I have never actually tried a 2D Fallout game. I have, however, tried Arcana, and was frustrated by how much I hated the actual minute-to-minute combat gameplay, with braindead AI partners over whom I have little control and the worst sort of finicky nonsense overcomplication on most combat actions.
I\'ve heard good things about the story and characters of the first two Fallout titles, but learning that Arcana has a refined version of their system was enough to scare me away basically forever.
Bugs hurt too, but I figured there\'d be plenty of mods to fix that sort of thing. Then again, there weren\'t any to fix my problems with Arcana, so...
Fallout 2 has a lot of bugs, it didn\'t aged well, at all, has an insane amount of unfinished plots and ideas (you never find Sulik\'s sister or tribe).
But to me it\'s still one of the best, if not THE best Fallout. The writing is sharp, the guns are varied (you don\'t have to finish the game with energy weapons), the replayability is insane, since there are tons of factions to align with that will offer different bonuses and give different endings, each one with a different philosophy. It\'s also sharp with criticism, a mark that sadly was erased in the Bethesda era, with amoral experiments being done in people that just wanted to survive, brutality being done in the name \'of a better future\', old politics trying to worm into a new era that is trying to recover, and so on.
If Fallout Van Buren had been finished, the engine would be probably used to remaster both 1 and 2. Sadly, this won\'t happen.
For the record, I first played it(as well as the first game) not all that long after it came out, before Fallout 3 was released.
As much as I enjoyed it, I concede that there are some things that the subsequent games did better. For example, they trimmed some skill list, such as combining First Aid and Doctor, removing the Big Guns skill and a few other changes. They also made it somewhat easier to tell how much skill would be required for various checks.
I personally haven\'t played Arcana, so I can\'t compare it with Fallout.
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Fallout, Bigger and Better
Fallout has changed over the years, but one of my favorite installments is the one that's most similar to the original. Fallout 2 is a great example of how to make a sequel, since it expands on the original, keeping what made the first game great while improving on many aspects of the gameplay.
The plot of Fallout 2 takes place 80 years after the first game. The village of Arroyo, which the protagonist of the first game founded, is dying of starvation, and seek a G.E.C.K. to grow the food they need to survive in the wasteland. You set out to search for the G.E.C.K., and eventually find out that more than just your village is at stake.
The game retains the same basic character creation system, combat mechanics and other features of the first game, but significantly improves upon many aspects of the game. The game is about twice as long as the first game and features a higher level cap, leading to more room for character growth and customization. There are significantly more towns and quest hubs, and thus more to offer to players who are willing to explore. Companions are somewhat more useful and easier to control, although, like in the original, I struggled to keep them alive for very long.
The quests are significantly more complex and interesting than the quests in the first game. They often can be solved multiple games, depending on the player's build and morality. The choices you make have consequences, which are reflected in the game's Multiple Endings.
While Fallout 2 improves on the original in most regards, I would be remiss if I didn't mention two significant flaws. The first is a bad case of Early Game Hell, since your starting supplies are far more meager than the first game. You don't even get a gun until the second town, and that gun has to be reloaded after every shot, thus making most early battles rather difficult. The game gets somewhat more enjoyable after you complete Lara's quest in the third town and get a 10mm Pistol, but resources will be very scarce and supplies will be expensive during the early game.
Another problem is that the game has a large number of bugs, some of which still haven't been fixed. There are too many to list here, but it's generally a good idea to save often, and rotate between save slots. Somewhat frustratingly, certain endings and quest outcomes may not be possible in the game. For example, it's impossible to broker an alliance between Gecko and Vault City after optimizing the former's power plant(if you do that, the ghouls end up being enslaved), and the ending will assume that you wiped out the Deathclaws, even if the Enclave was responsible.
That said, while these flaws are worth noting, they shouldn't scare you away from Fallout 2, which I consider to be one of the high points of the series, along with New Vegas, and in many ways superior to some of the newer Fallout games.