Tips for those having trouble getting into this game

[TheStakAttak]

I've had the original Fallout games for probably a year now and have tried to get into them so many times, but I just couldn't. Admittedly for those who didn't play these games around the time they came out they can be extremely intimidating, so much so that a lot of people like myself just never bothered. However, it is DEFINITELY worth getting over the hump, as I just recently found out. Here's a few things I'd recommend and a few tips for people who can't seem to get into the swing of the game and hopefully they can start having fun.

(Pretty huge thread warning)

1. DO NOT HESITATE TO LOWER THE GAMEPLAY AND COMBAT DIFFICULTY (they're two separate difficulties). Let's face it, for new players Fallout 2 is a HARD game. There's absolutely no shame in lowering the difficulty and evening the playing field until you get a feel for the game, and there's no reason why you can't increase it later if you feel confident. To my knowledge gameplay difficulty has to do with lowering out-of-combat skill checks and things like that, and combat difficulty amounts to enemies having a lower perception (meaning they miss a lot more often). A simple thing really, but when you're first starting out and missing repeatedly while the enemy lands every hit with large chunks of damage, it can mean the difference between continuing the game or quitting there and then.

2. READ THE MANUAL ONLINE! There's a SIZABLE chunk of information the game will expect you to learn from the manual and will not cover in the tutorial. To be honest even the user interface can be offputting without any guidance. It's very beneficial to read the Fallout 2 manual online before starting for the first time. Another simple tip, but I know how daunting the game can be without any structure or guidance early on, so trust me, READ THE MANUAL!

3. BE STRATEGIC! When I first started playing I would run straight at the enemy and start whacking them my spear, and occasionally I'd win, but in most scenarios I'd end up a dusty skeleton in the desert with Ron Perlman narrating my death. I'll be honest, it was frustrating. Once I stopped playing like a fool and started being strategic I found that I was winning most battles, and I was having a lot more fun, too. You've got two weapon slots, why not use them? Pick at far away enemies with a gun and switch to a melee weapon when they get close. Swapping weapons does not cost AP! Once they get close, who says you have to stand there in front of each other and whack each other like idiots? Hit them once, and retreat! If you save enough AP after attacking to run far enough away, most enemies will expend their available AP chasing you and won't have enough to attack. May seem sort of cheap, but in a game like this you've got to use everything at your disposal. Sitting there whacking each other will usually just end with your untimely demise anyway, so BE STRATEGIC! Move around, experiment with weapons, don't be afraid to save before a fight and try something new.

4. GET A FOLLOWER EARLY ON! The only thing worse than facing the wastes is facing them alone. Good news is that you don't have to! There are a lot of followers in the game that will accompany you and fight your battles with you. The earliest follower you can recruit I believe is Sulik who resides in Klamath. There are a few ways of getting him on your side, and once you have him the game gets much easier and, more importantly, more fun. Nothing is better than being in a tight spot and having a follower knock an enemy down, or finish them off on the last possible turn. All the extra damage done to your enemies doesn't hurt, either! Sometimes the enemies will even focus on them and not you, giving you valuable time to reload, reposition yourself, or access your inventory. If all of that wasn't good enough, you can have MULTIPLE followers at once! Be careful though, because they CAN die. Use healing items on them, give them armor and weapons, everything you can do to ensure they have a long and helpful life.

5. FIRST AID AND DOCTOR SKILLS CAN BE USED TO HEAL FOR FREE! Honestly, if you didn't read the manual this would be a mystery to most people. You can use the First Aid and Doctor skills 3 times per day to heal yourself (or followers) without using up any of your valuable healing items from your inventory. It takes some ingame hours to do so no healing in the middle of battle using them, and they tend to fail a lot (you simply have to keep using the skill until it works), but in the end you'll find you have a lot more healing items in your inventory, a lot more money, and usually a lot more health points when entering a battle!

6. SEARCH EVERYTHING! I MEAN EVERYTHING! Like I said earlier, you have to use everything in your power if you're going to survive the wastes, so SEARCH EVERY CONTAINER YOU FIND! Most will be empty, but some will contain stimpacks, skill books, items to barter with, or even a pile of money! At first it can be a little hard to decipher what is a container and what isn't, but after a few hours it'll become a sixth sense, and you'll have a lot more stuff to sell to people, a lot more useful items, and probably a lot higher skills from the skill books, too.

7. TALK TO EVERYONE! This one almost goes without saying, but a lot of the NPCs that give missions have the same character models as the random citizens who don't have anything useful to say, so be safe and talk to everyone! Seems like a dumb tip, but you'd be surprised how easy it is to miss out on a few good quests. In addition, don't forget to try to barter with everyone you can speak to, even if they're not a merchant. Chances are they still have some money or useful items you can trade with them for.

8. DON'T BE AFRAID TO LEAVE SOME QUESTS AND AREAS FOR LATER! Unlike the first Fallout, there's no time limit (thank god) so never force yourself to do a quest you don't feel ready for. You can come back later with better equipment, more followers, and higher skills and tackle it. Really, it's an open world game, there's no one forcing you to do every quest in one area before you move on. Chances are you'll pass through there again a few times throughout the course of the game anyway, so don't bang your head on a wall by repeatedly losing to a mission or scenario if you really don't feel you're up to it yet.

