OG Fallout Was Bleak

The first entry in the Fallout series is objectively the darkest in tone. What about Fallout makes it so bleak? Indeed it has an atmosphere unrivaled by many games.
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OG Fallout Was Bleak
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#Fallout #TKsMantis

[@AAlmunia]

The Fallout Series. Finding it, that's not the hard part. It's letting go.

[@TKsMantis]

😥

[@AAlmunia]

@@TKsMantis I feel you, man. I hope there are more games in the future, but the franchise appears to be a bit jaded. Maybe it will resurface again, under a new developer. Or maybe Bugthesda will stop being Bethetic, get their shit together, and giving us good game. Until then, we'll always have the mojave.

[@dzikripratama3776]

@@AAlmunia Hbomberguy said it best Bethesda will be a franchise zombie by making more Elder Scrolls and Fallout

[@kilmone]

That hit me right in the feels, man.

[@mephistophelesthesilentchi3446]

It's letting go.

[@kriegdeathrider7805]

Fallout 1 walking around with 1 intelligence and 10 strength mumbling caveman noises and punching people in the eye so hard your fist goes clean through their skull will always be an amazing experience that the modern fallouts can't replicate

[@LixxLixx]

The outer worlds really tried

[@JohnDoe45762]

@@LixxLixx lol

[@michellamoureuxm]

Super mutant may not be a selection for race...but it is for gameplay.

[@LixxLixx]

@@JohnDoe45762 they did

[@LixxLixx]

@Jason they tried though lok

[@LilAlfiq]

Fallout 1: A harrowing journey, wading in the ashes of a dead world. Fallout 4: A wacky romp about my day trip to a rusty 50's themepark.

[@zacharygreene1979]

Bethesda is dumbing down RPGs to appeal to regular gamers that can't understand them. The true fans suffer

[@HRRRRRDRRRRR]

@ManNardo You could try and slather that shit engine and outdated mechanics with good story and it would still be a piece of shit.

[@Deliveredmean42]

@@HRRRRRDRRRRR Unless of course it was implemented well. Anyone can do a better job than Bethesda at this point.

[@hotshotroom964]

Deliveredmean42 pretty true I mean fallout 4 (and 76 I think) is just on an updated morrowind engine

[@lewistranmer2399]

You all need to stop talking shit stop shitting on fallout 4 it was a masterpiece of a game yes it’s not as dark as the original but it’s grown and is one of the best games of the last decade. Yes it’s not perfect but nothing is don’t act like it’s not a fantastic story driven, action packed, living world that breathes life into the wasteland while keeping its fantastic lore.

[@realstreetjesus1953]

Shooting a bandit in the head in Fallout 4 and hearing "cha-ching" along with a pop up notification about XP going up almost feels like slapstick comedy. Killing someone in Fallout 1 left you with a bloodied corpse, and the haunting soundtrack playing in the background, unbothered by the heinous act you just carried out.

[@MBOmnis]

And a very creative description about how you butchered a fellow human being on the pip-boy log.

[@SirCheeseEater]

@@MBOmnis I love seeing these two things pop up after I killed something... 𝘔𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘺 𝘢 10𝘮𝘮 𝘗𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘭 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘳𝘰𝘪𝘯... or 𝘙𝘢𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘱𝘶𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘉𝘳𝘢𝘴𝘴 𝘒𝘯𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘭𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘺𝘦𝘴

[@bunganut98]

That’s why I removed sound for any music or xp gain, makes it feel more real

[@Xavier-ty4jw]

Well now you have TLOU2 for bleakness

[@dathunderman4]

bunganut98 so you beat the game as level 1?

[@ElliFong]

The most iconic line to me isn't "War, war never changes." It's "You saved us, but you'll kill us."

[@Darkko88]

To me is "Leave, while you still have hope..." But that's just me.

[@ElliFong]

@@Darkko88 Hey, thats pretty good too.

[@Darkko88]

@@ElliFong Thanks, the one you picked is great aswell.

[@troglodyte3745]

You’re a hero and you have to leave.

[@enclave_here]

You’re a hero. And you have to go.

[@TheVeryAngryShrimp]

As much as FO1 was a downer, playing with 1 INT was where the humor really shined.

[@jean-alexandre5594]

Why?

[@arealhumanbean3058]

@@jean-alexandre5594 Special dialogue

[@jean-alexandre5594]

@@arealhumanbean3058 example?

[@arealhumanbean3058]

@@jean-alexandre5594 Every conversation, just search Fallout 1 1 intelligence

[@greggoat6570]

Yeah that’s a good example

[@zanedavis1110]

I personally prefer FNV's dark setting mixed with light hearted funny moments. Sometimes a game can take itself too seriously.

[@TKsMantis]

This is why I like the ability to choose the Wild Wasteland perk.

[@nillynush4899]

fallout 1 had a dr. who police box cameo and many others, personally New Vegas is probably the darkest if you look at some of the side quest content. Raeps, child slavery, genocide, and total war.

[@Otakupatriot117]

Fallout 2 did the humorous aspect pretty well too. 3 was just bland, like they couldn't decide if they wanted to be funny or serious, so it's just left feeling hollow. And 4 is wall-e with gore.

[@-Trauma.]

@@Otakupatriot117 I forgot my son was kidnapped...like for real. I had been playing for almost a year, I had everything, all the side quests completed, all the settlements connected and shit, Drinkin' Buddy serving up cold beverages at that fort place...then I Was like: "Oh shit...my son!" I'd forgotten I left Diamond City to go do my own thing cause that shit was getting boring and I wasn't feeling it. I also had forgotten about Dogmeat, cause when I Went back to Diamond City I found him sniffing around for clues, then after a few more main story quests I just completely lost interest, cause when I found my son it turns out he's the leader of the Institute, and there was no dialogue options to be that cliche toxic-father from the 40's/50's era. :( I wanted to force him to be my companion in the wasteland so I could teach his little ass a lesson and show him all the chaos he had a hand in.

[@DarthMcDoomington]

@@TKsMantis Eh, I think they should have put it in as an option but not as a trait. What if I want two traits AND Wild Wasteland? Also, Fallout 1 had a lot of silly encounters, but the game was shorter. And Fallout 2 still had a lot bleak, serious moments such as the druggies and alcoholics in places like The Den and New Reno. Outside of easter egg encounters I'd say it's not much more optimistic since the content is often pretty dark, more so than Fallout 1, but at the same time it takes a more black and white approach. Fallout 3 was aesthetically bleak but was just SO. FUCKING. STUPID. Not only was it tone death the story has more plot holes than plot (and the plot is extremely thin). It feels like the story and setting were made by someone who has no fucking idea what the word "dangerous" means and gets tired from being carried on a palanquin. Fallout: New Vegas was a massive upgrade over Fallout 3, both in terms of story and gameplay. It's basically what Fallout 3 would be if Fallout 3 was actually good. Fallout 4 was, at best, story and setting wise less of a garbage fire than 3. But gameplay wise, the levelling UI is just fucking awful. The old list might not have been aesthetically interesting but it was at least easier to get through so you didn't have to spend ten minutes looking for the stat you want to upgrade. And the world in Fallouts 1 and 2 was more desolate and it's ruins more, well, RUINED than Fallout 4. As for the combat, it's merely around the level of Fallout: New Vegas rather than "absolute shit" like Fallout 3's was, but like Fallout 3, Fallout 4 thinks it's combat is AMAZING and there's very little that doesn't involve it, and it gets irritating fast. Like Fallout 3, it's companions are either annoying or merely boring and I feel this is important because it's very affected by the schizophrenic tone.

[@rlpn6710]

The bleakest moment for me is when you find that crate of water chips in F2. Everything the vault dweller went through, everyone they killed, everything that had to happen for that precious water chip... and there were hundreds of them just sitting here all this time.

[@dominickmelendez1572]

Silver lining is that if you end up killing the master so yeah, but is is still dark an ad you said bleak

[@Tcg8136]

Apparently, all those chips were sent to Vault 13 but ended up in the wrong vault, you later find out.

[@wyvvernstone]

I had a visceral reaction finding those as well.

[@oblivionfan345Tony]

But without that water chip failing, the Vault Dweller would have never stopped the Master and the world would have been doomed to die out permanently as mutants conquered, grew old, or died in combat and their numbers couldn't be replaced.

[@jessegalan8551]

That’s the best part tho

[@Jonniemcl]

I always thought the tone difference made perfect sense considering the differences in the protagonists backstory, The Vault Dweller was experiencing everything the wasteland had to offer for the first time and, rightfully so, saw it for the bleak, dark, depressing place it really was. The Chosen One grew up in the wasteland, most likely struggled to survive, and did what they had to to get by, so they're just de-sensitised to everything, and can make more jokes. That's how I always looked at it anyway.

[@reigoll]

Same, always thought so as well. Especially since the chosen one is a tribal, they have an entirely different mindset compared to other groups of societies. So they would maybe not look at killing and stuff as a bad thing. Thing is, they had more humour, but still kept the dressing feeling of Fo1. So its was a good mix I'd say ^^

[@theantichrist4882]

What I love about this take is you can say the exact same about the change of atmosphere between 3 and New Vegas. Really makes it seem more plausible.

