Fallout (franchise)
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Fallout is a series of computer role-playing games produced and published by Interplay. Although set in and after the 22nd century, its story and artwork are heavily influenced by the post-World War II nuclear paranoia of the 1950s. The series 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. There were two role-playing titles in the series (Fallout and Fallout 2), one squad-based tactical combat spinoff (Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel) and one action dungeon-crawler for PlayStation 2 and Xbox (Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel). A sequel, Fallout 3, is currently being developed by Bethesda Softworks. Bethesda owns the rights to make Fallout games, although Interplay retained the right to publish a massively multiplayer online role-playing game version of Fallout. In 2001, PC Gamer named Fallout and Fallout 2 as the fourth best computer game of all time.
Storyline
The background story of Fallout involves a "what-if" scenario in which the United States tries to devise fusion power resulting in a hegemonic United States that has less reliance on petroleum. However, this is not achieved until 2077, shortly after an oil drilling conflict off the Pacific Coast pits the United States against China. It ends with a nuclear exchange resulting in the post-apocalyptic world the game takes place in—although it is said in Fallout 2 that nobody knew who sent the first missile. In Fallout 2 one conversation train with the Skynet computer results in Skynet stating that the war may have started because computers with Artificial Intelligence may have grown bored. However, as the Skynet computer was a parody of the computer system of the same name in the movie "The Terminator", Skynet's claim may not be true.
Before the nuclear exchange took place, great underground Vaults were constructed across America, supposedly to protect the populace from the dangers of radiation. Only 122 were constructed, however, while over 400,000 would be needed to protect the entire nation. This is because the Vaults were not intended to save humanity; rather, they were social experiments being conducted by the United States government. Most vaults featured some variable to test how certain things influence people, such as Vault 69, which contained 999 women and one man.
Games
Fallout
Released in 1997, Fallout is the spiritual successor to the 1988 hit Wasteland. The protagonist of the game is tasked with recovering a water chip to replace the chip that broke in his home, Vault 13. The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic southern California, beginning in the year 2161. It was originally intended to run under the GURPS role-playing game system, but budget issues required the development of a new system, the SPECIAL System. Fallout's atmosphere and artwork are reminiscent of post-WWII America and the nuclear paranoia that was widespread at that time.
Fallout 2
Fallout 2 was released in 1998 using a slightly-modified form of the engine used in the original Fallout. Taking place 80 years after the original game, Fallout 2 centers around a descendant of the Vault-Dweller, the protagonist of Fallout. The player assumes the role of the Chosen One as he tries to save Arroyo, his village, after several years of drought. The game featured several improvements over the first game, including the ability to set attitudes of NPC party members and the ability to push people who are blocking doors
Van Buren
Van Buren was the code-name for Fallout 3 while it was in development at Interplay. It featured an improved engine, new locations, vehicles, and a modified version of the SPECIAL system. The story broke off from the Vault Dweller/Chosen One bloodline of the first two, and instead centered around a prisoner. The game started with him mysteriously appearing in a new jail that was under attack. Plans for the game included the ability to influence the various factions. The game was cancelled in December, 2003, when budget cuts forced Interplay to lay off the PC development team.
Fallout 3
Fallout 3 is in production by Bethesda Softworks, who have announced that the game will use the Gamebryo engine from their previous work, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. No screenshots, concept art, or movies have been released, however. Fallout 3 may be published on several platforms.
Spin-offs
Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel
Fallout Tactics was released in early 2001 to mixed reviews. Although it was given high scores by reviewers (PC Gamer gave it an 85%), many fans were disappointed by the game. Fallout Tactics focuses on tactical combat rather than role-playing; the new combat system included different modes, stances, and modifiers, but the player had no dialogue options. Most of the criticisms of the game came from its incompatibility with the story of the original two games, not from its gameplay. Tactics is the first Fallout game to not require the player to fight in a turn-based mode, and it is also the first to allow the player to customize the skills, perks, and combat actions of the rest of the party. Fallout Tactics includes a multi-player mode that allows players to compete against squads of other characters controlled by other players. Unlike the previous two games, which are based in California, Fallout Tactics takes place in the Midwest.
Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel
Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel became the first Fallout game for consoles when it was released in 2004. It follows an initiate in the Brotherhood of Steel who is given a suicidal quest to find several lost Brotherhood paladins. An action role-playing game, BoS is a significant break from the previous incarnations of the Fallout series, both gameplay and style wise. BoS takes place in three locations: The towns of Carbon and Los and a Vault. BoS also does not feature non-player characters who would accompany the player in combat. BoS is generally not considered to be canon due to its stark contrasts and outright contradictions with the storyline of Fallout and Fallout 2. BoS is the last Fallout game to be developed by Interplay. The game also features music from nu-metal bands, including Slipknot and Killswitch Engage, which stands in contrast to the music of the first two games. This music came from The Ink Spots and Louis Armstrong.
