Fallout 3: A Rehash of Old Stories

[Brother None]

Rex Exitium editorializes on how Fallout 3 rehashes a lot of plot points from Fallout 1, 2, Tactics and BoS. Spoiler warnings apply.<blockquote>The Brotherhood Of Steel

In both Fallout Tactics and Fallout 3, the player is forced to join a splinter faction within the Brotherhood of Steel in order to continue the storyline. In the first Fallout, joining the Brotherhood was simply optional. They barely played a role in Fallout 2, having declined in power due to an on-going war with the New California Republic. It should be noted that Fallout 3 takes place many years after the events of Fallout 2, so their presence in Washington D.C. is confusing.

Similarities to FOBOS

Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, or FOBOS as it is known is an immensely unpopular action game that took apart the Fallout setting for the purpose of making Interplay a quick buck by being released as a generic console title.

That being said, the game shares similarities with Fallout 3's plot, in that both games feature a Vault full of FEV, which by all accounts in the original RPGs are a rare, classified substance, and both games feature a Brotherhood of Steel elder forming a splinter faction in a location remote from the organization's headquarters, against council orders, in order to deal with a Super Mutant threat.</blockquote>Spotted on GameBanshee.

 

[Sol Invictus]

I wonder why you call me that. It's not like we knew each other or anything.

 

[Ausir]

I hope the trend of having at least one new BoS splinter faction per game won't continue. We've already had 4 of these (and a fifth one in Van Buren).

 

[Brother None]

I wonder why you call me that. It's not like we knew each other or anything.

It's your name. At least, it's a significantly more original name than your current blandness

I hope the trend of having at least one new BoS splinter faction per game won't continue. We've already had 4 of these (and a fifth one in Van Buren).

I hope some day soon someone finally has the ball to just not include the faction at all. Fallout 2 came close but no dice.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

Ausir, are you sure the BOS in Van Buren was a splinter faction?

I got more the idea that they were part of the main BOS, operating one of their most distant outposts, and even though contact between Lost Hills and Maxson Bunker was lost it didn't seem they had lost the original mission mandate.

Or do you mean the Circle of Steel?

They were a rather small group.

I hope some day soon someone finally has the ball to just not include the faction at all. Fallout 2 came close but no dice.

Well I still like the BOS (the original), I would rather see them return to some resemblance of the original concept and not the damn heroes of the wastes.

 

[Ausir]

Or do you mean the Circle of Steel?

They were a rather small group.

Yeah, I mean the Circle of Steel. They're a small group but still count as a "splinter faction".

And yes, Maxson Bunker was under the command of Lost Hills. They were the real deal.

I hope some day soon someone finally has the ball to just not include the faction at all. Fallout 2 came close but no dice.

Yeah, but at this point even the original Brotherhood appearing instead of yet another splinter faction (this one is my favorite) would be a change for the better.

 

[Sol Invictus]

I wonder why you call me that. It's not like we knew each other or anything.

It's your name. At least, it's a significantly more original name than your current blandness

Not anymore!

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

I would simply like a version like the original BOS, mostly out for themselves, preserving their level of technology and trying to acquire more in a way that doesn't risk their organization, who will accept the best and the brightest of the wasteland who manage to prove themselves to the BOS elders.

They would occasionally sell technology and knowledge to outsiders, and in a few rare cases give it to those who they believe to be worthy (people who seek to rebuild civilization), but for the rest stay out of any political squabbles.

In very rare cases were their organization is at risk they would actively intervene, but this would be in very special situations, usually involving threats who see the BOS as something that needs to be destroyed.

 

[Blackened]

The BoS I liked the most was in Fallout 1, though I never played Fallout:BoS.

I remember I once read this (I mean , Part 1, #1).

It seems they screwed up with the Brotherhood in the same way in Fallout 3 - representing them as a do-gooders, fighting the "Good Fight", and giving their lives for the people in the Capital Wasteland. Even the Enclave is not dealt with just by the player. They also fight Super Mutants.

And originally, they were doing all this just to survive.

 

[Crni Vuk]

I like the Brotherhood, but I guess its really time for something completely new.

Though the thing is just that if a Bethesda Fallout game would not in some way feature the "Brotherhood" you would probably not beeing really able to recognise it as Fallout.

 

[Ausir]

Of course the argument of Fallout 3 fans is that if they didn't include stuff from previous games, we would have said it's not fallouty enough. But everyone who read the pre-release discussions here knows that it's bullshit. Most Fallout fans actually hoped for Bethesda to make up their own East Coast factions etc.

 

[Alphadrop]

I thought the BoS/NCR war was after Fallout 2 and the reason for the lack of BoS in Fallout 2 was due to stagnation and disinfranchisment of it's members.

