RetroAmerica
It Wandered In From the Wastes
Before we get to the crux of the matter, let me start by saying that I started off playing Fallout when the demo of the Scarpyard(what would later become Junktown first came out), and from that point I was hooked on something that seemed so outside anything that either the film industry or any other medium was doing at the time.
Now with that being kept in mind, I believe that we need a reboot of the series, and why you ask, well we need only look at Bethesda's Fallout 3 for that explanation.
For me, what always made Fallout a unique property was that it brought you this unique and alternate history world which though similar in some aspects to our own was also remarkably different in that while we watched the peaceful dismantling of communism and the victory of capitalism, the world of Fallout was more of an example of where detente and many other Cold War themes carried on until a natural breaking point occurred (a major and apocalyptic war over resources, which in itself is a common human theme).
This of course, all leads into Fallout 1 where the player for all intensive purposes has a very simple goal, which is to save himself and the civilization which he holds dear(namely Vault 13) from extinction due something as simple as the lack of clean drinking water. Now initially the player goes out into the world with the assumption that he is to recover the Water Chip and save his "world" from destruction, however what made the game all the more powerful was the fact that instead of simply being a go from A to B title, and fight hoards of irradiated paupers and mutants instead it became a game of interaction and in a sense world altering where the player's actions had wider consequences than simply that of leaving the Vault to find water.
And of course, finally when the Vault Dweller returns to the Vault triumphant in the fact that he not only saved the civilization that he holds dear but in itself also saved the known world so to speak, he's cast out because he has changed far too much for others to ever truly accept him(or at least that is what the Overseer wishes you to believe...the interpretation is up to you).
This of course leads on to Fallout 2, where the world has moved on from the Vaults and we're faced with an emerging post war world where no longer does something as simple and stagnant as a Vault really matter, where the construction of regional powers(in the form of the NCR) are now occurring and where even we see the resurrection of the United States in the form of the Enclave Oil Rig(and no the Enclave is not the name of the organization, it is for all intensive purposes the United States Government).
Again, the choices of one man or woman will dictate the fate of the known world and with few exceptions the player was given a wide variety of choices in how he wished to save or destroy the world.
Now many waited with baited breath quite excitedly when Fallout 3(Van Buren) was to come out and we would all be able to finally experience new territories and lands far from California and the West Coast however unfortunately that project fell apart and the story of "The Prisoner" was never realized.
So years later we see the introduction of Bethesda's Fallout 3, where the focus is no longer on telling a story with consequences but instead for all intensive purposes a post-nuclear war version of Doom, with the illusion of choice all leading to roughly the same ending regardless of what choices you have made, and often times your choices having absolutely no impact on the world at large.
After all, if we look at something as simple as Little Lamplight, it's a forced part of the story which we have to engage in, but rather than having any sense of choice whatsoever(as a traditional Fallout game would have offered), you are forced into going through this whole mess by talking with a rather senseless youth who spits abuse at you the entire time(which a traditional Fallout game would have given you the option of being a homicidal maniac, a master of breaking and entering by being able to sneak into the settlement or simply by using your skills at speech to force the delinquents to leave....however none of these options are available and instead you are forced down a single path.
Now New Vegas showed some promise, however it too also suffered from Fallout 3 syndrome in the fact that a majority of situations could simply be overcome by brute force, since image if you will if you had the possibility of raiding the Sierra Madre with the assistance of the "Ghost People", or if instead of being forced into some weird allegory to Dances with Wolves you could have instead built a new Mormon Empire in Zion. New Vegas for all it's value and promise was sometimes very hollow and tended to keep your choices either affecting one of the major powers vying for control of the region rather than truly representing free choice to change the Mojave as you saw fit.
Now where is all of this leading you ask, well at the end of the day though it would be interesting to see new parts of the Fallout Universe and seeing more head nods and winks to older parts of the series(or in the case of Bethesda a total disregard for previous stories), at the end of the day the game in which we call Fallout is more now either a post nuclear shooter or a post nuclear policy simulator (Bethesda's Fallout 3, or Fallout: New Vegas).
The player and the franchise need to start fresh again and give the player the awe and wonder of walking out of Vault 13 for the first time, and seeing that his choices do matter, no simply finding the biggest guns or blasting millions of super mutants and raiders just to arrive at towns which worship nuclear weapons, but really have no content to them whatsoever and regardless of whether you wipe them off the face of the map or leave them freestanding there is absolutely no consequences to your actions, other than you can recruit or not recruit certain NPC's who felt hollow to begin with and at the end of the day never really had any effect on the story itself.
Also I think a reboot would put aside a lot of the grievances and arguments that occur in the Fallout community between those who enjoy the old series and those who are diehards on Bethesda's take on the series.
I'll conclude by saying that though I would personally like to see Van Buren published it's unfortunately for all intensive purposes a dead proposition and though I did enjoy Fallout Tactics, and New Vegas I found them more to be alternate interpretations on the Fallout rather than a cohesive carrying on the old story which we experienced in both Fallout 1 & 2. A reboot would for all intensive purposes wipe the slate and bring about a property which if approached properly could give both old and new fans something which is enjoyable but not either a post nuclear shooter, or policy simulator.
