Hello. Been ages since I last played those and I really can't remember if "sneaking" was usefull in Fallout 1 and 2.

I've read guides and opinions are mixed. For instance there's this Porter21 guide which put sneak in the skills to avoid for instance but on other forums I've read that sneak+melee can work flawlessly.

Is it possible to have a precise and definitive verdict on the sneak skill ?

The differing opinions depend on wether the person you are asking is a min-maxer or not. Sure, for a melee character to be able to position yourself right next to a target in real time and attack with all your action points is sweet but... a min-maxer starts shooting from as far away as possible and finishes off every encounter flawlessly and finds your playstyle pointless.

Personally my only problem with sneaking is that the games are so scripted that you can't use it anyhow. Conversations and hostility often trigger by getting close and most of the forced combat has only one approach anyhow.

I have to disagree with Sufyan, most quests in Fallout 1-2 are designed to be solvable in 3 different ways: fighting, talking and sneaking.

Sneak can be even more beneficial for ranged characters than it is for melee fighters, with high enough Sneak, you can snipe enemies from across the screen without them ever spotting you; I've even found it useful on characters that didn't heavily rely on it, positioning at an advantage spot, bypassing certain guards...

It's all down to playstyles, some people will tell you it's useless, some will tell you it's the best skill in the game. You just have to find the playstyle that suits you, or the character you want to roleplay.

Like they say, sneaking is not required anywhere and you're likely to get better loot and xp by either talking or fighting your way out of situations. And there's only so many skillpoints to spend.

My take is, in FO2 sneaking is essential!
Without you wont be able to sneak out of bishops wifes and daughters bedrooms without starting a fight.

Ok thx guys. I"m not sure what min-maxing is though. Is it like powergaming ?

Classic example would be Dungeons & Dragons fighter picking stats:
18 for strength, dexterity and constitution
3 for charisma, wisdom and intelligence

Particularly prevalent in "make your own party" games where the fighter doesn't need to speak, just to kill.

min-maxing in the Fallout games would entail only having the bare minimum skillpoints needed to pass some important tests throughout the game, having a very specific set of character attributes during character creation with a plan on exactly how the character will look after having acquired all possible attribute upgrades later in the story. It often means having no Endurance and no Charisma because in a perfect playthrough you never take damage (and reload a save if you do), and Charisma doesn't actually have any meaningful bonuses to a perfectly built solo character.

With all the attributes and skill points saved, you can then max out certain other attributes and skill points to make a character with maximum efficiency and minimal investment to accomplish every task the player intends to undertake. The ultimate Fallout character is someone with high enough speech skill to pass every important speech check, just enough lockpicking to pick every important door and lock, and maxed out combat skills with precisely the small set of weapons the player intend to use. This often means he will be shooting at max distance and never take any damage.

I personally hate this mindset and will without hesitation play "bad" premade characters in games like Fallout and Arcanum. One of my favourite Fallout character concepts is a drug addicted janitor (repair and lockpick) who is bit of an amateur boxer. Yeah, lots of wasted skill tags and traits, but it makes the journey much more enjoyable when there is a story behind every decision.

I can recall only a few quests in F1 where sneaking was crucial. One of them was the quest to steal the necklace for the thieves guild in the Hub. There were a few other instances where sneaking was useful. In F2 i almost never used it.

I actually just did the necklace quest and I'm not even sure my sneak ability helped me while I was playing cat and mouse with the guards. I used it, though. I sneaked slowly into the house while Tycho and Dogmeat were running everywhere around outside the house or even through the Hightower's bedroom.

There's no "definitive verdict" in Fallout because, like people said, It's all about play style. Sneaking can make a load of quests easier, and was pretty crucial for my pacifist playthrough. But most of my games I don't bother with it. It's as useful as you want it to be. Although if you're trying to get the most XP you might as well avoid it and just kill everyone instead.

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Yes I had the perfect demonstration of this in my playthrough. Stealth is sometimes totally useless but as a matter of fat I just got inside the mutant sourcelab with stealth and a nice purple robe and blew it up to the sky. So now I can see exactly what you mean.

One thing that surprised me though, is that after a nice cinematic sequence I found myself directly on the game main's menu !!?? ANd though I didn't even kill the mutant master. Does it mean I died in the explosion ? I was outside the base yet !!

Probably. If I recall, it's not enough to get out, you need to get... either far enough on the outside map or off the map completely. If you do it right and have not yet blown up the other place, the game continues.

I thought ; if I were to die in the base explosion there would at least be the usual screen with a skeletton arm planted in the sand. But now I get it : the explosion blew all away, sand, skeletton and screen.

EDIT _ confirmed : I just needed to leave the area totally before the explosion. The game continues.