Nice editorial, it's surprising how much they rehashed the previous games plots but also how much they managed to get wrong about the Fallout world while doing so.

The only West Coast faction (at a stretch) that could possibly get to the East are the NCR and they aren't even mentioned, probably due to lack of awsum and powa armour. Would of loved some original factions or even the more generic types such as the Reavers from Tactics, something to give it a shred of originality.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

With few willing to indicate the scarcity of original plot in Fallout 3, save for a few probably rabid fans of the original games who despise Fallout 3 just for the sake of doing it, it rests upon my shoulders to set things straight.

This I hate.
To me the writer basically says that Fallout fans wanted a rehash of Fallout 1 or 2 because anything with a 3 after it would be bad.

 

[jero cvmi]

[intelligence]
-so, bethesda bought the fallout IP and, instead of creating an original plot, rebooted the series from scratch, rehashed the old plots and redifined the universe their own way as if the old games weren't there in the first place?

Todd: LOL yeah most of our customers haven't played the old games anyway, who's going to notice.
Besides, we're better than Black Isle. And this is OUR game and WE know better.

 

[Seymour the spore plant]

Fallout 3, or Oblivion with Guns as it is known is an incomprehensibly popular action-adventure game that took apart the Fallout setting for the purpose of making Bethesda a quick buck by being released as a generic console title.

Fixed? Stunning similarities, for sure.

 

[TamaNeko]

Uhh guys, did you all forget about the Outcasts? For all intents and purposes, they ARE the original BOS. Hell, they even try to kill you at the end of Operation Anchorage because they want your tech. A shame they weren't better developed into a faction you could do more for, but they were there.

 

[The Dutch Ghost]

^^^^

That would make the Outcasts more like the Circle of Steel (collecting technology at all costs, even lives) than the original BOS.

For all their xenophobia and keeping their secrets they were at least honorable once you made a deal with them and they stuck to it.

 

[Slaughter Manslaught]

Both Fallout Tactics and Fallout 3 feature an insane Artificial Intelligence as the main villain. How original.

Actually, there's some difference between Eden and the Calculator. The Calculator was more advanced and made to use Brains (usually human ones) as a mix of advisors and processors, like a giant robobrain, except that the brains can influence the AI's personality. The Calculator went insane because Vault 0's constructors wanted to save costs for entertainament for older people, and didn't implement the proper safety measures. Eden is just a ZAX unity that developed sentience and somehow turned into the sum of every USA president's personality. Problem is, Richardson was a genocidal maniac, from 1950 to 1977 it was more than a century of Joseph MCcarties in power (or so it seems) and Eden aparently went crazy somewhere. That's the only explanation to why the dialog to get Eden to kill himself can pretty much be resumed as "You suck and should kill yourself, lawl."

 

[rcatf]

Nice op/ed...the weak story and core plot areas (rehash or not) are something some of the reviewers that gave the game 12 out of 10 stars had to have noticed and is telling of the games-review community (and something folks reading previews or closed hands-on reviews should be wary of).

I was disappointed w/ the game when it came out, the story was completely bland and predictable (vs. Black Isle which had great writing) and that killed the game for me (I finished it but it was a bore-fest and a grind). I can overlook a lot (like game mechanics, bugs and crashes, or why such a densely populated area (lot of folks in such a hostile environ) has so much pre-war meds, ammo, food, etc. lying around so long after the bombs). But a bad story in a rpg (and to critical acclaim) is unforgivable.

I've recently started playing FO3 again w/ a few of the player created mods, avoiding the main story altogether, and it's much more enjoyable (lots of interesting side-quests I hadn't played before and and some cool areas that I missed the first time around).

Bethesda is creative enough but they aren't story tellers (and shouldn't try to be, except small scale). Sand-box seems to be their redemption.

 

[Crni Vuk]

^^^^

That would make the Outcasts more like the Circle of Steel (collecting technology at all costs, even lives) than the original BOS.

For all their xenophobia and keeping their secrets they were at least honorable once you made a deal with them and they stuck to it.

Which is why I dont like Bethesdas take on anything of the "Brotherhood" the way they in the end even showed the Outcasts (as they are the "true" Brotherhood you know) shows them as well from a very bad side which would not be really done b the Brotherhood to break a deal with you for example and trying to kill you cause that was not what they usualy did. They would send you rather on a "suicide" mission (remember the glow which was a mission they expected you would never return?) but not just outright decide to "letz kill em anyway!". Though I could be just nit picking here but I think Bethesda could have done a much better job here with writting some plot or situation that makes some sense and actualy fitts the character of the organisation.