Fallout 2 is a computer role-playing game published by Interplay in 1998. The second game takes place in 2241, 80 years after the first Fallout.^[1] It tells the story of the original hero's descendant and his or her quest to save their primitive tribe from starvation by finding an ancient environmental restoration machine known as the "Garden of Eden Creation Kit", or GECK.^[2] Although featuring an almost completely new game world, stories, and adventures that are several times larger than its predecessor, the game mechanics from Fallout remain mostly unchanged, with the majority of changes to fix interface issues.

Contents Plot Setting Story Recruitable characters Gameplay Character attributes Attributes Skills Traits and Perks Changes from Fallout Cultural references Places Easter Eggs People and culture Items Music References See Also External links

Plot

Setting

At the end of the original Fallout, the hero Vault Dweller was exiled by the Vault Overseer for his prolonged exposure to the outside world. Unable to return home, the Vault Dweller with a group of willing companions traveled far north. Eventually they founded a tribal village called Arroyo (and lived there for the rest of their lives) in what is modern day Northern California. 80 years have passed since the original Fallout.

In the time since the Vault Dweller's exile, a new government known as the New California Republic (abbreviated NCR) has begun to unify the southern towns and is spreading to the north. A mysterious new organization known as the Enclave has emerged with the most sophisticated technology in the wastes, surpassing even the Brotherhood of Steel. Finally, a new drug, Jet, has become a cancer on many towns with nearly a 100% addiction rate, forcing many to rely on the town of New Reno to keep them supplied.

Story

A screenshot of the GECK.

The player, assuming the role of the Chosen One, is given nothing more than the Vault Dweller's jumpsuit, a RobCo PIPBoy 2000 handheld device, a Vault 13 water flask, and some cash to start on his mission.

The player eventually finds Vault 13 (the first place possible to obtain a GECK) devoid of the majority of its former human inhabitants. The Chosen One returns to find his village captured by the remnants of the United States government known as "The Enclave". The Enclave often terrorizes the inhabitants of mainland United States with their supreme arsenal of advanced technology. The player, through various means, activates an ancient oil tanker and engages its autopilot, thus allowing him to reach the Enclave's main base on an offshore oil rig.

It is revealed that the dwellers of Vault 13 were captured as well, to be used as test subjects for FEV (Forced Evolutionary Virus). Vault 13 was supposed to be closed for 200 years as part of a government experiment^[1]making them perfect test subjects. The Enclave modified the Forced Evolutionary Virus into an airborne disease, designed to attack any living creatures with mutated DNA. With all genetic impurities removed, the Enclave (who remain protected from radiation) could take over. The player frees both his fellow villagers from Arroyo and the Vault 13 dwellers from Enclave control and subsequently destroys the Enclave's oil rig, killing the Enclave and United States President Richardson as well as a genetically-modified secret service enforcer known as Frank Horrigan on his way. In the end, the inhabitants of Vault 13 and the Arroyo villagers create a new prosperous community with the help of the GECK.

Recruitable characters

Like the original Fallout, there are numerous NPCs (non-player characters) in Fallout 2 that the player can recruit to assist in his or her quest. Unlike the original Fallout, these characters are more customizable in combat AI and equipment. These characters can level up as the player gains more experience. Additionally, these NPCs have skills, such as repair and doctoring, which would come into play if the player is lacking in such skills. The appearance of the recruitable NPCs (except for their weapons) are at their default in-game visuals despite being issued different suits of armor and instructed to wear them.

The number of party members the player can recruit is based on the player character's charisma statistic. Most recruits also have personal preferences or qualifications for the player. The majority of the recruits require the player to have good karma standing and to have not committed atrocious acts such as becoming a slaver or killing children.

Gameplay

Character attributes

Attributes

Fallout uses a character creation system called SPECIAL. SPECIAL is an acronym and initialism of Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck. These are the seven basic attributes of every character in the game. They influence the abilities of the given character.

Skills

There are 18 different skills in the game. They are ranked from 0% to 300%. The starting values for those skills at Level 1 are determined by the player's 7 basic attributes, but most of those skills would fall between 0% and 50%. Every time the player gains a level, he will be awarded skill points to be used to improve his skills, equal to 5 points + twice his Intelligence. The player may choose to "Tag" 3 of the 18 skills. A tagged skill will improve at twice the normal rate.

