I've been playing Fallout 2 up until the NCR and Vault 15, and I'm started to get real pissed off. This has to be one of the hardest RPGs in existence. I can't go toe to toe with generics raiders, mainly because I don't have any decent gear. Even basic guns and armor cost an arm and a leg (ergo. over 1000 caps), and I can't get caps because I can't defeat and loot enemies who carry goods worth bartering. It's a catch 22.
Sometimes I'll get a random encounter, and a bunch of supermutants will frag me with a laser gun from 2 screens away before I can even blink. It's like Baldur's Gate I, where your Level 2 party would get surrounded by wyverns or skeleton archers, and it was pretty much game over. I completed Fallout 1 years ago, and I don't remember it being near this level of difficulty. Hell, at least you started out with a gun, and could get a companion in the first area. It doesn't help that the graphics *suck*. You can't see what's a container unless you're right on top of it, and it's hard to differentiate generic people from important NPCs.