[@kaelell4697]

@@theantichrist4882but not 4

[@weplo1597]

Lone Wanderer same as Vault Dweller The Courier same as Chosen one

[@demondeity9816]

when the live action trailer for fallout 76 came around I felt extremely sad after realizing that that was what the identity of fallout has become. Fallout 76 takes place in probably the darkest part of the timeline in the series. Yet it's portrayed as upbeat and light hearted.

[@TKsMantis]

There is so much lost potential in Fallout 76, in my opinion. I agree. It could be the darkest and interesting story to tell. It seems Bethesda would rather monetize it. Just from my experience.

[@fallensurvivor21]

Exactly. That's what the lames don't understand. Several years after the bombs drop and everyone in 76 is like * moral instantly recovered *? it's ridiculous lol that might be why 76 leaves a bad taste in our mouths. Should've been a dark and hopeless storyline, and if Zenimax really wanted money then Bethesda could've made an underground online maze Arena inside a Vault for up to 6 or 8 players with the Atom Shop outside the arena. Hanging bodies and blood marks with Vault videos playing on tv screens with a random Creature being released throughout the match froma Deathclaw to a Yao Guai. How sick would that be?! Plus maybe a storyline Co-Op slot where your friend can join any time, any where. They wanted to copy Fortnite so bad they lost the game's identity ._.

[@theburningone354]

King Maximoff the problem is why is Virginia so green and plz don’t say it’s cause that nukes didn’t hit that part a nuke doesn’t have to land anywhere near a area to devastate it take Chernobyl for instance even towns miles away were effected and yes I know that Chernobyl was a reactor but still

[@liammiddleton3064]

Your thoughts on Fallout 4?

[@radzilla748]

@@liammiddleton3064 looking for validation?

[@PupperTiggle]

"The visual of the waterchip just evolved into a visual joke while I was modeling it - I thought it would be funny to be showing the simplest, most basic motherboard type thing while the overseer was describing something so complex they couldn't hack together a workaround. That was how a lot of the design went on those things - we'd just come up with something we thought was funny while we were filling in the details. A specific detail I've never seen anybody mention is that the schematic behind the waterchip is actually for a Moog synthesizer." - Leonard Boyarsky

[@encross8058]

lol

[@KasumiRINA]

Yeah with the game's vacuum tube aesthetic, it only made sense they'd use something from last century's music production stuff since it's about the only industry still using vacuum tubes as everything else moved to transistors and even most amps are solid state now.

[@Linux13]

@@KasumiRINA transistors didn't exist in the Fallout universe, or they were fresh new and only used in very specific sectors until the Great War kicked in and fucked up the world. I can't remember which one is the right one, but, at the end of the day, the transistors weren't something to keep in mind in the Fallout universe

[@imstupid880]

Based

[@tommcewan7936]

@@KasumiRINA ironically, we came full circle back to vacuum tubes a few years ago with the invention of the nanoscale vacuum-channel transistor.

[@Dan-qy6zv]

The definition of bitter satisfaction is killing the Overseer. Yes, killing him after all the work he sent us on, and getting casted out due to his own fears rather than the citizens, killing him is great. But the worst part is, you know you can't go back in after. How can you explain the overseer's corpse outside the door? And even then, why would you want to go back inside to begin with. As bad as it was, the wasteland made you more of the person you were at that moment than the Vault ever did. It was more like, you did all of this for nothing. And that's what makes it tragic.

[@Kupomasters57]

wait he gets killed by the people in the vault??

[@Dan-qy6zv]

@@Kupomasters57 No. We can choose to kill him. The vault citizens don't.

[@Kupomasters57]

@@Dan-qy6zv so sad.

[@vermilion1803]

@@Kupomasters57 late response, but yes: "It's not clear what happens to Jacoren after the exile of the Vault Dweller. Eventually, he was tried and sentenced to death for committing a great crime. Martin Frobisher, the leader of Vault 13 in 2241 claims this"

[@Kupomasters57]

@@vermilion1803 hah served him right

[@GermoDante]

My dad got me fallout when I was like 12, around 1998, as a gift. He barely had a clue about gaming but he nailed that one. I still have the survival guide that came with the game.

[@harrymcfatterson3734]

I would do anything for both of those ...

[@reginlief1]

I wish I wasn’t two at the time.

[@333reptid3]

@@reginlief1Atleast you are lucky. I wish i was born in the 80-90s... i was born in the 2000s and sucks. i missed the golden age of video games, LAN Parties, PC gaming... Atleast i played the classic fallouts and other golden gems tho

[@noahlangrehr597]

@@333reptid3 and music

[@Supraboyes]

@@333reptid3 in them we days we socialised, going to a friends house to play was better than screaming down a headset at each other

[@gamingguru2k6]

Fallout 1 was the one time that the whole concept was played straight. There are times when humor just hurts Fallout's setting.

[@TKsMantis]

I like the lighthearted approach a lot. I agree with you here though. I think the first Fallout had to be this bleak.

[@kushanblackrazor6614]

I really favor the darker, more playing it straight approach but I'm boring!

[@andrewrhodes7077]

It wasn't one of the better fallouts, but I felt fallout 3 tried playing itself fairly straight as well. Fallout New Vegas definitely had the fallout 2 sense of humor.

[@randomzebraontheinternet7779]

Especially later on in the series with... Fallout Brotherhood of Steel and good old '76

[@darylchurch2115]

I felt it especially in FALLOUT 4. Something about that felt... goofy and too safe. In the others I felt like I was always in danger at least a little bit but The Commonwealth wasteland... i always felt like combat was more of a bother than a fight for survival.

[@alexroy5854]

I really love how having the Bloody Mess perk actually changes how your character acts at the end of the game. It's as if the game is saying "What!? You think somebody who CHOSE a skill like that in real life wouldn't react violently?!"

[@nathanfivecoate5848]

Bloody Mess in Fallout 1 was a trait rather than a perk. It gave more violent and explosive deaths

[@alexroy5854]

@@nathanfivecoate5848 True, good correction

[@thecameronator]

7:00 "Welcome back, Dick Lord" With snarky computers like that, the future is indeed bleak.

[@thecameronator]

Also, while Fallout 2 has a lot of humor in it, I do still get that dark and hopeless vibe from it underneath the silliness. Feels mostly like gallows humor.

[@Delete59187]

The iconic “war never changes” is comedic in a Vault-Tec corp sort of way. In the first game I interpreted it as meaning that human nature will always be barbaric and only technology and setting change. Now it’s just an edgy saying used by Bethesda that really means nothing but “it sounds cool and was in the first game”.

[@foresta-2684]

NOMS NOMS Amen

[@MrSilentProtagonist]

The ending of Fallout 4 shows that Bethesda really doesn't understand what that phrase means.

[@justin2308]

I think Fallout 4 showed the lesson pretty decently because, let’s face it, freedom and security comes with a price while human barbarity doesn’t change no matter how just or long-awaited a cause like the Institute’s seems. You had to use war to prevent more from happening. In many ways (the RR, the Brotherhood), the heroes end up no better than the villains. Problem is, the game doesn’t teach it well enough because it encourages you to just go straight back to the killing. At least Fallout 3 made sure there was some lasting change in the actual society instead of just a hole in the ground and soldiers in diamond city.

[@Furzkampfbomber]

@Justin Williams I think this kind of bad writing and the complete lack of understanding what Fallout actually is or what kind of stories it tells was one of the things that killed Fallout 4 as a Fallout game for me. In former Fallout games, one could solve a quest or any given situation in a huge variety of ways. Kill everyone. Trick, cheat and talk your way out. Make a trade. Seduce a key person. And the outcome could be very different. Remember the Gecko nuclear power plant in Fallout 2? The one that Vault City wants you to destroy, because the radiation it emits has become a problem? You could simply blow the reactor and the ghouls to kingdom come. You could repair the reactor, which was enough for Vault City to ignore the ghouls in the furture _or_ you could repair the reactor and ramp up its output, which then leads to Vault City invading the power plant and killing all the ghouls. (Which was kind of a kick in the balls on my first run. I improved the reactor, thinking the ghouls could trade electricity, I clearly had not foreseen _that_ outcome.) The typical quest in Fallout 4 instead looks like this. Go to from A to B, kill C while wasting ammo and meds worth 20.000 caps, fetch D and go back to A to collect 300 caps and two stimpacks as a reward and to get insulted by the quest giver.

[@MrSilentProtagonist]

@@justin2308 "But now, I know. I know I can't go back. I know the world has changed. The road ahead will be hard. This time, I'm ready. Because I know, war...war never changes." The game basically shifts to a hopeful tune when the main character says that for now on he is going to expect the very worst of humanity as a whole. I'm not going to assume that the writers know what they are doing.

[@skinnymulligan5210]

Lonesome Road really seems to follow up on the bleak outlook of Fallout 1, especially when they finish the quote at the end of the DLC “It’s said war- war never changes. Men do, through the roads they walk. And this road has reached its end.”

[@MrFusion]

That's one of the reasons I like Lonesome Road. There isn't much humor, and the story is dark. The area is harsh and brutal, there are practically no people around, and the story is serious.

