Games have many ways to tell you their stories. Most RPGs and narrative games open with a cutscene to introduce the inciting incident and give some background.
Dragon Age Origins opens with the history of the darkspawn and the Blight. Fallout games open by telling us about the bombs and how people survived in the Vaults. Players need context, especially in the first game of a series.
Some opening cutscenes are better than others, of course. If you don’t give the player enough information, it can be hard to get them to care about the main storyline. Equally, too much exposition can get boring and tedious. As much as I love Fallout New Vegas, I think the opening cutscenes give us too much information about the NCR and the Legion.
We could learn this in the early game, to my mind. We meet NCR soldiers in Primm, and could easily get a bit of detail about the NCR from talking to them. When we reach Nipton and talk to Vulpes Inculta, we could get a brief rundown of who the Legion are. This would be more impactful, since we would just see a bunch of Roman cosplayers coming out of the town hall. But we were told about them before, so it’s less of a surprise.
It was a bold choice for Benny to shoot you in the head at the beginning of the game. It’s unexpected, because it would be a very short game indeed if this was fatal. Skyrim does something similar with a dragon saving the protagonist from execution.
Dialogue
Like novels, movies and plays, dialogue is a huge part of storytelling in games. Pretty much every RPG that has ever existed requires you to find information by talking to every NPC you can find. A lot of this dialogue is for flavour, which improves immersion, but you will find secrets and important details through this method in most RPGs.
An example from Fallout New Vegas is Rotface. He’s a ghoul you will find in Freeside, easily overlooked. However, if you pay him one bottlecap (the currency of Fallout) he will give you a random tip or some gossip. He has hints which aid the player in certain side quests. For example, the NCR send the player to assassinate a man called Pacer.
Pacer is The King’s second in command, the gang who run Freeside, and is problematic for the NCR. Rotface will tell you that Pacer uses Jet but has a heart condition. Getting this tip allows you to spike Pacer’s Jet stash with another drug, Psycho, which will kill him. No-one will know who did the deed, it’s a proper sneaky way to assassinate someone.
A lot of RPGs have the option to speak to important characters and ask questions. These dialogue trees can be very involved and you will learn a lot about the world and the characters. Dragon Age and Mass Effect are both great for this. The party camp or the Normandy is a place to regroup and you can go around and chat to your companions. You get to know them, their opinions on your choices and alter their disposition towards you. You can even initiate romance with some of them!
Games Tell Their Stories
These are the more direct ways games tell their stories. They are effective for the most part, but a balance needs to be found. If you don’t give enough information, the player will lose interest. However, it’s possible to overdo it and a massive exposition dump can turn the player off too.
Next time we’ll talk about the less direct methods, such as collecting lore and environmental storytelling. What do you think about cutscenes in games? Do you have a favourite? Or is there one you dislike? Let me know in the comments!
Some games don’t use text or dialogue to tell you the story. Games can achieve storytelling without words. There’s a game called Virginia, which tells a story with no dialogue. It involves an FBI investigation in a small town in Virginia, and there is no spoken dialogue at all. You have to piece together what’s going on from locations, body language and actions. It’s a bizarre experience.
Unpacking – Storytelling Without Words
One of my favourites for this is a game called Unpacking. This is a game where each level is you unpacking moving boxes and putting everything away. It has literally no dialogue at all. You start with a child’s bedroom, and learn that the person likes to draw and paint, play soccer and collect plushies.
You move through each stage of their life, from university to living in their first apartment with friends. Then they move in with their partner and there’s a sad moment where their degree certificate must be hidden away and you struggle to fit everything in alongside the stuff that is already there.
Suddenly you’re moving back into your childhood bedroom. You also see more and more medications, mobility aids and other things that indicate chronic pain or illness. Finally you get your own place and settle in. Then someone moves in with you, and you can fit all their stuff beside yours easily. Then finally you both move into a larger house and set up a nursery for a baby.
You literally learn about the people through their posessions, and the first relationship that fell apart was with a man, but the second relationship that went well was with another woman. Then you discover the nursery and unpack all the baby stuff, so you know they are bringing a child into their family. There’s sad moments when you realise the character has developed chronic health issues, and that they aren’t able to show off their achievements when they live with the man.
Show, Not Tell
It’s amazing how much you can learn about someone’s life just from the things they own. You see what is kept over the years, which shows you what matters most to them. I highly recommend Unpacking. It’s a lovely experience and it’s really amazing what you can learn about a story with no words to give it away. One of the common rules about storytelling is to ‘show, not tell.’ While I don’t believe this is an absolute rule, Unpacking shows that it is possible to tell a compelling story without using any words at all. Indeed this is the appeal for a lot of gamers. They want to explore and discover things for themselves instead of having everything spoon fed to them.
