Pre-War Fallout- Could we see it in Fallout 4?

T

Tarantulakelurk

First time out of the vault
I would just think it would be cool to catch a little glimpse of Pre-War America, without any gimmicks or hangups involved, like Tranquility Lane, or the flashbacks in the Dunwhich Building, I don't mean it taking up almost the entirety of the game, I mean just have a few beginning/tutorial missions of you running errands, walking around a pre-war neighborhood, listening to passersby talking about Vault-Tec and the possibility of bombs being dropped on America, then after the last beginning mission you hear sirens wailing, and you see citizens fleeing, and you look up to see Chinese bombers flying over your neighborhood, then finally you see the bombs drop, everything goes dark...then the opening credits roll, and you meet the ACTUAL protagonist, and as a cool easter egg, you can go to that neighborhood to find the skeleton of the guy you were playing as in the tutorial!
 
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If they did this, it would have to be done using this as a tutorial of sorts. For example, teach the player how to walk and move, select items, and even use VATs and shoot (perhaps when the sirens are roaring, rioting starts, your character locks himself and his family in their house, and people start trying to break the windows or break the door down to come in for shelter or to loot the house, there your character has to use a hunting rifle or baseball bat, or something to defend their family). Other than that, it couldn't, and probably shouldn't be done.
 
Bethesda has said that they won't do a prequel; [This is grand IMO, as I think that the novelty of Fallout's pre-war era... is partly because it had been destroyed].

It could be neat to get glimpses of the past.. but actually playing them... well I liked Tranquility Lane... but would anyone want that as the whole game? Even full-blown adventure quests set in their retro 50's 2nd millennium; [cops/mercs/army...] would not really relate to Fallout as it's a post apocalyptic RPG.
 
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Gizmojunk said:
Bethesda has said that they won't do a prequel;
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Does it leave the door open for Obsidian ?
I don't want a pre-war Fallout, but i would like to have a Fallout right after it, or a Fallout that use the backstory of Fallout 1.
(Angus & other traders settling at the Hub, Vault 15 releasing Vipers/Khans/Jackals/Shady sands inhabitants, Vipers vs BOS, Harold & Richard before their trip to Mariposa, etc...)
 
BigBoss said:
If they did this, it would have to be done using this as a tutorial of sorts. For example, teach the player how to walk and move, select items, and even use VATs and shoot (perhaps when the sirens are roaring, rioting starts, your character locks himself and his family in their house, and people start trying to break the windows or break the door down to come in for shelter or to loot the house, there your character has to use a hunting rifle or baseball bat, or something to defend their family). Other than that, it couldn't, and probably shouldn't be done.
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Am I totally crazy, or wasn't this the demo of Van Buren?
 
I take it you didn't really understand what I said:
In no way do I want the Pre-War phase to take up a lot of the gameplay, it would be bland to just play pre-war Fallout, just for it to be the tutorial, or something;
And I never said for it to be a prequel, again: tutorial!
And why would someone want to break into the unnamed protagonist's house? I mean sure probably to get food or water, but wouldn't the Vaults accommodate people who need food? I would imagine that people would scramble to the Vaults before breaking into a random person's house...
 
Bro, not everyone got into the Vaults. There are what, over 300 million people in America? Probably way more in Fallout universe considering it was 2077. The Vaults only held about 100,000 people (no, not each Vault. All of them together). That's still 299.9 million people left to face the bombs, or in 2077, I'd predict about 499.9 million though some websites predict America alone will hold a billion people by 2080.

When your walking around in New Vegas, on the outskirts of the strip, you don't see all those houses boarded up for no particular reason. "Hey, before we leave to the Vault, let's board up our house. Maybe our shit will still be here when we get back... just in case". Not trying to be a dick, I'm just pointing out the fact that less than 1% of the US population got to have a place in a Vault. Each Vault only held 1000 people (granted, some Vaults may have been bigger, but no bigger than about 2000 most people suspect). In 2080, "small" US cities will hold at least a million citizens. There were what, 120, 130 Vaults commissioned. Giving the Vaults the benefit of the doubt, saying that they each could hold at least 1,500 people, that's still only 180,000 to 195,000 people. Even if we say America had a horrible birth rate, our population would grow at least 50 million by 2080. That's 350 million people in the United States, and 195,000 (taking the bigger number) able to have a position in Vaults.

And in this scenario, it's not "breaking into a random person's house". In any kind of disaster scenario, for most people, survival instincts take over. When people rely on survival instincts alone, its chaos. The United States has never really faced a "great" disaster scenario since the 1920's. Look at the LA riots. Detroit riots. Weren't even really that bad in comparison to something like a world wide nuclear war, or a world wide deadly flu pandemic. Yet look how people acted. Also, look at 9/11. The people in those towers who jumped? Survival instincts took over. They knew it was be burned alive trying to wait for rescue, or have your death be instant. Most the time human's aren't even thinking rationally during disasters. They've let their mind be completely taken over by their own human instincts, and it's almost like they are being ran by their subconscious. It's kind of like how, when say something happens such as a burglar breaking in, someone's instincts immediately take over, and they do something like bash a heavy ashtray into their head and kill them. And then after its over, or someone else pulls them off, they 'snap' out of it, and sometimes freak out, "Oh my god, what did I do!?!". Survival instincts.
 
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While that would be true, I just really thought it would be cool to see Pre-War Fallout without hangups like only being able to see it once and only in black and white in Tranquility Lane, but honestly? if we're talking about 60's America, which is what I would assume it WOULD be, considering the architecture, the art, and the Radio songs, then maybe since we were ALREADY in a Cold War, unless Fallout is really anachronistic and there WASN'T a Cold War, we would have bomb shelters, wouldn't we?
 