[@chakko007]

I quite disliked Lonesome Road, to be honest. It didn't fit into New Vegas at all, in my opinion.

[@Brandelwyn]

@@chakko007 same here. The villain was cool, but unbelievably stupid, devs gave us the unnecessary background and there are no consequences at all for certain decisions we make there.

[@TheSenhorcaioo]

@@chakko007 THE BEAR! THE BULL! THE BEAR! THE BULL! THE BEAR! THE BULL!

[@TheVaultDweller-oi9ij]

@@MrFusion Should have been the post-game add on. Like, you beat the game, but the signal comes on, where the true final choice is made. My ONLY gripes with LR was no Ulysses companion (Joshua Graham would have been cool, too, but we didn't get either on Xbox so mods on PC do the trick,) no actual radio station broadcasting 'Ulysses,' no post-game fix from a patch or even buying the DLC, and no option to do it post game, to make sure that whatever faction was retreating had to cross an irradiated hellscape to get close to Vegas. And it was more enjoyable then the normal game. I love LR. The DLC was actually a lot darker then the vanilla game. But I love it all. If NV had been more like LR, HH, DM, and a bit of OWB, I feel it would have captured the OG Fallout feel better. But I'm also really happy that NV was it's own thing, rather then trying to mimic it's predecessors. As much as I want NV to feel like the old games, it won't be. After all, it's not about holding on to what you want most. It's about letting go... Me: *Laughs in 37 Gold Bars.*

[@luxither7354]

I love how it feels so small in OG fallout. The BoS only as big as a militia, the caravans just bands of entrepreneurs, shady sands is all alone and isolated, hell even The Unity was just at most 100 super mutants with only maybe another 100 children of the cathedral. It feels ultimately insignificant compared to the rest of the world, and so much less impactful to the universe compared to all the other games. And I LOVE that.

[@G_Macks]

It feels like you’re exploring the history of the fallout universe itself it’s an awesome experience

[@weplo1597]

Except they do the biggest impact The Unity might be 100 but their strength is barely matchable and they are slowly building up too Vault 13 must had like 1000 people which is how many lives are at stake makes sense why Overseer is so worried

[@TheAlmightyAss]

OG Fallout really is a lightning in a bottle; the themes, tone, ambience, voice acting, haunting music, talking heads and setting. It just fits perfectly as a dark video game and I haven't seen another game like it.

[@waynergy]

Even the click noises on the buttons, and other little sound effects. The dreaded "Pshhhhht!" that meant you were possibly about to die!

[@hyperion3145]

I also liked how the bad endings actually make you feel like you’ve done something wrong, most games don’t usually hit as hard as the mutant ending

[@fuzziewuzzy12]

Hyperion that ending gave me nightmares because of the guilt and horror when I first played it, I think I was like 12 or so.

[@MBOmnis]

@Ace Saylor You get thrown into a vat of FEV and transformed into a super mutant. In the ending sequence, the mutant who climbs on top of the Overseer's chair and punches him to death is your character.

[@avakmar21hadio59]

The only other game that perfected this concept in my opinion is undertale

[@zatoka08]

@@MBOmnis How do you know it's our character?

[@MBOmnis]

@@zatoka08 The ingame ending narration specifically states it was you who "personally made the final kill when you took the life of the Overseer"

[@reyniknamyrion3557]

*"You saved us, but you'll kill us. I'm sorry. You're a hero... and you have to leave."*

[@bakedbeans7879]

* vault dweller proceeds to blow him into smithereens *

[@duadtheknifeofdunnwall9725]

Man the memories I miss that game

[@ididntmeantoshootthatvietn5012]

Then he get cut in half with a gatling laser

[@ididntmeantoshootthatvietn5012]

@@masonajmufasamurphy2496 lmao he's talking about fallout 1 not 3

[@hammerite6418]

God that was brutal people talk about red dead redemption having the balls to kill their protagonist but fallout had the balls to truly punish their protagonist not only with exile but a cruel fate in the wasteland

[@rarebeez8763]

A big difference I noticed in fallout 1 versus the other fallout games is that in the first game you actually wanted to go back go the vault. The wastes were bleak and scary; you wanted that sense of safety only the vaults could provide. But in the other games the wastelands were fun and light-hearted; you didn't want to be trapped in a vault, idk I think that says a lot about the first game versus the others

[@weplo1597]

I mean in other fallout games you don't start in safe and sound vault except Fallout 3 but you get kicked out so no return. Fallout 2 and Nv you start in wasteland and you should be adapted into it like Courier and Chosen one, Fallout 4 you start all alone in full of dead corpse vault with your dead wife. So yeah only fallout 1 has you going to vault 13 as safe place

[@jonahulichny9874]

In none of the other games was the wasteland cheery, not even 76 (which yes is probably the cheeriest for nothing but worse.) Scorched plague, postwar Charleston getting flooded, ect.

[@Demospammer9987]

I swear, hearing the overseer telling you that you cant come back after completing the main quest for the first time was gut wrenching. All that hard work, all that time and effort just to get stabbed in the back

[@blebleh666]

All these save n load games...

[@cootersnooter3059]

The goddamn master had me shook the first time I encountered him. It was a long night of gaming, I had the lights out and headphones on at around 3am...I was not ready for that shit! That voice...

[@TheMan-je5xq]

Cooter Snooter I still can’t figure out what his form would be if he was moving from place to place.

[@kittycat5972]

That’s why he’s the best fallout main villain, hand down!!

[@christopherlithgo2600]

I was 8 years old. That freak still gives me the chills

[@finnISHY]

@@TheMan-je5xq I'm guessing he was moved from place to place by the super mutants and the children

[@bobpope8590]

kitty cat both the master and frank from fallout 2 are the real MVP of fallout villains.

[@faropening6418]

I feel like you should have talked a bit more about the master's dialogue, especially stuff like "there is no hope. leave now, leave while you still have hope". You essentially kill his only source of hope by telling him that mutants are sterile, and commits suicide out of a result. The guy, although his actions were considerably evil, just wanted to try to bring hope to the bleak wasteland by creating a unity among all. He, in his own mind, wanted to end the bleakness of the wasteland. kinda sad imo he wasnt even trying to be the villain but ended up like one

[@Tundra0stalker]

Far Opening The Master believed that the ends justified the means, and the only way to defeat him without killing him yourself was to show to him that the ends were pointless and doomed. That he did all these horrible things for ultimately no benifit to anyone at all.

[@TKsMantis]

Good point. The Master has some of the most foreboding speeches of all time. My mistake for sure and that us a great suggestion.

[@randomlyentertaining8287]

A lot of the good villains usually are those with actually decent ideals.

[@skinnymulligan5210]

Far Opening a perfect example of how nobody ever thinks they’re the villain of the story

[@zacharygreene1979]

That's why Frank Horrigan from Fallout 2 is the best final boss in the series, you can't reason with him or talk him out of fighting, you have to fight him.

[@arklados3596]

I’ve always wondered if the water chip malfunction was engineered by Vault Tec as a way to force dwellers out as an experiment.

[@arklados3596]

@@benjaminparent4115 oh shoot, thanks for the info.

[@k4rn31ro8]

@@arklados3596 >someone corrects him on a 11 month old comment >still replies and thanks the guy absolute chad

[@arklados3596]

@@k4rn31ro8 I always repay my debts.

[@Deat87]

And it was Chosen One who broke the water chip by accident while traveling back in time. Dunno if that's meant to be canon or just a joke though.

[@arklados3596]

@@Deat87 oh yeah lol

[@Metafalcario23]

Fallout in 1998: "A lot of people died when a lot of atomic bombs went off and nearly destroyed the world. If you don't know what an atomic bomb is, then imagine the worst thing possible. Atomic bombs were worse than that." Fallout in 2018: "Hey, why not have a bonfire with your buddies, except with a nuclear blast instead? Country Roads, am I right?" Bethesda turned Fallout into a fucking parody of itself.

[@alpacawithouthat987]

That's realistic though. The more time passes, the less people care about old tragedies. It makes sense that Fallout characters in the newer games would joke about a tragedy that happened 2 centuries ago.

[@landlockedcroat1554]

@@alpacawithouthat987 im pretty sure fallout 76 is supposed to be the earliest in the timeline, if anything it should be the darkest and serious of the games

[@mindaugassolys1963]

@@alpacawithouthat987 Fallout 76 is earliest game in the series lore-wise. It should be the darkest and most unsettling game of the series instead of jolly and comfy shit that Bethesda is pushing to us.

[@kiwisensei9326]

Mindaugas Šolys you ever played 76 ? Actually paid attention to the environments ? There is much more sadness and hopelessness in that game than “jolly and comfy shit”

[@ElDuderinoh]

@@mindaugassolys1963 yea when it comes to that I don’t think it’ll ever get more gritty and dark than 3

[@CocoHutzpah]

There's a strange combination of the tone and the pre-rendered graphics that make the death animations unnerving. Sure, the 3D games also have people exploding into many pieces, but it's more like a punchline.

[@TKsMantis]

I agree. In fact, I have been thinking of doing a video about this topic.