That's about everything that helped me finally get over the hump and start having fun with Fallout 2. Some of these (well, probably all of these) will seem silly to veterans of the series, but to people who are new to these games it really can make the difference between quitting and continuing. Those first couple hours are pretty crucial to making up your mind about whether you're going to play a game to its completion, or stuff it in the backlog. Hopefully some of these help make those few hours more manageable and thus more fun. I'm about 30 hours into it so far and it's one seriously fun game once you get into the swing of it.

I'd really appreciate it if you could add your own recommendations and tips in this thread for new players. Like I said I've played 30 hours of Fallout 2 but I realize that's absolutely nothing compared to what some of you guys have dumped into it. I'm sure there are a lot of things that you know that I don't that would be very helpful to people. Thanks in advance, and to new players, DON'T GIVE UP! PEOPLE STILL PLAY THIS GAME 16 YEARS LATER FOR A GOOD REASON!

[Elsarild]

To your companion part:

I know, trust me I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ know the interface can be a touch slow at times, but go in and set up some custom AI behavior for your followers. Not all will take all commands, but it is very important to at least do this once, otherwise the first time Sulik gets his crummy mitts on an SMG he will HAPPILY burst fire THROUGH you!

Also Marcus, ♥♥♥♥ you Marcus, I love you man, but separating my top half from my bottom half with your minigun is NOT cool.

[Knight of the Criminally Insane]

I agree with your assessment. The original Fallout games are difficult, especially for someone that didn't play them when they came out and is not used to games of its like. The learning curve can be steep to new players, especially players that are used to playing current generation games. The Fallout games do anything but hold your hand, which newer games are much more accustomed to doing. If people can get through that, and get into the game there really is a lot to love.

[MR.hyde]

any clue why sullik/vic didnt join me when i asked them? for sullik, i had all quests done paid the debt and then he said "i take a nap... not going anywhere" WTF?! dont u wanna save ur sister anymore?!
and vic said sth like "oh i am forever in ur debt but... i wont follow u, seems like u cant handle urself, i would be a burden (like i do u a favor if i dont join, ♥♥♥♥♥!)"
my charisma is 1 and i installed the RP mod, from the wiki i know that the charisma has no effect on t5hem so why wouldnt they join me?

[Elsarild]

Originally posted by MR.hyde:

any clue why sullik/vic didnt join me when i asked them? for sullik, i had all quests done paid the debt and then he said "i take a nap... not going anywhere" WTF?! dont u wanna save ur sister anymore?!
and vic said sth like "oh i am forever in ur debt but... i wont follow u, seems like u cant handle urself, i would be a burden (like i do u a favor if i dont join, ♥♥♥♥♥!)"
my charisma is 1 and i installed the RP mod, from the wiki i know that the charisma has no effect on t5hem so why wouldnt they join me?

The amount of follows you can have is your charisma divided by 2, so a charisma of 1 means no followers.

[MR.hyde]

Originally posted by Elsarild:

Originally posted by MR.hyde:

snip

The amount of follows you can have is your charisma divided by 2, so a charisma of 1 means no followers.

i try to fool vic with drugs into following me! (will he stay after the effects worn off?)

[Elsarild]

Originally posted by MR.hyde:

Originally posted by Elsarild:

The amount of follows you can have is your charisma divided by 2, so a charisma of 1 means no followers.

:squirtooh: i try to fool vic with drugs into following me! (will he stay after the effects worn off?)

After fact checking myself, a charisma of 1 should still allow you to get 1 follower regardless, so maybe that isn't the problem.

However I don't know if they will stay if you recruit them while being drugged.

[Volcano]

as if you wouldn't do a melee run, its like you hate fun

[Jeff Kaos]

I remember when I first played FO:2 back in the 90's. I thought it would be cool to make a "ninja" character with Stealth, Melee and Hand to Hand as my tag skills. After a few hours I used a save game editor to tag Small Guns. Although the games advertising says you can get through the game with a bunch of different play styles seriously: if you don't tag Guns you're doing it wrong. Hand to Hand or Melee can be useful in the latter part of the game once you start unlocking the "super" moves but firearms are the only gaurantee to win most fights.

[Volcano]

mega power fist your way to victory i also tagged into speech because of the end fight so that just made it so much easier and the turret. i was using vic and sulik in hardened power armour

[MR.hyde]

Originally posted by Elsarild:

Originally posted by MR.hyde:

i try to fool vic with drugs into following me! (will he stay after the effects worn off?)

After fact checking myself, a charisma of 1 should still allow you to get 1 follower regardless, so maybe that isn't the problem.

However I don't know if they will stay if you recruit them while being drugged.

ok, i read the wiki too and it said i ALWAYS have at least 1 slot for a companion, so i went to Vic once more and asked him to join me, he declined! i downloaded a savegame editor and gave me some more charisma, asked Vic again and he joined so idk why the wiki has fail informations, probably because i installed the RP mod and maybe it changed the companion behavior.

[Xhazahh]

Correction to the time limit thing. You're close but at the same time really not. you have 13 IN GAME years to do whatever the hell you want. even after you finish the story they let you ♥♥♥♥ around for the remaining 12.5 years or whatever it is.