What spoiled Fallout 2 for me was the sudden knowledge of knowing that you could go to San Fransisco right off the bat and beeline to Navarre and get the power armor and plasma rifle before you start any quests. After that, the game just didn't have that epic feel to it since I now instinctively require all my newly-made characters to have power armor. However, it's still a great challenge to go through the entire game (even with the power armor) if you go solo with Hand-to-Hand only.