21-Apr-2004 You know the problem with RPGs? Bloody dungeons and dragons and dark necromancers from Bunchofarsia and all that rubbish. If we wanted to spend our time with orcs and goblins we'd nip round Ozzy Osbourne's house.
Fallout: Brotherhood Of Steel is an RPG, but it's not about swords and sorcery. It's about a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by nuclear war where everyone's blowing each other's heads off just to pass the time. Now THAT'S what we like.
Brother Of Baldur If you've played Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II you'll know the score: this is powered by the same engine. Action takes place in real-time and the control system handles the combat well, letting you shift quickly between your weapons and put them to face-mashing use by battering a single button. Battles are brilliantly bloody. Forget lame swords and maces - Fallout has you kicking ass with baseball bats and sawn-off shotguns!
Unfortunately, the game is extremely linear. You get a task and go do it, then get another and go do that. Which would be fine if the huge levels weren't so boringly designed. We wandered around a town for half an hour looking for the last dude (unmarked on the radar, another problem) we had to slaughter, only to find him cowering in a corner. He got it good and proper, but more because we were annoyed at the game design than him.
And while the combat starts off as instant boom-boom fun, it quickly mutates into button bashing. You end up getting pissed off at enemies because they force you to do exactly the same thing again and again.
Three's A Crowd An atom of variety is added by the three playable classes and levelling up allows you to develop specific skills like sharp shooting or close-up head cracking, but it's the only opportunity you get to truly make choices and doesn't add enough to the gameplay.
That said, when the same gameplay lets you stick cleavers into radioactive mutant's skulls we can't be too negative. To be brutally honest, Brotherhood Of Steel feels like a half-arsed facelift of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II, but that's not to say it doesn't offer some straight-forward RPG fun with a cool guns-and-guts angle.
Intering factoid for you games history freaks: Fallout started life as a RPG on PC. We loved its post-nuclear setting, its grisly sense of humour and its free-form gameplay. But (unfortunately) only a couple of things have really been carried over for Brotherhood of Steel: big mutants and even bigger weapons to kick the crap out of them.
And the really massive mutants? Who cares, just make sure the big mutha stays down!
Mutated humans still know how to kill – keep your distance from these flame-boys and snipe away
Rad-scorpions nip, sting and hurl radioactive poison at you. Torch them for some crispy tail meat
These wee sand crabs are well fast but your spiked metal gloves will sort them out sharpish
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