Fallout Tactics

Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, abbreviated as FoT, or FoT:BoS (not to be confused with Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel), is the third title in the Fallout Series, but is not a traditional RPG (so it wasn't entitled Fallout 3). Instead, BoS focused on squad-based combat and introduced near real-time combat, called "continuous turn-based" by the developers, to the Fallout series. The plot of the game takes place in the American Midwest rather than the West Coast, as the previous Fallout titles did.

An interesting note is that the voice of a principal character in the game, General Barnaky, was performed by R. Lee Ermey, who is known for the being the host of History Channel's Mail Call and as Gny. Sgt. Hartman in the movie Full Metal Jacket.

Gameplay
Unlike the previous two Fallout games, Fallout Tactics emphasizes tactical combat and strategy. Players are not able to respond to non-player characters, but they can still trade and gamble. Instead of towns, Fallout Tactics centers around Brotherhood bunkers and missions. The bunkers serve as a central point for the Brotherhood, and players can obtain the services of quartermasters, mechanics, personnel yeomen, and medics. Characters from completed missions occasionally visit the bunkers.

After receiving a mission briefing from the general in charge of the bunker, the player's squad can then move to the area where the mission will take place. Although this is usually a town, it can also be a factory, military encampment, or even a Vault. There, the player is given a map of the area marked with objectives and notes.

Unlike the previous two Fallout games which featured an individual turn-based system, combat in Fallout Tactics operates differently. Fallout Tactics features three modes of combat: Continuous Turn-Based (CTB), Individual Turn-Based (ITB), and Squad Turn-Based (STB). In CTB, everyone can act at the same time, and action points are regenerated a rate based on the Agility stat. ITB is the system used in the original games. STB is a variation of that; each turn is given to a squad. Other changes include the ability to change stance, modifiers for height, and setting sentry modes which let characters shoot automatically in CTB upon encountering an enemy.

Races
Although the main character on the single player game had to be human, recruits from the brotherhood and characters in multiplayer matches could be of any of the six races featured in the game.
 * Humans: Humans are the most common race on the wastelands. They do not excel in any particular area, but they do not suffer in any areas either. Humans gain perks every three levels.
 * Super Mutants: Modified by the Forced Evolutionary Virus, super mutants are hulking beasts that are excellent at combat but lacking in intelligence and agility. Unfortunately, they can't use small weapons such as pistols or rifles. Super Mutants gain perks every four levels.
 * Ghouls: Ghouls are humans who have mutated due to the radiation of the wastes and have extremely long lifespans. Although not as strong as humans, ghouls are luckier and more perceptive. They gain perks every four levels.
 * Deathclaws: Deathclaws are massive beasts that use their bodies' size and strength to tear their enemies apart. Unfortunately, they can't use most items or wear armor and can only use melee weapons (brass knuckles, etc.). Although lacking in intelligence and charisma, the bodies of deathclaws are far more durable than humans. They gain a perk every four levels.
 * Dogs: Dogs are canines that have adapted to life in the Wastelands. Their main strengths are perception and agility, but they cannot use weapons or other tools. Dogs gain perks every two levels.
 * Humanoid Robots: Robots are machines created to fight. Although they always have an average amount of luck and no Charisma, Robots are strong and tough, resistant to most attacks, and immune to poison and radiation. Robots never gain perks.

Background
With nuclear apocalypse looming over the world, several vaults were constructed to contain the best and brightest of humanity. By being shielded from the imminent death, the offspring of these people could reclaim and repopulate the Earth. However, before the entire network could be completed, nuclear war broke out. One of the vaults became militaristic and technology-driven. Using their superior weapons, they were able to claim the surrounding wasteland. The members of this vault formed the Brotherhood of Steel, an organization dedicated to unlocking new and better technologies.

A split soon formed in the Brotherhood, however. One faction supported allowing tribals (human outsiders) to join the organization to prevent a lack of troops. The other faction wanted to keep the Brotherhood pure. The faction supporting the tribals was sent across the mountains on great airships to destroy a mutant army. A lightning storm struck down the ships, however, and they were forced to land. Free from the Brotherhood members who wanted nothing to do with the tribals, the new Brotherhood was able to grow.