[@Duchess_Van_Hoof]

Yeah, the 3D deaths are less impactful, it feels almost comedic. While the ones in the 2D games look positively horrifying. It might be the music that does it, the tone is very different.

[@kittycat5972]

Duchess Van Hoof especially when it comes to the unique death animations for key characters like the overseer, the way he tries crawling away towards the vault with half his body blown away was particularly disturbing the first time I saw it.

[@Chris-jw8vm]

@@kittycat5972 I found it funny but maybe that's because I'm a bastard that would do that in that situation without the need for a few months worth of shit to wear me down. Overseer was fine with sending people fo die on fetch quests but denies those people reentry after completion. Naive băstard deserved to have his intestines blown out for such a betrayal. Pretty sure if lore is anything to go off, that vault shrivels up into nothing and no one knows what happened to it but it seems the NCR might control the husk of the remaining vault.

[@kittycat5972]

Chris Nelson can’t blame you, I guess I could see the humor in his death in a morbid sort of way. Though I think his intentions where his way of precaution and/or cowardice to the unknowns of the wasteland. He’s a sheltered elderly man, I can understand his fear of being left behind in the vault so I can’t really hold a grudge to him. Besides if you let him live, the other inhabitants of the vault were fucking pissed he banished the vault dweller so they put him on trial and I think he was executed(I don’t remember). Then some of the vault dwellers went into the wasteland while the others who’ve stayed where later kidnapped by the enclave in fallout 2. Don’t remember what happened to vault 21 after that.

[@vostyok6030]

Theres a quote in the Vault Dweller's memoirs that suggests this theme of stark desolation was prevalent at one point, before being diluted somewhat: " A lot of people died when a lot of atomic bombs went off and nearly destroyed the world. If you don't know what an atomic bomb is, then imagine the worst thing possible. Atomic bombs were worse than that." They also have some choice comments regarding the glow. This is a theme that has been the biggest loss, imo. Now nukes are an excuse for wacky hijinks, it seems...

[@TKsMantis]

Those old manuals were so cool.

[@vostyok6030]

@@TKsMantis absolutely. Especially the first game's. I loved how it taught you how to play while remaining in-universe. Awesome stuff. Great video, btw, should have said at the start :D

[@tamiajhonson8402]

🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️👏👏👏 thank you , I 100% agree.

[@raziyatheseeker]

@@vostyok6030 My word, one of the biggest losses of gaming in general was a lack of cool instruction manuals. I thought I was just a dork for having fun reading them back when.

[@michajozwiak5557]

@@TKsMantis My dad brought Wing Commander: Privateer from a trip when I was 11. The manual even had a short story at the beginning, something like 10 pages about the main dude and his old captain trying to escape from an ambush attack by the techno-hating Retros. Loved these things.

[@thebanditgaming4884]

If the ghouls die without water, that contradicts the ghoul kid that was trapped in the refrigerator ever since the war in Fallout 4. I think it was all downhill after new vegas

[@metrohunter-qy4fz]

Maybe he drank rain water but that’s unlikely

[@fernandomaxis6550]

He wasn't in there since the war. They never said when he went in just that he was lost for a while. Mostly likely since the Quincy attack.

[@sandraswan9008]

@@fernandomaxis6550 >Billy says he hid in the refrigerator to escape the bombs Yeah no

[@mse2130]

The harsh conditions would have deteriorated the rubber seal on the refrigerator thus allowing for water to get in whenever it rained.

[@surlyunicorn9461]

Even if he had found a way to survive in a fridge for over two centuries, that kid would have been crazier than a mole rat on bath salts by that point.

[@exemplar7205]

Gotta admit as tragic as the Vault Dwellers story is (and the way Ron Pearlman put it at the start of Fallout 2 was beautiful tbh) im glad it ended well with him settling down and having children in a home he made, they are a perfect example of a wasteland soul that never gets fully broken.

[@yotamkaspi8508]

I agree overall though even the original wasn't 100% serious. Even small tongue in cheek moments like the brahmin going "Moo, I say"

[@mr.battle20]

Yeah, but that was in a "special encounter", which were basically easter eggs in the game.

[@Maverick-di2br]

The original Fallout knew when too much humour would dilute it's tone, something 2 didn't understand.

[@francesco3772]

@@Maverick-di2br the difference between satire and wacky humor is you gotta have polarizing ideas and the balls to show them for the former: Fallout 2 was satirical, which you may not like, but it's still fucking refreshing to see in our neutered day and age.

[@stivaoblonskystan]

@@Maverick-di2br I think the lighter tone of fallout 2 is justified. During the time 2 takes place, the wasteland has already developed into a livable, if not necessarily good, place. Its not like fallout 1 where every town is either way too small to be sustainable or ridden with crime and corruption; by fallout 2 sizable, honest communities like NCR, Broken Hills and San Fran have popped up. So the world isn't bleak and hopeless like it was before during 1.

[@Maverick-di2br]

@@stivaoblonskystan You're missing the point. The game does not take itself as seriously as it's predecessor and it doesn't need a dark or light tone to do that.

[@BlueBoxRevan]

I cut my teeth on Fallout back when it first came out 1997. I am proud to know I was one of the first people to get my hands on the first copies of Fallout when hardly anybody had a clue what Fallout was. I poured many hours into the OG Fallout. The sweet irony is, my dad, that rarely played games, put more hours into that game than I could ever WANT to. No matter how much I love this game. There will never be another game that captures the magic like the first release of Fallout.

[@TKsMantis]

I agree.

[@pastalasagna2924]

Hipster

[@jasonfenton8250]

Are your teeth ok?

[@BlueBoxRevan]

@@jasonfenton8250 huh. Guess not. Still chewing on Fallout to this day.

[@Xenomnipotent]

Blue Box Reven might wanna spit out 76, it’s quite undercooked

[@Daemeon93]

One of the most underrated things about FO3 and NV is that turning the radio on your pipboy off or on really changes the tone of gameplay. With it on, the tone changes to a campy overtone while still letting you take in the bleak world of fallout. With it OFF, the ambient music and silence makes it feel a LOT more like the original fallout, really making you feel like you are alone in a bleak world, just barely being able to survive

[@d.whillmar1740]

Do you imply there are people who walk around with their radio constantly turned on? Probably the same kind who eats Tide pods.

[@Neogears1312]

@@d.whillmar1740god ain’t you a narcissistic, condescending bag of douche. Stfu you fuckin geek that’s such a non thing to be high and mighty over.

[@reubenbirch]

​@@d.whillmar1740I never turn it off.

[@d.whillmar1740]

​@@reubenbirch BRUH

[@dami8875]

​@@d.whillmar1740I mean... I prefer silence but irl i'd totally get uneasy with it after a while so i'll probably turn something on to remind myself i'm not alone in this shithole.

[@LetsGoGetThem]

I love how 90s gamers all said those 3d games looked way better, but fallout 1 and 2s sprites have aged much more gracefully

[@Permafrost1]

Artstyle > graphics Graphics get outdated ang ugly, style doesnt People praising good graphics in new games or games in general always pissed me off

[@LetsGoGetThem]

@@Permafrost1 I would say Skyrims good graphics has aged better, maybe not the textures.

[@Permafrost1]

@@LetsGoGetThem yeah thats the point, textures are the part of "graphics" And imho, skyrims graphics didnt age well, it doesnt look unique in any capacity (as far as my memory allows me to remember) thus relying on polygons and texture resolution to look good If the game has graphics improvement mods, then they cant possibly age well (there are probably exceptions to this, i dont have time right now to think about it, sorry)

[@Permafrost1]

@Chandler Burse which means in some time it will look like shit May take 10 years, may take 100 but people will be saying that it looks bad

[@_Ekaros]

@@LetsGoGetThem Skyrim was released in 2011 not in 90s. The 90s 3d is just horrid...

[@79acastaneda]

"Do you remember the good old days where the Master ruled over us all?" -Tabitha

[@pnutz_2]

@Ferny Panda she was an old granny before she got dipped so...

[@b.barlow4488]

@@pnutz_2 You’re thinking of Lily

[@oliverallen5324]

I agree. The original fallout felt more true to the vision of, “what if all our Cold War fears were right?” I liked Fallout 2, but as you said the memes are strong and continue to be. You can tell after 2, the universe is written by different people with different philosophy on life itself. Like you said there aren’t clean book ends in Fallout. To succeed, a price must be paid; by you or by the communities. There is no free lunch. There’s a strong weight of opportunity cost. That’s missing from story telling now. Thanks for sharing.

[@TKsMantis]

Thank you for the comment. I agree about the “what if all our Cold War fears were right?” vibe being in the first Fallout and it is clearly missing today.

[@jonathanjoestarwithpluck4930]

Thertane stajia it could be argued that the price paid is that it’s much harder to save necropolis and the vault. Although I get what you’re saying, this person was referring to narrative losses and this is more of a gameplay loss than anything.

[@rosure7]

There's some big dark moments in fallout 2 though. It's still fallout.

