of a dedicated server for the extremely customizable multiplayer mode decreases its appeal (though there is Gamespy support). Even if there were just an option for random enemy insertions on pre-made maps, the replayability for this game would be sky high. There is a map editor being released, probably by the time you read this, but this doesn't make up for it. After all, you have to invest hours to create a new battle instead of being able to have a quick skirmish.

But don't let these complaints sully your perception of the game too much. Fallout Tactics still comes through as an addictive game of tactical combat. It is a definite for Fallout fans, as well as anyone that wants a complex but easy to play game with plenty of attitude.

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Reviewed by Anthony Micari