Now with that being kept in mind, I believe that we need a reboot of the series, and why you ask, well we need only look at Bethesda's Fallout 3 for that explanation.
For me, what always made Fallout a unique property was that it brought you this unique and alternate history world which though similar in some aspects to our own was also remarkably different in that while we watched the peaceful dismantling of communism and the victory of capitalism, the world of Fallout was more of an example of where detente and many other Cold War themes carried on until a natural breaking point occurred (a major and apocalyptic war over resources, which in itself is a common human theme).
This of course, all leads into Fallout 1 where the player for all intensive purposes has a very simple goal, which is to save himself and the civilization which he holds dear(namely Vault 13) from extinction due something as simple as the lack of clean drinking water. Now initially the player goes out into the world with the assumption that he is to recover the Water Chip and save his "world" from destruction, however what made the game all the more powerful was the fact that instead of simply being a go from A to B title, and fight hoards of irradiated paupers and mutants instead it became a game of interaction and in a sense world altering where the player's actions had wider consequences than simply that of leaving the Vault to find water.
And of course, finally when the Vault Dweller returns to the Vault triumphant in the fact that he not only saved the civilization that he holds dear but in itself also saved the known world so to speak, he's cast out because he has changed far too much for others to ever truly accept him(or at least that is what the Overseer wishes you to believe...the interpretation is up to you).
This of course leads on to Fallout 2, where the world has moved on from the Vaults and we're faced with an emerging post war world where no longer does something as simple and stagnant as a Vault really matter, where the construction of regional powers(in the form of the NCR) are now occurring and where even we see the resurrection of the United States in the form of the Enclave Oil Rig(and no the Enclave is not the name of the organization, it is for all intensive purposes the United States Government).
Again, the choices of one man or woman will dictate the fate of the known world and with few exceptions the player was given a wide variety of choices in how he wished to save or destroy the world.
Now many waited with baited breath quite excitedly when Fallout 3(Van Buren) was to come out and we would all be able to finally experience new territories and lands far from California and the West Coast however unfortunately that project fell apart and the story of "The Prisoner" was never realized.
So years later we see the introduction of Bethesda's Fallout 3, where the focus is no longer on telling a story with consequences but instead for all intensive purposes a post-nuclear war version of Doom, with the illusion of choice all leading to roughly the same ending regardless of what choices you have made, and often times your choices having absolutely no impact on the world at large.
After all, if we look at something as simple as Little Lamplight, it's a forced part of the story which we have to engage in, but rather than having any sense of choice whatsoever(as a traditional Fallout game would have offered), you are forced into going through this whole mess by talking with a rather senseless youth who spits abuse at you the entire time(which a traditional Fallout game would have given you the option of being a homicidal maniac, a master of breaking and entering by being able to sneak into the settlement or simply by using your skills at speech to force the delinquents to leave....however none of these options are available and instead you are forced down a single path.
Now New Vegas showed some promise, however it too also suffered from Fallout 3 syndrome in the fact that a majority of situations could simply be overcome by brute force, since image if you will if you had the possibility of raiding the Sierra Madre with the assistance of the "Ghost People", or if instead of being forced into some weird allegory to Dances with Wolves you could have instead built a new Mormon Empire in Zion. New Vegas for all it's value and promise was sometimes very hollow and tended to keep your choices either affecting one of the major powers vying for control of the region rather than truly representing free choice to change the Mojave as you saw fit.
Now where is all of this leading you ask, well at the end of the day though it would be interesting to see new parts of the Fallout Universe and seeing more head nods and winks to older parts of the series(or in the case of Bethesda a total disregard for previous stories), at the end of the day the game in which we call Fallout is more now either a post nuclear shooter or a post nuclear policy simulator (Bethesda's Fallout 3, or Fallout: New Vegas).
The player and the franchise need to start fresh again and give the player the awe and wonder of walking out of Vault 13 for the first time, and seeing that his choices do matter, no simply finding the biggest guns or blasting millions of super mutants and raiders just to arrive at towns which worship nuclear weapons, but really have no content to them whatsoever and regardless of whether you wipe them off the face of the map or leave them freestanding there is absolutely no consequences to your actions, other than you can recruit or not recruit certain NPC's who felt hollow to begin with and at the end of the day never really had any effect on the story itself.
Also I think a reboot would put aside a lot of the grievances and arguments that occur in the Fallout community between those who enjoy the old series and those who are diehards on Bethesda's take on the series.
I'll conclude by saying that though I would personally like to see Van Buren published it's unfortunately for all intensive purposes a dead proposition and though I did enjoy Fallout Tactics, and New Vegas I found them more to be alternate interpretations on the Fallout rather than a cohesive carrying on the old story which we experienced in both Fallout 1 & 2. A reboot would for all intensive purposes wipe the slate and bring about a property which if approached properly could give both old and new fans something which is enjoyable but not either a post nuclear shooter, or policy simulator.
