/ Previews / RPG / Fallout 2 / Page 3
	Mood is important to any game, and FO2 will deliver the gritty moods of post apocalypse. Music and artwork will immerse you into the post doomsday world of Fallout 2.

In addition to some fresh skills, new perks have been added. Little tidbits your character picks up along the way with experience or by learning them from books or a passing guru. Whether you want to increase your healing ability or develop some quick trigger fingers it's all available to you in the newly added perks. Almost every element of gameplay has been added on to or improved upon. The music, however, will stay the same as the first. An ambient industrial mix of natural and haunting sounds that fit the mood of the place your character has entered, and the entire audio effect sets mood perfectly. The music won't be changed, but more ambient sounds will be added, such as little background like crowd noise, or eerie distant moans or shrieks. The music will once again serve to set the mood rather than to play a pleasing melody or tune.

The artwork of the first Fallout also has a way of setting mood. Fallout's art was a strange hybrid of retro 50's meets Mad Max, meets cyber tech. The combination was a great one, and in FO2 the same type of artwork will be used and improved for that extra gritty feel. The screen layout and menu has also been polished up a bit, but the basic layout will be identical to the first. People who have played the original will no doubt have an easy time picking up the controls of the sequel. The same art is going to be used throughout the game to give a feeling of drear and strange retro-feel from car design, to billboards, and even to the instruction book replete with silly, yet disturbing cartoons and surprisingly nutritious recipes.

The intro, one of the most gripping, of Fallout will not be reused but instead a new one is in development as are the in-depth conversations with NPC faces that show reactions to conversation. There won't be as many of these kind of conversations as in the first, but you'll probably be able to see most of them before the game is finished. Also, the option is being discussed about whether or not the option to continue exploring the world after the game officially ends should be given. There are a lot of interesting encounters that can be had, and there is an awful lot to explore in the world, as well as people to meet, greet, and kill.