Ravager69 said:
Yeah, i have to agree in many ways. Clearly BIS put most of their energy and inspiration into the first part of the game. For me, my favourite places (FO2 only) in order of preference are:
1) Klamath. Sooooo well designed. So damn believable. The rat caves and the highwayman at the end are absolutely stuffed full of character and atmosphere.
2) The Den. Prob. No. 1 for atmosphere. It really hits the spot feeling like a dangerous, junkie filled end-of-the-line town. Excellent
3) Arroyo & temple. Really conjour that modern (post-nuclear) tribal feeling for me. And without seeming lame like so many games today. Some great talking heads (hakunin, and the elder, though i think she was a bit under-utilized)
4) Vault city. I like vault city. Many don't. I LOVE the music, and for me it has a really unique feeling. I love the emptiness inside the vault. I can almost feel how clean it was, echoes down the corridoors, with only that guy singing.
5) New Reno. Again, many don't like it. I love it. As Chris Avellone has said, there's too many families. But other than that, i think it injects a totally different, and appropriate theme (gangsters, Goodfellas, Casino etc) into the game. And i feel like it fits well. It has far more quests than any other town, and really feels like the hub (no pun intended) of the game. Love it.
6) Modoc. For me, the strangest town in the game. I never liked going there, but the way i see it, a negative reaction is better than a 'nothing' reaction. And i well remember feeling genuniely scared the first time i went to the ghost farm at night. It also seems to capture a feeling of true desolation.
7) Redding. Well designed. for me, this is where FO2 really hit the spot with the 'post-nuclear western' theme that Feargus summed up the game. I remember the casino jingle SFX the most, the walking footsteps .... i think the ambient SFX in FO2 are awesome. The tunnels under the town are cool, and for me the really seem like a maze (even though there's not actually that many. And those damn Wannamingo's. They did a great job with those critters. They really feel like 'the terror in the caves'.
8) The military base. Re-incarnated from FO1, and why not?. It was just damn cool in the first game. It makes me desperately disapointed they hadn't also re-incarnated the Glow (my vote for the best location in FO ever) and the BOS base.
8.5) SAD. Dark. Damp. For me, somewhere in-between the Military Base and The Glow. Very well designed. Extensive, and challenging. Nice.
9) Vault 13. The map design of the vault was nothing new, but the hard-ass squatter guards inside were a good idea. They have some good floats and when they start buffing out before combat it makes them so much more. .... human. But the squatter camp out front, hmmmm. I don't like it. It feels like it had been put together in 10 mins.
9.5) Navarro. Very hit and miss for me. The Drill Searg.... Hit. He steals the show. Although a bit of stereotype i think he's great. The lower floors of the base... miss. They feel like an un-neccesary extension of the base just to prove how well equipped the Enclave really are.
10) NCR. The Bazaar out front. Excellent. It somehow feels like the decrepit outskirts of a thriving new town. But inside.... not so impressive. Those stiff police guards are clearly uninspired. The bar ... has no-one in it. Even Tandi seems boring and generic. For me, NCR is where the game starts to slip ....
11) Broken Hills. Unimpressive. For me, if NCR is where the game starts to slip, Broken Hills is where it comes apart. Despite some good efforts to inject good quests (the treasure hunt) and good locations (the old ghouls home) it feels empty in a bad way (not in a good, post-apoc way). Although i like the human/mutant/ghouls living together, whoever designed the town missed the point. Poor.
12) San Fran. WTF? A mess, IMO. Clearly a bunch of (often good) ideas thrown together without design or much consideration. It seems to me there a was a failed attempt to bring in another theme: the Bruce-lee inspired Chinatown martial arts stuff. While i think it's a theme that could fit, the game is already loaded down with themes, and it wasn't integrated into the rest of the game. It just pops up at the end, out of nowhere. The tanker and vagrants was cool, but the tanker itself was somehow lacking for me. Generally speaking, it seems SF was supposed to be the climax of the game, with the BOS, Hubologists and the game plot concluding here. But for me it fell short, and felt mechanical. SF simply doesn't have the soul Klammath and the Den achieved.
