Fallout 1 & 2 are WEIRDER Than You Remember

We seem to forget how strange and silly the original Fallout games could be. Let's take a look at some of the weirdest parts of Fallout 1 and 2.
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[@FalloutLorecast]

Get almost 300 more audio episodes of the Fallout Lorecast: open.spotify.com/show/0e30iIgSffe6xJhFKe35Db

[@tahnadana5435]

wow, bethesda apologist alert

[@KingofFreaks]

@Fallout Lorecast Maybe it feels humerus and silly because it’s an Easter egg nerd reference for nerds and that they weren’t supposed to be in a Fallout game?

[@KingofFreaks]

@Fallout Lorecast What kind of argument are you making. Yeah, there was Easter eggs in Fallout and they’re a little silly however, the games still took themselves seriously when they needed to. Fallout 4 cranks it up to where you don’t care about the world because the game is so silly its treats its world and characters like jokes or a Hannah Barbara skit. There’s no meaning in anything you do, not that you’ll care.

[@FalloutLorecast]

@@KingofFreaks "Not that you'll care." Since you've already decided exactly what I think, I guess there's no need to explain my perspective. Have fun continuing to yell into the void and thanks for commenting on the video.

[@KingofFreaks]

@Fallout Lorecast Well do you? Fallout 4’s world far from perfect. It’s the reason Bethesda’s in the state they’re in. Do you even care that Bethesda gets lazier with stuff. To the point you cranking up silliness to everything’s a big joke? I don’t think you do.

[@funki4896]

Not mentioning that the aliens in Fallout 1 have a photo of Elvis with them is criminal

[@mitchellbarton7915]

Zetans bop to Elvis confirmed.

[@noodel3374]

they are part of the kings :0

[@Zorlag]

That's an easter egg. Fallout 1 was a serious game.

[@funki4896]

@@Zorlag cope

[@Zorlag]

@@funki4896 just facts, kiddo

[@mohammedkhatib4672]

One of my favorite random encounter in fallout 2 is when you find the portal that takes you to vault 13 before the events of fallout 1 and you cause the water chip to break, before coming back to the “present” time.

[@jackbaxter2223]

I assumed the giant dino footprint was just a reference to Godzilla 1998, when the main character stands inside a giant, three-toed footprint.

[@TALLI2]

According to Tim Cain your assumption is correct

[@okreylos]

I wonder how a game released in 1997 referenced a movie that was released in 1998.

[@kokojack]

@@okreylos Godzilla is the American version of a 60s japanese movie called Gojira

[@okreylos]

@@kokojack No shit, Sherlock. But the 60s japanese movie called Gojira doesn't have a giant, three-toed footprint in it in which the main character stands.

[@aguy2162]

Same shot was in Lost World in 97

[@zenonawful5074]

Seymour was Rick Moranis's character. The plant was Audrey 2

[@Naedlus]

Glad I started with a ctrl-f for Audrey

[@davidradovic4198]

And Seymour was *not* an insane professor lmao

[@niksin9941]

13:25 if i remember correctly, tim cain himself did not like the idea of humanizing deathclaws, he wanted them to be the scariest thing youll ever witness so to say. These decisions were made by people who havent worked on fo before. Which is sad, because tims grip on the games slipped entirely throughout fo2s developement, until he left completely.

[@gabriele3665]

Avellone also said he regretted making the intelligent deathclaws

[@Shinntoku]

Tbh I think talking deathclaws rule. An intelligent monster is way scarier than just an aggressive killing machine to me.

[@drekwilliamton5830]

Fallout 1 made Death claws sound like literal demons. I was terrified to accidentally stumble across one by the way the NOC's described them

[@3456halo]

I mean they did reverse it by having Frank Horrigan murder all of the Intelligent Deathclaws, but Goris was left with an unconfirmed fate..

[@helli0n73]

Some people dont understand the humor of FO1 and FO2. Old games were not super serious. Bethesda humor is more in your face and its usually not required to know the reference , while the old games were either wacky or if you didnt know the reference you wouldn’t understand that it was a joke. I like most fallout games but prefer the wacky, also subtle jokes/reference/easter eggs from FO1, FO2 and FNV.

[@MutantMasterRace]

Spot on

[@JoshuaFraserK]

I think that for better or worse, fo1 &2 style depth and humor wouldn't work today. People expect every single conversation to lead to something, and every single encounter to have a reason and resolution. If there's a joke, there has to be a punch line, rimshot and wink for people to think it was any good. Oh and a possible romantic dialogue response if you specced into charisma....

[@helli0n73]

@@JoshuaFraserK agree, very true. More ”hand holding” now. There were some jokes or wacky things in the old game that I didnt get at first. But when I did I absolutely loved it. Love most fallout games but there are something about wacky and funny jokes that are smart and/or ”hidden in plain sight”.