• 6 combat skills: Small Guns, Big Guns, Energy Weapons, Unarmed, Melee Weapons, Throwing.
• 8 active skills: First Aid, Doctor, Sneak, Lockpick, Steal, Traps, Science, Repair.
• 4 passive skills: Speech, Barter, Gambling, Outdoorsman.

Books found throughout the gameworld can also improve some of those skills permanently, although books are scarce early in the game. However, after a skill reaches a certain level, books no longer have any impact. Some NPCs can also improve Skills via training. How high a Skill can be developed is affected by the character's Attributes - a character with a low Intelligence will not be able to boost their Science rating as high as a character with high Intelligence, for example.

Some skills can also be improved while having certain items equipped. (E.g. equipping a lock pick would improve lock picking skills.) Stimulants can also temporarily boost player's skills; however, they often have adverse effects such as addiction and withdrawal. As Skills grow higher in rating, they begin to cost more Skill Points to increase.

Traits and Perks

At character creation, the player may choose 2 optional traits for his character. Traits are special character qualities. A trait normally contains one beneficial effect and one detrimental effect. An exception is the "Bloody Mess" trait, whose effects (a higher frequency of especially gory deaths for enemies) are purely cosmetic. They are listed under perks in the character sheet. Once a Trait is chosen, it is impossible to change, except by using the "Mutate" Perk that lets them change 1 Trait, 1 time.

Perks in the game are special elements of the level up system. Every 3 levels (or every 4 if the player chose the "Skilled" Trait), the player is granted a perk of his or her choosing. Perks grant special effects, most of which are not obtainable via normal level up in the game, such as letting the player have more actions per round. Unlike traits, most perks are purely beneficial - they are usually offset only by the infrequency of acquiring them.

Changes from Fallout

Fallout 2 featured a much wider array of items, weapons and armor than Fallout. Most of the items from Fallout returned, but had alternate and upgraded forms: the minigun, for example, is now joined by the Avenger and Vindicator mini-guns. Item prices were also increased at stores, making scavenging for items more important. In addition to old, upgraded weapons, several new weapons were introduced for all branches of combat, thus making no one combat skill the best, and allowing the player to be powerful with any firearm. The range of enemies was also increased to a wider diversity. The end result is a much more complex combat environment.

Skills start off at a lower rate than the first game, and the various skills are also more important. Previously, skills like Unarmed, Doctor and Traps were used sparingly, but now, all skills are useful to a degree. The maximum level of a Skill was increased from 200 to 300. The Unarmed skill in particular was made much more sophisticated by adding different types of Punches and Kicks depending on the player's Attributes and skill level. Several new Perks were added while most others were retained, allowing a greater degree of customization.

Karma is accompanied by Reputation, and while Karma affects the player on a whole, Reputation affect how the player is received in a single town. While Karma is achieved by doing good things and killing monsters, Reputation grows based on how the player helps the city, usually by completing sub-quests. By nature, Reputation and Karma tend to grow parallel to each other. As in Fallout, good/evil characters react differently to players with different Karma. Also, the player can acquire certain titles (Gigolo, Made Man, Slaver) based on their actions that also affect the game and how others react to them.

Recruitable NPCs were very simplistic in the first game, and the only extent of control the player had over them was controlling what weapons they used and telling them to stay at a certain distance. In Fallout 2, team NPC control is much more sophisticated, with them being able to level up, equip armor and be issued orders before combat ranging from when to run away to when to heal themselves. The NPCs also possess distinct personalities and characteristics, similar to previous games. The recruiting process is also more complex, with NPCs refusing to join the player if he has negative Karma or before a certain quest has been completed. Finally, there is a limit to the number of NPCs a player can recruit.

