Bought it in '99 and still playing it after 12 years...that's all I have to say. The greatest RPG game of all time. Even with many bugs the game is almost perfect.

We could end up just like that and we gotta watch our backs, a damn fine game to me, enough to keep me sitting at the keyboard for a long time roaming through the wastelands.

One of the best games ever. Beyond comparison with Bethe$da's crappy work.

Best RPG ever!!!!!

One of the best! ...That's it ....! :) A little buggy ... But who cares?

This is the best game i have played to date it has been hard to enjoy anything else because it is so good.

Fallout 1 but with much more depth and variety it is just the best ever RPG.

This truly non-linear RPG set in the dark post-apocalyptic future based on the '1950s culture and filled with well-known pop-references is still an unmatched example of gameplay and atmosphere one game can offer. Pure 10.

Superb game..had it so many years and I still reinstall it and play like MAD!

It's fun for a while but if you don't know what to do (like me), the fun of checking a FAQ every 20 minutes is lost quickly.

The only RPG I've ever enjoyed playing and probably the best game I've ever played overall.

I really, REALLY can't help but laugh at some of the comments below. Yes, you do have to clear out enemy checkpoints (guard posts) every time you go through them. What so many of them fail to grasp is that YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO THROUGH THEM. Maybe someone used to Halo or even Call of Duty expects to perform the same action over and over again, but this game is NOT Halo or Call of Duty. For my playthrough, I adopted a full stealth strategy. Silenced Pistol, sniper rifle, and a rocket launcher if I needed a lot of bang. When I first started, though, I was popping caps left and right with a shotgun and flamethrower. But the thing about this game is that you're NOT relegated to any one experience. As I said, I adopted a stealth strategy. How do I deal with checkpoints? Either sneak around them in the brush, or shoot a guard from a distance, wait for all his buddies to come looking for me, then sneak through while they're busy searching. And the game ENCOURAGES this. Or, if I'm not in the mood for sneaking, I can borrow a boat from the Dock at the bar and take the river route. Very few guard posts and they're less likely to chase you. So if you think you're having a hard time, CHANGE your strategy. You're not limited by the game, you're limited by yourself. As for the game itself, its quite beautiful, at least before you start blowing it up. The fire effects are pretty awesome but still have a ways to go. Best I've ever seen, though. You can actually predict where the flame will go based on wind direction and terrain. What else can I say? The world is very immersive. AI is frustrating, but in a good way. Often I'll think I was perfectly hidden when someone will spot me becuase I poke a gun barrel around a corner. Often I'll kill a guard, think i'm in the clear then find out he had a buddy just down the road who saw me kill him. And sometimes that buddy will shoot off a flare and call MORE of his buddies to finish me off. All in all, this game punishes your mistakes to be sure, but definitely rewards good performance. So if you play this game, don't think that you're limited to roads or checkpoints. Don't think you have to kill every enemy or do every mission. Make the game yours. Kill some buffalo or zebras. And most of all DON'T get discouraged, where theres a will (and a lot of ammo) theres a way.… Expand

Best RPG ever!!!!!

Best game I've ever played in my life. And the only RPG I've played all the way through more than once.