Plot
When the game starts, the Brotherhood is trying to claim territory surrounding Chicago. By offering protection to villages of tribals, the Brotherhood is able to draft recruits from among the tribals. At the beginning of the game, the player character is an Initiate, a new recruit to the Brotherhood, tasked to lead a squad of soldiers made up of available initiates. Raiders in the area are the first challenge to the Brotherhood's authority, so the player's squad of initiates is dispatched to kill the bandit leaders and mop up the bandit threat. As the campaign against the raiders succeeds in dispersing them into the wasteland, the player character is accepted fully into the Brotherhood and learns the eventual goal of the Brotherhood, a campaign west across the Great Plains towards the Rocky Mountains in search of Vault Zero, the one-time nucleus and command center of the pre-war vault network, where the most senior government, scientific and military leaders were housed and the highest technology available was maintained.

The next challenge in the Brotherhood's campaign are the beastlords, humans who are able to control the animals of the wastes, and who have come to use Deathclaws as their servants. Once again, the Brotherhood fights the menace, and once again the Brotherhood emerges victorious. Before the Brotherhood can rest, however, they encounter a new foe as they push into post-war Missouri, an area known as "the Belt": the remnants of the mutant army they were sent to destroy. The initial battles are costly to the Brotherhood. Outgunned and outmanned, the Brotherhood is overwhelmed outside of St. Louis. There General Barnaky, head of the Brotherhood, is captured by the Toccomata, leader of the mutant army. Although the Brotherhood is able to withdraw, they remain under constant attack. A squad dispatched to destroy a munitions manufacturing plant instead finds a laboratory dedicated to curing mutant sterility. The Brotherhood claims the lab in order to use it as a future bargaining chip. A few days later, at the ghoul town of Gravestone, in the ruins of Kansas City, Brotherhood scouts find an intact nuclear bomb. The Brotherhood defends the town from several mutant encroachments, and they are soon able to remove the weapon to a safe bunker.

Brotherhood scouting reveals the base of the mutants to be at Osceolla, near the ruins of one of the wrecked Brotherhood zeppelins. A squad fights its way into the base. Inside, they find Toccomata, who is dying. He reveals that General Barnaky had been lost to a unknown menace from the west that was too powerful for even the mutant army. As the squad enters the room where the mutant leader was hiding, they find Paladin Latham, one of the leaders of the Brotherhood air convoy. He tells the squad that after crashing, he fought Gammorin in hand-to-hand combat for leadership of the mutants. Latham won, but a head injury from the battle became infected, and he soon became delusional. Latham assumed the identity of Gamorin, and led his new army against his old allies. The squad kills Latham before he can endanger the Brotherhood even more.

Soon, the menace from the west reveals itself: a robot army is sweeping across the American Midwest. The reavers, a cult dedicated to technology worship, is caught between the Brotherhood and the robots as the two armies clash in Kansas. Although the Reavers try to wage a two-fronted war, they are soon beaten, and seek sanctuary among the Brotherhood in exchange for an electromagnetic pulse weapon. The Brotherhood agrees, and a squad armed with the new technology destroys a robot repair plant as they push into Colorado, towards Vault Zero. It is revealed that the robots are originating from Vault Zero, and are being directed by an enigmatic enemy known as the Calculator. Evidence uncovered by the Brotherhood points to a catastrophic experiment in the Vault that created the Calculator from a fusion of computers and human brains. The robots regroup, but the Brotherhood is able to use the momentum to destroy a robot manufacturing plant. The robots disrupt this plan when they capture Bartholemew Kerr, a merchant who had roamed among the Brotherhood bunkers. If the robots could gain this information from him, they would be able to destroy the Brotherhood. The squad arrives in time, however, and they put an end to the merchant's life. While there, they also discover the lobotomized body of General Barnaky.

As the robots press hard, but the Brotherhood creates a plan to destroy the robots at their base at Vault Zero, located in Cheyenne Mountain. Using the captured nuclear warhead, the Brotherhood hopes to blast an entrance into the vault. After a tough fight up the slopes of Cheyenne Mountain, a Brotherhood squad places the warhead. The explosion does its job, and two squads enter into the bunker. The power was disabled by the blast, however, so one of the squads must find the auxiliary power so the elevators can be used. Meanwhile, the robots are attacking the Brotherhood's bunker. At the vault, the power is soon back on, and the squad proceeds to the bottom level. There they encounter the last of the robot army, led by a cyborg General Barnaky. The General does not attack, however, when he is reminded of his promise to make the world safe for his wife, Maria. The squad then makes it to the Calculator. After defeating the last robots that guard the bunker and destroying the brains that kept the Calculator alive, the squad is asked by the Calculator to join minds with it in order to end the war and bring peace to the world. The squad is given the choice to either destroy the Calculator, sacrifice a character to join with it, or (if he has been kept alive) allow General Barnaky to join with it.

