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Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel

Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Bigger, better, a wee less fun
Review: Fallout Tactics puts the gamer in the shoes of a shakey young recruit hoping to make his or her mark in the baddest... military outfit imaginable: the Brotherhood of Steel. Players of the first two Fallout games will immediately recognize that paramilitary organization as the same folks who had the cool power armor and hyped-up weaponry which helped them survive the post-apocolyptic wasteland envisioned by Interscope in the first two games. In this game, the player does not have to fret over communication and thieving skills (as in the previous Fallouts) and instead must construct a character that kills well. That is what separates Tactics from the other Fallouts. That has its positive and negative angles.

Fallout (1 and 2) are splendid; infinitely replayable; luscious in texture and mood; mean, horny, wild, and believable. Tactics intends the player to enter that same wasteland (middle America after a nuclear war) and basically kill for the cause of Brotherhood supremacy. Every mission is outlined. Every objective is clear-cut. Everything is less ambiguous; and hence a bit less fun.

The hoot about Fallout 1 and 2 was that you could do whatever the heck you wanted. Fallout Tactics is straight-forward, almost to a fault. However, that said, it is a glorious game visually, and a clear signal that Interscope is aiming the Fallout label towards greater heights. Fallout is amazing. Fallout 2 is even better. Fallout Tactics is the same world, but a different game, and reassures the gaming public that the designers have not yet run short of ideas.

The best advice I can give is to NOT buy the strategy manual. I heard it was impossible to complete the game without reading hints and whatnot. Bogus. With patience and perseverence, you can attain the rank of General (your name) and lead your squad to victory... And help maintain the survival of humanity on the rock once known as Earth. It really is a [great] game.

By the way, the actor that plays "Red Forman" from That 70s Show plays a commander in the game, and you have to hear it!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not worth the money, IMO
Review: I've been a big fan of the Fallout series since it's inception. Fallout: Tactics is the only title in this series I haven't enjoyed playing. To be fair, it wasn't intended as a role-playing game and so the NPC's and settings aren't as complex and detailed as they were in the first two games of this title. In addition, I am currently lacking an internet connection and so have been unable to play it online (which is how it was designed to be played). It may be fantastic when you can play others online but it certainly sucks from a single-player standpoint. The whole game is based on the combat system used in the Fallout series which had some major drawbacks but which they have tweaked enough here to make it playable (the choice of three combat options: team turn-based, individual-turn based and real-time was a real help). However, the NPC's are flat and boring, the AI is fairly stupid unless you set the game to the higher difficulty levels and the setting is rather hum-drum. In fact, I didn't even play past the first mission as I really didn't care who won. This game, although it visually resembles FAI and FAII, really isn't set in the same universe. So it boils down to this: this game is (probably) worthwhile if your favorite part of the earlier releases in this series was fighting or you want a fairly solid, multi-player squad shooter. Otherwise, don't bother.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Pretty Fragging Fun Game.
Review: I like squad tactics turn-based games. I wish there were more. This one's not bad.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Superb
Review: Fallout Tactics is a great, great game. I loved Fallout and Fallout 2 (as well as their early predecessor, Wasteland) but I was leery of this game because of reports it lacked the intricate plot of the first few games. While that is technically true, in the sense that your main character is not necessarily the focal point, the game is just as complex and challenging. You simply need to recast your focus as leading a squad rather than being an individual. In the earlier games you could recruit NPCs, in this game, you finally get to run them. Your main character matters only in the sense that if they die, they game ends. Otherwise for all practical purposes you have 6+ main characters; you level them up, pick their various stats and perks, and control them. No longer need you fret that your NPC will randomly start using grenades in a hallway or gun down your other NPCs in an attempt to shoot something beyond them (this can still happen, but it'll be your fault). This makes Tactics a real draw to me, because now you can develop 6 or more (you can swap characters in and out of your squad at bases, so you can really have as many characters as you want) different characters at the same time, rather than one game at a time with the earlier Fallouts.

