Of Fallout’s narrative high notes, the peak is arguably Fallout: New Vegas, the much-loved installment set in post-apocalyptic Vegas and crafted by Obsidian Entertainment, members of which have shepherded the Fallout aesthetic all the way from the Wasteland games to the Outer Worlds. And although Obsidian were fated never to helm another mainline Fallout game, they did get to revisit the universe four times before being ripped away by cruel reality. It’s those four twists on the formula, those four adventures into the unknown, that we’re here to celebrate today. At the height of their storytelling powers, Obsidian gave us some of the best sci-fi in games with the four Fallout: New Vegas add-ons: Dead Money, Honest Hearts, Old World Blues, and Lonesome Road. Each veered sharply away from the standard Fallout formula in its own different direction, while simultaneously painting in the secret overstory of the New Vegas universe and the player character, the Courier.
Everyone’s excited about the release of the new Fallout TV show. Well, that might be an overstatement, but most gamers we know are at least allowing themselves a spark of hope, and basically everyone agrees that Walton Goggins can do no wrong. Fallout, the long-running post-apocalyptic fifties-throwback multi-hyphenate franchise seems perfectly suited for a TV adaptation, focusing as it does on a collection of short, interconnected stories centered in a single location, usually culminating in some kind of climactic event at the end of a game (or season of television??). Of course, you’d need more throughline, more emotional core to sustain a season than a voiceless vault dweller wandering the wastes and continuously stumbling into every huge, region-shaping historical event like a post-apocalyptic Forrest Gump.
By smartly relegating the deep lore and character stuff to the add-ons, the New Vegas writers were able to do just that - create a more intimate, linear story beat to cap off the experience as a whole, and incidentally write some genuinely amazing sci-fi. Whether tackling supermutant genocide, the enslavement of sentient robots, or all-out war between vying factions and their competing philosophies of survival, Fallout always centers a true moral quandary, to make the game’s focus on player choice and morality a dynamic one with plenty of grey area to play in. That Obsidian proved to be equally daring when experimenting with the Fallout formula is what makes the add-ons truly special.
Fallout New Vegas Gameplay provided by Encrypted Duck
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