I've played more RPG's than most people will ever even read about and I can honestly say, Fallout was the pinnacle of roleplaying for its time, in many ways its still not been surpassed. Judging it by the standards of its time, it blew everything else away. The story is different and setting almost a unique amongst rpg’s, its gritty, very dark in places and set a standard for future games that dealt with harsh environments or unforgiving worlds. People complain about the humor but honestly it made me smile, I was still immersed in the world that was fallout 2, the twisted, ruthless world, that made you cackle or smirk, as often as you laughed, maybe that’s because I had no premade assumptions in my mind about what the game should or should not do, I enjoyed it very much for what it was, pop culture references as well. This is a roleplayers game and I would say hardcore by todays ‘casual vs hardcore standards’, there are many mods available that enhance the game on various sites if your like me and like to tweak your experience, as people have become more experienced in modding generally they are becoming more common place. Combat is very simple by todays standards, however with detailed character development possibilities, fallout 2 still has a system that still holds up to todays standards and indeed is better in some ways for the gamer that prefers the detailed character development of old. Graphics are of coursed very dated, they were reasonable at the time but then as I said, this is a hardcore roleplayers game, not one you would buy for flashy graphics, even when it was released. I have a nice system and graphics can wow me for about 5 minutes and then occasionally when a well done set piece happens in a game, after that, they are insignificant in game play as long as they maintain a practical standard, i.e not cluttered or hard to navigate. Though the controls are easy, the game is not spoon fed to you, which I enjoy, replaying to find out all the secrets. For example, you might bribe an official to get into a city, thinking great you’ve found a way around the security there, which many would consider a secret point in the game, however with a bit of experimenting, you can then extort the official for doing this and even better if I remember rightly, go back and double cross him anyway! It’s the kind of game, you’ll struggle with at first but quickly find out how to get ahead and you can do so very easily. You set your own goals in this game, my games often turned out to feel like a gang or group of mercenaries traveling the wastes shooting up whoever crossed them or looked at them the wrong way, far from the ideal hero I played the first run through; the womanizing rogue who pimped out his wife; the stupid (quite literally) deaf/dumb tribal, who nobody would talk to as he couldn’t string two words together; the slaver who sold out all his friends and then went on to enslave others.… Expand

FO2? Even better than the first and favorite rpg game to date. No others came in comparison... especially to its wry sense of humor.

Fantastic, non-dumbed-down, RPG that genuinely lets you play like YOU...BUT...bugged to hell. Be prepared for your PC to die, and die often. Save, save, save, and wait for the first time you dance round yir room screaming abuse at a screen that's locked up because you have too many items in your (SPOILER!)...still, though, the best RPG I've ever played. "Hey, causing that much destruction wasn't easy...".… Expand

Great game. Better than Fallout 3 in almost every way, except of course the graphics.

I have to give this game a 'nine' plus rating because it is not for everyone. It is still a classic game as is the first Fallout. Imagine the Bioware D&D series of the Forgotton Realms that you have played turned into a apocolyptic, road warrior type, rpg. I have loved this series for many years. But if you are expecting a first person shooter you should be informed that it is a strategy game. Mega mohawks, shootguns, ak47s, techno punk with leather armor all on a game board to move and beat the computerized components hex/octo movement engine. Best unique non-traditional rpg ever made.… Expand

A great game, but with some minor flaws. The music, atmosphere, and graphics are all excellent, as are the story and characters. However, the game seems unfinished; it's buggy; and (I think) it's a bit too difficult.

Best game eveR! i love the lighting effects on night levels!!!1 everything lights up so franticly..... gore effects superb! this game is so expandable... it makes my head spin 360!

Fallout 2 is like water in a wasteland - a symbol of hope for anyone that an epic RPG can be achieved. Fallout 2 creates a fully engaging world of a seemingly mistfit reality with all points improved apon from the original. With chacter development nothing less than mind-tingling, gameplay interaction beyond amazing, freedom of action more than what the imagination would allow, and such superior gameplay plot and flow that the most modern games would shy away, Fallout 2 is the most memorable RPG game to have ever been concieved, on par with the Baldur's Gate series.… Expand

This is my favourite RPG of all time.

Best RPG ever. Very unique.

One of the greatest triumphs of gaming. Artfully constructed game world, atmospheric setting, interesting characters, interesting narrative - well written. All of it unique. Strategic combat, non-linear, freedom, choice and consequence, moral ambiguity. A triumph in thoughtful design. 10 years later and the industry has offered little else that even comes close - and certainly not in the last 5 years.… Expand

Even though it is almost a decade old, in my mind this was STILL the single best role playing game every created period.

Not as good as first Fallout, world is much less realistic (eg. you start on place where it's hard to meet something that will harm you badly, but you can go only in limited directions if you don't want to be shred to pieces), but with good atmosphere, great plots, many quests and informations, many easter-eggs, many.... FO2 is just huge, but there are better games.

This is by far the best RPG ever created. Amazing story line, huge playable world, so many different things to do. Similar to postal in some ways, you do whatever the hell you want. Dont play that Brotherhood of steell tactics whatver sh..t...fallout 1 and 2 are the best ones, the rest dont even have anything to do with fallout. If you see this game for sale, buy it! You won't regret it.

this is the best one on the world,creators of the game are the most admireable people on the world. Two thumbs up!