The missions are mostly fighting, but not entirely.. there are often NPCs to talk to, items to recover, things and people to protect, and other objectives. The Fallout games were 75% talking and bartering, 25% fighting, while these are 75% fighting, 25% talking and bartering. And Tactics is still obviously grounded in the same warped sense of humor as the others; the many random encounters are hilarious, and the comments people make even while fighting can be both grotesque and hilarious at the same time (one raider I shot in the leg to slow down his retreat started stumbling along while mumbling "...bone so white..").

Fallout Tactics is probably most accurately described as Post-Apocalypse XCom, because most of the time you're on missions with your squad. I loved XCom too, but Tactics has better graphics, more interactive environments, a much wider array of skills and equipment, and that scathing sense of humor. It also has many vehicles you can use in missions and travel around the world map in, including armored Hummers and army tanks. Here are just some of the many different tactics you can employ:

1) Make a character crawl on their stomach in Sneak mode past a pair of sentries to put a proximity mine on a bridge to blow up reinforcements when the fight actually starts.
2) Fire away merrily from inside your speeding hummer, running over anyone who gets in the way.
3) Target attacks at victims' eyes or legs or other body areas for increased damage or status effects from broken limbs, dropped weapons, etc.
4) Lob grenades over walls or into doorways while shooting in through windows.
5) Sneak up on sleeping enemies and use pointy knives or spears to avoid alerting the entire camp.
6) Dodge from tree to tree in a city park trading fire with people on the roofs, in nearby buildings, or running around in the streets.
7) Perform combat first aid with field packs and doctor's bags while ducking incoming sniper fire.
8) Use your Repair skills and tool kits to repair your damage tank or robot PC.
9) Play as mutants, robots, ghouls, or even deathclaws in addition to humans.

In short, you can do almost anything..the game rewards curiosity and experimentation. If you liked the Fallout games, you'll like this one. If you haven't, this is a great introduction.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Awesome game, but it needs to be patched
Review: Fallout tactics is an awesome mission based Fallout military game. You pick a squad after your first mission and can have up to 6 characters. You get to have vehicles and all sort of things. The story line has twists like in the earlier fallouts. Cool new continues turn based games for people who perfer a more active battle but you can also do turn based. This is a great game with multiplayer on game spy thats a lot of fun. Graphics are way improved since the other fallouts. Its more mission based so you can concentrate more on fighting stats then other stats but its good to have a doctor and so on but its a great game. BUT!!!!! Since this is an interplay game they aren't very with it on what gamers are having troubles in the game. There are some graphical glitches in the game. A few bugs that people can exploit. The game can seem to lag and believe me I have 512 megs of ram and i still had problems when scrolling ove rhte map sometimes so the coding is a little on the long side but it seems to be a more sound programing in this game then the other fallouts. Its a great game the only reason its now cheap is because interplay didnt hype it enough and most people don't know about it or fallout as you would think. Plus its a little on the gore side so I know some people aren;t into that but there is a setting you can change to turn off or lower the gore and blood. Thanks for reading and BUY THIS GAME if you like fallout 1 and or 2 buy this game or even if you didn't like fallout 1 or 2 its still a great game for people teens and college age.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Refreshing Departure From the Classic Fallout
Review: Fallout I was the first RPG that I feel in love with. When Interplay released its third installment in this successful series (Actually the second story in the Fallout universe, supposedly taking place between volumes I & II), I had to have it. A refreshing departure from the typical Fallout scheme, Tactics is a comletely squad based game. Being a fan of both Fallout and such games as Rogue Spear, this was the perfect hybrid for me. I found this game to also be a little more difficult than the previus Fallout games, as you are responsible for the actions and safety of up to six other characters simultaneously. Fan sof both Fallout and tactical games should find this game highly entertaining to say the least. This game also far surpasses the previus Fallout games in its rich graphics and its stunning gameplay features. Five big stars. Highly recommended.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not half bad
Review: I was a bit dubious about the value of a Fallout game that is completely based on tactical engagement. After all, the real strength of both Fallout 1 and 2 was in the story and setting rather than the combat. Fallout Tactics struck me as a fun addition to the series, but definitely not the Fallout game that a newcomer should start with. The reason I say this is that the combat grind of the game can get wearisome, and it will be pretty severe on the difficulty side for someone who has no idea how to play.

