Fallout 2

Fallout 2 is a role-playing video game. The player begins by selecting one of three pre-made characters, or one with player-customized attributes. The protagonist, known as the Chosen One, has seven primary statistics that the player can set: strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, and luck. Each statistic may range from one to ten, provided their sum does not exceed 40.

Two other statistics set during character creation are skills and, optionally, traits. All 18 skills are learned abilities, their effectiveness determined by a percentage value. Their initial effectivenesses are determined by the primary statistics, but three can be tagged and given a 20% boost. Traits are character qualities with both a positive and negative effect; the player can pick up to two from a list of sixteen.

In 2241, the tribal community of Arroyo suffers the worst drought on record. Faced with the calamity, the village elder and daughter of the Vault Dweller tasks her child, the player, to retrieve a Garden of Eden Creation Kit (G.E.C.K.) — a device capable of creating thriving communities out of the post-apocalyptic wasteland. Assuming the title of the Chosen One, they are given the Vault Dweller's jumpsuit, a RobCo PIPBoy 2000, a Vault 13 water flask, a spear, and some cash to start them on their mission.

, devoid of its former human residents and instead inhabited by intelligent Deathclaws. Returning to their village, they find it empty and learn its population was captured by the remnants of the United States government known as "The Enclave". The Enclave terrorizes the inhabitants of the continental United States with their supreme arsenal of advanced technology. The Chosen One, through various means, activates an ancient oil tanker and engages its autopilot, thus allowing them to reach the Enclave's main base on an offshore oil rig.

Tim Cain announced Fallout 2 via a Usenet posting in December 1997, and wrote that it "should take 11 months". Cain later clarified that the sequel entered development before the launch of Fallout, as the previous game had "really caused a buzz in the studio about six months before it was released". According to co-founder of Black Isle Studios Feargus Urquhart, Interplay was experiencing financial difficulties at the beginning of 1998, which according to Urquhart, gave the studio "basically nine months to make the whole game". In order to reach this deadline, many staff were taken from the Planescape: Torment development team and made to work on Fallout 2. Additionally, the development team were also made to work crunch time to make up for a lack of manpower and time.

Fallout 2 received critical acclaim, according to the review aggregator websites Metacritic and GameRankings. It was a finalist for "PC Role-Playing Game of the Year" during the AIAS' 2nd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, along with nominations for role-playing game of the year awards from Computer Gaming World, GameSpot, CNET Gamecenter, and IGN; all were ultimately given to Baldur's Gate. The editors of GameSpot wrote, "A bigger, better Fallout, this sequel to 1997's RPG of the Year was populated with more characters, more places to go, and more things to do."

Positive reviewers praised the gameplay, storyline, and worthiness as a successor to the original Fallout, while detractors criticized frequent bugs and lack of improvement over the first game. Daniel Morris of GamePro praised the mix of action and character interaction as well as the non-linear gameplay. IGN applauded the developers for the sizable game world, the writing, and "not fixing something that wasn't broken." Game Revolution praised the game's depth and storyline but criticized its graphics and interface.

In 2013, GamesRadar ranked Fallout 2 number 68 on their list of top video games of all time. That same year, IGN ranked it as the 28th best role-playing video game ever. In 2015, PC Gamer ranked the game #3 on its list of best RPGs of all time.

In retrospect, the designers of Fallout 2 expressed reservations about the game, with Chris Avellone calling it "a slapdash project without a lot of oversight". Retro Gamer described Fallout 2 as "an impressive feat, yet still one that rubbed Fallout diehards the wrong way."