Fallout, Tactical Battles, and You

Battles:	5
Plot:	3
Music:	3
Visuals:	4
Tilt:	5

Overall: 4

Release Date: 2001

In short: More of the Fallout-style goodness, but with less of the juicy RPG filling.

Right off the heels of completing the first two Fallout games, this game was pretty much an auto-purchase. The Fallout-style battle system was a huge bonus that made an otherwise solid game golden, and the chance to dive straight into a third game from the same universe--but featuring an emphasis on those battles--was fantastic. What I discovered, while flawed, happened to be one of finest PC strategy game I've played to date.

Keep in mind that the Tactics in the title is no misnomer; this is not a full Fallout game. In fact, that is what I view as the single biggest flaw in the game: the lack of a deep story. Keep in mind that it's better than most of what passes as a story in the PC scene, but by and large Fallout Tactics cannot hold even a small candle to its Fallout predecessors. It features the same sort of people (Super Mutants, Ghouls, Raiders, and so on), but the story happens to be entirely linear, with the only choices made by the player being the option of doing a few of the missions in any order. No dialogue trees, no altering reactions, and no real reason to replay.

Decisions, decisions.

Normally, not having a reason to replay is a real problem...unless you happen to have one of the best battle engines ever devised. If you haven't played the first two Fallouts, you're really missing out on a great alternative to the standard Baulder's Gate and Diablo control schemes. In the previous Fallout games, battles took place on an entirely turn-based system, allowing you to act strategically as you took down your enemies with various levels of post-war weapon technology (knives, guns, rifle, miniguns, rocket launchers, plasma rifles, ect). Fallout Tactics takes battles to the next step with two additional battle modes: Squad Turn-Based (STB) and Continuous Turn-Based (CTB). Before I explain those, I should mention how you can now have up to six squad mates that are completely controllable. Six playable characters is a big change from the other Fallouts where you could only give your NPC party rudimentary commands while they proceed to act mainly on their own. Thus, when you select STB, you can take all the time you want to move your entire squad before the enemy takes its turn. For the PC RPG purists--and those that hate sitting around while 400 rats and mutant cockroaches take their turns--Tactics includes the CTB mode, which essentially is like a real-time Baulder's Gate/Diablo hybrid. Moving around is free but all other actions cost AP, which recovers over time.

Fallout Tactic's visuals are another area where it is apparent that improvements were made. Instead of flat sprites and uninteresting backgrounds, you find quasi-3D sprites and environments full of activity and flavor. A not-so-apparent visual improvement is the removal of the movement grid that dominated the last two games. The hexagon grid made moving in battle awkward and its removal means your movement now is smoother and much more realistic.

The music, which always had an ambient thrust in the series, is now a bit more noticeable and changes in real-time to match the action on-screen. The constant flux between howling wind, crickets chirping, dogs barking, and then ethereal battle music makes playing the game that much more exciting. The dynamic music even follows you as you go inside buildings and underground, when the wind stops and all you can hear are the sounds of your soldiers as they inevitably walk into a trap.

Combat is brutal, but damn fun.

Speaking of traps, I think I should mention Fallout Tactics' difficulty. It is much harder than the last two games, but in different ways than you would think. The previous Fallout titles had their difficult tied to saying the wrong things to the wrong people (who would then kill you), running out of ammo in a battle against raiders (who would then kill you), or just stumbling into a nest of Super Mutants (who would then kill you). With Fallout Tactics, you'll just find yourself out-matched and out-gunned on most occasions. Thus, pretty much the only way to actually make it through the missions alive is to employ some very cunning strategy: diversions, ambushes, silent kills, that sort of thing. I felt I should mention this because years of playing ridiculously easy RPGs (by comparison) will be of no help in making it through this game alive. Even the previous two Fallout experiences often prove to be inadequate training to complete these missions on a consistent basis. The learning curve is there�it isn't vertical, but it is relentless.

Although the game essentially borrows a large section of the previous Fallout games' original material, it also takes that material into largely unexplored territory. Instead of the usual Fallout "goals" you now have actual missions with primary and secondary objectives and so on. The style of playing as a Brotherhood of Steel soldier is also totally different from the simple Wanderer style prevalent in the previous games as well. Doing great deeds in battle let's you ascend the ranks of the Brotherhood faster, netting you access to more weapons and even better recruits from whom you can swap during the time between missions; conversely, if the temptation to slaughter innocents overwhelms you or if you let too many of your squad mates die you'll quickly find yourself on the wrong end of the Brotherhood's wrath. These changes in the style of the game and in the battle system are enough that I feel Fallout Tactics is able to stand on its own, thus the realitively high Originality score.

So would other Fallout veterans and those new to the scene enjoy this game? I would say yes. The battles frequently are long, require cunning strategy, and are intense; music is ambient, well written, and dynamic; characters are unique, numerous, and customizable. What more is there to ask for in a PC strategy game? If you enjoyed the last two Fallout games and are looking for something to tide you over until Fallout 3, then this is your game. It might not be as deep as its predecessors or offer as many reasons to play it again, but when it comes right down to it, Fallout Tactics is just as damn fun.