When I played I was a BLAST, it was the first one of the RPG games I've ever played, and as the people say you'll always remember the first one. It is a highlight in the RPG business. Realistically I have no words to qualify this one if I could I'll give it a 1000 or even a 1000000. Please have in mind that the interface is an old one nothing like the ones we are used now please be patient it will be worth it I promise… Expand

This is a great game! The best of the Fallout serie. A true RPG. Few games can be copared with this one.

I got caught messing with a farmers daughter, forced into marriage at gunpoint, got addicted to jet then pimped my wife while I went to run guns and star in porn. THAT my friends is a ROLE PLAYING GAME Possibly not just the greatest RPG of all time but GAME of all time. Black Isle Studios, we miss you.

It has everything what the first Fallout has. But it just doesn't feel the same. Maybe too much of dark humour? I like that, but in my opinion there's too much of that in this game. Anyways, it's still the great and powerful Trix... Fallout.

I have been a fan of the Fallout series since I grabbed the first game way back when, the first one was great, but I've never been able to finish the second, I played through the story line at least twice and get stuck at the same spot every time. There are a lot of great improvements to the second from the first, but I don't feel it completely lived up to Fallout 1

First two Fallout games are not just my most favourite games, they`re literally changed my life. They defined my tastes in music, cinema, books, and general vision of life, our planet and society. Great games, indeed. Unlike first game, F2 may have some lack of strong conception and it is quite post-modern. Nonetheless, I love it as much as F1.

I think I've played this game about 10 times, each time polishing character just to reveal as many quest as it was possible and each ime finding new. Addictive as jet. Surprising in so many ways (have you ever died traveling the wastelands after using too much jet? hey, steroids my save your life when taken at right time)! Once one of my friends finished the game fighting with bare hands only! It was amazing to see his character actually doing this. Ahhh, nobody rocks anymore like Valve Software. (Arcanum rocks as hell as well ;-)… Expand

If you're looking for a good introduction to computer RPGs of the past and don't want to over complicate things, this is the perfect game for that. A lot of the mechanics are faulty, and a lot of things are completely useless and may deceive the newer player, but that's to be expected in this game where moving alongside the coast will most likely get you killed for reasons you won't understand until much later. Spend some time with this one, even if it seems daunting at first. It's quite a departure from the content scaling of Fallout 3 and followers, and oh so refreshing.… Expand

Incredible Game. Expands on the first game exponentially. It is many times larger, longer, and much more fun to play. While the first game was such a revolutionary concept for its time, Fallout 2 is simply a blast to play even today with its incredibly outdated (even for 1998) birds-eye view graphics. The only true fault is the near suffocating amount of inane pop culture references that are thrown in at every opportunity, which can at times detract from the often dark and serious tone of the game. 9/10… Expand

Fallout is the best!

The game that change my perception of role playing game.I didn't know game can be so alive before I played this game.

I wanted to love this game. I had just finished Fallout (9/10), and was getting underway. Then I would reload a game and my primary weapon would cease to have existed. That kind of bug, and no patches in years kills what might have been a rewarding and entertaing RPG.

Probably the main quest is better in the first (not for the quest per-se, but what the quest-story is about, FEV, Mutants and so on), but overall the sequel is kick-ass, it has so many quests... i just reinstalled it and can't stop playing :)

Best Game Ever, Fallout is truely the best example of a RPG experience , with a madmax-like world , its just awsome ..all the humor and gore-ish ambiance ..it still has to be toped in my book .

One of the best RPG's! It is almost as good as Arcanum.

If its buggy try restoration project by killap!includes new cities and children removed from the original game

i would give this a 8.5 i find that i get killed allout but gets made up by the ability to save anny time and absoulte freedom for the charator

This game can't even compare to the first fallout, it lacks the seriousness of the first. Why in the world did they fill the game with cheesy humor, ruined my whole experience.

A great game that got me into CRPGs, it has everything that was missing in fallout 1. Memorable characters, more customization, another great story, epic ending, no time limit ... WAR ... WAR NEVER CHANGES

this game is perfection, just amazes me every time i play it. get out there now and find a copy if you have never enjoyed this wonderful game. even my dog likes it.