[@youarealwayscorrect]

But Bethesda's references are also quite subtle sometimes and require knowledge of various topics, which includes not only pop culture, but also american history, cultural heritage and classic literature. I've learned a decent amount of interesting stuff about American culture thanks to Bethesda's fallout games.

[@helli0n73]

@@youarealwayscorrect Im not sure if we are speaking about the same thing. I'm talking about the humor and writing of it in the FO games, not that the games present facts and references on different things or not. All of the games does it, but its about what type of jokes and how they are delivered.

[@JoshuaFraserK]

Haha. Fallout 1&2 were not serious at all. They had all sorts of humor.

[@yesyes-cu9nk]

Npc ahh comment

[@M-Z-E-U-J-HB]

​@@yesyes-cu9nk why yes, your comment is.

[@themightypen1530]

Fallout 1 didn't have whacky humor in it. That came in with Fallout 2.

[@JoshuaFraserK]

@@themightypen1530 I found it funny, personally.

[@M-Z-E-U-J-HB]

@@themightypen1530 meanwhile if you kill deputy Kenny the info panel reads "you killed Kenny, you bastard!" Or you can find the doctors tardis in fallout 1 Brahmins will say "moo I say, moo" They reference 9 inch nails, and tool posters appear in game Or Lucy in the chapel says "there's no place like home, there's no place like home" 22 major gags/references in the entire first game 120+ in the second game 10 in tactics 60 in fallout 3 51 in fallout NV 81 in fallout 4 66 in fallout 76 I just beat fallout 1 last year, it had some funny moments, I feel like 3, NV, and 76 really grasp classic fallout feel. 4 is the odd one out imo but still a good game.

[@szupelak]

In fallout 2 you could obtain a fallout 2 manual that would max all your stats to 200 or something... if that's not tongue-in-cheek, I don't know what is.

[@SnaxMang]

Playing through 2 right now. If this came out today, people would say "wow was this dialogue written by vivzypop?"

[@TheSpaceship2nowhere]

Real bummer you didn’t mention what you find if you loot the bodies of the aliens besides the alien blaster: a framed painting of the King of Rock n Roll, Elvis Presley 😂

[@WilliamScavengerFish]

The velvet Elvis.

[@eveofthewood]

Didn't people complain that 2 was too silly at the time?

[@meetomeeto8271]

You think New Vegas fans actually played/know anything about the first 2 Fallouts? They're like proto-Persona 5 fans

[@earhearthush-up5549]

@@meetomeeto8271 Lolwhat This person’s comment mentioned nothing about NV Homie over here’s got CDS - Courier Derangement Syndrome

[@template_stefan420]

@@meetomeeto8271 I played new vegas it was my favorite fallout game. then i tried 1 and 2. i liked 2 better bc there wasn't any time limit

[@samwise5486]

​@@earhearthush-up5549 cause most of the times it's the elitist new vegas fans who take everything seriously lol some of them act like it's only game they played before

[@AThousandYoung]

Seymour is the protagonist of Little Shop. The plant is Audrey.

[@ravinous]

Well, Audrey II. Specifically. Or just a Mean Green Mother from Outer Space.

[@ethervagabond]

I don't think that Bethesda has made the games any less serious, but I do think they've made them less dark. I think there was some darkness and grit present in the original two games that Bethesda kind of eased up on in Fallout 3 and even more so in Fallout 4. I think New Vegas tried to inject some more of that back into the game, but not at the same level as the original two.

[@Bird-wz7nx]

I feel like this is the best assessment. Just look at what its like when you get a game over. But its kinda inevitable with the different pacing between formats, so I ain't too mad.

[@caseycox1002]

Fallout 3? Being less serious? Did we encounter the same game?

[@DC-it2ng]

Finally. Another person who understands Fallout.

[@earhearthush-up5549]

@@caseycox1002 Yeah if anything my critique would be that Fallout 3 was trying TOO hard to be dark and gritty, like it’s 13 year old edge lord stuff

[@Greedyselfish97]

13:17 Black Isle made Fallout 2, not Troika. I don't think Troika was even around yet in 97.

[@dropzone662]

Yup, and that's coming from a lore channel.

[@chooseyouhandle]

The Troika guys left very early on. They did have some effect on the final game and it wasn't insignificant. However I wouldn't consider them amongst the people who made Fallout 2.

[@__prometheus__]

@@dropzone662 ow wow i didnt expect to see you here. I love the DC 1hr track

[@barryring3550]

Love the video, just a quick note that in Little shop of horrors, Seymour was the human, Audrey II was the plant. Other than that, great!

[@UnderRuler777]

Honestly Bethesda toned down the silliness of Fallout in a lot of ways. They also pushed it into areas where it doesn't belong.

[@mitchf.4450]

The humor was to keep things interesting and to bring a little joy to the bleak world. Just look at the old radiation mechanics that shit was horrifying and relatively realistic. Then you have the dark shit like rape slavery child killing etc… the old games where more serious then the modern versions not because of humor but because of story and mechanics.

