One of the staples of modern Fallout is its renditions of iconic American metropolis'. Rather than being sprawling examples of the USA’s infrastructural ingenuity, they’re a bleak reminder of the past, a lingering commentary on nuclear warfare and the military-industrial complex. The familiarity of cities like Boston, Washington DC, and Las Vegas is juxtaposed with a dystopian edge that amplifies the horror of this war-torn world. The problem is that it’s been overdone: the past three main games have included back-to-back cities at their centre.
Fallout has always had this - the first outing had Necropolis, a ghoul-ridden, ashy black city with spiked skyscrapers obscuring the sky. Meanwhile, its sequel lets us navigate a post-war San Francisco. The precedent was outlined in the originals and ever since th🎉e games have been adorned with these rundown spots.
The most intriguing parts of Fallout 2 and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Fallout: New Vegas aren’t the cities, though. Sure, the Vegas strip with Mr House and the gambling high life with caps instead of cash are interesting🌳 insights into what society values enough to resurrect after the apocalypse, although they’re far from the highlights of the game. Instead, the vast deserts, makeshift towns, and underground vaults are what always leave a lasting impact.
Washington DC is the headache you never want to explore, Boston is a drab area with little on offer bar a bunch of closed-off buildings, and Necropolis is a bleak city with little personality. However, 🐼they all bring the same thing to the table: a reminder of the past and what once was. It’s a blatant display of the world before the nuclear catastrophe, acting as a Bizarro-mirrored version of our own existence.
Take that away and all that’s left is a foreboding atmosphere of isolation in this post-apocalyptic landscape - the loss of distinct and tangible familiarity would only heighten the horror of this new world. People alone would be the remnant that keeps it grounded, with their newfound take on life and civilization providing a bleaker insight into dystopian anarchy. Consider Megaton’s rust-bucket aesthetic, which feels part atompunk and part Mad Max, and is complemented by an out-of-place sheriff - an entire game of Megatons and bandit outposts would certainly 🥀freshen up this older series while simultaneously evoking a new, more effective form of horror.
The problem is the proximity to the present. The Fallout games don’t take place too long after the war has ended. Bethesda could forge ahead with a lengthy time jump and show us how people are getting on. Perhaps there’s an entirely new makeshift city that sprung up in the apocalypse from scratch, sort of like Megaton, but entirely ran and occupied by ghouls. Or maybe there are some old-timers who have gone back to the Medieval age - there's a wealth of untapped potential for Bethesda to take advantage of.
To circle back to Metro, Exodus showed us the potential of a series moving beyond what it’s known for. Metro 2033 and Last Light are primarily set in the metro tunnels as the name suggests, but another key element is the city of Moscow looming above - an irradiated hellhole that’s uninhabitable. However, Exodus takes us on a train ride around Russia where we fight against doomsday worshippers in a swamp, bandits in sandstorms in the desert, and raiders in a luscious forest. It starts briefly in Moscow to explain how we leave the city and ends with a paralle💜l to that: the Dead City - rather than being ravaged by bombs, it was deserted as a result of lethal radiation. Nonetheless, the bulk of the game transpires away from the cities that were a staple to bo🌱th 2033 and Last Light.
Fallout 5 dropping cities or, at the very lꦯeast, putting the bulk of the focus on everything else would add a much-needed degree of freshness to this beloved series. It’s going stale and I’m dreading the hype for the next dystopian take on a famous American town. Fallout is much more than “that game where Washington DC is a wreck,” and it would be a welcome change of pace to shake things up, especially considering that every entry in the series has had a city since the ‘90s.