CarrionCrow: Just be ready. One-hit kills exist, and your party will resemble pulverized roadkill at some points if you're not careful.
Ixamyakxim: Just as long as they explode into a pile of gibs and / or radioactive goo! And I don't have to do it more than like five times, tops ;)
I HOPE when I fire it up it's more fun than frustrating. I have good feelings (as Fallout 2 started out VERY tough and I had a grin the whole way through) but if not... let's hope I know when to quit before any hardware / desktop junk meets an untimely demise! ;)
Oh, they certainly do that. No bloodless deaths, if anyone gets annihilated you'll know it.
It's got a gradual difficulty curve. No smashing your head against the wall right off the bat. Also, as you progress you gain access to more skilled characters to increase your chance of survival.
Wouldn't recommend ironman mode, though. The levels tend to be large, so the inability to save could be a sanity breaker if you get killed repeatedly and have to restart levels from the beginning.