[@MegaDman16]

Fallout 3, nv and 4 were just as dark.

[@mediokay]

​@@MegaDman163 and 4 aren't dark, they're stupid and contrived.

[@earhearthush-up5549]

@@mediokay 3 is VERY dark, it’s just not as well done I’d say if anything the issue is it’s trying too hard to be edgy grimdark

[@ded2thaworld963]

Fallout 1 and 2 were my first PC games and i still love them to this day. Always thought the footprint was a godzilla reference

[@vast634]

Fallout 1 had some easter-eggs, but not really whacky things in the main game content. Overall it had a pretty serious tone. The games afterwards (including Fallout 2) added more and more whacky, pop culture elements.

[@Danger11007]

Fallout 1 and 2 absolutely had wild things in them. But for me, it’s not that modern fallout is too wacky. It’s how modern fallout handles the darker, more serious moments and themes that fallout 1 and 2 handled perfectly. The older games weren’t more or less silly. They were simply better balanced and knew when to take themselves seriously, and when to joke.

[@Danger11007]

The serious moments in old school fallout are also, for me at least, much more impactful. Like the scene at the end of fallout 1 when you (SPOILER ALERT) Speak to the master.

[@user-kd4gb4vj2k]

@@Danger11007 The game is 27 years old, I think you can't really spoil it anymore.

[@Danger11007]

@@user-kd4gb4vj2k for sure. But I’d still rather be safe than sorry. I do still want new younger people to play the old fallout games because they absolutely deserve the attention and so I don’t want to spoil it for those potential new players.

[@questionsfrog1918]

You young people don't know how serious it was for us oldschool Fallout players to boot up Fallout 3 and play some DLC

[@battlesheep2552]

Also serious stuff in modern Fallout tends to be badly written, like "get turbocancer saving the purifier because it's your destiny or something"

[@NewOrderOfAlexandria]

I just feel like we'll never see anything as creepy as The Master in the TV Show for example.

[@cravex06]

Only if Cronenberg did the show.

[@Avakiann]

Having humor in a game doesn't make it any less serious, it's just a bit of humor, but now Fallout is a comedy with some serious moments. and very very poorly written, I'm not saying that the old ones are perfect, of course not, but I prefer that to what we have now.

[@Avakiann]

plus we all know why fallout 2 have all thoose jokes that are out of place. im not sure if i made it up or i remember that the developers regret the big amout of jokes and references, probably i made it up, so dont listen to me lol

[@happycamper1111]

The silly weird things are what make it more fun. Picture being in a post apocalyptic he'll full of people that lost their minds.

[@himonightbreeze]

The plant in Little Shop is named Audrey 2. Seymour was Rick Morranis's character.

[@penburger]

The plant in little shop of horrors wasn't called Seymour it was called Audrey 2. Seymour is the protagonist

[@timjen3]

In F1 and F2 you can hold down left control and click credits on the main menu. It'll show a ton of inside jokes from the dev team i remember being hilarious.

[@Robb1977]

Im going to say it... the humor and levity comes from the radio. If you listen to the ambient soundtracks theres way more dread... at least in new vegas and most of 3. Fallout 4s ambience feels like an adventure game in a medieval fantasy forest.

[@iantaran2843]

1&2 were masterpieces Like many things, it's hard to boil down something to just the factors that made it work. The thing that DEFINITELY changed is passion. The people who made Fallout 1&2 WANTED to make those games. Sadly a lot of content is just a paycheck to some people and we will never grasp what made those older titles legendary.

[@maximilian1588]

The plants name is Audrey. The Shop owner is Seymour. Hence "FEED ME, SEYMOUR!!!"

[@MARStheFORSAKEN]

dont forget the toll keeper for a rope bridge that gives out riddles which is a reference to Monty python and the holy grail

[@chriswhinery925]

Yes but also not as much as you say here. You're right that there has always been some goofy stuff in Fallout, but the examples that come from special random encounters shouldn't be used since I'm pretty sure that stuff is non canonical.

[@lc6197]

There’s a lot of funny humors in the original too. Like for example there’s this guy who randomly backflips and he says “I hope nobody sees that”

[@ChadNobark]

I dont remember any criticism of the new games about them being too whacky. the gripe people have of the new games are simply about the writting system "KISS" keep it simple stupid.

[@surge1229]

oh my god they killed Kenny

[@ICANHAZKILLZ]

Imo the early games where computer-nerd comic-book-geek silly, and the newer ones are pop culture marvel fan silly. Different vibe I guess? Enjoyed all the games!! Good video, you covered a lot :)

[@FalloutLorecast]

Thanks! Yeah, there may be a tone shift in the kind of silly. I hadn't considered that. Fun thoughts.

[@StroggKingu]

@@FalloutLorecast I'm wondering then, how or why, you focused on humor as is and have not catched that tone shift?

