Alright, so Fallout 2. This game took me too long to complete! It is undeniably a monumental piece of RPG history, laying a lot of the groundwork for the behemoth the Fallout franchise has become today. You can really see the DNA of modern Fallout games in its intricate world-building, the freedom it gives you in tackling quests, and that darkly humorous, post-apocalyptic vibe that's just so unique. The sheer depth of choices and consequences is impressive. The graphics is what you should expect from a game released in 1998 but you can appreciate how the developers had to lean heavily on text to paint a vivid picture, and in many ways, it worked.

However, let's be real, this game demands a serious time commitment and while the writing is often fantastic, there are stretches where the sheer volume of text can feel overwhelming. It definitely contributes to the feeling that finishing the game is a marathon, not a sprint, which some people might not have enjoyed, So, while I appreciate its historical significance and the immersive world it built, be prepared for a lengthy journey with a lot of reading if you decide to try this.

one of the greatest games ever made

If you play fallout 1 and this back to back you WILL burn out. also in both my playthroughs the game started to fall apart at around reaching shady sands even with all the bug fixes, my money would randomly fluctuate between 900 and 13000 every time i loaded the game or entered a new area and it retroactively affected my old save files and it kept voiding every single quest item so i had to cheat them back in again. aside from all the combat bugs the most insulting one by far was seeing all my perfect end slides i worked so hard on, just for the game to claim i MURDERED an entire settlement "proving genocide is always a viable option". aside from the engine falling apart as you progress this is still my second (maybe third) favorite fallout after the first. very worth it