Fallout: Warfare
Fallout: Warfare is a tabletop wargame based on the Fallout Tactics storyline, using a simplified version of the SPECIAL system. The rulebook was written by Christopher Taylor, and was available on the Fallout Tactics bonus CD, together with cut-out miniatures. Fallout: Warfare features five distinct factions, vehicles, four game types, and thirty-three different units. The rules only require ten-sided dice. The modifications to the SPECIAL system allow every unit a unique set of stats and give special units certain skills they can use, including piloting, doctor, and repair. A section of the Fallout: Warfare manual allows campaigns to be conducted using the Warfare rules. The game is currently available for free online from fansite No Mutants Allowed and several other sources.
Fallout MMOG
On November 30, 2006, Interplay has filed a Form 8-K filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission regarding a potential Fallout massively multiplayer online game.[1] The Form 8-K contained a prospectus stating that Interplay will be issuing common stock on Euronext to raise capital for developing a Fallout MMOG. The report stated that the production and launch processes will require an estimated US$75 million in capital. The report also stated that production may start as early as January 2007 and the game may launch as early as July 2010.[2]
In April 2007, SEC filings were made showing the purchase of the Fallout MMO to Fallout 3 developer Bethesda for $5.75 million USD. Clauses in the purchase agreement state that development must begin within 24 months of the date of the agreement, and that Interplay must secure $30 million within that time frame or forfeit its rights to license.
Vaults
The vaults were originally designed as huge bomb shelters, but other than acting as a shelter, the vaults were also large scale sociologial experiments. For example, some vaults had only inhabitants under 15 years old. Most vaults were designed in the same three-level design, with the exception of Vault 0:
- Level 1: Entrance and medical center
- Level 2: Housing
- Level 3: Command center, overseer, library, recreational room and storage lockers
Each vault had an Overseer, a person who acted as the leader of the vault. His/her workstation was an elevated platform, equipped with two miniguns and various controls.
Vaults featured in the series
- Unnumbered Vault
A Vault hidden below the Cathedral in Fallout 1, it was under the city of Los Angeles and it was from this Vault the residents of the Boneyard came.This Vault featured a variety of modifications over the other Vaults, including a prison, an extended hall to the Overseer, and a fourth floor that housed a nuclear warhead - how many of these changes were original and how many were ordered by the Master is not specified. While the Vault's number is not given, due to the proximity of Vaults 12, 13 and 15, it is possibly Vault 11 or 10.
- Vault 8
The control vault in the Enclave's Vault Experiment. Its inhabitants constructed Vault City upon coming out after receiving the all-clear signal, although it is unknown where the signal had originated.
- Vault 12
This vault was located under the city of Bakersfield, now known as Necropolis. According to Chris Avellone's Fallout Bible, the Vault's door was designed never to close, which resulted in radiation penetrating the shelter and turning all inhabitants into ghouls.
The Vault fell into disrepair over the years, with only the water purification control computer working by 2161.
- Vault 13
Home of the protagonist of the first game, the vault suffers breakdown of water purification chip which the player must replace. This vault was intended as a control vault, which was supposed to contain 1,000 pure humans and stay closed until the all-clear was sent. The inhabitants would then be compared, as a control group, with inhabitants of other vaults and (possibly) used to repopulate the land. Due to a mix-up in shipping, it and Vault 8 received the other's shipment of supplies - Vault 8 received extra Water Chips while Vault 13 received two GECKs.
- Vault 15
Located near Vault 13, this vault was particularly reinforced against earthquakes and was home to 1,000 dwellers of radically different backgrounds, religions and ethnic groups, designed to study their interaction. In Fallout 1, the player finds it partially collapsed, as its inhabitants fled and built the town of Shady Sands. It is said in-game that the vault came under attack, but no information about the attackers is given. In Fallout 2, the Vault has been excavated by Raiders, and varying on the player's actions, is reclaimed by NCR.
- Vault 0
Nucleus of the vault network, this vault appeared only in Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel. An army of robots was stored in this vault to "cleanse" the land once humans would surface from the vaults. Vault 0 was located in Cheyenne Mountain. It should be noted, however, that its purpose and existence contradicts the storyline, as Vault 8 was the control Vault and hub for the Vault system, with the monitoring center located at the Enclave Oil Rig. Template:Endspoilers
Mutations and their causes
According to the "Fallout Bible" (a series of documents answering questions from players by Fallout 2 designer Chris Avellone, who was not part of the original Fallout team), it is interesting to note that most of the mutations in Fallout and Fallout 2 are not because of radioactive fallout. According to the Fallout Bible, most of the mutations the player experiences are because of a pre-War biological serum, named the Forced Evolutionary Virus (FEV). Some players feel that this reliance on FEV paints the story with a genetic engineering theme that a 50s-viewpoint game should not have. Others, however, point to the fact that in the 1950s and early 1960s, radiation was viewed very similarly to the way that FEV was in Fallout and Fallout 2. However, in a later edition of the "Fallout Bible" Chris Avellone admitted that his attributing the mutations to FEV was a mistake, saying that almost all of the mutations were indeed caused by radiation.