[@FalloutLorecast]

@@StroggKingu First, it's a good theory to look into, but I won't be convinced if it's accurate or not until I do. Second, if it is real, it might just not matter that much to me. Maybe I just find the funny parts funny, and didn't think twice about them.

[@MaverDick12]

@@StroggKingu Because it's less about the delivery of said humor and more about how the humor affects the narrative as a whole. People get too caught up in how the humor affects the lore based on ideas about the lore that never really existed in the first place. Like if Bethesda implemented those same jokes as the original, people would be having a nuclear meltdown about how they ruined the lore.

[@MaverDick12]

Ironically the types of references in the original games fit that description a lot more considering all the corny fourth-wall breaks and references to blockbuster movies. Whereas Bethesda actually has some good examples of more geeky-nerd stuff such as all the pulp novel references in Fallout 4 like the Silver Shroud and the magazines

[@alteredcowboy3318]

In Fallout 2 there is mission that allows you to plant explosives below an outhouse; the resulting explosion cover the entire village in dookie.

[@DecimusEX]

The plant was Audrey. Seymour was Rick Morranis' character

[@Rokatanskii]

You missed the point. Post-Nuclear wasn't "fun" in F1&F2, it was the world of people struggle to survive. In F3 we're restoring water facility in the world, that doesn't seem like it needs water(no mentioning of it), if F4 we're looking for our son in world, that...fine. It's okay and there's no real struggle. The people of F4 world are...content with their lives. And F76 we see girl in power armor smiling and shooting around. Because it's fun.

[@PeteOfDarkness]

Fallout 2 may be most glorious shitposting in history of video games.

[@jaredrobinson7071]

couldn't you go back in time in the second to break the water chip from the first?

[@WilliamScavengerFish]

There was indeed a time portal. A stone arch. Not sure, but I think you could find a solar powered laser pistol while there.

[@lennysmileyface]

@@WilliamScavengerFish Pretty sure that the solar pistol was cut content from the EPA.

[@kokojack]

Fallout 1 humor is mostly hidden or easter eggs, not very in your face. Fallout 2, on the other hand... But the issue with modern Fallout is that the overall tone is less dark than classic Fallout, so the goofy elements feel more present.

[@jonf4287]

I think Fallout 2 especially was goofy, maybe the goofiest. But I think Bethesda going the 1st/3rd person route has the comedic effect amplified.

[@mitchellbarton7915]

I feel like the original games were meant to be dark, but not serious. It was an amazing blend. New fallout isnt bad imo, it definitely takes the cake when it comes to general feel. However I wish they retained more of the RPG aspects. I prefer the older atmosphere though. It had the perfect grit and humor for the genre.

[@redplague2133]

There’s actually a whole debate on how Bethesda completely misunderstood Fallout aesthetic. Even basic things like retro-futurism which they mistook for simply 50s aesthetic…

[@IonorRea]

Many things considered silly in Fallout 1/2 were not available to a player with low luck, so most of the extra silliness was optional and as luck did not play a major role on the gameplay, people tended to skip above-average luck a lot. Talking animals, especially under scientific oversight aren't that special even in the real world, parrots can repeat human language while chimps and even better gorillas can learn hand language as used by deaf people and actually use it in a sensible manner, though their vocabulary is limited to a few years old children thus is hardly inconceivable that much larger animals with large brains would not be able to do the same. What is on the other hand questionable is why would such large animals even develop in a world with very limited resources even for much more resourceful humans, note that food and oxygen supplies were on entirely different levels in the Jurassic era where large animals and insects existed in reality that was hardly possible in post-nuclear exchange world... Bethesda Fallout silliness is on an entirely different level because in their games breaking of reality is done on so many levels for the sake of coolness, like giving you power armor at the beginning but at the same time making fusion cores last less than gasoline-powered lawnmower to balance it out, not to mention or addition of laser rifle with a hand-cranked dynamo power source as if you ever could power megawatt class energy weapon with hand cranking. Thus the main issue with Bethesda games is why and how often immersion of a believable world is broken for the developer's convenience sake that sways away from how game mechanics and tech worked in the first two Fallout games without improving the game very much, not like giving you power armor later but make its power source last longer than first iPhone in battery stress test app would make the game worse but it was done entirely for the sake of grabbing gamers attention into the game early on and any kind of realistic feel was thrown away just to achieve that goal. Because Bethesda sold a lot more copies than the first two Fallouts under Black Isle ever could hope in the 90ties, Bethesda has very little motivation to change their approach to Fallout tech&gameplay design despite it breaking immersion to the point of making Oblivion looking more realistic than new Fallouts with Mr. Handies butler robots levitating with fire blasting jet engine indoors...

[@meetomeeto8271]

God you're lame as fuck lmao.

