Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel
Think of it as 'Fallout Lite.'
Published: January 17, 2004
I was among the many, many people crushed to find out that Black Isle Studios had folded recently, taking with it the prospect of getting even a semi-proper sequel to Fallout 2 and the continuation of one of the most imaginative, unique and just downright fun RPG series in PC history. It was with no real trepidation that I tore into Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel in the hopes that a bit of that classic Fallout spirit might remain, even if the game itself bore little resemblance to its namesake.
Brotherhood of Steel (not to be confused with Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, the turn-based PC strategy game that Interplay and Black Isle kicked out a few years ago) can probably be best described as Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance meets the Fallout universe -- and in fact the two games share the same engine and quite a few of the same assets, so interface-wise there's a striking similarity.
More focused on action than story progression and deep character development, Brotherhood of Steel comes dangerously close to being called a Fallout game in name only. Yes, it treads in the previous PC games' territory and introduces plenty of mutants, ghouls and various other assorted Fallout staples (like radscorpions and brahmin), but the Fallout material almost feels like window dressing rather than the focal point of the game, as if someone ripped the meat out of the BGDA series and ladled a heavy stock made of Fallout bits and pieces onto the whole mix in the hopes of creating a new stew. It doesn't take, however, and while my nostalgia was able to keep me held in the Fallout universe, it because rather apparent a few hours into the game that this was not the spiritual successor to the PC Fallout games I was hoping for.
Brotherhood of Steel does quite a few things right, though. If you've played either of the Dark Alliance games, you're going to feel right at home here. Viewed with the same top-down camera (though this one's pulled in quite a bit more), BoS is nearly always focused on action. There is a bit more story here than either of the Dark Alliance games offered (something that I chided the sequel on lacking) and it does do a good job of getting anyone not yet introduced into the Fallout universe a decent idea of the basics, but the Cliffs Notes version doesn't really do things justice.
Most of the combat consists of mashing the target button to lock onto enemies and then laying into them with your weapon of choice, which range from handguns to shotguns to automatic weapons to some incredibly fun rapid-fire pulse weapons later on in the game to explosives in manufactured or jimmied-together-with-homemade-parts variants for almost all minor weapons. All this combat can be fun in a mindless sort of way, and the pacing of the game stays rather consistent throughout with only a few slower patches here and there. Thanks to extensive voice acting, missions are given some weight, mainly because you're attempting them for an actual character with real personality rather than just a general stack of polygons with a linked text balloon.
As a wayward inductee in the Brotherhood of Steel, the self-appointed knights of the post-bomb wastelands that stretch between the few standing major cities and nomadic enclaves that dot the bleak landscape, the game starts out with you in search of fellow BoS members, but rather quickly you begin to discover that the mutant menace once thought wiped out by the heroes of the first two Fallout games may be secretly rebuilding, and doing so for less than pleasant means. What's great about the game is that in this post-fallout world good and evil aren't as black and white as they used to be, and the grey areas and character that plead their cases can be awfully convincing.
Just as the Dark Alliance games stripped down most of Baldur's Gate's more hardcore elements into a more mainstream-palatable format, BoS takes the general themes (including their more adult slant, which helps keep the game feel like a complete cop-out, even if it seems like there's even more cussing and cynicism than the PC games) and feel of the PC game and strips them down to a slightly more whitewashed feeling affair. It's not horrible, really, and in many ways keeps the game a better sell for the general audience, possibly turning them on to the series as a whole, it just feels like a bit of a letdown for those of us already firmly entrenched in the series' roots.
If it seems like I've been comparing BoS and BGDA a bit too much, it's because the game not only hit our offices (and, subsequently my desk being the PC geek I am) at the same time, but share a whole hell of a lot in common, not the least of which is the same basic interface and overall engine. This means aside from some incongruous button remapping and basic terminology swaps (gold become caps, health potions become stimpaks), the games feel remarkably similar. BoS' camera is pushed in a bit more, and the overall look isn't quite as polished, but otherwise things feel very similar, which is to say the game generally looks very good.
Texture detail is decent, crafting an appropriately gritty, rusty, burned out world that instantly feels like the Fallout games of old, if presented in a slightly different light. Speaking of light, the overall ambience is quite a bit less forced than BGDA, with mainly neon signs and puddles of irradiated waste creating most of the colored lighting effects. An overabundance of bottomless (or so you think until you cast a flaming enemy down into them only to see them laying a few feet down) pits that spell instant death if fallen into give the overall game a feeling of déjà vu, which can detract from taking in new areas, but it's not so horrible that it kills the general effect, just lessens the impact of doing an exploring. The same goes for overuse of the same kind of objects like fences, cars, toolboxes and their variants.
Aside from a few shared or slightly tweaked sound effects, BoS' audio is head and shoulders above that of BGDA and the dearth of other games in this genre. Fantastic voice acting and moody – if usually ambient and otherwise forgettable – music keep the game from feeling too departed from the more strategic, story heavy PC games. More than anything the voice acting and audio for certain monsters hold the game fast in the Fallout heredity, but barely.
If Brotherhood of Steel can snare a few more people and get them interested in the PC games, so much the better. With the closure of Black Isle and the general thinning of the talent that went into creating the first couple games, there's little reason to think that magic of those mid/late nineties PC classic will ever really be fully renewed, and as it stands, Brotherhood of Steel will probably be the last Fallout game kicked out under the Interplay banner, making it at least rental worthy. As such, it's a bit disappointing to know this is the series' swan song, but for fans and those looking to get a basic introduction to the series, this isn't a bad way to say goodbye. Just don't expect people to get all misty-eyed when they think of the series like they used to.