[@sig5750]

Fallout 2 can be just as dark. Vault City's indentured servants masked as charity, New Reno's crime families, its drugs and prostitution problem, The Den and its outright acceptance of slavery... I feel people just dismiss Fallout 2 for not being as dark just based on the silly responses/references you can select. But the setting was definitely still dark.

[@mourasantos]

The words "Bethesda" and "philosophy" belong nowhere near each other's vicinity.

[@OlaftheGreat]

The original Fallout's intro cutscene is possibly one of the best intros of all time. You're watching the TV and it's a little unnerving...and then you notice that it's panning out and you see...what's left. It's that one cinematic that got me hooked on the series.

[@Tuilelen]

Reminds me a lot of Bradbury's "There Will Come Soft Rains"

[@marieparisi4522]

Bethesda is basically just going " Hey looks it was in the first game and it's cool, lets used it" "But Todd how would scorpions survive in Boston, or super mutants exist, or deathclaws, can't we make something new?" Todd: slowly walks up to employees face and whispers "it just works." with a smile on his face

[@TheFatMarioBros]

😂🤣

[@squidwardtesticlesthelsdsq3204]

I bet Todd is the kind of optimistic cheerful sociopath that talks in a very calm & collected fashion whenever he "disciplines his co workers" with a whip. While smiling throughout. "And if you question me again I will take you to my office & exit you from behind to teach you some manners" *Smirkish Vault Boy Face intensifies*.......

[@FreakyFriday4Phaggs]

Now that you mention it, are Scorpions even remotely habitable in Boston?

[@kobenotcoby6275]

@@FreakyFriday4Phaggs In a game with aliens, giant crabs, laser guns, and nuke launchers does scorpions in boston really sound like that much of a strech

[@fiatlux4058]

It just works because you're paying for this.

[@griggs2316]

West Virginia looks beautiful for it being only 25 years after all out thermonuclear war

[@scarabmango]

WV was spared from the worst of the bombing. It had no strategically significant targets (that the Chinese KNEW about...) and thus wasn't prioritized for attack.

[@griggs2316]

scarabmango That’s like saying the town of Chernobyl is safe from radioactive contamination because the power plant wasn’t located in the town itself.

[@scarabmango]

@@griggs2316 We're not just talking about contamination, there's also the outright destruction of the blasts to consider.

[@griggs2316]

scarabmango but it’s the radioactive fallout that creates wasteland lmao.

[@scarabmango]

@@griggs2316 We aren't in charge of what's canon in the series. The copyright holder is, and that's Bethesda. The canon is, WV looks like it does in Fallout 76. I'll pass on the actual armageddon it would take to find out in real life.

[@ukaszkos8233]

What I really like in this game is: - the freedom of choice, - no matter what you do it's gonna fucked up, - this hunting music is a MASTERPIECE.

[@Dooshanche]

I heard they gave Mark Morgan Apex Twin music (not knowing it was him) and told him they want it to sound like that

[@guyrocketram9698]

im assuming you meant haunting lol. i ended up searching "Fallout 1 Hunting OST" to find out what the hell you were talking about

[@Drew_2152]

I like the flute and the indistinguishable voice that plays within the soundtrack.

[@randomlyentertaining8287]

"There are a few contenders" *Spec Ops The Line flashbacks*

[@JnEricsonx]

Try being told live to your face the "Welcome to Dubai" line by Nolan North. Was AWESOME.

[@bificommander7472]

Well done vault dweller. You've, done what the Master could not. Destroyed Vault 13. Do you feel like a hero yet?

[@l.d.roberts2194]

When I first played it an seen the ending, I was like wtf? I did everything wrong to everyone else to save the vault, then you just toss me out. I played again and tried to do what's best for everyone, fix their situations to where they're better off after I've left, an still the same ending. Enjoyed the game, but that is one of the saddest endings I've seen in a game.

[@ezg8448]

The ending of OG Fallout is one of the best endings in any RPG made to this date. What makes it so good is the really humanity of the actions made by the overseer and what happeneds to the vault dweller. It feels like this kind of thing would happen in real life if someone else went through this ordeal. It's just masterful and great to see an ending that isn't so happy happy.

[@Vigilante9033]

I honest to god can’t think of one I like more. I like New Vegas’ ending becusse of how it rewards you by showing you the results of all the numerous choices you’ve made, but Fallout’s just just so elegant. It’s so fucking poetic and brazen. You did everything right and saved humanity and your reward is nothing. And it doesn’t feel like a fuck you to the player because the game has shown you time and again that life isn’t fair.

[@grindcoreninja6527]

Fuck him, I was essentially lawful good up until that point, but when he burned me, I wasted his ass.

[@insaneweasel1]

"Causing crops to wither " Not enough Brawndo. Its what plants crave.

[@shaunpovlsen3960]

insaneweasel1 haha

[@a.monach7602]

*THE THIRST MUTILATOR*

[@Yora21]

It's got electrolytes.

[@matthebonnvonbon8089]

Water? Like from the toilet?

[@albapantheratigris6071]

“I don’t see no plants growing out of no toilets”

[@Drbeckerproductions]

Fallout 1: Let's make a game that's a bit too dark! Fallout 2: That game was too dark, let's throw in a shitload of wacky jokes on top of the darkness! Fallout 3: Let's try way too hard to be fallout 1 and whack you over the face with grimdark! Fallout NV: Let's try to be Fallout 2 but tone down the jokes and crank up the writing Fallout 4: Let's try to be Fallout 2 and astronomically misunderstand everything that game was! Fallout 76: *INTENSE KEYBOARD SMASHING*

[@rr9235]

Wait when was fallout 4 trying to be dark?

[@-CrimsoN-]

@@rr9235 Yeah Im not sure I understand this. Fallout 4 is only dark in the sense that it's edgy 13 year old dark. It's not dark, gloomy and engulfingly depressing like the classic Fallout games are.

[@Kardamitiano]

Fallout 4 is the most gloomy game of the franchise. I mean, I liked it, but a lot of people didn't hence the plethora of ENBs and color corrections that makes the game grim again.

[@Kardamitiano]

@@OXY187 The same hand that created Morrowind created Fallout 76. The guy is not a loser, he is just cursed or greedy.

[@kanden27]

Game Over scenes in the game are eerie. It’s one thing just to have a load last save. But to fail, then see the immediate consequences makes the game super dark

[@KasumiRINA]

Yeah like in Fallouts if you lose, your character basically looks like a Russian helicopter pilot a few months into Ukraine... Bones, boots, and not much else.

[@semajniomet981]

@@KasumiRINA "Rest in peace, Chosen One." And yeah, I'm aware that's from Fallout 2, but it's a screen that I'm WAY too familiar with. Flippin' Enclave patrols with their friggin' eight people and Gauss Rifles.

[@fabiomoreira1506]

Finding the BOS for the first time is weird especially compared to the brown wastes... An underground bunker full of metal and rust.

[@TKsMantis]

BoS intimated the hell out of me the first time I met them.

[@combinecommando001]

@@TKsMantis Power armors and energy weapons tend to do that. Besides, the BOS were still pretty new back then, by the time of the events of New Vegas, they're a dying breed who have finally reached the dead end of their road but instead of going back and try a different approach, they just keep looping in that same dead end with the same closed minded ideals that lead nowhere. Obsidian did to Fallout what Mr. House did to Vegas, they conserved its spirit, sadly, Bethesda are hell bent on destroying it with their horrible writing and gameplay.

[@triela7502]

TKs-Mantis I got the opposite feeling when I first played Fallout 3. In the intro cutscene they portray a brotherhood knight in power armor, I was intrigued and intimidated, what kind of faction did he belong to? What were his beliefs? What was his purpose? That fell flat when I finally found the brotherhood randomly battling super mutants near the radio station. I discovered they were a bunch of boring heroes of the wasteland. Similar with my first encounter with humans outside of the vault near megaton there was a baseball field. I had a 10mm pistol and a baseball bat. What did the raiders do when I approached them? They Shot at me on sight, no dialogue, nothing interesting about them because they were generic raiders instead of being aligned with a faction with actual culture. Fallout disappointed me until I played Fallout New Vegas and the classics.

[@theburningone354]

Master Lox unless you do the NCR you can get the NCR and brotherhood in that area to form a truce so that chapter will live on for a little while longer

[@fabiomoreira1506]

@@theburningone354 or Yes Man although he said there's a high probability they'll attack your securitrons in the future

[@cootersnooter3059]

Always loved the juxtaposition of the 50s optimism and desolate nuclear wasteland. That's what drew me in the first time I played this masterpiece back in the 90s. I think the fact that the 90s were relatively optimistic and helped to drive the whole thing home all the harder.

[@raziyatheseeker]

My word. Even though the newer Fallouts bring out that 50's retrofuture vibe to the point of jingoism, the subtlety I felt in older Fallouts toward that sort of thing helped I feel.

[@rocket_sensha4337]

hahahaha , well. I played it in 01 in argentina under a corrugated metal sheet roof, with riots and looting raging on the streets after the economic crisis, people struggling to get by, with a temporary currency with 0 value going around, barter markets providing food and water for any valuable thing we had, and my parents sleeping next to the door with a pipe shotgun and a machete . . . wonder why it took me 15 years to draw paralels but that's as close as fallout gets for me.