[@antirevomag834]

fo1 and 2 are filled with so much wacky stuff that, when asked on what is canon, the writers for it outright said "we added so much stuff we kinda went overboard, we genuinely don't remember what is and isn't canon anymore". Objectively. the only REAL way to play fonv like an authentic fallout title, would be with wacky wasteland, because if someone actually picked fo1 and 2 up today and played them, there is absolutely no way to deny that they're filled with weird, silly nonsense. Mony python references all over the place. a red shirt next to a crashed alien ship. a dead whale in the middle of a desert with hints of 'something large', dinosaur footprints out of nowhere. harold and bob are expressly comedic. You have an arm wrestling match with a supermutant to decide if you're going to get fucked or fuck him, and depending how good you do, a sex doll gets named after you(which is not at all treated as non-canon, as it happens in a main hub, and also breaks pre-established lore that says supermutants both male and female lose all genitalia, which is fundamentally one of the ways in fo1 you can convince the master to stop his plans). If you take this series seriously, you're just going to come away wondering what fucked up kinks the devs must have been into with just how many 'horny' moments are in the first two games. Honestly. i first hated fo4, because i played fo3 and nv first, but then went to try fo1 and 2 to see if the fo3 hatemob was justified, and all i gained was an appreciation for 4. Canonicity was broken WELL before bethesda got their hands on the series to such an extent that at this point each game should be considered it's own game, separate from what came before, even if it references events from previous iterations. Edit: if i were to compare fallout, i'd have to compare it to Yakuza in this regard. Yet for some reason while the silliness contrasting the seriousness has become the selling point of yakuza, with fallout, people get a hate boner every time they see something that isn't 40k grimdark happening in fallout.

[@zerothefaceless4888]

One thing, F1 never said the super mutants don't have genitals, only that they're infertile. In simpler term, they always could do the deed, but could never make a baby.

[@kierranbrooks7306]

I always laugh when people try to say that wild wasteland is silly compared to the earlier games/ isn't the cannon way to play...yet its MOSTLY references TO those earlier games

[@spidey-voltage2462]

I thought the humor in Fallout 2 was because of time constraints.

[@HurtsmithTV]

I grew up with the classic Fallout games and I very specifically remember Fallout 2 getting a good amount of crap, from fans of the original, for being goofy and stupid. FO2 was definitely the better game mechanically but you can really feel the lack of Tim Cain throughout FO2.

[@jrockhardest]

Theres a difference between having comedic relief and being a comedy show. The new falloud 4 and up are cartoony and silly themed. The old ones are themed seriously with lots of comedic relief. The comedy also cane in the form of the rediculousness of things that would happen jinda like real life. The soldier thar loves war gets killed kinda way

[@Beastlango]

I think the contrast of the dark and ridiculous is what makes fallout so great

[@diurtydantv8061]

This happens with all long running franchises. Like how the GTA community says the PS2 trilogy had realistic art design even though they clearly have cartoonish comic book designs.

[@notaexistingchannel]

This is a realization about these sorts of games: a lot of people don't acknowledge clown world. Take VtM for example, for years since some news program (yeah, of course it came from a news broadcast) that, through what they said and footage of the LARPers, the Masquerade was a serious dark game. However, many years later I've discovered that it was more like Buffy the Vampire Slayer: it had tension and can be serious, but then comes the episode where the cult tried to summon a demon from a tome had a disclaimer next to its picture that reads "comes in actual size."

[@TheQuaadFather]

Jesus THANK YOU!! I hate people focusing on just the lore aspects of 1&2 when there's LOADS of comedy

[@uuamenator]

I think what people mean is the artstyle. Everything, especially vault-tek looks more like a toy for children 8 to 12 rather than just part of the background world. As if the company was ran by an out of control marketing department. I mean things that give people pause and subconsciously bother them might not be what they end up mentioning when they complain - a subconscious feeling of game not LOOKING as serious gives them the idea to complain about not serious things in the game. I think what fo1-2 had going for it is the gritty and very realistic and adult looking background and characters, and that gave it the funny juxtaposition with the over the top violence and wacky things which were sprinkled all over. Bethesda's artstyle is that vault tek is disney and vaults and gadgets n weapons are a theme park.

[@Manaklyps]

Well, back then there were quite a few people who criticised the wackyness of Fallout 2, talking animals and deathclaws were particularly hated. Even today, there are still old-school nerds for whom the decline of the Fallout series began with the second instalment and for whom only the first instalment is truly 100% canon.

[@elhomiegordo330]

I’m playing fallout 1 right now to see what all the hype about it is. People say that the culture of the classics is different and all this and that about how Bethesda’s fallout isn’t real fallout but honestly bro they all feel like fallout. It all feels like one world and the only thing that change is the mechanics and choices but the tone doesn’t seem to be that different. Other people will disagree, which is fine. But at the end of the day I feel like people just want to rage bait and or have something to complain about. I think that Bethesda and Classic fallout needs that respeck on their name💯

[@jakel2837]

The cyclops thing in the show actually fit very well. It didn't hurt that the character was also Chris Parnell playing a bumbling villian, he's good at that.