Brotherhood of Steel (not to be confused with Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, the turn-based PC strategy game that Interplay and Black Isle kicked out a few years ago) can probably be best described as Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance meets the Fallout universe -- and in fact the two games share the same engine and quite a few of the same assets, so interface-wise there's a striking similarity.
More focused on action than story progression and deep character development, Brotherhood of Steel comes dangerously close to being called a Fallout game in name only. Yes, it treads in the previous PC games' territory and introduces plenty of mutants, ghouls and various other assorted Fallout staples (like radscorpions and brahmin), but the Fallout material almost feels like window dressing rather than the focal point of the game, as if someone ripped the meat out of the BGDA series and ladled a heavy stock made of Fallout bits and pieces onto the whole mix in the hopes of creating a new stew. It doesn't take, however, and while my nostalgia was able to keep me held in the Fallout universe, it because rather apparent a few hours into the game that this was not the spiritual successor to the PC Fallout games I was hoping for.
Brotherhood of Steel does quite a few things right, though. If you've played either of the Dark Alliance games, you're going to feel right at home here. Viewed with the same top-down camera (though this one's pulled in quite a bit more), BoS is nearly always focused on action. There is a bit more story here than either of the Dark Alliance games offered (something that I chided the sequel on lacking) and it does do a good job of getting anyone not yet introduced into the Fallout universe a decent idea of the basics, but the Cliffs Notes version doesn't really do things justice.
Most of the combat consists of mashing the target button to lock onto enemies and then laying into them with your weapon of choice, which range from handguns to shotguns to automatic weapons to some incredibly fun rapid-fire pulse weapons later on in the game to explosives in manufactured or jimmied-together-with-homemade-parts variants for almost all minor weapons. All this combat can be fun in a mindless sort of way, and the pacing of the game stays rather consistent throughout with only a few slower patches here and there. Thanks to extensive voice acting, missions are given some weight, mainly because you're attempting them for an actual character with real personality rather than just a general stack of polygons with a linked text balloon.
As a wayward inductee in the Brotherhood of Steel, the self-appointed knights of the post-bomb wastelands that stretch between the few standing major cities and nomadic enclaves that dot the bleak landscape, the game starts out with you in search of fellow BoS members, but rather quickly you begin to discover that the mutant menace once thought wiped out by the heroes of the first two Fallout games may be secretly rebuilding, and doing so for less than pleasant means. What's great about the game is that in this post-fallout world good and evil aren't as black and white as they used to be, and the grey areas and character that plead their cases can be awfully convincing.
Just as the Dark Alliance games stripped down most of Baldur's Gate's more hardcore elements into a more mainstream-palatable format, BoS takes the general themes (including their more adult slant, which helps keep the game feel like a complete cop-out, even if it seems like there's even more cussing and cynicism than the PC games) and feel of the PC game and strips them down to a slightly more whitewashed feeling affair. It's not horrible, really, and in many ways keeps the game a better sell for the general audience, possibly turning them on to the series as a whole, it just feels like a bit of a letdown for those of us already firmly entrenched in the series' roots.
If it seems like I've been comparing BoS and BGDA a bit too much, it's because the game not only hit our offices (and, subsequently my desk being the PC geek I am) at the same time, but share a whole hell of a lot in common, not the least of which is the same basic interface and overall engine. This means aside from some incongruous button remapping and basic terminology swaps (gold become caps, health potions become stimpaks), the games feel remarkably similar. BoS' camera is pushed in a bit more, and the overall look isn't quite as polished, but otherwise things feel very similar, which is to say the game generally looks very good.
Texture detail is decent, crafting an appropriately gritty, rusty, burned out world that instantly feels like the Fallout games of old, if presented in a slightly different light. Speaking of light, the overall ambience is quite a bit less forced than BGDA, with mainly neon signs and puddles of irradiated waste creating most of the colored lighting effects. An overabundance of bottomless (or so you think until you cast a flaming enemy down into them only to see them laying a few feet down) pits that spell instant death if fallen into give the overall game a feeling of déjà vu, which can detract from taking in new areas, but it's not so horrible that it kills the general effect, just lessens the impact of doing an exploring. The same goes for overuse of the same kind of objects like fences, cars, toolboxes and their variants.
Aside from a few shared or slightly tweaked sound effects, BoS' audio is head and shoulders above that of BGDA and the dearth of other games in this genre. Fantastic voice acting and moody – if usually ambient and otherwise forgettable – music keep the game from feeling too departed from the more strategic, story heavy PC games. More than anything the voice acting and audio for certain monsters hold the game fast in the Fallout heredity, but barely.
If Brotherhood of Steel can snare a few more people and get them interested in the PC games, so much the better. With the closure of Black Isle and the general thinning of the talent that went into creating the first couple games, there's little reason to think that magic of those mid/late nineties PC classic will ever really be fully renewed, and as it stands, Brotherhood of Steel will probably be the last Fallout game kicked out under the Interplay banner, making it at least rental worthy. As such, it's a bit disappointing to know this is the series' swan song, but for fans and those looking to get a basic introduction to the series, this isn't a bad way to say goodbye. Just don't expect people to get all misty-eyed when they think of the series like they used to.