[@SPINCTDAILY]

Now its made for babies with no real consequences, moral issues or mature adult themes. Money talks and idiots have money

[@dot9424]

.

[@GeteMachine]

@@SPINCTDAILY Betheda's hand holding and them feeding you what your morality should be is why I hated FO4 & 76.

[@Cj-xt6tv]

You are so right with the “Netflix effect”

[@K-11609]

The overseers last words are... just so damn bittersweet, and plain amazing in terms of writing

[@alfiemitchell7219]

and his reasons are perfectly just, he's a good surprise antagonist

[@errantvice7335]

I used to be a grim dark saga, but then I took Monty Python references to the knee

[@TKsMantis]

Ha

[@theburningone354]

TKs-Mantis as far as I know there’s like one ghost in FO2 and it’s very minor you could easily miss it since it’s time sensitive to show up

[@asteroidalassassin6949]

Grimdark? Fallout is more neutraldark

[@megamike15]

f o 1 had humor to it was jsut more sarcastic.

[@theburningone354]

megamike15 dont you mean dark

[@thewanderer8720]

Bethesda: we will give you benafits if you get 85 on metacritce. Obsidian: *getting 84 on metacritce* this game was rigged from the start.

[@TKsMantis]

18-carat run of bad luck.

[@thewanderer8720]

@@TKsMantis wow. I’m shocked you Actually Responded to me.

[@IAmAnEvilTaco]

Tbf it was a broken mess at launch. Like neverwinter nights 2. And kotor 2. And dungeon siege 3.

[@thewanderer8720]

@@IAmAnEvilTaco yeah and it was still better then fallout 4

[@SylverRaptor]

@@thewanderer8720 Wasn't.

[@Memememe-is1yn]

I played this game in '99 in the second apartment I had with a close friend after I graduated from college. A ton of friends came over to see the final interaction with the 'Master' one night before I beat it. Those were good times. The world was in a MUCH better place, but ALL of us knew that there was some truth in it to what the future might hold that could start some twenty or thirty years out, and talked about it a lot.

[@KasumiRINA]

World wasn't in a better place, it was just more deluded: all problems that happen now are a direct result of our past actions, ignorance of the noughties, shaking hands with dictators, letting fake news roam free and conspiracy nuts run wild, corporations lobbying any lie they profit from, consequences be damned... got us to where we are today. Ukraine is bombed because Germans love kickbacks from cheap russian oil. Yet, it's still better than 20th century. Despite living though a genocide, we now fight back, unlike last two times... War, indeed, has changed. We made it so.

[@frankmoscajr.9164]

What I like most about OG Fallout is less 50's goofiness.

[@Dampzombieslayer]

I like the 50’s goofiness but it’s done way too much in the bethesda games, especially fallout 4

[@clawzx1195]

@@Dampzombieslayerand thats why NV does it so much better, that whole region just matches it all

[@maximus4765]

An element I miss dearly. Fallout 2 may have been somewhat wacky compared to 1, but I've always felt 4 onwards just felt like the apocalypse part of fallout was like "eh, whatever world ended."

[@zubbworks]

Yeah man fallout 4 isn't even that bad of a place. I felt like that after fallout 3. Fallout 3 was possibly a humanity ender, new vegas was a rough place to live, fallout 4 was where I built a water mogul empire while wearing a pirate hat.

[@funlovincop]

I think the wackiness of Fallout 2 could have been ok, but there was no bleakness to balance it out. You didn't get the same decisions you had in Fallout. You had no choice but to destroy the enclave, you didn't get to make those ethical decisions that my brother and I wrestled over while playing the first game where you felt that the more time you spent in the wasteland, the less human you became

[@belland_dog8235]

@Know One Realistically speaking now, or then? Because if it happened now we most certainly wouldn't all die, and neither would plant life.

[@maximus4765]

@@funlovincop I wouldn't say none, it's definitely not as casual about its setting as 4 is. There definitely should have been more choice though, 2 consecutive mainline games (or terms) in a row that we were forced to destroy the enclave, it's a shame.

[@perry1306]

I understand the love for a darker Fallout. But doesn't it make more sense that, as the series progresses, the world slowly becomes brighter and happier again as nature starts recovering again and wastelanders are rebuilding their civilizations?

[@TylerDurden-lz1xx]

When you enter masters room, you lose(permanently) some of your stats, it's the end of the game, but still, I was pretty traumatized by that.

[@piotrtoborek2442]

Unless You got psychic nullifier equipped or whatever that device was called :P

[@bullgravy6906]

I remember running down the hall, ready to take on the big baddy, Gatling laser in hand, and WHAM “you run into a severed bone jutting from the goo covered walls, piercing your lenses and blinding your left eye.” I went from 95% long range Gatling gun to like 40% point blank. And in the midst of the fight I get a broken leg so I had to walk out of the place but didn’t make it far enough away before it blew up so I had to completely redo the fight

[@dragenfire68]

Bleak but not hopeless, never hopeless, even the master accepts there's hope.

[@reaps912]

B R I G H T A N D F U N N Y A P O C A L Y P S E -IGN, 2024

[@Lordborgoth666]

Ron Pearlman enters chat shit just got real

[@TKsMantis]

His narrations are so good!

[@jarlbalgruuf7701]

Very annoying that he didn’t narrate the fallout 4 intro

[@Timgrape]

Fallout nv is the perfect combination between darkness of war and the light harden jokes

[@AAllen-br8it]

What the hell is light harden?

[@TKsMantis]

I agree. But I like New Vegas a whole lot. So I understand if other people feel differently.

[@unchainedsins3254]

Example of dark: cook cook a fiend leader who raped several npcs. And the depression of Boone Light: basically anytime with low intelligence and finding Indiana Jones remains with rex leading you to little timmy who fell in a well

[@pepeedge5601]

That is because some jokes are dark. In NV the humor does not take away from the bleakness, it makes the world seem even more f*cked up.

[@radzilla748]

@@pepeedge5601 I think all the games did good in that area. I till get the creeps

[@markandmargie7331]

I’m a long time fallout fan. My first time was fallout 3. Recently, I started fallout 1 and it’s petty challenging. Videos like this keep me motivated. Thanks

[@TKsMantis]

Welcome aboard!

[@UncleHaul]

11:40 Technically in the Canon (His memoirs) The Vault Dweller killed the Master before he destroyed Mariposa although as has been said before it does make for better story telling to do it the other way around.

[@therabbi9848]

The whole Vaults as social experiments thing is actually a retcon done in the second game.

[@ravenshrike]

Vault 12 and Vault 15 say hello.

[@johneden2033]

Yeah I never liked that idea. It makes absolutely no sense and is horribly stupid, because what is the point of those experiment if both the company and all the scientists are long gone? There's no reason for Overseers to continue an experiment when the results of which are useless.

[@sebastiansuazo2734]

@@johneden2033 the enclave survived for 200 centuries, what makes you think vault tech didnt?? I mean, they where experts at making vaults, their personal omes.ust bd the safest in the country

[@abobobini]

Fallout 1 carried its bleak tone from start to finish, always keeping a dreary atmosphere about it. Fallout 2 had more breaks of immersion, eg the random special encounters. Fallout 2 didn't take itself seriously but I wouldn't say Fallout 1 did either. Fallout 2 was a lot sillier and comical but I'd say both games weren't trying in an uncharacteristic or forced way. I think a lot of that has to do with how the storytelling is conveyed. For the most part, you make the stakes, the story follows you, you are your guiding force. There are external pressures but you're never on a rail. Juxtapose that with Bethesda's Fallouts. You've gotta find Shaun, you've gotta find your dad. The emotional tones are being built for you, not by you.

[@Bloodname_Gaming]

Yeah in Fallout 2 you have the option to be a dick to Hakunin and he seriously guilt trips you :) Fallout 2 was definitely less of a realistic game than Fallout 1, but that's not entirely a bad thing. The humor was incredible, and a lot of easter eggs and text throughout the game left me laughing my arse off, especially dialogue between family NPCs like the couple in Broken Hills, or the dialogue between Vic and Valerie. I also like the option FO2 gives you to essentially become a god.

[@ziggydo]

Fallout 1: Our vault is running out of water, go on a gruelling journey to save us Fallout 2: our village is starving but you can take your time also you can get a car, go wild Personally fallout 2 is my favourite

[@kacper2274]

I love the Glow part. Deadly, radioactive bunker devoid of life only machines and computers left.

[@Pleplerhep]

Goint to "the glow" for the first time - Epic.

[@TKsMantis]

The Brotherhood and their devious tricks.

[@Dustin81]

And the inevitable demise if your not careful of your rads. Radiation side effects that make your special stats below 1 are brutal.

[@jackedup447]

Going to the glow for the first time - oops im dead lol forgot the rad x at home.

[@CH-ml4rz]

“........rope.......frickn’ rope.”

[@raziyatheseeker]

Yeahhhh. The Glow was intimidating, knowing that my Rad-X wouldn't last forever. Also the Robobrains are really unsettling in the classics for some reason. Not even having that weird brain-wave attack or lasers like in the Bethesda games, no, their tube-arms pick up shotguns to attack you. Somehow it humanizes them a bit more and you realize: they're robots whose CPU is a human brain.