By Team Salvato – https://satchely.deviantart.com/art/Doki-Doki-Literature-Club-701394578, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=55571864
Some games have little gameplay, such as the ‘walking simulators’ and visual novels which usually take the form of ‘dating simulators’. They are two different kinds of visual novels and are very popular. Let’s take a look at them in kind.
The ‘walking simulators’ are games where you mainly spend your time walking around, exploring and solving some light puzzles to get the story bit by bit. They are particularly effective for horror experiences or at least unsettling experiences. They can set up for good twist endings or a properly scary experience.
A game in this vein I really enjoyed is called Gone Home where a young woman returns to her family home and finds the place empty. She must explore the house and piece together what happened and where her family members are. It’s non linear, but you must find certain things to unlock new areas to explore. I won’t spoil the ending but it’s worth your time.
Other games in this vein include Firewatch, What Remains of Edith Finch and the Stanley Parable (which is a humorous take on these kinds of games).
Dating Simulators
Dating simulators and visual novels usually are formatted as static artwork with an overlay where conversations happen and the player makes choices about what to say or who to spend time with. Not all of them are dating simulators. Games like Ace Attorney being an adventure centered around investigations and courtroom trials.
These kinds of games are especially popular in Japan and many of them feature anime style artwork. They often have a few different endings, usually based on the choice of which character to date and form a relationship with. They range from the sweet and benign to the outright bizarre like Panzermadels. This is one where the girls you can date are actually tanks. Yeah. Really.
Unsurprisingly there are a bunch of these which are firmly in the NSFW category. Which is fair enough if that’s what you’re into. Some of them include some other kind of game mechanics as well. They have branching story paths, again for the replayability value of the games. They range in quality as well, with some of them being really good and others less so.
Horror Visual Novels
They can be effective for a horror experience too. They do lend themselves well to that kind of atmosphere. One I came across randomly is called Cooking Companions. It is very strange and makes good use of sounds and visuals to give you goosebumps. It’s not the best story I’ve ever come across. That said, it definitely gets under your skin and is very uncomfortable at times.
One of the best in this category, however, is Doki Doki Literature Club. This game doesn’t appear to be a horror experience at first. However, if you play through it, it will get under your skin. It’s a lot, and it does involve some very heavy subject matters. So heed the warnings if you chose to play it. If you like horror, you’ll enjoy it.
Episode two opens on some tiny newborn puppies, which do look fairly realistic to me. I’ve seen my fair share of newborn puppies. I cringed when one gets put in the incinerator, then we see the sign stating all newborns weighing under 10 ounces must be incinerated. We get no explanation. So where in the wasteland are we? It’s an Enclave facility, although this isn’t stated outright.
We see Dr Siggi Wilzig push the scales so it goes over the 10oz mark, then the puppy is branded CX404. Wilzig has clearly become fond of this particular dog. The door says “Behavioral Engineering,” which is something we know the Enclave do. There’s a glimpse of a gurney with a large green hand sticking out from under the sheet. Fallout gamers will know this is probably a supermutant.
A montage of CX404 growing up shows she is a dogwith a mind of her own, rather like all the iterations of Dogmeat in the games. He keeps a space for the dog hidden in the broken wall. She clearly cares for Wilzig as she defends him readily.
Wilzig injects something into his head, and it’s clearly painful. We have no idea what it is at this point in time.. Note the use of whiskey as an anaesthetic. When they discover he’s keeping CX404 hidden, he defects from the Enclave. I’m not sure where this is in the world because there is snow on the ground, so it can’t be that close to where our main characters are.
Vault-Tec Plan D for Death
Lucy is exploring and she goes into a ruined house to find a family of skeletons seated around the dining table, including a little one in a high-chair. A reminder for the viewers, that millions of people died. She finds a bottle on the table, with a skull and crossbones on it, the international symbol of ‘poison’. The label says “Vault-Tec Plan D, Econo Savings Pack.”
‘The most humane product Vault-Tec ever created.’
What is Plan D, you might wonder. Well, the D clearly stands for ‘Death’. They are cyanide pills and they are banana flavoured, apparently. Honestly, I’d hate banana to be the last thing I taste before I go out. This is an economy pack, so presumably plenty for the whole family. Places in the Vaults were insanely expensive. There were some exceptions to this. Most people paid huge amounts of money for the privilege of being experimented on.
But this is Vault-Tecs solution for people who couldn’t afford a place in a Vault. Here’s a cheaper option, just kill yourself quickly and painlessly. It may not seem like it to those who haven’t played the games, but this is very on-brand for Vault-Tec.
Giant Roaches…?
When Lucy first meets Wilzig, he doubts she is willing to do what she must do to survive. This meeting at her camp gives us a lot of insight. Wilzig mentions the radroaches and how they have changed from the pre-War cockroaches, showing us how dangerous wildlife has become in this world. Wilzig urges Lucy to go home, and tells her she will need to adapt to life on the surface if she plans to stay up here.