In the original Fallout, sub-quests in the towns and cities were usually solved within that city, with only a few sub-quests requiring the player to travel. The cities, fairly isolated except for caravans, were concerned with their own problems. In Fallout 2, however, the cities have a great deal of contact with each other, and with the sole exception of Klamath, actions in one city will affect the state of another, and sub-quests will often require the player to go back and forth from location to location to kill enemies and deliver messages and items. To assist this, the makers of Fallout 2 added a vehicle, The Chrysalis Motors Highwayman (sometimes erroneously called the Roadmaster, which is a real car). The Highwayman, based on the 57 Chevy ^[3] with sci-fi upgrades, reduces map travel time significantly. It can be upgraded several times in various missions, and it runs on the same nuclear cells as certain weapons in the game; this element is faithful to 1950s concepts of future vehicles, such as the Ford Nucleon.

The game's overall theme matter is more R-rated, with drugs and prostitution becoming major elements of the setting and the drug "Jet" as one of the major subplots. Profanities are also encountered more often. During the course of the game, players can join the Mafia, become a porn star, and engage in adultery. Slavery also becomes an important subplot, and players can either side with the Slavers or join their opponents that try to stamp slavery out. NPCs can be bought and sold as slaves during the course of the game.

Also, speedruns take longer than in Fallout. In Fallout, players could simply go straight to the Military Base, destroy it, then travel to the Cathedral and do the same. In Fallout 2, the final base cannot be accessed until a certain NPC reveals the coordinates. Thus, it is possible to create a non-combat character focused on speech and stealing in order to procure the necessary items to be able to talk one's way through to the final boss. From there, the non-combat based character's high science skill rating allows the hacking of the final base's sentry guns to fire upon the boss. This combined with talking his men into mutiny requires no direct interaction with the boss in order to secure an easy victory. The game was completed in 17:51 on a video posted on the Speed Demos Archive website.

Cultural references

Places

Fallout 2 takes place in what is modern day Northern California and Nevada. Several locations in Fallout 2 are based upon modern day cities and towns. They include Klamath, Modoc, Redding, Reno, and San Francisco. Klamath Falls in Oregon is the city which the town Klamath in Fallout 2 is based.

Other town names are often derived from real-world references.

• Arroyo, player-character?s home village, could be named for any number of different locations ranging from parts of Arizona, to different areas of Mexico.
• Broken Hills, a uranium mining town in the game is likely a reference to the mining city of Broken Hill, New South Wales, where Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior was filmed, or the ghost town of Broken Hills, Nevada
• New California Republic is the new name of the original Fallout town, Shady Sands. It is named after the California Republic.

Easter Eggs

In Fallout 2, there is an enormous number of easter eggs.

• The primary objective of Fallout was to find a replacement for a malfunctioning, and vital, computer component called a 'water chip' for Vault 13. In Fallout 2, the player finds, in Vault 8, a thousandfold redundancy of water chips, and computer evidence of the shipping mistake that prevented them from reaching Vault 13, which is later revealed as a government controlled experiment to manipulate the residents of various vaults.
• Special Encounter: A portal similar to that found in the Guardian of Forever episode of Star Trek. If the player enters it, he is transported to a small section of Vault 13, uninhabited and devoid of any interactibles but for a single computer. Accessing it, a warning message is given that a 'water chip' has malfunctioned; a predestination paradox.^[4]* The player can also acquire a solar powered energy pistol from the floor of the armory in this location.

• Also a random encounter in the gameworld is the "cafe of broken dreams" at which characters from the original Fallout, such as 'Dogmeat', gather to talk about old times.
• It is possible to find a colourfully painted, actual Easter Egg in New Reno.

• A special encounter with a character resembling the Bridge Guardian in the Monty Python film, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail".
• In the desert, one can stumble across the carcass of a sperm whale, which seems to have exploded, accompanied by a bowl of flowers. The scene refers to Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".

• King Arthur's Knights random encounter: Another Monty Python tribute, a group of power armored individuals are looking for the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. You can give the directions for a small monetary reward or fight them for xp and loot. In the cave near this event is the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch in a chest.

People and culture

There are other cultural references, typically in the form of dialogue which occur throughout the game. Some examples are more overt than others.