Aside from the fact that it's hard to outdo a classic, FOT makes no pretense of having an in-depth story or serious interaction with non-player characters. In other words, it's definitely not an RPG. You are given very specific guidelines for each mission, and you carry out your orders, no questions asked. To help you on your way, you can recruit various Brotherhood soldiers and fully control them. By fully control, I mean they're basically identical to a player character- the only difference is they don't have traits. Don't you wish you could have done that with your loyal followers in the RPGs?

As for game improvements, the engine has been improved a great deal. You can now crouch to reduce your target profile, get a better view from high up, and engage enemies that aren't stupid. You can also drive vehicles and use them in combat. The graphics are all completely new, which makes it fun to see just for the sake of seeing it. There are a host of new weapons, including many guns that probably should have been in the old Fallouts (where did all the MP-5s, Colts, and Berettas go?). There's also a ton of new items of various worth- the usual worthless but funny items and some that you might actually use, such as meds and of course the steroids.

Additionally, there is a new 'continuous turn based' mode- a fancy way of saying 'real time.' It's something you will probably never use, unless you hopelessly outgun your enemies, or you're looking for a quick trip to the morgue. The action looks pretty neat in real-time, but the difficulty of the missions makes it impractical. If you want, you can give orders to your characters so they act more or less autonomously, making real-time feasible, but what's the fun with that?

The bottom line is, if you've played and enjoyed Fallout, and the unique combat system in particular, you'll also enjoy this. If you're looking for an RPG or a continuation of the previous plot line, this isn't it. Also, if you're looking for a completely unique turn-based trategy game, you should check this one out.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Tactics is a worthy addition to the Fallout Universe
Review: Honestly, I'm pretty surprised by some of the reviews people are leaving here. This game is so absorbing and engrossing that I've had a lot of trouble looking away from my computer.

Please note that this game is not Fallout 3. A lot of people seem to be having trouble realizing that. A common complaint people have been leaving is that this game isn't like the first two Fallout games. Of course it's not. It says on the box that the game is "tactical squad based combat." It's not a RPG game likes its predecessors, and reading the box before buying the game would inform you of that. Secondly, some people complained way back that Fallout 2 was too much like the first Fallout, and complained that you couldn't control other members of your combat party. Fallout Tactics gives you full command of a six person elite killing squad, and is a completely different game that Fallout 2. Isn't that what people wanted?

But I digress back to issue at hand. Fallout Tactics is a marathon of 20 military missions that span the radiated wasteland between Chicago and Denver. You begin as a meager tribal initiate in the Brotherhood of Steel. Your task is simple: sucessfully complete each mission presented to you by your superior officers. As you move from mission to mission, 1)your military rank within the Brotherhood increases, 2)you acquire more potent and powerful arms and ammunition, 3)the number and skill of the recruit pool(used to fill your squad) increases, and 4) you come to face to face with one deadly enemy after another.

You are given a variety of options in combat, all of which cannot be listed because it would take forever. Among the noteworthy: you can set traps and mines to take out enemies; you can kneel or lie on the ground, decreasing your chances of being hit and improving the success of the sneak skill; you can climb towers and rooftops to attack enemies on the ground; you can drive vehicles and run over anyone that gets in your way; having control of all six members of your party allows you to flank enemies, or flush them out into open space, or use snipers to provide outside cover for big guns specialists etc. The list goes on.

The type of missions that the Brotherhood sends you on cover a broad range of military operations: you infiltrate bunkers to assassinate leaders; you must move cargo trucks through enemy filled towns; you must find stranded and wounded fellow Brotherhood members and evacuate them to safety; you must destroy power generators in a major city; you must rescue captured civilians, etc.

Now the issue of gameplay. You can fight in either tradional or continuous turn based combat. Traditional works in the same manner as the other Fallout games, where each character has a alloted number of action points to be used before his/her turn is up. Continuous turn based combat is lunacy - pray your strong enough to not get slaughtered. While I agree that the AI could be a little better, you can easily compensate by turning the difficulty level up. And please note that some enemies - such as animals and Super Mutants - are meant to be unintelligent. That's part of their character. And despite what some other people wrote in reviews, I consistently face enemies that duck behind sandbags or obstacles when fired upon. And I repeatedly encounter enemies that will move to help fellow enemies that are being fired upon.