[@jones368]

I remember one time in the Hub when I entered a crackhead house by accident, I ended up losing my two companions and my dog in a tight gun fight.

[@tigerbot2480]

Rip Shady Sands

[@MalfunctioningAndroid]

You don’t need a bloody mess trait for this tasty overseer death animation to trigger. Just gotta spam A after the dialogue and attack him with whatever. Also, it plays if you’re a child killer, which makes this whole ordeal so much darker.

[@TheMasterUnity]

And if you have poor reputation

[@megamike15]

the vault experiment thing was a retcon despite it being one of the few things tim caine wrote for fo 2 before he left black isle.

[@TKsMantis]

Nice. Thanks for the info.

[@reesetorwad8346]

A retcon that never happened in any of my ten years of Fallout gameplay, (3, NV, and 4) because it's too silly to contemplate, like...I don't know...Dennis Miller? I always assumed in any such Vault, it was simply that the records had obviously been falsified. Again, sorta like Dennis Miller. >>>DENNIS MILLER DOUBLE SLAM

[@evanwickstrom5698]

Reese Torwad Dragons don’t strike me as a stretch, at least not in a setting where magic is as prevalent as the Elder Scrolls universe. But yeah, the vault experiments do seem spectacularly moronic when viewed through that lens.

[@Garrette63]

The vault experiments are one of the things that bother me most about the whole franchise. A few experiments would be one thing, but almost every vault has some kind of wacky experiment going on for no real reason.

[@megamike15]

@@Garrette63 the thing was vaults wernt really that much of a focus in the old games. it was really just 13 and 15 as they were in both games. sure you had necropolis and the one where the master was but those acted more like normal dungeons then important locations in falllout 1. it was not till Bethesda got the rights to the series that vaults became alot more prominent.

[@rtv1591]

Would I enjoy about the og games is that people have clearly moved forward. Every settlement that doesn’t rely on raiding shows how they survive. They have irrigation and crops and they produce. But with bethesda’s fallout, tge world is stagnant. They still rely on 200 year old blamco mac n cheese, and their settlements look shit and have trash and bodies everywhere. Also the tone in fallout 1 is way more creepy and eerie

[@jonahulichny9874]

Except in Bethesda games it’s not like that. Fallout 3 has rivet city with its hydro ponics bay and sits literally on top of a river. Megaton, for all its many faults in world building, survives by being a trade center. It’s more or less on the way to rivet city, and caravans stop there frequently. Point is, people aren’t living off 200 year old Mac n cheese.

[@BuckScrotumn]

What a visceral intro. It makes you completely hopeless before you even start playing. Always loved Ron Pearlman’s narration.

[@lakewoodln1060]

I have zero coding or software experience but I think I have realised my lifelong dream. To make a fallout game that's actually good like the first and second ones. I probably won't achieve it anytime soon, but it's keeping me motivated to learn unity and C#.

[@TKsMantis]

This is very doable. Look into the FOnline Dev kits. Many people have created their own Fallout mods or even Online servers.

[@lakewoodln1060]

@@TKsMantis Thanks! I totally will.

[@neverstopz9045]

check out the competition like waselanders and such

[@Samm815]

Try ATOM RPG it's a Russian themed Fallout Style Game.

[@braydencole6117]

I think a good idea would be a game revolving around Edward Sallow or Joshua Graham, as Sallow first begins to form his legion and become Caesar as he organizes and conquers the savage tribes of the American southwest,

[@TemplarBlonic]

OG Fallout also had an incredible strength: Hope in the Grim Darkness without destroying the tone and setting like all its subsequent entries. Fallout’s Grim Darkness was believable. It wasn’t like WH40k where the grimace is just incompetence. It was the fear of Cold War and Mutually Assured Destruction realized... but in the game, although you had to sacrifice and were under immense pressure, you had moments of hope and light. It felt *human* and played on the player’s fear, challenging them to endure the negativity and depravity to find something at least slightly less negative, and maybe even something positive? Now modern writing of Fallout is just Monty Python without any of the charm where everything is shiny and even ridiculously cheery. Yeah, people change and adapt, but it’s almost as if depravity and society was never effected by total society collapse. We need Obsidian to touch Fallout again.

[@windexman2280]

If obsidian made a new fallout it wouldn’t be that great almost none of the people from the nv team still work there. Plus the outer worlds was pretty meh

[@TemplarBlonic]

@@windexman2280 I'm sure people get what I mean. Get the *original* team of NV back together to touch Fallout again.

[@klaykid117]

After playing the outer worlds I can say obsidian is worse off than Bethesda now. If you want a good fallout 1 and 2 style experience you should check out wasteland 2 and 3

[@CouchEconomyTX]

@@windexman2280 outer worlds was great, but terribly short

[@KingTalion]

If the overseer fears the example that the vault dweller sets, he should consider the example he is setting by banishing them. One day, when another water chip breaks or something else goes wrong and he needs another hero, the inhabitants will remember what happened to the last hero and all the thanks they got for their sacrifices and no one will step up to the plate

[@headrockbeats]

New Fallout is basically the "Theme Park Version". You walk over from one ride to the next, each one a parody of life in the post-apocalypse than part of a whole.

[@czarnakoza9697]

fr

[@abox7825]

The tone and atmosphere of F1 are exactly why it's my favourite.

[@lotusauer4785]

It’s games with endings like these that drive me nuts as a kid. I’d work for months replaying a game like Fallout 1 for the “good” ending, finally get the best one in the game, just to be driven to the conclusion that wasn’t very good, there must be something more I can do to save the vault and still be allowed back in. Great video as always, of course.

[@Chris-jw8vm]

Good ending is where you blow his kidneys out for sending you on fetch quests with no reward and an actual punishment as prize.

[@FumblsTheSniper]

There’s a reason that after three generations, various platforms, and many changes in developers that we still discuss this game.

[@johntavish8750]

I started playing the first one when I was like 11-12. Took me several years to complete. Even with a walkthrough. One of my best gaming experiences ever.

[@Duchess_Van_Hoof]

Ah Shady Sands, from such humble roots a super power would arise, through the power of diplomacy, law and industry.

[@doncornetto]

Shut the fuck up pony

[@raziyatheseeker]

@@doncornetto Shut the fuck up yourself, chungus

[@cjnf11]

And it all started with a vault dweller just passing by and rescuing Tandy. Truly, seeing Tandy in F2 was a very cool "holy shit" moment.

[@megamike15]

i like that. it started out as just another starting town to the biggest government in California.

[@MrNinjafreak]

Overseer: Head out to the wasteland and find a cure or something. Vault guy: k *later on* Vault guy: I'm back, and I made it. Overseer: Nice, but people in here will leave now cause u made it, and they will die and stuff. You should not have given them hope, Gtfo! Vault guy: k *Heads out*

[@GachaThomas]

Evil, Bloody mess, or exploit(I spammed my weapon) Vault guy:Blasts Overseer Overseer:dies while crawling on hands back to the vault with guts hanging out Heads out

[@MrNinjafreak]

@@GachaThomas Ouch -_-

[@louisbowels6858]

I remember after playing through 3 and New Vegas, I bought the bundle on Steam and played through 1. The game over screen really put it in my face that I wasn't the hero of an action adventure and could easily just become a bleached skeleton slowly being covered by sand

[@creeperlordmotions5337]

Fallout 1 and 2 were my favorite due to the fact you could kill anyone including kids, become a porn star and it just had more dark sense of humor and the fact it was just in general more adult it is a m game anyways.

[@CorHellekin]

NV has it too, and not being able to kill kids isn't really a deal breaker :D

[@ironicelm9040]

@@CorHellekin yes it is

[@TheMasterUnity]

@To DEATH, Bro! Bro kids in RPG’s are 100% of the time annoying

[@grov508]

@@TheMasterUnity Most kids are annoying IRL, doesn´t mean you should off them lmao. Hope you stay away from kindergartens bro.

[@boomstickYT]

without mods most of what you said is just fallout 2

[@fatherelijahcal9620]

As bleak as OG Fallout was, it is no where near as bleak as the outlook of the franchise now. As for the Ink Spots song, there's a Eurogamer interview video with Feargus, Tim, and Leonard where they talked about it. You can watch it here on youtube if you want, and maybe it would be good if you did because it is very informative and maybe give you some ideas to make videos on or something. But anyway, its been awhile since I watched that video, but what I recall is that they wanted to license "I don't want to set the world on fire" like you said, but because a lot of Ink Spots start off with the same tune at the start, they ended up licensing "Maybe" instead by accident. But then in the end even though it was an accident it turned out to be a great thing, because those lyrics "maybe you'll think of me" and so on turned out great for the ending of Fallout when the Vault Dweller walks away alone after being exiled from the vault. So even though it was purely accident, it turned out to be a pretty good thing anyway. And of course, when Bethesda acquired the franchise they acquired all of Tim's notes and stuff along with it, so they knew what he had intended to do and were able to license the song for FO3 as he wanted for FO1. And FO3 did make the franchise a lot more mainstream, so there is that. But at what cost? And I know at least 1 of the Ink Spots were still alive when FO3 came out, and maybe more were alive when the OG came out. I wonder if he/they knew about their music being featured in this game, and if so, what he/they thought about that. Sad thing though, is that they probably didn't receive even a penny from the licensing of that music. The situation might have improved nowadays, but it used to be that record companies massively screwed over artists and they got all the money and the artists got almost nothing. Basically the artists worked on commission. Kinda like how Obsidian was treated by Bethesda when making NV. They were paid a fixed commission, but receive no royalties. And the modding community that Bethesda harnesses for those paid mods is treated the same way. Not saying Interplay was any better or wouldn't have done the same sort of thing, but then again I'm not a fan of Interplay. I'm a fan of Black Isle and Obsidian.

