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:See Fallout series for the series as a whole. Fallout is a computer role-playing game produced by Tim Cain and published by Interplay in 1997. Although set in the late 22nd century, its story and artwork are heavily influenced by the post-World War II nuclear paranoia of the 1950s. The game is sometimes considered to be an unofficial sequel to Wasteland, but it could not use that title as Electronic Arts held the rights to it, and, except for minor references, the games are set in separate universes. It was also intended to use Steve Jackson Games's GURPS system, but for unknown reasons, that deal fell through.
Storyline The background to which the game is set is a world in which the Cold War never really ended, "it just stopped being cold". The game's history begins in 2052 with an energy crisis beginning the Resource Wars. The United Nations is disbanded, a plague renders the United States paranoid, Canada is annexed, and the Resource War becomes the Great War, as a vast nuclear exchange is carried out in 2077. Within two hours, most of the world's population is destroyed, and the Earth's surface is reduced to wasteland. The player or protagonist of Fallout is an inhabitant of one of the government-contracted fallout shelters known as Vaults. In subsequent Fallout games, he is referred to as the Vault Dweller. The game takes place in 2161 in Southern California and begins in Vault 13, the protagonist's home. Vault 13's Water Chip, a computer chip responsible for the water recycling and pumping machinery, has broken, and the Vault Overseer tasks the protagonist with finding a replacement. He is given a portable device called the "PIPBoy 2000" which keeps track of mapmaking, quest objectives, and various bookkeeping aspects, and sent out into the remains of California. The player initially has 150 days before the Vault's water supply runs out. This can be extended by 70 days if he commissions merchants in the Hub to send water caravans to Vault 13. Upon returning the chip, the Vault Dweller is then tasked with destroying a mutant army that threatens humanity. A mutant known as "The Master" (previously known as Richard Grey) has begun using a pre-war, genetically engineered virus called Forced Evolutionary Virus to convert humanity into a race of "Super Mutants", and bring them together in the Unity, his plan for a perfect world. The player is to kill him and destroy the Military Base housing the supply of FEV, thus halting the invasion before it can start. If the player does not complete both objective within 500 game days, the mutant army will discover Vault 13 and invade it, bringing an end to the game. This time limit is shortened to 400 days if the player divulged Vault 13's location to the water merchants. A cinematic cut-scene of mutants overrunning the vault is shown if the player fails to stop the mutant army within this time frame, indicating the player has lost the game. If the player agrees to join the mutant army, the same cinematic is shown. In version 1.1 of the game, if players did not reveal the location of Vault 13 to the Water Merchants, mutants will not attack Vault 13. This allows most players to explore the game world at their leisure. The player can defeat the Master and destroy the Super Mutant's Military Base in either order. When both threats are eliminated, a cut-scene ensues in which the player automatically returns to Vault 13. There he is told that he has changed too much and his return would negatively influence the citizens of the Vault. Thus he is rewarded with exile into the desert. Regarding the war that caused the apocalypse, it is said in Fallout 2 that nobody knew who launched the first nuclear missile. Two separate artificial intelligence computers in Fallout 2, Skynet in Sierra Army Depot and the computer in the Brotherhood of Steel's San Francisco, both state that the war may have started because AI computers have grown bored. Game locations While most of the towns in Fallout are not present in the real world (Junktown, Shady Sands, The Hub, etc), Los Angeles is in its correct place. However, the town of Necropolis is described as being the city of Bakersfield, although some fans have compared it to maps and found that it more accurately resembles Barstow. There are many references to post-apocalyptic science fiction, such as Mad Max or the infamous post-apocalyptic musical and detective movie Radioactive Dreams. One of the first available armors is a one-sleeved leather jacket that resembles the jacket worn by Mel Gibson in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. A player wearing this jacket can get a dog, named Dogmeat for Mad Max’s dog, to join the party in Junktown (in Fallout 2 if the player character damages Dogmeat an NPC with the curious name of Mel will show up to defend the dog). Like Fallout 2, many of the references to other material can be found in random encounters, which include a vanishing TARDIS à la Doctor Who complete with sound effect, and a massive footprint that resembles Godzilla's, referring to the short animation "Bambi Meets Godzilla". Another reference comes in the form of a quotation; in the Old Town district of The Hub, an insane man named Uncle Slappy wanders in perpetual circles calling out non-sequiturs, one of which is "Let's play Global Thermo-Nuclear War!", a reference to a similar line in the 1983 film WarGames. The game also refers to other pieces of fiction, including Robin Hood. Reception Fallout made Influences Fallout draws much from 50s pulp magazines, science fiction and superhero comic books. For example, computers use vacuum tubes instead of transistors; energy weapons exist and resemble those used by Flash Gordon. The Vault Dweller's main style of dress is a blue jumpsuit with a yellow line going down the center of the chest and along the belt area, though the main character's appearance changes while wearing armor. The number on the back might differ from the Vault the dweller represents, but it's usually "13", or in other cases, missing. Fallouts menu interfaces are designed to resemble advertisements and toys of the same period; For example, the characters sheet cards and perks available, look like those of the board game Monopoly. The lack of this retro stylization was one of the things the Fallout spin-offs were criticized for, as retro-futurism is a hallmark of the Fallout series. The Fallout games are famous for their Easter eggs. While the first game mostly had references to the 1950s and 1960s pop-culture (Doctor Who, Godzilla), in Fallout 2 there are many references to Star Trek, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Monty Python. In Fallout, your character meets an NPC named Tycho, who mentions that he is a Desert Ranger and, under the right conditions, will talk of his grandfather, who told him about Fat Freddy, a character from Las Vegas in Wasteland, implying that his grandfather was one of the PCs in Wasteland, who were named the Desert Rangers. Although the time frame of Wasteland is completely different from Fallout, and Fallout game designers deny that Fallout 1 or 2 takes place in the same universe as Wasteland, this is one of many references to the events and the style of Wasteland in the Fallout series, which is why Fallout is sometimes regarded as the spiritual successor to Wasteland. Intro Sequences The game begins with two introductory cut-scenes, which can be skipped by the player. The first is a slow pull-back from a functioning television set, while the song "Maybe" by the Ink Spots plays. The news story shown on the screen depicts US repression in Canada by showing an armored trooper shooting a kneeling man in the head and then waving to the camera. Behind a close-up of an armored trooper, a modified US flag is shown to wave. These scenes are offset by nearly-silent commercials for the "Mr. Handy" domestic chores robot and the 1950s-style "Corvega" sports car, which appear in the game. As the camera continues to pull back, the surrounding scene is a damaged room in a demolished city, and the television cuts out. The second is in a slide-show format, with narration by Ron Perlman that begins with the line "War. War never changes." It has some description of the storyline. The important thing about it is that Fallout is not based on the Cold War and the Soviets are not the villains. Trivia Official Fan Sites Others | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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