One of the recent success stories in the field of PC RPGs has been the Fallout series. Taking a less-than-serious approach to the World War III scares of the Cold War era, the atmosphere created by Fallout and its sequel made both games successful. It is no surprise, then, that the Fallout series has followed an increasingly common trend, spawning a tactical RPG taking place in Fallout's post-apocalyptic world. Fallout Tactics, released earlier this week, allows for a different perspective on the world of Fallout.

Fallout Tactics allows for six creatures to be in the player's party at a time, allowing for player control over each character (whereas in the original games, the player's control over those characters were limited). The single player game, comprising around twenty missions, takes place between the two RPGs and follows the story of a group of members of the Brotherhood of Steel attempting to get back to California from the broken remains of Chicago while investigating the whereabouts of mutants on the way back. The Brotherhood of Steel is a group that banded together after World War III in order to retrieve and secure the arsenal of the United States military for personal use. The game will remind players of the recent PlayStation tactical RPGs, featuring a pseudo-turn-based system, experience points and level gains for individual characters with the skill point system from Fallout making a return, and a story told through dialogue between and during battles. Fallout Tactics was shipped on March 16th and should be available in stores as of this writing.