• In the tanker in San Francisco one of the floating dialogue texts reads "I'd rather die than give you control". These are lyrics from NIN's song Head like a Hole.
• In San Francisco resides a powerful sect known as Hubologist, which is a parody of Scientology. Also members of the sect are actors from New Reno, Juan Cruz and Nikki Goldmann (referring to Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise who were married and both Scientologists)
• While in Klamath, if you ask the bartender at the Golden Gecko what's going on in town, he will tell you about Rodents of Unusual Size, or RUS's. This is a reference to the RoUS's in the movie "The Princess Bride"
• While in the Gecko Atomic Power plant you can talk to a glowing mutant who says "Phone Home....."
• A rare instance is the occurrence of Special Encounters, many of which include references to other fiction, including a crashed Star Trek shuttlecraft and its late crew, clad in red and blue shirts and equipped with Hypos; King Arthur, his knights, and the pop-quizzing, robe wearing Bridge Keeper from Monty Python and the Holy Grail; a 'Tin Woodsman' (a man in Power Armor), rusted motionless, pleading for an "Oil can!" and a technician Dorothy in NCR where a robot dog can be obtained (both of course, The Wizard of Oz). Found on one deserted spot of ground are what remains, after their precipitous descent, of the sperm whale and a Bowl of Petunias that materialized high in the atmosphere in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.^[5]
• In the town of Klamath, the player can be taught boxing by a man named John Sullivan, referring to the famous bare knuckle boxing champion, John Lawrence Sullivan.
• Metzger (no first name) is a slaver in The Den, south of Klamath. Tom Metzger is the leader of the White Aryan Resistance. Metzger is also a reference to the German word, meaning "butcher". When player enters his house, one of Metzger's employees says "Ahh, fresh meat!", which is a quote from the Butcher boss monster in the computer game Diablo.
• In the basement of New Reno Arms is an Idiot-Savant by the name of Algernon who can upgrade various weapons. Algernon is a reference to Flowers for Algernon.
• The robot dog NPC and potential party member K-9 is a reference to the robot dog K-9 from the TV series Doctor Who.
• In a random dialogue initiated by the NPC and potential party member Cassidy, he mentions that his father named him after a character from a comic book. His name alludes to Proinsias Cassidy, the Irish vampire from the comic book Preacher. Also, during battle, Cassidy can say "I wish I had a Limit Break." This is a reference to a game mechanic in the popular RPG series Final Fantasy.
• An NPC found in the town of Gecko named "Gordon of Gecko", reference to Gordon Gekko. The player can undertake a quest from him, and the dialogue leading up to this paraphrases Gordon Gekko?s "Greed is Good" speech from the film Wall Street.
• In the mining town of Redding, the protagonist (player character) may bring to justice, for his crime of assaulting a prostitute, Obidiah Hakeswill. This character is a reference to Sergeant Hakeswill in the Sharpe series of historical fiction books. His comments about nobody insulting his mother and being unable to die are references to the character in the book.
• A Redding mine operator: "Dangerous Dan McGrew" - the victim in Robert Service's well-known poem "The Shooting of Dan McGrew". The name also was Arnold Rimmer's alias in the Western AI game featured in the Red Dwarf episode "Gunmen of the Apocalypse".
• The Enclave's Vertibird flying machine may be a reference to the toy helicopters of the same name.
• The other, competing mine in Redding is run by a character named "Marge LeBarge"; a reference to another Robert Service poem, The Cremation of Sam McGee, which is set primarily on the marge of Lake Lebarge.
• There are recurring posters of Maynard James Keenan of the band Tool. They were taken from the liner notes of their album, Undertow, and appear in almost every town/city in the game.
• In the trapper section of Klamath, there is a creature known as the Rat God. This is a reference to the Germanic phenomenon of the Rat king. The Rat God's name is Pinky. There is another giant rat in Gecko named The Brain who wants to conquer the world. This is a reference to the cartoon series Pinky and the Brain about two lab rats who try to conquer the world.
• In New Reno one poster on the wall of the Shark Club (the first right from the entrance) is from the Japanese BDSM themed movie Tokyo Decadence.
• On the first level of the Military Base, the player finds a super mutant named Grundel, a reference to Grendel from the epic Beowulf.
• The NPC and potential party member Skynet computer in the abandoned Sierra Army Depot is a reference to Skynet from the Terminator movies.
• In Klamath, the player encounters a robot near a fallen helicopter. During combat the robot says "I'm sorry, Dave"; a reference to HAL from A Space Odyssey. This robot also contains many other quotes from science-fiction culture, including "Klatu verata nictu", a reference to The Day the Earth Stood Stills phrase "klaatu barada nikto". "Klatu verata nictu" is also a reference to 'Army of Darkness', being the words needed to recover the Necronomicon safely.
• In a holodisk the player can read the following text: "Memo: Word List. From: Vice-President Daniel Bird. To: Me. Subject: My Word List Difficult Words: Potato. Tomato...Change To: Potatoe. Tomatoe...". That's a reference to former Vice President of the United States Dan Quayle who had trouble with the word potato.
• In the town San Francisco, the player encounters Lo Pan and The Dragon. Lo Pan was the villain in John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China. The Dragon is a reference to Bruce Lee.
• A potential conversation in Redding references the word "Grok" and the practice of eating the dead present in the book Stranger in a Strange Land.
• In New Reno there's a man called Sheb in front of the Cat's Paw Brothel advertising to "booty lovers". Except for the word "booty" the dialogue is the same as in the From Dusk till Dawn movie.
• The final boss in the game is a United States Secret Service agent named Frank Horrigan. Clint Eastwood played a Secret Service agent named Frank Horrigan in the 1993 film In the Line of Fire.
• In New Reno there is a rabid boxing fan who describes a boxer named Xander "The Sure Thing" Holyland, a reference to real-life boxer Evander Holyfield whose nickname was "The Real Deal".
• There is a boxer named Pete McKneely, a reference to real-life boxer Peter McNeeley.
• In New Reno a boxer in named "Masticator" may be a reference to Mike Tyson due to the controversial 1997 rematch with Holyfield in which Tyson was disqualified for biting off a piece of Holyfield's ear, which happens to the player during a boxing match with the NPC.
• In the Broken Hills, the talking spore plant called Seymour is a reference to the movie "Little Shop of Horrors" where a giant alien plant bosses arround a man named Seymour.

