Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel Preview

In each mission, the player will lead 6 characters. After the mission, you will be able to pick new teammates. Each of the characters will have a personality of his own, as well as special skills that will come useful in combat. An option will be available by which the player gives orders such as: locate, patrol, attack, defend, destroy, follow, ambush, retrieve, scout, etc. Since the same combat system is used as in Fallout, it means the player can aim at certain parts of the body on his opponent (head, torso, arms, legs). The so-called 'critical hits' option will enable permanent damaging of the opponents such as crippling, incapacitation, or disabling him to use two-handed weapons. So, a veteran missing a leg won't contribute to the mission a lot, unless he is on a distance from the actual meelee. As usual in such sqad-based games, the soldiers will be able to save points for reacting to an enemy(sentry/guard mode). Depending on the speciality of the character, or his weapons, some of them will be deployed as roof-top snipers. If his LOS (Line of sight) is good, and the character has fine perception, the opponents will be easy targets. Also, silencers can be used (for example in night missions), granades over obstacles, not to mention that crates and barrels will explode after a good hit. Since you are a member of the Brotherhood, your arsenal will be extensive, but it can be renewed or enriched with even deadlier weapons. The game will have more weapons than Fallout 2, but even the old weapons will be upgraded and made more realistic. With special skills, the characters will be able to modify weapons (for example, increase magazine capacity, install a night scope, or the silencer). Each weapon will have a limited number of upgrades, because of the game balance, and because the same weapons will be carried through several missions. Some of the guys in your team may turn out as high-tech science commando with the in-mission research option, and all. Not all weapons will be lethal, some of them will induce an altered state of mind. Some of the old skills (gambling, outdoorsman...) have been excluded, and new ones added. New skills are: driving/piloting (for cars and similar vehicles) and demolition ( making explosive devices, booby traps and other...). Some minor alternations are expected with doctor-first aid skills.

The game has a skin editor, so sex, colour of hair, eyes, skin and clothes can be picked. In the case of Fallout Tactics, the sex of the character wont influence the conversations with the NPC's, as it did in Fallout. After every mission, the characters will recieve points that the player can distribute at his will, forming the characters that way. The multi player mode won't have this feature because of the general balance of the game. NPC's are divided into two general groups, hostile and non-hostile. Both groups will recognize your characters by reputation and react adequatly. The non-hostile NPC's are in charge of information, potential recruitment and even acquisition of additional armament. The characters in your team with Diplomacy Skill will be able to communicate with them. The conversations won't be as complex as in Fallout adventure, on the contrary it will be very simple, without branching or affecting the game, since this is a squad-based strategy, not an RPG.

The hostile NPC's will try to sabotage you, or the team members to be more precise, in every possible way, so it will be them or you (a really tough choice...). The gangs you encounter will have their leader, the boss, and each of those bosses will have a speciality in making life difficult for your team members. Experience acquired in battle will be carried through missions, and enable new skills and perk's. You'r guys can be chosen to be goodies with moral virtues or totaly bad dudes. Some special characters from previous Fallout games will feature in this one too, together with the new ones, but it will be no more continual "talking heads" animations. Just like in Fallout there will be "explicit language", allusions to sex, and lots of violence (Sex! Fallout Tactics, hmmm, maybe it's not too bad a game, althou it isn't an action pumped 'kill all mutants' FPS, so our EIC Uros2Lions maybe learns to like it). The game will carry Mature (M) rating. The use of the car in Fallout 2 was very fun, and in Fallout Tactics the developers are going to make it even more so, since the car in this game will be a very leathal weapon...The vehicles will be strictly land type, so no aircrafts or hovercrafts. Many types of transport will be at disposal: from the one-man recon, to armoured personnel vehicles. The smoothness of the ride is up to the character that is doing the driving. This will reflect on the speed of turns in the game, and the precision of driving. Instead of action points, the vehicles will have a slightly different motion system-they will have Gears. The car will have to move the distance which responds to its present speed. In the cars, like in Fallout 2, your men can leave the extra firepower-heavy artillery or additional arsenal. Your opponents will have vehicles (especially in multiplayer mode), so count on the driver or any of the passangers to become targets at any time. You'll be able to run over NPC's or opponents, and as that wasnt enough, you can run them over in reverse once more! Of course, the vehicles are obtained later in the game, and you dont have them available on the beggining. Your team wont be able to fight (fire their guns) from the cars, but some of the vehicles have their own armament (rockets or cannon), like tanks for instance, with the possibility of replacing parts in the break between missions. The characters with demolition skills will be able to place traps or bombs in front of the vehicles rendering them useless for further combat. The characters trapped inside the vehicle destroyed, will have a moment to jump out of the burning wreck (right in front of the gun barrels of their enemies) and save themselves. Characters with Repair Skills will be able to fix damaged vehicles.

The engine of the game has not been used before, rather it is based on the previous versions. A totally new engine has been developed, so it supports much bigger resolutions, and more details and colour. The engine will support 3D acceleration, althou Fallout Tactics isn't developed as a 3D game. The view is isometric. The accelerators will influence the game to boost its system performances, and enhance the effects of translucency, shadows and smoke. The higher resolutions (8oox600 to 1280x1024) are shown much smoother due to the 3D acceleration. Choosing between a 32-bit or 16-bit color palette is possible, for low and high-end systems. It doesn't mean that the game will be more colourfull, insead it will contain more detail, but with the old scorched brown surrounding. All characters will be rendered in 8 directions, while the 2D art utilises 8-bit palette with 256 colours.

Everything here mentioned indicates that Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel will be a pretty interesting game, especially to adventure fans, and those who enjoy squad based strategies.