Fallout – The Great & The Terrible

“War… War Never Changes.”

These words are familiar to all fans of Fallout games. And even though the games have changed a lot from how they were originally, people still flock back to the wastelands to have more of the radiation filled, mutant infested, satirical open-world RPG adventures we all love much.

Fallout Begins

So what is Fallout all about? How do you explain it to someone who has never played it? Well, it all started with the series´ first title Fallout that came out in 1997 and was developed by Black Isle Studios. The game has an angled camera view from above and has a turn-based system. You develop your characters stats and S.P.E.C.I.A.L.s and perks to survive the bleak world your character has set out on. All the choices you make and NPC interactions you have will have an effect on the outcome of the story. Also the story elements are so well thought out and detailed to make the story and and the people in it feel alive and give the game replay value.

Later on after Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics and since decanonized game “Brotherhood of Steel”, the rights to Fallout have gone to Bethesda studios. They revolutionized the way Fallout games look and how they are played, all the while keeping the heart of the game intact. Although, with every new fallout game (Especially after 3 came out) the fans have been divided into different schools of thought. Original Fallout games / Pre-Bethesda, Old-Bethesda, Obsidian (More on that later) and current Bethesda…

New Era

Bethesda introduced Fallout 3 to console gamers and also new game mechanics to go along with that. The game brought in a new camera angle(s); 3rd person and 1st person. And with that change Fallout took a step closer to other shooter type games and not everyone loved that. Especially because when you would aim down the sights you still might have missed. Not all people realize this, but since fallout is an RPG game and all your skills are based on your S.P.E.C.I.A.L. stats, things like Agility or Endurance will have an effect in your characters ability to hit the enemy. There´s always a dice roll happening behind the scenes in the game even though it has not been made apparent to the player. These are just one of the reasons why some of the original fans of the Fallout games didn´t like the new direction under Bethesda. – But Fallout 3 did prove to be a huge success and still remains as one of the most beloved games of all time. The map was huge, the characters were really memorable and the quests were so much fun to do. The dark humor and the post-apocalyptic world was and still is a beautiful place to explore.

As aforementioned, the story introduces you to some pretty fun charcters in the game that are very well voiced too. Moira is one that immediately comes to mind. Most of the people that you meet in the wasteland are pretty mistrustful towards you at first and are quite aware of their horrible life in the post-apocalyptic world, but not her. She is very happy to meet you, is very trustful and has a super naive perception of the world around her and of what it is actually like outside the secure walls of Megaton. Other fun characters that come to mind are the Qalaxy News Radio host Three Dog, the misunderstood super mutant Fawkes and the protagonists own father, James, who is actually voiced by the action star, Liam Neeson!

Another interesting side-character in the game is a man called Lopez, who lives in Rivet City. He is a very minor character but it speaks to the game´s complexity how much detail he has been given. He is a depressed man who will barely talk to you more than a few words that wont even be in an actual conversation. But if the player does certain actions with other characters in the game, Lopez will have additional dialogue. But that´s not all! If you were to follow Lopez on a certain time of the certain day, you will find that he is planning on killing himself and the player is opted to either talk him down from it, prompt him to do it, or even push the guy off the ledge himself! That´s a lot of detail for a character that most players will probably never even talk to after thinking he is an uninteractable NPC…

New Vegas

Not long after, came Fallout New Vegas. New Vegas was given to Obsidian to be made and even though they had some budjet (and time) limitations that cut some planned developement, many still hold New Vegas as the greatest Fallout game ever made. New Vegas´ story was extermely well written with detail and background history. All the factions in the story had different plans and motives for the future of The Mojave Wasteland. The player is set out on a quest for revenge but gets caught in the middle of a war between every major faction. Fallout 3 had a karma based system where people around the protagonist would react to the players karma (good, neutral, bad). In New Vegas that is replaced with a system that calculates if you are friends or enemies with every faction. And if you´re too friendly with a certain group, the opposing one can become hostile towards you. If you make a faction hostile towards you it becomes permanent. So all the interactions you make matters. Also the the dialogue threes got even better and more complex.

The Jewel of the Commonwealth

In Fallout 4 things start to fall apart a little bit. While the graphics became a lot better and the world grew larger and fuller, other aspects of the game took a huge hit. A big part of why people loved Fallout was the dialoque and the faction systems was largely reduced. The way you had to now choose between dumbed down dialogue was done very badly and the faction reputation and karma system were gone too. Instead you had dull, repeatable quests and Sims like base building. Improved areas were the way your character moved and gun use was easier too. Also the Companion characters were pretty good and well written. Especially Nick Valentine, the synth private eye, straight from a film noir film.

The Evolution of A Game

Latest (and the most divisive) entry to the franchise is Fallout 76. It isn´t just an RPG but an MMORGP (massively multiplayer online role-playing game). Now you could play Fallout with your friends! Although the actual quests were still mainly done solo. Events in the map are designed to be where you can do some quests with friends (or strangers)

Still, Fallout 76 was recieved poorly due to being released glitchy and lacking almost any NPC characters. Many argued that Fallout 76 wasnt worth playing because it didn´t have any content due to lack of characters. But the game´s story was built that way. Your mission was to find out what had happened (along with trying to find the overseer) but not everyone found that engaging enough. Later on Fallout 76 had a free dlc added called The Wastelanders. The dlc added more story and actual NPCs to the game and people actually seemed to like it. It also (kinda) brought back a limited version of faction reputation. Other welcomed addition was the dialogue threes which were more like they used to be before Fallout 4. Interestingly, the game feels very much alive due this. It feels like it´s world is evolving constantly. The players who played the game since the beginning have experienced the whole story. New players will never get to play it the way the world was before the Wastelanders arrived. That also gives the players a good reason to come back to it and play every time a new dlc is added and before the next one after that arrives.

A hugely criticized aspect in Fallout 76 is the monetization of the game. A lot of the in-game items and skins in the Atom shop are way overpriced. But ultimately, the stuff there is not vital to the game so you don´t need to use your real money (or atoms you earned in the game) on them if you so choose. And ALL the dlc is free… So the only way for Bethesda to pay the dev´s salary is to have some form of monetization.

Epilogue

All in all, Fallout games have a huge fan base and no matter which one is your favourite one, there is a lot replay value in each one. And the fans have also made huge mods for the games, some of which are the size of a big dlc. There´s also a lot of passionate youtubers making content on the games such as “Many a True Nerd” and “JuiceHead”.

This has been a quick look at Fallout franchise. And regardless whether you´re a veteran of the wastelands or if you´ve never played Fallout games, I suggest you go do that now!

Written by: Kim