[@HolyknightVader999]

Without Fallout 3, Fallout Brotherhood of Steel would have been the capstone to the franchise. Fallout 3 made it more mainstream, but it allowed the franchise to gain some breathing room and eventually make Fallout New Vegas, which makes Fallouts 1 and 2 look positively primitive. And of course, Obsidian is great at writing stories and making RPG games-but bad at finishing them. Look at KOTOR 2 and Alpha Protocol for the proof-it wasn't just Bethesda who sees Obsidian as slackers. Lucasarts and Sega probably thought so as well. Even Outer Worlds looks like a discount Fallout with less grimdark and way too much focus on comedy. Them hammering you with how evil and stupid corporations are looks downright shallow when games like Mass Effect 1 and 2 handled it better, with ME1 having a planet full of greedy corporations in Noveria, while ME2 has corporations doing icky shit with legalizing slavery and having their mercenary soldiers kill people who cross them in the fringes of the galaxy. Instead, Obsidian wasted time in Outer Worlds by making a mechanic that PROHIBITS people from naming their characters certain names IN A SINGLE-PLAYER GAME!

[@TKsMantis]

Another great info dump Thomas. Thank you. I didn't know some of that stuff.

[@hopedream11]

@@HolyknightVader999 Bethesda literally killed the damn franchise at this point. F3 wasn't really worth it tbh. Especially considering Fallout Van Buren was in the process of being made. I'd trust Obsidian with the series before Bethesda. They've made some of the greatest RPG's of all time.

[@HolyknightVader999]

@@hopedream11 Yet if Outer Worlds is any indication, Obsidian is as shallow as Bethesda. Why would I play New Vegas lite when the actual New Vegas is there? Also, there's no proof Van Buren was gonna get made. At most, it was still in the theoretical stage before Interplay fucked the franchise into the dirt and Bethesda bought it up.

[@MithriAK]

@@HolyknightVader999 From what I'm understanding from your statements, you seem to imply that the Fallout Franchise is better off with Bethesda since Obsidian is not very good at finishing their games anyway and based from Outer Worlds are turning into a Bethesda-like company anyway. If I'm right then I think that's unfair. It's also not because Obsidian is very good at story telling, but really the franchise should've stayed with them from the start. Fallout Brotherhood of steel is shit, I agree, but Black Isle/Obsidian didn't made that PS2 game. Interplay Entertainment did (who only PUBLISHED the first two Fallouts, they didn't make it they were responsible for selling it basically) Also it being the capstone for the series had not Bethesda stepped in is also incorrect. Van Buren was being actively developed at the time and were almost finished! 90% finished! They had to abandon it BECAUSE Interplay sold the rights to Bethesda without their knowledge. WITHOUT THEIR KNOWLEDGE. Tim Cain was really torn up about it, this was his baby. Van Buren also were Caesar's Legion and Joshua Graham would've been first introduced, and we could've seen the Amazons too - basically the female version of the Legion and imagine how good that must have been to see, story wise. Also Obsidian is a victim of unfair time constraints from the start. If you're gonna comment on how incomplete their games are, you should consider that people seem to expect them to finish their game in less than a year - which is too little time, even with working with the same engine. When KOTOR 1 was released to critical acclaim, Bioware was approached by LucasArts to immediately make a sequel. They didn't want to do it because of other projects, but they personally recommended Obsidian to do it instead. (The founding members of Bioware and Obsidian came from the split BlackIsle studios) Somehow, one way or another they gave Obsidian a one-year deadline to finish it. If this was any other developer the game would've been shit and much much more buggy, but no. Not only did they make KOTOR 2 arguably one of the best games ever made but they plowed through it in so little time. This is the exact same story with Fallout New Vegas. If anything, this shows a very good work ethic more than incompetence to finish their work. Regarding Outer Worlds I would credit the change in tone of it being a different franchise altogether. People seem to expect that it will be New Vegas 2, but Obsidian themselves never mentioned it would be that, technically. From the start the theme of the game is "You just keep being you" just from the trailers. It's feels a bit like Saints Row 3 or 4 were the point is just have fun your way made into a deep RPG. If anything it feels a better Bethesda game, despite how damning that sounds. Although to be fair, I can understand why people expected it to be grimdark like the OG Fallouts since they're advertising it as "From the makers of Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout: New Vegas" what were we going to expect, right? So the disappointment is understandable but that doesn't make it a lesser game. But really, if Obsidian is as shallow as Bethesda like you're saying, then the Outer Worlds would've come with Microtransactions and paid patches by now. Since video games is all about making money, right? Fallout sure is better off with Bethesda with their loot boxes, and paid subscription for a game that crashes every 10 - 15 minutes. Also paid mods from the Atomic Shop. The Nuka Quantum Power Armor skin looks really worth it for 15 euros worth of in game currency! But, no. You bought the Outer Worlds? It's yours forever.

[@KitsuneYojimbo]

That's one thing I found crazy about Fallout 1. For a world rooted in sheer fiction, it felt insanely realistic. Also... Blowing the Overseer away with the Bloody Mess perk was so satisfying.

[@mr.pissedoff1903]

5:21 First play through, I ran all the way to the military base, thinking I had to walk around and find the settlements.

[@trapaneezus]

Surprised you didn't talk about the depressing ass Game Over screens. Those things gave me nightmares as a kid. "Not even the carrion eaters are interested in your irradiated corpse." Like DAMN!

[@Monicaser]

Exploring all the vaults in 3/NV is still one of my favorite memories of those games. Haha Gaaarrrryyyy.

[@rogeld6677]

Every time he says bleak, take a shot.

[@osrictemper4225]

You want me to die?

[@osrictemper4225]

@Soller That is how it' should be. Primary law of universe i guess ;P

[@Deat87]

6:22 It was meant to be so that siding with Gizmo would turn Junktown into a flourishing trading center, while Killian would be corrupted by power and turn into a tyrant if sided with, but this was changed to be more black and white before the release of Fallout

[@TheMasterUnity]

Yeah, Gizmo would have it flourish, but it becomes a hive of scum and villainy. While if Killian takes over he keeps the town small and fair, but carries out his own “frontier justice” which is implied to be of not good nature

[@speabody]

@@TheMasterUnity Where was this alluded to? It's been quite a while since I played it but I recall Killian being portrayed as 100% white knight

[@TheMasterUnity]

@@speabody In the game that shipped, this is the case. But it was previously intended to have Killian end up being the bad choice. It was cut though.

[@forrest0]

i loved the moment i found a box of water chips in fo2 lol

[@PupperTiggle]

i took all of vault cities water chips and put them in 1 box there's so many lol

[@joshuabruce9599]

@TKs-Mantis have you heard of a game called 'I have no mouth and I must scream' its a point-and-click adventure game from the nineties that is based on a book of the same name. I would contend that the story of that is incredibly bleak.

[@richardroberson2564]

Yeah but it is so unrealistic that it is more in the relm of fantasy. Fallout could actually happena and that's what makes it scary.

[@nillynush4899]

New Vegas is still the best, there's some seriously twisted shit in those games.

[@kylehyde215CA]

I'd love to see what gnarly stuff they could have done with more time and a better engine.

[@Red_Beard2798]

The DLCs really amped up the darkness imo; the bus that fell off the road in Honest Hearts, full of dead kids, the entire Lonesome Road, the lobotomites (the sheer amount of them, too) in OWB and what that implies, the concept and potential impact of "the cloud" in Dead Money; just to name a few

[@eriktruchinskas3747]

@@Red_Beard2798 dont forget the enemies in dead money, workers who were melded to their work suits and gas masks and turned into basically zombies

[@Red_Beard2798]

Erik Truchinskas - I was going to mention the Ghosts but since they were pretty much confined to the Sierra Madre I felt the cloud was more dangerous, since it was mentioned that it could still be blown towards the Mojave and create the same conditions

[@simoneidson21]

YeahNahHowYaGoin lonesome road is a lot like the original FO

[@hoaganator6077]

"Welcome back, Dick Lord, how goes the search?"

[@toby1061]

It’s crazy how 100+ years later, and the Commonwealth literally looks like the world from Fallout 1 if not worse.

[@gerald1495]

I think the reasoning behind that is the east coast being hit much harder

[@DeadSquirrel2955]

the soundtrack definitely gave a super creepy vibe to it.