[@WilliamScavengerFish]

The bridge keeper. The Holy Hand gernade. The vorpol rat instead of the killer rabbit. Knight of the round table going clippity clop (coconuts).

[@Reefer-Rampage69]

As a fan who like New Vegas the most, I love the wackiness! Maybe it’s because I started playing New Vegas and FO3 for the first time ever at the same time basically back in 2011. And I took wild wasteland in NV and in FO3 I made sure to do all the weird things. So since my first experiences with it Fallout has always been wacky and had funny odd moments. It’s definitely a serious series with a commentary on real life and politics but it also has many things to not be taken seriously! The balance between the serious and weird is what makes it work to me

[@mj7532]

Anyone saying that the first two Fallouts where more serious is just objectively wrong. Remember the Bridgekeeper? The crashed Star Trek shuttle? King Arthurs freaking Knights? And that's just three from the top of the dome.

[@Powerof7even]

Literally just popculture eastereggs but whatever you say. It's like saying Halo never had a serious story because on the mission Sierra 117 there is a family of monkeys with human faces. Bethesda meanwhile has whole quests dedicated to nonsense.

[@mj7532]

@@Powerof7even If the popculture easter eggs where less infrequent I would agree with you, but over the course of a long playtrough you see them often enough that it becomes more a part of the world than just a silly lite reference. And the first two Fallout games have way more silly stuff than just the easter eggs. Harold comes to mind. I realize however that I worded my first comment incorrectly. I meant to say that anyone saying the two first games are serious is wrong. Is the main quest serious? Sure. Is there a bunch of wackiness and silly stuff? Also yes. Has Bethesda overdone some of that stuff? Sure. But they've also added a bunch of amazing and serious lore as well.

[@Powerof7even]

@@mj7532 I think if you played the classics at all you probably didn't patch the game for modern clock speeds, resulting in a way higher percentage of random encounters than usual. Seriously when you actually play Fo1 or even Fo2 you rarely see the eastereggs. You even need to have a high luck stat to get most of them. I usually find 2 to 3 on my playthroughs. In what way was Harold silly? If you think doctor who or star trek references are part of the core world of fallout I don't know what to say other than you missed the joke.

[@mj7532]

@@Powerof7even Nice aassumptions there my guy. I played both the classics the years they released. On, you guessed it, not modern hardware. I've since replayed them several times over the years. I still think they're very silly at times. By design. But you know what? You're right, I'm wrong since I'm done with this conversation.

[@Powerof7even]

@@mj7532 doubt

[@dropzone662]

6 minutes in and you didn't make the parallel between a rare and small special encounter joking about area 51 aliens and a fricking DLC literally taking place aboard an alien mothership, canonizing them and their potential involvement in the great war. That's the difference between Fallout 1, which should be the point of reference (not Fallout 2) and Bethesda's Fallout. Also, Fallout 2's 4th wall breaking is mostly locked until you finish the game.

[@superdupermax]

My issue with bethesda games is ... essentially use of magic in "rare" items

[@kecukraftwork1988]

Full disclosure: I'm relatively new to Fallout, having only started playing the series for myself around late last year. I've seen playthroughs of FO3 and NV, but it was a while ago. So I'm speaking with limited knowledge. In my playthrough of FO1, maybe my RNG was bad, but out of the multiple hours of travelling map square-by-square that I put in, I personally came across only *one* 'wacky' incident, of a cow saying something like "moo, moo, I say". The rest of the game was tense, atmospheric and grim; a world wherein I felt like any speech-check failure or backchat could result in an instant shootout. To put it as clearly as I can, mostly all of the 'wacky' humour in FO1 feels like intentionally 4th-wall breaking humour that the player knows couldn't possibly exist in-world; the kind explainable by dehydration, starvation, radiation poisoning or heatstroke causing hallucinations or mirages. It's random and scarce, and the only 'canonical' humour is in the dark humour provided in the commentary of the inhabitants. It was the type of 'survivalist' or 'make-do' humour, typically found in world war diaries. If I were to sum up what Fallout was, I'd say that it's a post-nuclear world, whereby only a couple of generations ago, the whole of civilisation as we know it was completely turned to ash. Whereby you as the vault dweller have to make sense out of being thrown, blindly, into a degenerated and fragmented society. Trialling through a wasteland that has been reduced to a survivalist, tribalist and paranoid mindset, amidst a desperate struggle between emerging and ever-conflicting philosophies. All of it being set in a war-torn, baron, desolate and resourceless world of mutation and radiation, riddled with moral ambiguity, death & disease. Between the growing 1950s aesthetic (FO1 felt only inspired by, not closely reflective of the 1950s aesthetic), saturated colours, and more frequent and zany in-world humour that tries to make the audience outright laugh, I just haven't felt the prior paragraph being upheld so well in post-NV Fallouts. And this feels especially apparent in the Amazon series. Again, I'm only a noob to the series really, but this is the impression I get when contrasting the original game to the Fallout of which we have today.

