Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel

Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel or Fallout: BoS is an action role-playing game developed and published by Interplay Entertainment for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox game consoles. Released January 13, 2004, it is the fourth installment in the Fallout series, following Fallout Tactics, and is the first to release on consoles.

Background
The game takes place in Carbon, Texas, beginning in the year 2208, 47 years after Fallout and 33 years before Fallout 2. The player character is called the "Initiate" and chooses to control one of three characters, including Cain, Cyrus, or Nadia, who have all pledged their allegiance to the Brotherhood of Steel.

Gameplay
The game contains some light platforming elements, such as jumping across bottomless pits and crouching under lasers. Skills have the same function as perks in other Fallout games. Each playable character has some skills that are unique to them. The game allows for two-player co-op multiplayer. Due to no split-screen, the players share the same screen, and the camera restricts the players' boundaries, forcing the two players to stay close and move in tandem.

NPCs can be interacted with, resulting in consequences for some dialogue choices. The game has quests given by these NPCs, and there are several side quests the player can do for rewards. Some NPCs are merchants that will buy and sell, with Jesse being chapter one's merchant and a pair of ghoul brothers for chapter two.

Apart from multiplayer, if the player unlocks the Man's Best Friend skill, a dog named Dogmeat follows the player and attacks enemies. This skill is not available for Cain players. If Dogmeat is defeated, they will return at the next save point.

Combat and equipment


Combat in Brotherhood of Steel is real-time, and there is no V.A.T.S. Players can crouch behind obstacles, lock onto enemies, and dodge rolls to avoid damage. Certain melee weapons can also be charged for greater damage as well.

There are 56 weapons in total, including 6 glove weapons, 3 club weapons, 4 hammer weapons, and 7 bladed weapons for 20 Melee Weapons. There are 3 Small Guns, pistols, 3 burst-fire, 3 rifles, 2 shotguns, and 3 weapons that can be dual-wielded for 14 Small Guns and 8 Big Guns. There are 2 Energy pistols, 5 rifles, and 1 weapon that can be dual-wielded for 8 Energy Weapons and 6 Explosives. These weapon types overlap; e.g. a homemade laser pistol is a homemade weapon, an energy weapon, and a gun type. The highest damage weapon, other than the mini nuke grenade, is the Shredder, a Big Gun with 480-606 damage.

There are four location types of armor: headgear, chest, gloves and boots. The eight successively more protective grades of armor, in order: cloth, leather, riot, metal, combat, Tesla, power armor and advanced power armor. The advanced power armor chest piece offers the most protection of all locations and grades.

Chapter One
Brotherhood members have gone missing in Carbon, and the chosen Initiate is tasked with searching for the paladins, starting with the nearby town. The Initiate is welcomed by a prostitute, Ruby. Armed thugs loiter in town and harass Armpit, a bartender. Armpit is grateful the Initiate saves him, and steers the Initiate in the direction of the shifty mayor of this lawless town, Richard.

Chapter Two
In Los, the Initiate looks for mutants. The search leads to the Church of the Lost, a cult based inside the city. A Brotherhood paladin, Rhombus, asks the Initiate to kill the cult leader, Blake. Blake and the Initiate fight, and after recovering a key from the dead cult leader, the Initiate escorts Rhombus to a truck where he had hidden the key. During a subsequent battle with Attis, the mutant general, the Initiate is knocked unconscious and left for dead, with their left arm cut off.

Chapter Three
Mary, a young woman who has lived her life in a Secret Vault, finds the Initiate and guides them to safety. The super mutants begin infiltrating the vault and begin slaughtering its inhabitants. A mutated Attis begins growing inside the vault, infecting those inside. The Initiate must initiate a self destruct sequence and escape via a monorail car. During the explosion, Cyrus, Nadia and Cain are seen watching Los from the city's outskirts.

Locations
The action takes place in only one zone per chapter. A zone is composed of many locations. A player character can return to previously visited locations until they enter a new chapter and a new zone (Carbon, Los or Secret Vault). They can also sometimes not be able to visit a new location until the storyline advances. There are 50 separate maps of varying size in the game, the primary locations include those as followed.

