If you’ve played either of the Baldur’s Gate games on the Xbox, then you’ve pretty much already played Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. If you are only familiar with the first two Fallout games on PC, then let me tell you this game is nothing like them. That being said, I did actually enjoy this game. This was one of the last games released by Interplay before they went under.

This game is basically just a hack-n-slash adventure set in a post-apocalyptic world sort of like the one in Mad Max. You play a hero who is trying to fight for justice while large groups of ruthless individuals are taking what little bit is left of human civilization and turning into their own murderous playground of greed and corruption. That basically means you just run around collecting equipment and killing everybody that gets in your way.

The gameplay and even the game engine is exactly the same as the two Baldur’s Gate games for the Xbox and PS2 console. While the original Fallout PC games employed a turn-based system for combat, this game does it all in real-time. Despite the very arcade feel of the game, there are some basic RPG elements like quests, character customization, and so on. Honestly, this game just barely makes it into the RPG category.

The game is presented using an overhead view of the characters and you can spin the map around, so there are no worries about weird fixed camera angles. The game does feature quite a wide variety of weapons, including baseball bats and various guns, so you can figure out what works best for you. Combat is like so many other games where you run around and press buttons to shoot or swing. There really isn’t much opportunity for strategy, except when it comes to fighting the bosses. The boss battles can be pretty tough, but mostly you just have to employ a basic hit-and-run strategy to get through them. By that, I mean you run up to them, hit a couple of times, then run away.

When you move about the maps, you are given an overhead map showing your location and the general vicinity. I found myself constantly getting lost and having to backtrack because of the way the maps are laid out. I found it annoying that I have to walk all the way around buildings when I should clearly be able to jump out a window or crawl over a rock. A lot of the areas were filled with unnecessary obstructions that did nothing more than get in the way of movement. If they provided some method of strategizing a better defense in combat, then I might have appreciated them being there.

Even if the gameplay is completely different, this game at least captures the look of the other titles from the Fallout series. The graphics look pretty good, but I think the Baldur’s Gate series looked better because it used a larger color palette. Most of this game is set in desert environments filled with bombed out buildings and rusty old cars everywhere. It’s like a nightmare Western filled with scrap heaps of modern technology. There’s also an incredible amount of profanity, which really surprised me. No wonder Interplay had trouble staying afloat releasing R-rated games such as this.

Where the graphics do shine is when you speak privately to characters in the game and you are treated to a close-up look at them. The artistry and animation during these scenes is quite good, as each character is detailed very well with their costume and set. The voice actors all sound like they are playing extras in some kind of Western, but that’s how they are supposed to sound. The sound effects get pretty repetitive after a while, but that’s a given in these kinds of hack-n-slash games.

Despite being repetitive and nothing like the great PC games upon which it is based, I still enjoyed playing Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel. It combined action and basic RPG elements to hold my attention pretty well, and the boss fights were actually tough.


Recommended: Yes