For those not familiar with the previous Fallout games, they were RPGs set in
a post-apocalyptic future ravaged by radiation and crawling with mutants. These
games, Fallout and Fallout 2, both received much critical acclaim, even
garnering some "RPG game of the year" awards. The world of Fallout now
moves into the realm of strategy gaming with Fallout Tactics. Can it carry on
the tradition of excellence started by its predecessors?
In Fallout Tactics, you are a member of the Brotherhood of Steel, a
militaristic faction with a penchant for technology.
At the start of Fallout Tactics, you select a character to represent you in
the game, or in the traditional RPG fashion, you can design your own. While the
composition of your squad can vary from mission to mission, this character will
always be present and should he/she die, your game will end.
The game is played as a series of missions. You will receive a briefing of
the tactical situation and your objectives for the mission. These objectives can
include rescues, infiltrations, search and destroy missions, to name a few, and
it will is your job to carry them out.
Accompanying you on each mission will be a varying number of squad mates
which you can select yourself. These squad members will have varying specialties
and abilities and it is up to you to decide which will help you out the most.
The missions can take place in a turn-based, squad-based, or continuous
turn-based manner. Action points are used to determine what can be accomplished
in each round in the turn-based and squad-based modes. The difference between
them is that in the squad-based mode your entire team completes their move
before the other side can go. Action points also factor into the continuous
mode, but this mode plays out more in a real-time fashion. To help you out with
the faster pace of this mode, the game allows you to set the aggression level of
your squad members. This enables your squad to shoot first and ask questions
later automatically, and prevents them from acting as targets for the enemy
while waiting for the player to directly order them to shoot.
Fallout Tactics borrows from its RPG brethren by allowing your characters to
gain experience and advance in levels. New levels allow you to improve the
character's ability and also carry a chance of reward the character with new
skills.
After you complete a mission, you return to your base where you can exchange
your booty for cash, buy new weapons and ammo, select new squad members, and
receive your new orders.
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