“Question is, will you still want the same things… when you have become a different animal altogether?”
This quote really carries a lot of weight. It really highlights the story of pretty much every Fallout protagonist. Venturing into the wasteland changes a person, in so many ways. Those who cannot adapt will succumb to the dangers of the wasteland, and the wasteland does not care.
Wasteland Wildlife
We cut back to Maximus who is now on the Vertibird with Knight Titus. Maximus tries to make conversation with Titus, who replies by telling Max to clean his codpiece. This tells us a lot about the attitude of many members of the Brotherhood, and the hazing and bullying. It’s so disrespectful and shows a complete lack of care.
Wilzig and CX404 are in a forest near what looks like a toxic waste dump site. He stops to rest, but becomes concerned when the dog brings a disembodied human hand to him. We hear a growl and then it cuts away. This episode teaches us about the dangers of the wasteland.
The next scene is in the same location, but with Titus and Maximus, where they find evidence of Wilzig. Then they see all the bones and realise something is up. Titus sends Max to look further in, to ‘test his bravery’. We get a nice “it’s behind you” moment with what looks like a mangy bear. This is a Yao Guai. They are ghoulified and mutated black bears and can be very dangerous.
I’d like to note that this bear shows real intelligence. It goes for Titus’ assault rifle first and destroys it. This tells me that this Yao Guai has fought with people before and probably won. It also highlights the animal’s intelligence. If they are ghoulified, it’s likely that the bear has been around for a long time, possibly since pre-War. It also seems to know how to use brute force to remove the power armor.
A Real Turning Point
Maximus manages to kill it, which is quite impressive that a 10mm can take one down with a couple of headshots. But this is an important turning point for Maximus. Titus is badly injured and is clearly bitter about how bad the wasteland is. He demands a stimpak, which is a healing item that isn’t really explained in this or in game. He throws out plenty of abusive language, telling Maximus the Brotherhood will hang him.
Maximus points out that the Knights are supposed to make the world better, and that he believes Titus is not worthy of the power armor. Max makes a decision at this point, and sits down to watch Titus die. He could help Titus, but he chooses not to.
There’s a Two-legged Animal…
Max is trying out the power armor for the first time. The armor is basically a walking tank. It takes some getting used to, indeed in Fallout 3 and New Vegas you must be trained to use the power armor. Also the use of music is absolutely spot on. This scene has “It’s A Man” by Betty Hutton over it, and it’s perfect. The vast majority of songs used in the show are also in one of the games, and are perfectly thematic. The use of music in the show is absolutely perfect every time.
Maximus collapses a wall and realises the extra strength the armor gives him. He intervenes in a fight between two men. We can see Max is enjoying this extra power. The man with the fedora is a bit odd, but we’ll get back to him later. The other man is scared but tells us the reason for the fight was the weird guy was doing things to his chickens. I don’t know if this was intentionally a reference to South Park. There’s an old episode from 1998 titled Chickenlover. Certainly that’s what came to my mind, and Fallout is full of easter eggs and cheeky nods to other pop culture.
Filly – Wasteland Civilisation
Lucy finds her way to Filly, and it’s her first look at wasteland “civilisation”. The market place is built from old vehicles and planes. We see people wearing some interesting outfits and selling things like ‘dog meat’ and roasted iguana on a stick. It looks like a proper Fallout town. It’s reminiscent of Megaton, Diamond City and even Junktown. It’s all cobbled together from what is there, rusty vehicles, old neon signs and other scrap.
We see The Ghoul sitting in a chair, like he’s waiting for something. Inside ‘Ma’s Rarities’ Lucy learns what wastelanders really think about the Vault Dwellers. Again Lucy is urged to go back home to her vault. Keep the comment about “all ten fingers” in mind for later. Lucy is struggling to understand the attitude of the shop owner. She is clearly upset and disheartened by what she learned.
Wilzig arrives in Filly with the dog, and surprises Lucy with how much he knows about her Vault. Ma June interrupts Lucy’s questioning. Then The Ghoul makes his move. Everyone is looking for this man that escaped the Enclave, there’s a bounty from six agencies. The Brotherhood are also looking for him.
The fight begins, and it is more of the brutal and over the top violence we know and love. This scene serves to highlight how skilled The Ghoul is, and how conflicts work in the wasteland. Lucy’s intervention is hilarious, it clearly comes straight out of the Vault Dweller’s Survival Guide.
Wasteland Medicine
Luckily Maximus turns up just in time to intervene and save Lucy from being shot. He distracts The Ghoul and allows Ma June and Lucy to sort Wilzig out with a prosthetic leg. This is absolutely brutal, but this is wasteland medicine. Jim’s Limbs is a great pun though. It’s agreed that Lucy will help Wilzig get to Moldaver, after some debate. Ma June knows her way around the Pip Boy and gives Lucy the location.