Playable characters
One chooses one of up to six playable characters to control as the player character. There are no party members. The last three unlockable characters on the following list become available to control after the player completes a chapter in the game.
 * Cain: Cain is a ghoul who decided to join the Brotherhood after super mutants destroyed his hometown, Necropolis. He can use heavy and dual weapons of medium build, but he cannot maneuver well with the former and cannot run while using the latter.
 * Cyrus: Cyrus was born in a tribal farming village, but he started roaming the wastes after his village was destroyed by super mutants. He later decided to join the Brotherhood as a soldier. Of heavy build, able to use and maneuver well with heavy weapons. He cannot equip dual weapons and cannot run while firing any weapon.
 * Nadia: Nadia spent her childhood as an orphan living on the streets. Although she adapted to life there, she decided to join the Brotherhood when she witnessed several of its members engaging in an act of philanthropy. Of light build, she can equip dual weapons. She cannot use heavy weapons. The weapons she can equip, she can fire while running.
 * Patty: Has the same access to and restrictions on weapons as Nadia. She has +10 to her Base Armor value, and bonuses to the following skills: +20% bonus to Bargaining, +80% to Gun Damage, +25% to Desert Soldier and +25% to Future Woman.
 * Rhombus: Unlike the first four characters, Rhombus has no restrictions or bonuses to weapon class in regards to equipping or movement. Rhombus has a Base Armor bonus of +30. He has a +100% bonus to Melee Damage, and +50% bonuses to Explosive Damage and the skills Heavy Hitter and Wastelander.
 * Vault Dweller: This powerful player character can be selected for use only in a new game, and as with Rhombus, has no weapon class restrictions or bonuses. He has a stacking unarmored Base Armor value of 20, and +100% bonuses to Melee Damage, Gun Damage and Explosive Damage. Additionally, +20% bonuses to the Slayer and Fortune Finder skills, and +100% to the Heavy Hitter and Wastelander skills.

Non-player characters

 * Armpit: Armpit is the bartender in Carbon. He is willing to pay money for radscorpion tails.
 * Attis: Attis is the leader of the mutant army and the final boss.
 * Blake: Blake is the leader of the Church of the Lost. He fights the player character in Chapter Two.
 * CALIX: CALIX is the Secret Vault's main computer system. It could share some information.
 * Ching Tsun: Ching is a merchant in the vault. He is willing to buy computer parts.
 * Dubois: Dubois is the chief scientist of the vault.
 * Giese: Giese is a ghoul living in Los. He can fashion weapons from pieces of junk.
 * Harold: Harold is a ghoul-appearing FEV contact living in Los who asks the player character to recover missing body parts for him.
 * Hieronymous: Hieronymus runs a gladiator ring in Los.
 * Jane: Jane is the raider matron. She is in charge of the raiders that attacked Carbon.
 * Jesse: Jesse is a trader in the wasteland.
 * Mary: Mary helps the player character after the first fight with Attis. She also informs the player character about her mother's ring.
 * Patty: The security officer of the hidden vault, Patty is unlocked when the first chapter is completed.
 * Richard: Richard is the mayor of Carbon who sold the town to bandits.
 * Ruby: Ruby is Carbon's resident prostitute. She provides the player with several quests.
 * Rhombus: A returning character from the first Fallout, Rhombus is a paladin of the Brotherhood of Steel. Although wounded by a ghoul suicide bomber, Rhombus is playable after the player beats chapter two.
 * Salieri: Salieri is a merchant in Los. He asks the player character to deliver a package to Hieronymous.
 * Technician: The technician helps the player in the vault facilities.
 * Vault Dweller: The protagonist of the original Fallout, the Vault Dweller is unlocked after the game has been finished. In-game, he is met by the player in Carbon.
 * Vidya: Vidya is the town doctor of Carbon and can heal the Initiate at no charge.



Production
The game's three producers were Mark Teal, Charles Cuevas and Trevor Snowden. Its lead artist was Perry Scalf, lead designer was Chris Pasetto, and lead programmer was Randy Culley. Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel is the last Fallout title to be released before the franchise was sold by Interplay Entertainment to Bethesda Softworks. A sequel, Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel 2, was initially planned but was canceled.