[@marblemunkey]

Regarding the giant footprint and the possible connection to Bambi meets Godzilla; I first saw that short in 1995 when Doctor Demento was touring wirh Weird Al and showed funny shorts as part of the pre-show, so it's definitely plausible timeline-wise (Fallout came out in 1997)

[@BigBossXCV]

Fallout 2 has so much silly stuff that even the devs said they exaggerated

[@tommy.eklund]

I’ve never heard this argument of 1&2 being more serious than the Bethesda games..

[@President_Dave]

This video needed to be made. Classic Fallout & NV fans ragging on Bethesda Fallouts for their wackiness conveniently forget these things and also probably worship the fever dream that is Old World Blues

[@Harrisiee]

True plus the Gary vault was the funniest thing in all the games. Haha Garryyyyy!

[@lost_pmc_3927]

Or how they forget that the Kings exist

[@nighteye4042]

New Vegas is my favorite but the wackiness is one of my favorite things about fallout

[@bluntweaponenjoyer]

i feel like most believe Bethesda did the wackiness wrong though, which is kinda fair

[@NightkeeperLunala]

They also rag on Bethesda for Fallout 76’s launch (which, yes, is justified) but don’t really do the same for Interplay releasing Fallout: BOS..

[@mongrelking5667]

Ghosts! Actual ghosts in F2!

[@DeanHill-tw1bl]

A couple of things: 1. Anybody who says fallout one and two were entirely serious has never played fallout one and two or at least never paid attention to them. 2. The killer plant in little shop of horrors was actually called Audrey II by Seymour, because he named it after the woman that he loved. 3. I think the mole rats were also a reference to the Rat King, Shredder, and Krang from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 4. I always thought that the aliens had escaped from area 51, went to Vegas, got hammered and crashed their UFO again. They have a photo of Elvis with them, which suggests that maybe they had seen a Vegas show with an Elvis impersonator at some point.

[@BouncingZeus]

New Vegas the game made by the guys who worked on the OG ones then made a new studio after the parent company closed them?

[@user-qr3so8yz4c]

Fallout was always a humor game but at the same time with dark atmosphere.

[@drcrowlee]

The plant in little shop was audrey 2 not Seymour, and it was an alien that beamed to earth during a total eclipse. Seymour was a shop sweep in a flower store who found it

[@HovektheArtist]

Nv was supposed to have a giant fire gecko named kojira to be a reference to the godzilla footprint

[@wlb2j]

The plant from Little Shop of Horrors is named Audrey 2, Seymour was the Rick Moranis' character....

[@saooran7364]

Streteched aliens are Bethesda's retcon

[@grimace3983]

while i still think the game has an overall more foreboding and ominous tone, there is definitely humor to be found. one of the weirdest random encounters i've had so far while playing Fallout 1 is a group of wild Brahmin that kept saying "Moo I say" over and over. the combat log said something along the lines "you feel as though something is wrong here and want to leave immediately." off-putting but also hilarious

[@ladonmccabe]

There's a lot of things that Bethesda's Fallout can be criticized for... but not the wackiness. As you've shown here, and those who have been long, long time fans would know, Fallout has always been a balance of seriousness and wackiness. Its supposed to be serious and melancholy, and then all of a sudden you encounter something that makes you laugh or scratch your head, just to break up the monotony and mood.

[@davidaward82]

i'm always thought the footprint is a reference to the tarrasque from DnD, as they used the imagery for the deathclaw...

[@SolidDragonUK]

The Bridge Keeper encounter was the best silly encounter.

[@battlesheep2552]

You really can't go wrong with Monty Python

[@mikey6633]

I always thought Bethesda’s fallout was more serious than the originals. I think the Wild Wasteland trait is supposed to be a callback to that era of classic Fallout. In my personal opinion, Fallout 4 has got to be the most serious of the fallouts due to its story and their companions backstories like Nick, Preston, Deacon, Cait, Maccready, etc. I say all that even though my absolute favorite is New Vegas and Fallout 3. I think New Vegas turned me into an armchair philosopher lol

[@Tortillasoup-se7sh]

fallout nv was not made by Bethesda

[@mikey6633]

@@Tortillasoup-se7sh I wanted to include NV because even though they had original developers involved, it still felt serious to me- from the DLCs story to the NCR politics and whatnot. If I want an original fallout experience I’ll choose the wild wasteland trait along with the Yes Man ending 😂

[@zozocecp]

Fallout 1 was more serious overall, most of the jokes are hidden behind random encounters and optional. Even one of the developers said he didn’t like Fallout 2’s humor, because it was way more in your face with it. New Vegas’ wild wasteland perk was completely optional as well

[@ladychelsea5002]

really? people think a game where you can have a party consisting of a robot dog, a 9 foot green mutant, a tribal with his grandpa's bone in his nose that "enables" him to talk to spirits, a horndog Ghoul, a sentient Deathclaw, and a robobrain named Skynet is "serious"?

