I've just completed a great play through of F1 and I'm now moving on to F2.

As my play through of F1 went so well, I decided to make a similar character, choosing Fast Shot as one of my traits. The only problem with Fast Shot, as you probably know, is that you can't use targeted attacks, and I'm wondering if I'm missing out by not being able to do this. Are targeted attacks really that useful?

Targeted shots are far more useful in Fallout 2 than in Fallout.

There are some enemies with very good armor stats and since armor subtracts directly from damage dealt you'll have trouble hurting them, just like your heavily armored end-game Fallout 1 character was almost invulnerable by standard critters.
It doesn't matter whether you hit twice or three times for 10 damage each if the opponent's armor absorbs 10 damage each hit.

Aimed shots increase the critical hit chance by up to 60 percent and most critical hits ignore armor, critical hits at the eyes even do more damage than unaimed critical hits.

Be aware that Fast Shot doesn't let you attack faster in melee in FO2 (unlike in Fallout).

F2 has a much greater variety of weapons, including some powerful rifles which really benefit from aimed shot (particularly since these don't have burst features).

There are also more burst-capable weapons (including a couple of burst shotguns), so for most of the game you can probably do perfectly fine without aimed shots; however if your skills are high enough, a single aimed shot at a critical spot (e.g. eyes) is generally better than a couple of bursts - especially considering how spread works in F1/F2.

Yes, they are useful.

Fast shot is good for heavy weapons, but they are only available late in the game.

Just going to add my voice to the "aimed shots are very useful in F2" crowd.

I almost always aim for the head and it pays off 90% of the time.

As other pointed out, aimed shots are much more useful in F2 than in F1.

Another benefit of them is that they increase a chance of crippling your opponent. Once you have a high skill in a class of ranged weapons you are using, you can aim at legs of the approaching enemy from large distance. Often this will make the approaching enemy collapse which means he will have fewer action points next round (which gives you more time to hit him from afar). It is also possible that you cripple his limb that way putting him out of fight. This tactics is quite handy against certain tough enemies that you can meet in the later stages of the game.

I was never a big fan of the Fast Shot trait, however if you really want it I'd suggest using the Mutate perk. As everyone else has said, you will be missing out by not having aimed shots. Eventually you will get to the point where you won't really need targeted shots, like after getting the Sniper perk. Once you reach that point there is a perk called Mutate which let's you change one of your traits. I did this once to change the Finesse perk into Fast Shot and it worked pretty good.

Thanks for the info.

I never thought about it like that. I was thinking that the more shots I can get in the better, but maybe not. In the first game I did fine without aimed shots, but it will be interesting to see how it goes with them in F2. I've just remade my character last night to include the aimed shots feature, and it seems to be going OK so far. I noticed that I can aim for the tail when going up against a scorpion, for instance. As they sting with the tail, I'm thinking this might be a good tactic to use.

I must admit, though, it has been a bit of a come down having to use the spear in F2 after using the heavy duty weapons I was wielding in the first game!

Can't wait to get hold of some decent weapons in F2, so I can test this tactic out! Makes me want to quote the commentator from UT99 when I'm sniping! God, I would kill for a heavy weapon right now.

I'm at the beginning of F2 and having to rely on the spear. I have managed to get my melee skills up to 100%, though, which is helping. I've noticed that the enemies seem to be tougher in this game, so I'm definitely ready for some decent weapons to turn up!

Another great tactic!

I'm beginning to realise how useful targeted shots are now. There were a few times in the first game when taking an enemies legs away would've been the perfect solution! I did great with Fast Shot in the first game, it didn't seem to hold me back at all. I only chose it because It allowed me to have more shots. By the end of the game I had twelve AP, and was able to get six shots in with the plasma rifle, but maybe I could've done it with just a couple of targeted shots.

Good to know that I'll be able to change my mind if I decide I want Fast Shot back, too.

After playing F2 for a little while now, I don't think I'll be going back to Fast Shot anytime soon. I'm really getting into it now, and can see how much I missed out not using aimed shots in the first game. I like how I can aim for a Golden Gecko's claws, for instance, and then it seems like they can't do as much damage with their hits after that.

I don't think I could play as a diplomatic character myself, no disrespect to any one that does, but I like to go into full-on attack mode when I'm playing these games. Believe me, If you had seen how I was ripping Mutants apart with the chain gun in the first game, there was no diplomacy involved!

Yes this game has definitely still got it when it comes to violence, even with the graphics it had to work with. Getting a critical on someone's arm to have it totally blown away, with them falling down in agony seconds later. Of course the good-ole shot in the eyes never fails to satisfy either.

On top of the that, the descriptions for hits (especially critical hits) are brutal and often hilarious. Especially aimed shots to the groin... ;)

On a less aesthetic-related note, there are some enemies where the regular weaponry you're carrying at the time seems woefully inadequate, with each shot doing at most 1-2 points of damage - yet in those cases a critical through the eyes (or equivalents) can still work wonders...

targeted shots in F1 aren't really the same, they're unnecessary there, imo

and for F2 if you can hit the head, hit the head, 1shot deaths so much, especially if you have bonuses to crithit chance

Indeed, the descriptions are often extremely funny. I remember hitting a female character in the groin and description was: "She takes it like a man. That is to say, it hurts." By far my favorite :-)