Upon completing Fallout 1, there was a feeling of hope- that Humanity had been presented with a clean slate to start over and do things "right".
The Master had been defeated, most of the Super Mutants had been pushed back, trade was opening up between far-flung settlements, and crime was being brought under control by the likes of the Brotherhood of Steel and the N.C.R. The future did look bright.
Many parts of Fallout 2 did feel brighter than 1, but that's the kind of brightness that comes with progress(in terms of the passage of time in the game world). I believe it helped to differentiate the two games in a good way.
Fallout 1 was dark but in a more honest way. People like Gizmo, or the Children of the Cathedral, gave off that sleazy vibe from the moment you first met them, whilst fallout 2 required you to peel a few layers before you saw what was really up.
To wit, the darkness(for me at least) came from discovering that many of the newer, and older, factions- that had looked good on their surface- were rotting from within to varying degrees. Often times, you had no appreciation for how bad a faction was until you agreed to help them(were coerced), and then found yourself up to your neck in trouble.
The successes of the original vault-dweller, in Southern California, paved the way for the more comfortable(in relative terms) lifestyle that the people in 2 enjoyed. As a result, they fell back into the same old patterns that caused the Great War in the first place.
NCR heralded the return of a form of centralised government and, with it, all the power brokering, influence peddling, saber rattling, and unilateral decision making that can, and often will, lead to revolutions. Tandi, as head of the NCR, had become a cynical burnout. That cynicism, acquird over a lifetime of leading people, turned her into, at best, a benevolent dictator and at worst a dispassionate killer. Quite a fall from the lofty ideals of her father, Aradesh.
The slave trade, operating from out of the Den, and organized crime elements from New Reno(and everything that entails), were also coming back with a vengeance.
In those ways, I'd say Fallout 2, while using the same engine, managed to evolve the setting whilst keeping the game consistent within the confines of the established universe- and that was before you had any dealings with the Enclave.
My only real stand-out moments were in China Town(San Francisco). The hokey martial arts tournament, the Hubologists, and the game-breaking armor and weapon shops, just made me roll my eyes, because they felt so out of place in comparison to the rest of the game. I was happy, however, to find some answers to the questions I'd had concerning the surviving remnants of the world's nuclear sub crews- soldiers who would have been under a communications blackout at the time of the great war.
Still, the video was a nice trip down memory lane. I found after watching the Fallout 1/2 engine again, after so many years, that it hadn't suffered as badly as some would have people believe. Interplay/Black isle worked absolute wonders with those little sprites.
Now, having taken that second look, and taking into account what we've been shown of Fallout 3, I feel even more justified in my impression that Todd and crew just don't get it- and probably never will.
