Fallout 2 (1998)
Fallout 2 is a 1998 puzzle video game made by Black Isle Studios and Interplay Entertainment.
The Chosen One is the grandchild of the original Vault Dweller, sent from the tribal village of Arroyo with one task: find a Garden of Eden Creation Kit, a terraforming device that could save the tribe from famine. The search takes them across post-nuclear California in 2241, through casino towns, slaving operations, oil rig encampments, and a fledgling New California Republic trying to become a real state. Fallout 2 keeps the first game's turn-based combat and branching dialogue trees and layers on sharper writing, darker humor, and a wider range of factions.
Quick answers
What is Fallout 2 about?
The Chosen One is the grandchild of the original Vault Dweller, sent from the tribal village of Arroyo with one task: find a Garden of Eden Creation Kit, a terraforming device that could save the tribe from famine. The search takes them across post-nuclear California in 2241, through casino towns, slaving operations, oil rig encampments, and a fledgling New California Republic trying to become a real state. Fallout 2 keeps the first game's turn-based combat and branching dialogue trees and layers on sharper writing, darker humor, and a wider range of factions.
When was Fallout 2 released?
Fallout 2 was released on 29 October 1998.
Who made Fallout 2?
Fallout 2 was made by Black Isle Studios, Interplay Entertainment and MacPlay.
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Fallout 2 in our writing
- Companion guide: Bethesda Game Studios: The Elder Scrolls, Fallout and the Art of Getting Lost
- Companion guide: The CRPG: The Complete Guide to Computer Role-Playing Games
- Companion guide: The Golden Age of the CRPG: 1981 to 1999
- Companion guide: Interplay: By Gamers, For Gamers, and the Golden Age of the RPG
A few thoughts on Fallout 2
Players drawn to the satirical edge of Fallout 2 find an unexpected echo in The Brave 'Yoshihiko', a Japanese live-action comedy that parodies RPG conventions with the same affection for the genre and willingness to mock its tropes. For the closest continuation of the faction politics and dialogue depth, Fallout: New Vegas runs on the same design philosophy.
Worlds you have to rebuild your understanding of, ruin by ruin
Fallout 2 sends the Chosen One across a post-nuclear California of casino towns, oil rigs and a fledgling republic, piecing together how civilization survived at all. These games share that same instinct: drop you into a world already shattered by disaster, then let exploration itself become the way you learn what happened and who is left.
Dark comedy for a species that keeps blowing itself up
Fallout 2 never lets its wasteland get too grim, mixing slavers and mutants with sitcom-dumb pop culture jokes and a tribal hero who does not fully understand the old world he is piecing back together. These picks share that same dry, satirical streak, finding absurd humor in societies that survived the apocalypse only to keep repeating its mistakes.