However, in the original Fallout there were many hints showing that FEV was indeed the cause of the "green super mutant" mutations, and perhaps the cause of all mutants.
Some pre-war data found in a military base, for example, explained that some human tests, in contact with FEV and radiation, developed mutations equal to those of the super mutants found in the game. In another mutant military base, where the mutant general was, the player could end the game bathed in an FEV pool, becoming a mind-controlled super mutant. In yet another base, in a Vault dominated by super mutants (above a mutant worship cult), the player would encounter a mutant merged with many creatures and the vault's overseer chair itself. He was the mastermind behind the super mutants army, and one of the scientists which developed the FEV. His objective was to corrupt (mutate) every lifeform on the Earth.
On the other hand, it is hinted that the population of ghouls in Necropolis were humans mutated by post war radiation.
The other mutations (ghoul, brahmin, for example) were probably caused by radiation, as Fallout 1 and 2 made it very clear that only the enclosed vault dwellers (and the Oil Rig inhabitants) had 100% pure human DNA.
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.
Fallout's 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.
Fallout also draws minor influences from other sources. One of the initial armors available in the game is the one sleeved leather jacket, which bears a resemblance to the jacket worn by Mad Max in The Road Warrior. The armor featured on the cover of the game is powered armor, the most powerful (and rarest) armor in Fallout. The NPC Cassidy also says that he was named after a kick ass comic book character, a reference to the Irish vampire Proinsias Cassidy in the comic book Preacher.
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, the player 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. Fat Freddy is a character from Las Vegas in Wasteland, which implies that Tycho's 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.
Trivia
- Three key members behind the original Fallout (Tim Cain, Leonard Boyarsky and Jason Anderson) left Interplay in 1998 and founded Troika Games. Troika was closed down in February 2005 due to financial problems.
- "RadAway", in Fallout, was a medicine that lowered the game characters level of irradiation. Supposedly it worked by bonding itself with radiation particles making it possible for them to "pass" through your system, as some form of radiation chelation therapy.
- "Mentats", a drug in the series that temporarily raises your intelligence, is named after the human computers in the Dune universe.
- "Brahmin", the two-headed cows, share their name with the Hindu priestly caste. The possibility of this name usage being purely coincidental is diminished when considering that cows are sacred in Hinduism. They are similar in both name and appearance to the Brahman breed of cattle which are found in India, save that the latter has only one head.
- Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura by Troika Games has a reference to the two-headed cows that appeared originally in Fallout. They are said to come from a "far away desert". Another scene at the mage city of Tulla involves the protagonist being sent to retrieve the "Water Purification Gem" from an NPC dressed in machined plate mail (Arcanum's analogue of power armor).
- "War. War never changes" is the famous phrase uttered in the intro of Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics by Ron Perlman. The phrase is one of the foremost iconic catch-phrases of the game.
- Nuka Cola is a blue cola in a Coca-Cola shaped bottle, in the game, obviously a reference to the actual Coca-Cola.
- Tragic: The Garnering is a reference to Magic: the Gathering.
- Fallout games feature well-known actors as NPC voice-talent. Notable appearances include:
- Richard Dean Anderson (Killian, Fallout)
- David Warner (Morpheus, Fallout)
- Tony Shalhoub ((credited as Tony Shalub) Aradesh, Fallout)
- Michael Dorn (Marcus the Mutant, Special Agent Frank Horrigan, Fallout 2)
- Richard Moll (Cabot, Fallout)
- Ron Perlman (Narrator, Butch Fallout, Fallout 2 and Fallout Tactics)
- Mission briefings in Fallout Tactics are barked by R. Lee Ermey (Also "Gunnery Sergeant Hartman" in the film Full Metal Jacket) and Kurtwood Smith, who is best known from his work in That 70s Show and RoboCop.
References
- ^
Herve Caen (2006-11-30). "Interplay" (Form 8-K). November 2006. SEC EDGAR. Retrieved 2006-12-13.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ Graft, Kris (2006-12-12). "Interplay Proposes $75M Fallout MMO?". Next-gen.biz. Retrieved 2006-12-12.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)
External links
- The Vault, a Fallout wiki
- Fallout series at MobyGames
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