So I think I'm about done with Fallout 2. But I've run into a horrible problem. There's a series of about a dozen (maybe fewer) rooms, and hitting the terminals in the rooms open doors, eventually leading to an exit door. This is in the Enclave Base that you reach via the tanker.

I opened the way out (I think, there was a stairway) but I didn't go down it, because I wanted to check out the rooms on the left and right of the of maze / terminal rooms. In doing so, I shut off the way to both the exit back to the first level (where I left my party) AND to the stairs that I think I was supposed to go down. I'm totally lost, as now I'm stuck going around these rooms, that hurt me when I walk on the floors and I can't seem to find a way back to my party on the top level or down to the next area I was supposed to go to. Any ideas?

Did I "break" the game by getting through to next area (using the terminals to get through to the stairway) but not actually going right down them, and instead hitting the terminals until I was able to explore the outer rooms? Is it possible to activate the terminals in such a way that I make forward progress impossible? Like I said, at one point I was able to move to the stairway but didn't because I wanted to open up the two side rooms. But I think that may have made it so I can't get out of this damn series of little rooms! Please help!

I don't think it's the case that you've permanently closed off the bottom exit. There are walkthroughs out there that would tell you for sure. I think there are loose wires within the maze you can repair to turn off the floor damage.

Nope I didn't! Just solved it now ;) The game, not just this puzzle. Some thoughts...

Man oh man Louie, I love that song! "A Kiss To Build A Dream On" - it will always remind me of Fallout, but man is it beautiful in its own right. Something so perfect about it.

My end game vignettes seemed a bit glitched, but no big deal. It's amazing how much I didn't even realize the way quests I took part in were altering the world. Stuff that seemed small might be huge. Things that didn't have much consequence in the moment, rang through to the end of my playthrough. Equally awesome - quests I didn't even know existed exerted their pull on my end game result. Wonderful. Stuff happened behind the scenes. I could have found it and acted, or not. I might not ever have found it, but it still altered my game. So great!

And to see Feargus' name so often in the credits - how bittersweet! I don't recall the name of many developers, but his is tied to so many of my favorites - both games and studios. Interplay, Black Isle, Bioware. So odd to see the name in the credits what - 10, 15, 20 years ahead of where the "story" is now? Weird, just as a "bystander" - must be even more so for those actually in the circle. To know where that name in the credits would go and be now, today. A bit surreal ;)

Anyway, great times thanks!

See, now you have to play it again. ;)

I've replayed Fallout 1 and 2 once every 2-3 years since they first came out in the late 1990s.

I can certainly see why you'd keep going back to it. It's wild how much stuff is going on under the hood, and how much can be missed if the player doesn't want to engage that content. It's also crazy to realize how many options the game gives the player to approach scenarios. I know there was an item in New Reno, but I later found out I could have gotten it in a totally different fashion.

I essentially skipped almost all of the section of New Reno because I didn't want to get involved in the gangs. Conversely, I sunk a ton of time into Vault City and Gecko. The best part - the game LET ME. And did it in a really unique organic way. I wasn't chasing quest flags (something I had to "readjust to" when I first started playing) and there wasn't any hand holding. I was just dropped into this world and told to start talking with people and finding stuff out. Where I went from there was up to me. Still wow ;)

Were you using killap's Restoration Project? That brings back a huge amount of content that was left out of vanilla. Very highly recommended, especially if you've completed the game without it already.

But yeah, you can bypass vast parts of the game. In fact in Fallout 1, if you know what you're doing, you can go straight to the end and win. I don't remember to what extent it's possible in Fallout 2 though.

If you skipped New Reno there are lots of things you haven't seen yet. Hint: Myron, baby!

EDIT: Oh, BTW, if you'd like to try another game that's like Fallout, your only real option is Arcanum: a really exceptional game as well.

I didn't use the RP. I wasn't even aware of it until I started my play. When I fire up my next playthrough I'll have to give it shot. I DID find Myron! My character was a high INT build, so I was able to trick my way into Myron's bunker AND get him to reveal "something" (for anyone reading who might be worried about spoilers ;) ). I later used this information to do it, because I had remembered VC mentioning something about something. And then I got to actually go somewhere and do something! ;) This was one of those awesomely interconnected non-quests, that I was able to put the pieces together for on my own, slowly over my whole campaign. Just because I stumbled on a tiny bit of information and remembered it, happened to find a random location and finally talk it out with Myron. Arcanum was I game I didn't play on release, though I always wanted to. Even before I joined GoG, it was one of the games I'd stare at thinking "One of these days, if I join, this will be one of the games that gets me to." King of Dragon Pass an Uplink being the others (harder to find old games so cheap!). Ironically, it was eventually a pair of new indies that got me - the prime suspect being The Banner Saga.

But anyway. I finally started Arcanum. And it never clicked. I could "feel" the great game underneath. I loved every bit of building my character (I went in with an idea of who I wanted to play). But over the course of several nights I just couldn't get into the game. It's funny, I mentioned Arcanum several times when I first started Fallout 2, because I was so excited the same thing DIDN'T happen with FO2 (I loved it from the get go, despite the tough opening). I also mentioned somewhere else on these boards that maybe I'll give Arcanum another try AFTER Fallout, thinking I was maybe in a better mindset to play something like that. Here's hoping because it's one I really wanted to get into.

Arcanum's not the same as Fallout, so it's not surprising one is more to your taste than the other. It's just that it's the only other game kind of like Fallout.

The RP is definitely worth it for Fallout 2.

I hope you've played Fallout 1 as well.