Best way to start Fallout 2?

Catalin Haldan

Catalin Haldan

First time out of the vault
Hello guys. I was just wondering what's the best way to start my Fallout 2 playthrough regarding mods and patches. I haven't played it in like 7 or 8 years, never got around to finish it (I jumped from rpg to rpg like a little hyperactive child). Right now, my main 2tb hard-drive just broke and I'm stuck with an SSD of 120gb and I thought I should search through the archives and guess what I found? Fallout 2 and Planescape Torment. I already played PT like 6-7 times already. Never got around to finish FO2 unfortunately.

But, to cut the story short. What's the best way to start a new Fallout 2 playthrough. Should I go full vanilla or is there something I can add (patches/mods) to better enhance the fun. Frankly told, I am a bit bored by the temple...

Thanks a lot.
 
Yes, if you want fun-enhancement, go for the Restoration Project. And dude, the temple is the tutorial, you'll run through it in moments, it's like 0,1% of the game, have some patience! Even vanilla, it has tons of locations to visit, quests to solve, and to try solving differently in later playthroughs
 
If I were you, I'd play the game with Killap's Restoration Project. The main reason being that it is as good as bugfree. Trust me: it's a pain in the arse to play vanilla FO2 and then discover that (part of) your Highwayman just disappeared, which is what happened during my last vanilla playthrough.

Killap's RP is a work of love and a collective effort of huge FO fans to restore the game to its full potential, but you should also know that it is not without its faults. Some of the added content is mediocre and some of it is even subpar, but afaik none of it is necessary to finish the game. Meaning you can ignore it if you think it blows.

Having said that, I am somewhat partial to vanilla FO2, even restricting myself to the original resolution, but that's because I grew up with these games. Killap's RP will allow you to play the game in higher resolutions and I have to say it looks awesome. The only downside of that is when you have to click something that is only a few pixels big (like something that was dropped from your inventory).

As for the Temple: if you don't like it, just run through it. When you do so, you'll only have to kill two radscorpions and three giant ants (at most). Use your AP's wisely: attack and use two or three AP's to run away. That way, the critter will run up to you, but it won't have enough AP's left to attack. I always clean up the whole temple meticilously and I pick up pretty much everything I find in there. Definitely one of the weaker locations in the game, but there are FedEx quests later on in the game that suck even more.
 
The man knows. Using his methods, you can clean out the entire temple with an Endurance 1 character and not break a sweat. If you don't want to bother with the critters there's nothing in the temple that'll give you any kind of critical headstart-- a couple of bottles of antivenom you usually end up poisoned trying to get to anyway, a couple healing powders, and some barter trash. If you still wanted to skip combat and still farm some early XP, you could take the time to disarm all the pressure plates in the spear trap room.

Arroyo itself isn't too much of a step up from the temple, though. Get what you can from the town while you're there, because until you're done with your quest you'll never find the motivation to go back. Again, you're not going to be missing out on any sort of grand headstart if you half-ass it, but you should be able to pick up your first level, a decent pile of healing powder, and a bump to your close quarters combat skills without putting in any real effort.

Also +1 for the Restoration Project. Go for the unofficial patch on your first playthrough if you're a purist, but the Restoration Project includes all the same fixes and just about doubles the breadth of the game. Even if the content is a bit uneven at times, the experience is probably a lot closer to the one the devs intended you to have than the game as it shipped.
 
I think the main problem with the temple is that it's forced on you. The Klamath rats are indeed boring as well, but you don't have to do that, or you can wait till you're in the mood. The temple is there like a big moat of jelly you have to wade through to even start playing the game. It's worth doing the quick stuff in Arroyo like fixing the well, getting the melee training and so on, though to hell with fighting those plants. If you scavenge enough in Klamath you should be able to quickly get enough money to free Sulik. There are some silver gecko skins in one of the rooms behind him. Then do the quests in Klamath, probably apart from rescuing Smiley the time being, then you can go to the Den and get some easy quest experience and better equipment. You can legally kill Flick, even get a karma boost off it, and get a lot of equipment from his body. Or if you want to semi-cheat, make a female character called Buffy and speak to Becky in the Den.
 
After replaying F2 countless times, I had tried slightly different approach in Klamath on my last Restoration Project playthrough. Unlike how any self-respecting F2 veteran should do, I did not complete all the quest on my first visit in Klamath; the same goes for other cities too. (That's how I played F2 for the very first time back in the nineties btw, without interwebz or famous Per's guide.)

The Chosen One needs to find Vic, so he's not supposed to spend weeks in each settlement he stumble upon, anyway. So I just visited Big Nose Sally's place, found a hint about Vic moving to Den and followed the hot trace afterwards, without rescuing Smiley or recruiting Sulik at this moment. The same in Den - visited Smitty, talked to Vic without rescuing him from slavers, got Redding's location at Tubby's place and went straight to Redding then, running for my life without any attempt to fight in random encounters. After talking to local Doc Johnson, who si a great source of knowledge, I jumped on caravan to Vault City and now the game really started for me! Took Cassidy, solved Gecko problem and became citizen of Vault City. Properly armed citizen too, after looting the Vault 8 of all goodies, mind you. :wiggle:

And now is the right time to pay the old debts! Went back to Den through Modoc, took the car and approached Klamath once again because there's that suspiciously looking Highwayman. Solved the cattle rustling mystery, rescued Smiley, got Sulik for free as a reward. With Sulik on board visited Den once again, in attempt to find his poor sister. Sulik rocks very hard with 14mm pistol from Redding or VC, Cassidy is not bad with hunting rifle either, so now I could rescue Vic very American way - by fighting the slaver scum like a true gunslinger would do!

Alright, no need to continue further, perhaps this would inspire someone else for trying this unusal "nooby" approach on his next attempt too. Just play like you've played for the very first time - travel from place to place, visit the cities repeatedly and don't bother yourselves unnecessary by solving every possible quest on first visit of any new location.

Per's guide is a great source of informations, but following his walkthrough will totally ruin your own experience, so try figure it on your own and let that old pedantic lizard rest! :mrgreen:
 
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I too find a big skip in overall enjoyment/immersion going from Klamath to the Den. The Den gang fight is one of my favorite missions (outside of the EPA or long-scale Vault City/Captain of the Guard questline), while Klamath is just practice in tedium.


I would suggest the RP, but also phobo's economy and rebalance mod, especially if you've played before. It makes the game a bit more challenging, and certain weapons don't feel so much like pea shooters (Laser Rifle, I'm looking at you). On top of that the economy is more fluid and there's even a crafting/traps system that makes certain skills actually useful (traps, science and repair namely).
 
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