Items

Many of the in-game items and weapons and other entities that the player encounters are based on real-life objects.

• "Nuka Cola" is a blue cola in a coke bottle in the game, a reference to Coca Cola.^[6]
• "Mentats", a drug in the series that temporarily raises the player's intelligence, is named after both the human computers Mentats in the Dune universe and the mint Mentos from which it takes its in-game appearance.
• There are many fictional drugs in the Fallout series, including Stim-Paks, which are loosely based on modern battlefield medications. In Fallout, they are supposed to have been produced in vast quantities before the game's nuclear war, and are used as a game device, as the healing side of the damage/healing game mechanic.
• The Red Ryder BB Gun makes an appearance in both Fallout games.^[7] This reference is inherited from the classic computer game Wasteland, on which the Fallout series is loosely based. In turn, Wasteland was referencing the movie A Christmas Story. In the movie, the main character wants nothing more for Christmas than a Red Ryder BB gun.
• In the ghoul town of Gecko, the barkeeper at the pub teaches the player a collectible card game called Tragic: The Garnering, a parody of Magic: The Gathering. Several of the cards he mentions have parallels.^[8] The parody's name itself may also have originated with the real card game's semi-disparaging fan nickname 'Tragic: the Addiction'.
• After beating the game, if the player visits the priest in New Reno, the priest will give the player the Fallout 2 Hintbook.^[9] This item gives the player massive amounts of experience, sets all the player's skills at their maximum levels, and can be used as often as the player wants. This item is a reference to the official Fallout 2 strategy guide.^[10]
• The player can find several Cheesy Poofs boxes throughout the game, a reference to the fictional snack on the cartoon South Park, they can be used to appease one of the mutated rats.

Music

• The music playing when the player enters the town of Redding changes, but one track heard comes from the soundtrack to the TV miniseries The Stand from the book by Stephen King, which was about a world devastated not by nuclear war, but by a supercharged version of the flu. The name of the track is titled, "Project Blue", and it played at the beginning of the miniseries. The artist's name is W.G. Snuffy Walden.
• The song that plays during the intro sequence is Louis Armstrong's "A Kiss to Build a Dream On". The Fallout intro song "Maybe" reappears in the sequel, being sung by a minor character as floating text.

References

See Also

• Fallout
• Fallout 3

External links

• The Vault - A ''Fallout'' wiki

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