Well, back in the 50's and 60's there were people who had bomb shelters. In some places, there were even larger, public shelters. But nobody had any idea what a world wide nuclear war could or would do. Most of these shelters consisted of something simple, like a fortified basement or storage area. Even the public shelters were simply hardened concrete or steel, and most of them were above ground shelters. With the knowledge we have now, we know that none of these shelters would have been able to survive a nuclear war, unless they were miles away from any impacts.

Some of the more smarter and 'handy' people took extra steps, such as sealing all the air leaks in there shelter to block radiation or building their shelter near a river or stream. But it would take millions of dollars in building a shelter to actually be able to survive a direct hit of even one nuclear bomb. Like I said, yeah people had shelters, but nobody really knew anything about the aftermath of nuclear weapons. Even the US government wasn't sure. Some scientists at the time thought we would all mutate into horrible monsters if affected by large amounts of radiation (which we now know to be false. Radiation either gives you cancer/leukemia/terminal illness or kills you outright. Though nuclear effects can cause some nasty burns and/or lacerations that leave people looking messed up, examples like oversized foreheads. But these aren't mutations, and most of these people are so sick they can barely move, much less chase you around a post-apocalyptic desert). Nobody really knew what would happen. The government tried to calm people by telling them hiding in their basement would be the most sufficient way a normal citizen could survive.

And even then, not everybody had shelters. There was still a great many of people who carried on with their lived without going out of the way to build something complex, under or above ground. However once you see a nuclear blast in the next town over, all hell breaks loose...

And to tell the truth, even today were still not 100% sure of exactly what will happen. We've just got some of the basics down.
 
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Tarantulakelurk said:
While that would be true, I just really thought it would be cool to see Pre-War Fallout without hangups like only being able to see it once and only in black and white in Tranquility Lane, but honestly? if we're talking about 60's America, which is what I would assume it WOULD be, considering the architecture, the art, and the Radio songs, then maybe since we were ALREADY in a Cold War, unless Fallout is really anachronistic and there WASN'T a Cold War, we would have bomb shelters, wouldn't we?
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It isn't anachronistic at all, it's a divergent timeline. There was no Cold War in the Fallout universe, which is why in the late 21st century there was a war between China and the US. Also, the Pre-War world was not "60's America" it was a late 21st Century America that was culturally reflective of many different periods in the country's history, not JUST the 60s. Also also, it wasn't what Tranquility Lane represented, either; that was just a sitcom simulation used by Braun to exercise godlike control over his fellow Vault Dwellers, cause he's a sadistic asshole.
 
I dislike the idea of having a playable section which genuinely takes place before the war. People usually say that showing is better than telling, but in Fallout's case, I don't know... I prefer piecing together the past through the recordings, documents and etc. you can find. It helps distance the pre-war world from what your character is experiencing in the game (and as an extension, yourself, for obvious reasons). Maybe this is just a personal thing, but the lead-up to the Great War is a terrifying thing in itself, let alone the events of October 23rd, and that tension is still an underlying thing in the Fallout universe. Being able to actually see and experience it would almost be a bit immersion breaking for me. Allowing your imagination to fill in the blanks is far more interesting in my opinion. Plus, I like the notion of the past being a little idealised (which, despite how bad it was, I suppose can't be helped in the post-war reality), and even misunderstood, which I feel would be lost if you were to really see it, even as the player. Or, uh, maybe I just get way too much in to this role playing thing?

What I do like, however, are the little glimpses. I didn't think it was executed particularly well, but the flashback in the Dunwich building is a good example. I'd very much like to see more in that vein.

A game set entirely pre-war is a different thing altogether, but if we're just talking about a tutorial or such implemented into one of the main games... I don't think it'd work too well. Do I see it happening in Fallout 4? I wouldn't be surprised, to be honest.
 
I love the idea of playing a Fallout game (or any game really, I don't care) that occurs immediately after the apocalypse. To be honest when I first started playing Fallout 3 I didn't realize it was 200 years after the fact. I'd like to play something more in the... 2-5 year range maybe? 10-20?
 
I might be mistake with another game, but i think that besides Dunwich/Tranquility Lane/Operation Anchorage, you get other glimpse from the past.
 
naossano said:
I might be mistake with another game, but i think that besides Dunwich/Tranquility Lane/Operation Anchorage, you get other glimpse from the past.
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I believe it was Yamu who already addressed this in another topic, but you do. In scarce bits and pieces (and being scarce was pivotal to the delivery of these "glimpses" into the past) you find transmissions and logs here and there. For instance the first Maxson's report in Mariposa is a revelation when you find it, and besides Richard Grey's audio log, the rest of the data files are corrupt and can't be viewed, which was deliberate. FO3 threw around glimpses into the past left and right, but the original games hid them, and rightfully so. Fallout IS NOT about what the world was like in their alternate universe prior to the cataclysmic world ending catastrophy, it's about what the world is like AFTERWARDS. It's not even about how radioactive everything is, like a bad zombie survival game is about getting as many headshots as you can, but about how dangerous it is to survive because PEOPLE will do whatever is necessary, just like PEOPLE are the ever-present danger in a good zombie survival game. Going back to Pre-War USA would defeat the purpose of Fallout's narrative just like focusing on a conflict between a shining white good BOS versus a glaringly dark and evil Enclave. It's about surviving in that gritty post-apocalypse despite MORE than just radiation and mutated critters out to get you, that's what's important.
 
Of course there are holodisks everywhere. I was wondering about flashback/hallucinations/videos.
 
Well, I don't know...it may just be because my imagination sucks, so I would need some visual aid about Pre-War america that won't give me sensory deprivation from the lack of color *cough* Tranquility Lane, or give me a full-on heart attack *scream* Dunwhich Jumpscare...
 
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