I didn't like the 3D Fallouts but I had fond memories of the original two, so I tried to replay Fallout 2 a few years ago. The writing is great but the gameplay has not aged well. Combat is simply tedious, especially against many enemies at once. You have to wait for them to slowly take their turns one by one, then on your turn you often just stand still and shoot once. Outside of combat, there's a lot of running back and forth which gets quite tedious too. I guess I had more patience twenty five years ago than I do now...
I kind of did the opposite but ended up in the same place - I loved the newer Fallouts so I thought I'd give 2 a shot and combat was just so bad that I couldn't get more than a couple of hours in. I tried it again a couple years later and same thing. I know a lot of people would riot, but I kind of wish they'd remake the exact same story/writing with modernized gameplay so I could experience it.
Are they decent? Or complete, as in it has the entire main story at least in? I’d be very interested. Played fo1 halfway through when I was playing a lot of the infinity engine classics some years ago, it was great, but a lot of fairly simple QoL stuff was needed for me to finish it. I’m now playing the fo3 and new Vegas in the TTW mod (with the Begin Again modlist) and it has been great with all the QoL stuff baked in. Never played fallouts other than the first before now, kind of amazed it took me so long to give the threes a go, seeing as I’ve had them in my steam library for ages..