Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel Preview

One of the biggest RPG hits, Fallout, introduced the post-apocalyptic atmosphere to the computer games scene. The nameless hero thrilled those that played the game, and even more so by leading him through the wastelands of cities desolated by radiation.

After some three years or more, Fallout is considered, with Baldur's Gate, the game that revived the RPG genre. Fallout is basically, a re-make of an old game from the early '80es called Wasteland. The idea of a society after a nuclear war was taken from that game; the rest is creative work of Black Isles designers and programmers. The sub-title "a post nuclear role playing game" says it all. The huge popularity of the hero searching for the Waterchip for the out-of-order Water purifier, simply craved for a sequel. The nuclear Fallout shelter (Vault) would have been lost, if it was not for him. After helping his compatriots, and defeating hordes of mutants, they cast him out in the cruelest possible way. Our champion became redundant and wandered far away from the Vault, hooking up with a certain primitive tribe. In the sequel, we continue to follow the events in radioactive USA.

Years later, the tribe is threatened by the shortage of the means necessary for survival. A descendant of the Vaultdweller is sent out to find a device for instant creation of life support - Garden of Eden Creation Kit (GECK). Through the adventures that followed, the hero found the GECK, and saved his friends from the dangerous fraction called Enclaves, that snatched them. The original hero from Fallout, as well as his descendant in Fallout 2 both got acquainted, and even joined Brotherhood of Steel, a militant group that is trying to preserve basic law and order in the wasteland where possible. Members of Brotherhood of Steel are, basically, remnants of a military base that survived the nuclear holocaust. The Brotherhood also attempts to salvage the military technology, which is the result of years of development. Also, they continued to develop their own hi-tech weapons and armor, such as Power Armor, as well as various weapons. They also have an order of Paladins that patrol the wasteland, which move freely about, without fearing a possible attack, since their technology provides them ample offensive and defensive capabilities.

The developers of Interplay did not waste much time pondering, ever since squad-based tactical games became very popular. They decided to develop a similar game in the popular nuclear-driven world, which was Fallout. The license for the game was granted to the Australian company Micro Forté. They were expected to create something expressly new, based on the previous Fallout RPG. After a little programming and designing, a new game was created and it will be released this winter. It is called Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel. The background story is unknown, but the "father" of Fallout, Chris Taylor, tried hard in the past few months to arouse the imagination of the fans by announcing yet another edition of the Fallout serial. Anyway, the player will have at his disposal a group of burly Brotherhood guys that are sent to investigate a migration of eastbound mutants, after the events in the original Fallout. Overall, it will not be hard to guess the time of the plot of the Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. The time is between the two RPG adventures, and covers the experiences of the soldiers that crashed in an aircraft (or some similar means of transportation, since its common knowledge that only Enclave have aircraft - Vertibirds) near where Chicago used to be. They are not sure where they are, and they are not supposed to be there. Also, their base is not informed of their whereabouts, or what happened to them. The soldiers are all members of Brotherhood, and believe in a better life, certain rules and modern technology, and their mission is to save what can be saved of the world. A problem appears when they realize that not everybody wants to be saved "their way". That is where the idealistic desire of Brotherhood is pronounced, namely to unite all the nations they are scattered among.

The game will be divided into 6 chapters, in which the player can pick the missions from. There is the "core" mission serial, 20 of them to be more precise, which are obligatory if you wish to advance through the game plot. There will be some 18 side missions, which will partially influence the plot of the game. All missions are related to each other, in other words, the way you finished the last mission in this chapter will decide the nature of the next one. It does not mean that the player will be able to wander the map with his soldiers as he/she wishes; rather, they will have to stick to a route. This will mean deviating to other locations or going back to the old ones. Your team will face, as the ultimate challenge, a new enemy that threatens humanity, and the player has to prevent him in his sinister plans. Usually, in-game progress will be made through branching of missions. The basic story will be crucial in single-player mode.

The character development of the squad members will be consequence of action during missions, and it will depend on the story. Not only will the game have several endings, but the missions will, too. Between the missions, your team will be recharged with health, ammo and information that will come in handy during the next mission. The character interaction will be a bit more modest, since Fallout Tactics is a strategy, not an RPG. Because the Fallout world is still under construction, it is unknown for the moment in what way, or extent, the story line of Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel is going to influence the potential mainstream sequels, the RPG adventures (Fallout 3 doesn't exist, yet). The interesting, and unique, characters of the previous Fallout games are the spice that has drawn the players most. The option of communicating with mutants, zombies, junkies and other radioactive inhabitants of the wasteland is the reason that the players love this game so much. It is speculated that Fallout Tactics will be at least as interesting as the original. There is an estimate of 9 different character groups which you can assemble a team of (in multi-player mode), which include some very interesting races: Deathclaw, Ghoul, Human, Supermutant (I heard someplace that the player will be able to assemble a team of wild dogs, but I think it's just a romour!). In single-player mode, the player can choose one of the characters to be a leader. The generating of the characters will be identical to other Fallout games, although there will be less specialties, traits and perks.

The combat system of the previous Fallout games has been upgraded, enabling complex tactical operations with numerous units and vehicles (up to 36 in multiplayer, and even more in single-player). The interface will use the SPECIAL (Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility and Luck) system, and it includes these characteristics. The characters get Experience Points from interacting with the world, and those XP are transferred into upgrades for the character in the form of better Skills, Perks, etc. The player will have complete control over how they spend these XP for their main character, and to some extent their squad members. Besides, action points are not included, instead, a new system is introduced called Continuous Turn-Based Action System. As Chris Taylor puts it: 'The CTBA lets players move around at any time, but actions like firing a gun cost their character Action Points. Action Points regenerate over time. No more waiting for 20 rats to each take their turn. Walking is free in CTB - running costs you AP in CTB'.