[@Unholy_Holywarrior]

fallout has always had humor. but even the humor fit the game/story/mechanic, and still added to the immersion. bethesda made fallout a campy fun time for the whole family, including collecting bottle cap plushies and nuka cola power armor. i wont even get started on the abortion of fallout set in the themepark... and the less said of 76 the better.

[@Pat20999]

It’s funny that the super mutant in the title is the general from fallout 1

[@ianwuersch9262]

I think people just don't know what they liked about the og Fallouts. They had the look. They had the atmosphere. The games aren't taken overly seriously, but the early series is primarily horror. It's impossible to not see Bethesda in modern fallout precisely because Bethesda does not do horror well post Oblivion and that's giving them far more credit for horror than they deserve. They do spooky amazingly, but true horror doesn't really stick. The first scene with Cooper and his Daughter in the TV show gives me massive hope because suddenly, Fallout was horror again. There are aspects of Fallout 1 and 2 players miss that are fully justifiable reasons for not liking modern Fallout as much. I also miss these aspects even if I believe Bethesda gets fallout and that Bethesda Fallout games are good. First. The music. The absolute desolation of the soundtrack is haunting in the extreme. Try not imagining the music in your mind when you try to go to sleep after getting killed in the wasteland. Then there are instances, like the death screens that build that existential horror. The Master is a cosmic threat, not necessarily the tangible "unequivocally bad guy who it is an objective good to shoot." Deathclaws will kill you and your entire party in a big way. The threat of being caught in your travels by Deathclaws or Super Mutants as you cross the map is genuinely nail biting. Those difficulty spikes matter too. You're supposed to feel like just some other already dead asshole who doesn't even know it yet even as the so-called "Chosen One." Bethesda tends to Great Man Theory everything in that you're always Jesus coming home. Also, this is a game series based on A Boy and His Dog. Imagine thinking Fallout takes, took, or will take itself seriously given that knowledge.

[@Trampus10-4]

Good stuff! Appreciate the nostalgia. Good teaching for newer generations.

[@tomh.648]

You definitely make some good points - - I think oftentimes we hear things repeated on the internet and forums particularly and certain things become common belief, although they may be a bit more of a stretch than some people realize. Well done - subbed.

[@snokey1153]

I assume none of you played 76…

[@depressedcorn37]

Only thing grim and dark playing Fallout 1 is the death animations and the anxiety of Ian filling me with 10mm SMG rounds 😂 Everything written and how characters act seem so mudane and silly. Like the BOS introduction. Sure fits the idea the series was more Post "Post-Apoc" if anything.

[@nvaierwatch]

Most of the silliness in F1 and F2 comes from "special encounters" which are... basically easter-eggs that show up, very sporadically, when you travel on the map and aren't considered canon in any way. If you play a low luck build, it's very possible to never see a single one. The overall feel and narrative of those games IS grim, depressing, and played fairly straight for the most part. Are there jokes and references? Yup. But the world itself is NOT funny. Fallout 3 and 4 straight up feel like a parody of those games to be honest. Yes, I'm leaving out New Vegas on purpose.

[@battlesheep2552]

I learned the terms "gimp" and "fluffer" from playing Fallout 2, so i guess you know how my playthrough went

[@jak_smaul9203]

My favourite moment is massacre of vault 13 this was so silly blood everywhere people run for their life while screaming. Slavers in Den were cute too little goofballs treat people like an object

[@therealdee3176]

Aye I really enjoy your videos and you inspired me to play fallout 4 again

[@FalloutLorecast]

Sweet. Appreciate the kind comment. :)

[@libertyprime2013]

Some people never played with wild wasteland and it shows

[@davidaward82]

seymour was rick moranis... the plant was called Audrey (or Audrey II)

[@Guys2024.]

"Talking cave rat thought it to me. " Norbark newman

[@TimBigler]

harold and bob, anyone? ghoul with a sentient tree growing out of his head.

[@nekipeh7373]

*Wonders around Hub *Accidentally finds Thevies Guild *Makes british boss enraged over how i found his group and starts cursing at me Anyway, i tend to love every games humor, no matter how good or awful it is. If a bunch of knights ask for directions out of nowhere, im like wtf and chuckle along, or finding a mutants with duck names is hilarious. Even the shitfest in Modoc is somehow funny. In my opinion, its not good or bad, its just different type of humor/seriousness.

[@skiderrunner]

5:50 There are skeletons from the day the Earth stood still, 210 years in the elements. Get outta here!

[@WilliamScavengerFish]

There was that cafe.