To create the game, Interplay used the "Snowblind" game engine also used in the console games Dark Alliance and the online-capable PS2 game Champions of Norrath. 480p and Dolby digital are supported.

Level designer Dan Kingdom mentioned that the Black Isle Studios team was very interested in what they were doing with F:BOS, and from the very beginning they had a lot of contact with them regarding storyline, setting and characters. The Black Isle team also provided them with a mountain of information to help out with all the details, from timelines to bibles. The game's website mentioned, "We've read the Fallout bible and updates, worked with people in BIS on the concept, and determined that we'd stay within the guidelines of the Fallout universe but at the same time presume that this is a different type of game for a different audience. Fallout: BOS has its own setting, characters, and events that fit within the larger Fallout world. Nothing in this game contradicts the events that occur in Fallout or Fallout 2." Bethesda Softworks' Todd Howard commented that for the purposes of Fallout 3 development, Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel content was not taken into account. A promotional kit was given to members of the media.

Music
The soundtrack background music and music by bands, such as Slipknot, Killswitch Engage, Celldweller, Meshuggah, Skinlab and musician Devin Townsend.

Voice actors
All voice acting citations are from the Internet Movie Database. Fallout: BoS is the first Fallout game to not feature the introduction voice-acted by Ron Perlman, who is famous in the Fallout series for the line, "War...war never changes." The narrator of this game is Tony Jay, the Lieutenant from Fallout.

Marketing
Promotional items were given away prior to the release of Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. One item was a press kit given away by Interplay to members of the media. It contained an asset disc, a water bottle, a first aid kit, and a Maglite flashlight. Some of the kits contained a promotional video named 'A guide to post-nuclear intimacy' and several condoms. The video's background song is a looped instrumental version of "A Nuclear Blast" by Craig Stuart Garfinkle.

Reception
Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel received a Metacritic metascore of 64/100 on PS2 and 66/100 on Xbox.

Behind the scenes

 * The credits for the game mentions "Thanks for the laughs: www.duckandcover.net, www.nma-fallout.com". These fansites criticized the game, even before it launched.
 * The game's manual has a list of tips and mentions: "Save, save and save again. If you find a save game console, use it. Don't come crying to us because you ignored one and now have to replay the last fifteen minutes again. Life is a harsh, unforgiving wasteland. Get used to it."
 * In the game, the Vault Dweller gives the Initiate a canteen with the Vault 13 logo. This item previously appeared in Fallout, Fallout 2 and would later appear in Fallout: New Vegas, if pre-ordered from Gamestop and in the add-on Courier's Stash.
 * There is a townsperson who says "His name is Robert Paulson" when the raiders attack Carbon, a reference to the 1999 film Fight Club.
 * In a trailer, Nadia mentions she was born "just after the bombs fell" despite that the game takes place over a hundred years since the Great War. On the game's website, it was clarified to be a mistake that slipped through recording, and that "just" should have not been said.
 * Interplay was sued by Snowblind Studios for using their engine, which Interplay previously contracted them for to create Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. Snowblind claimed that Interplay used their engine without their consent for Brotherhood of Steel, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance II, and the GameCube version of Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance. They also claimed that they were entitled to certain royalties on the exploitation of their product. The two studios were engaged in this legal conflict between 2003 and 2004. On April 19, 2005, the litigation ended with both companies signing an agreement, determining that while Interplay would be allowed to work with materials already using the Snowblind engine, they would not be able to use it for any future games.
 * A text string in the game's files reads "OUT OF FUCKING MEMORY" and it can be seen if the .elf file is extracted from the .iso and viewed in the Ps2dis assembly program.

Gallery

 * Screenshots

Videos
Fallout Brotherhood of Steel Intro Fallout Brotherhood of Steel Cain trailer Fallout Brotherhood of Steel trailer 1 Fallout Brotherhood of Steel trailer 2 Fallout Brotherhood of Steel Cyrus trailer Fallout Brotherhood of Steel Nadia trailer