Fallout Tactics is an incredible squad-based combat game, where the gamer controls the Perks and skills of every member of his party. If you liked the combat aspects of the first two Fallout games, you will have a lot of trouble putting this game down. The missions are long, complicated and can be completed in a variety of ways (you can use stealth, evasive tactics, or just plain load your guns and shoot at anything that moves). This is a terrific game. Highly recommended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Tactical side of the Fallout series
Review: Of the three Fallout games, this has to be the best. You have direct control over all characters in your group(squad) and even thier atts, skills, and perks. Thier is no story as in the others which are enjoyable in thier own right, but the micromanagement and control are what you want in a game. You start out with two other members(who may or may not compliment your main character's skills and abilities) but you can control them and give complicated manuevers in real time or turn based time which ever preferred. The piloting skill is rarely used in combat and thier are others who can give you thier services as a driver, but I like driving in an RP sense, so my PC has it tagged. Speech has no place in a game about war and fighting and Charisma takes on a more important role, team performance. This game is much harder than the previous two(in real time mode) and you must use quick thinking and position/planned attack manuvers executed imediately. Some of the bugs in previous versions(1.0) such as the language filter filtering even when not turned on have been removed and now the bull-$%#@ flies as does the blood.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A good game....
Review: Overall I have been very pleased with Fallout Tactics. I got the game right after it was released, and, ignoring the missing inventory bug, I have to say I enjoyed the game. In an interest in keeping this review as short as possible, I'll deal less with the storyline and more with the actual game mechanics.

First off, my gripes. I love the idea of a real-time tactical simulation game. While Fallout Tactics makes a good attempt at pulling this off, it comes off cumbersome and hard to control. The fact of the matter is that it is fairly hard to control 6 indivudual characters at the same time. Instead, I found myself using just one or two characters at a time while the rest of my "team" covered my advance team from flanking manuevers instead of pushing forward as a team to take and secure the objective. The problems with their real-time combat becomes even more apparent in multiplayer games where players who go for just one super-character tend to dominate those with teams. After all, if you can only order your characters as a group or as individuals, then it is much more difficult to effectively set up ambushes. What I think would have made this game better is if they had implimented some sort of pause button (as seen in Baldur's Gate), whereby you could pause the game when you were trying to spring that ambush instead of watching as the potential target slips through your fingers because you are having a hard time issuing the correct orders to all of your people in time.

The other main problem I had with the game was that the firepower needed to win the later missions tended to force players into using the big MGs, energy weapons, and power armor. While this can be enjoyable, it is also harder to sneak up next to a guy with your trusty ripper and have a chance at killing him before he or his neighboor turns you into swiss cheese with their gatling gun. I think this would not be as big a deal if the real-time aspect did not have the problem I already discussed. A solution that I think would work would be to have a longer time where the enemy forces were regular humans, and instead of beefing up their weapons/armor, make it a little more difficult for the player in the missions.

The vehicles in the game, although nice, were a big dissapointment for me. First off, they can only be driven in the mission where you get them. Instead of this you are allowed to fight with them in the random encounters as you travel to and from missions. I was really put off by this since I REALLY wanted to have some convoy assault missions (assaulting a convoy and defending one-and no, I don't count the Humvee mission as a convoy mission). I did, however, enjoy running around in my Humvee running over Deathclaws. You see, when you run over something, it becomes pinned beneath the vehicle. Since your melee weapons can attack anything near or under your vehicle....well, just imagine this vibrating humvee with the legs of a Deathclaw sticking out from under the hood as you hear this chainsaw sound. It almost looks and sounds like the humvee is eating the Deathclaw. Better than the experience is the fact that you don't use up any of that expensive ammo.

The good parts:
-A good storyline
-Well done missions
-Character development and skill progression
-Squad-based, real-time action with the ability to change to turn-based gaming in the option menu available in-game
-Decent graphics
-Sticks to the Fallout universe and its quirks

Bottom line: if you like real-time squad-based action games, this is a good bet for you. If you liked Fallout 1 or 2, and don't mind the lack of a dedicated RPG, this is a good game for you. If you are looking for Fallout 3, you might want to pass on this one.


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