Inconsistencies
The game is also filled with numerous spelling and grammatical errors; English majors, be warned.
 * The Brotherhood of Steel originating from a military Vault, when in the setting of the previous games, they were an organization formed by Mariposa Military Base personnel and their families.
 * The Deathclaws portrayed as intelligent and talking, while the original deathclaws, as all lizards, do not possess fur and were 'just' the most dangerous predators of post-War United States and the intelligent version was created by the Enclave after the events in Tactics.
 * Appearance of fossil fuel powered vehicles (as indicated by the SFX of a gas powered engine) and a gas station stocked with fuel. Also, numerous fuel drums in-game. This contradicts the entire storyline, as well as stylization.
 * Inclusion of World War II era weaponry and numerous modern day weapons, contradicting both the setting and logic.
 * Vault 0, whose design, purpose and layout is inconsistent with the Safehouse Project and the Vault Experiment.
 * Employment of airships as means of travel.
 * Brotherhood's ability to manufacture high-tech Powered Armours.

Reception
Fallout Tactics is considered a major disappointment by most fans, not only for the numerous contradictions and liberties taken with the setting, but also because fans really wanted Fallout 3. In more recent times however, fans have come to respect it as a fairly good squad-based strategy game with the Fallout spirit, especially in light of the console game Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel which was not even Fallout in spirit let alone in setting and the upcoming Fallout 3 which is decidedly very next-gen in design, eschewing the classic Isometric view.

Quotes

 * If Interplay had allowed more time (and money), MicroForte would have been in a position to deliver a better game. That's fairly typical of the publisher/developer relationship. It just hurts more in this particular case, because there was a higher expectation of quality due to the Fallout name. The project wasn't completely on schedule in reality, but that was due to a couple of changes in direction during development and wasn't due to any major problems with the developer. Interplay should have taken a step back, slipped the game 3-4 months and released a higher quality game. That doesn't mean I take any less responsibility for my duties on FOT and my failure to keep the FO lore as close to canon as possible.  - Chris Taylor (RPG Codex forum)
 * Something else that I remembered: when we (IP and MF) sat down for that original week of pre-production design, the game was strictly turn-based. We had discussed how we wanted to implement TB/RT or some sort of hybrid, and the decision was made to do TB combat only (RT until combat, just like FO1/2). The TB combat wasn't ready in time for the 2000 E3, so we showed a quickie RT combat (as is common for those demos, much was faked under the hood). That particular demo was one of the main reasons RT combat went in. - Chris Taylor (RPG Codex forum)
 * Keep in mind that the amount of testing on Fallout Tactics was tragically short. IIRC, Interplay recieved the first full beta/fully playable to the end on a saturday. The following wednesday, after one - maybe two - revs, it was sent off for mastering. That's an amazingly short amount of time (most projects have at least a month between fully playable and gold mastering, RPGs usually have longer). Myself and a few others asked for more time to do more testing and we were denied. There was a strong desire to get the game out as fast as possible by someone at Interplay. I don't think it helped that I had walked out of a marketing meeting a month or so earlier, so my opinion towards the end wasn't well received. Additional testing time would have allowed: more bug fixes, better balancing (especially in Turn-Based, since the limited amount of testing time, most of QA was testing in real-time) and more tweaks to the game system. It would not have allowed for any major changes to the story, characters, plot and game system. In hindsight, we should have not implemented both TB and RT. It did end up costing us a substantial amount of QA time and resources. Or, we should have kept RT only for multiplayer. That would have given us a little more time for balancing the single-player campaign. MicroForte wasn't responsible for nearly as many problems on FOT as Interplay was. And I would be surprised at the amount of problems Interplay's QA department was able to find, except I know how hard they worked and the problems they were working against. They did as good as job as anyone could have done under the circumstances. Of all things, I'm still bummed we never got a song in for the intro movie. I had wanted "Jesus Just Left Chicago" by ZZ Top. Chris Taylor (RPG Codex forum)