FOBOS Review
Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2004 5:22 am
This isn't my work, but someone on the Interplay forums [Rip3001] posted his review of FOBOS and it's a very honest and in-depth look at the gameplay without sugarcoating it as most review sites are doing.
Original review: http://forums.interplay.com/viewtopic.php?t=37966
Original review: http://forums.interplay.com/viewtopic.php?t=37966
We soon found melee combat to be less than easy since the reach with the Hulk gloves were quite short while the raiders didn't seem to have a problem reaching further...with their bare fists. They didn't hurt much...but it was annoying to notice your character jabbing thin-air while a raider is punching you from two feet away. Locking on to them didn't help either.
We then turned to our pistols which took about 5-7 hits to bring down a raider, but half of the shots would miss even when locked on. We soon found ammo to be quite rare and decided to divide our characters by having Marcus dedicate to melee and have Nadia. This took awhile to take hold because ammo was still rare by the "rid-the-warehouse-of-vermin" quest. We enter the warehouse to the sounds of combat...it sounded like scorpions and rats were fighting...but as soon as we came into viewing distance, both species united in a holy war against us, never to set eyes on eachother ever again. In fact, parties of rat and radscorpions were quite common.
When I had gathered up a good amount of ammo, I tried using my pistol again...only to find it took longer to kill them than to just run up and hit them with a baseball bat. I then read in the book that Nadia can wield two weapons at the same time...I just happened to have picked up two Beretta pistols...yet I could only wield one. Only certain weapons come in pairs (as one item)...later on I found an item called, "Dual Berettas" :roll:
When I started to run low on ammo, we found that Marcus had automatically picked up quite a bit and since he was concentrating on melee, I had quite a stash to take from...at least till we found that Characters CANNOT give ammo or money to each other.
Locking on with your weapons was a pain in itself. Character can lose a lock-on when preforming an evasive maneuver. Your character also cannot target a creature to their side or behind them and insist on targeting a rat running away rather than the super radscorpion attacking from behind.
The level design was nothing special and became especially hard to see in certain environment where the color schemes for the walls and floors blend in with eachother. The camera would also move slightly over time so that the players would not notice until they were bumping into walls or running in circles. Player by the way is the only one whom can control the camera, while BG:DA allowed both players to adjust the camera on the fly.
The "mini" map is by far...perhaps the worse made. It is hardly transparent and it's colors blend in with the environments color leading to some unexpected falls into the abyss. Without the mini-map, it is even harder to navigate with the camera controlling itself when you're not noticing.
The weapons are...boring to say the least. While there is a variety of weapons early on, there are clearly no reasons to use spiked gloves over the baseball bat (which does more DMG and has more reach)...and you find the bat first!
We were also treated to a very entertaining boss fight with...a certain fat man...which simple slowly strafed sideways while tossing grenades which were easily sidestepped while shooting him with...oh say...500 bullets. Was he a mutant? No. Was he wearing power armor? No. Was he protected by magic? No, this ain't Baluder's Gate...he was just a overweight guy...
What's the best part of a action game with RPG elements? Personally, I enjoy the building up of a character. While BG:DA had skills that made you want to apply points into them...Fallout BOS' skills seem very weak...and spread out oddly between characters.
For example:
Nadia's first skill choice is "Slayer" which increases critical hits by 5%. You can lvl this skill up 5 times...
Further down you can find, "Desert Soldier" which increases critical hits by 5% when using conventional weapons.
That's not all...she also can put a points into a unique skill called, "Futuristic Woman" which...increases critical hits by 5% when using conventional weapons...