The scene where The Ghoul gives CX404 a stimpack and heals her is adorable. It shows a very different side to him, and this care for a dog will make more sense later. It’s a sweet little moment though, maybe he feels a little guilty for injuring her.
Just My Head
Lucy and Wilzig stop near what looks like a crashed satellite which is red and bears the hammer and sickle symbol. The initials CCCP suggest this could be a Chinese satellite, so presumably it came down after the bombs fell.
It’s obvious Wilzig won’t survive. He tells Lucy to take only his head to Moldaver and reveals he’s taken one of Vault-Tec’s Plan D cyanide pills. Banana flavoured, apparently. So Lucy is set on her main quest, beginning with decapitating this man. He hands her a Ripper, which is basically a mini chainsaw. He took the cyanide so she could wait until he was dead.
Wilzig reveals that he knows who Lucy is but he dies before she can get an explanation. Lucy is clearly disturbed and upset, but she braces herself and gets on with it. The Inkspots come in just in time, another classic Fallout song.
Final Thoughts
Episode two was great, it really set up the main plotline with everyone looking for Dr Wilzig. It’s also the first time our three main characters encounter each other. There’s some foreshadowing of things to come. There are important events for both Maximus and Lucy. Lucy realises that she is naïve about the surface and will have to learn quickly to make it.
Maximus makes the choice to let Knight Titus die, proving he is out for himself first and foremost. Also given the actor who plays Titus is known to be racist and misogynistic, it’s good to see the bear doing what’s right. I found that quite satisfying. As I mentioned, I like how the yao guai went straight for Titus’ gun, really highlighting the bears intelligence. They are called yao guai after a creature from Chinese mythology. Descendants of people held in Chinese internment camps gave them this name. I will be covering them in more detail in my Science of Fallout series on YouTube so look out for that. Otherwise, have fun exploring the wasteland.
Let’s talk about storytelling in gaming. A lot of video games tell a story in some fashion. These stories can be extremely simple and linear, or they can be massively long and complex. One of the more important aspects of video game stories is that you, as the player, can ‘choose your own adventure.’
Who remembers the ‘choose your own adventure’ books? Where you made a decision at the bottom of the page, and the book told you to turn to a specific page. Thus you got a different story every time based on making different choices. This is how most video game stories work too. It is something players value, especially in role-playing games and narrative focused action games.
Why Story Matters
Just like watching a movie or reading a novel, a compelling and engaging story makes a huge difference in games. After all, if you make a video game, presumably you want people to buy it and play it. So you need to keep players interested and engaged to keep them playing your game.
People play video games for much the same reason as they enjoy reading fiction or watching movies and TV shows. They want an experience, an escape from their real lives for a while. The main difference is that gamers are actively involved, controlling the protagonist’s actions and making decisions.
If a story is boring, or seems like nonsense, this breaks the immersion and the player loses interest. They may stop playing, and probably won’t buy the sequel. So it’s important that narrative driven games have a storyline that players want to follow. Of course, some games like Tetris don’t really need a complex plot.
Mundane Simulation Games
There has been a huge rise in simulation games in recent years. It’s fascinating that games where you repeatedly carry out a mundane task have become so popular. As an example, Power Wash Simulator, developed by FuturLab and published by Square Enix, has overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam. Unsurprisingly, the point of the game is to power wash things and clean them.
There is a story, a simple one but it’s enough to flesh out the game and make it feel interesting. You are opening a power-washing business and you start by cleaning your work van. You then get new jobs after each one you take on, and during the jobs you get text messages to add a little flavour. There’s an upgrade system, where you spend money you’ve earned on buying better power-washing equipment and clothing. So it sounds boring and mundane, you’re just power-washing things, but its very relaxing to play and satisfying to clean up all that dirt. Little bits of flavour text allow you to get to know the world of the game and keep it interesting. So it’s clear that you don’t always need a big complex storyline to keep players interested.
Let’s talk about environmental storytelling. This is something unique to visual and interactive media formats. Stories are told by the placement of certain items in the world. There’s no dialogue or written notes telling you what happened.
For example, in Concord in Fallout 4 you can hack your way into the vault of a bank. When you do, you find a huge hole in the external wall and a skeleton hanging out of it. If you jump out to the ground you find a car, another skeleton and a duffle bag full of ‘pre-war money.’ So, what happened? Clearly this bank was in the process of being robbed when the bombs fell, and the robbers died where they were.
SOMA – Masterful Environmental Storytelling
SOMA is a game that excels at environmental storytelling. It is a narrative horror experience that examines what it means to be human and what it means to be alive. The bare bones of the story are told through dialogue and cutscenes, but if you explore carefully, you can really get to know the people of Pathos II.
I won’t spoil the ending of SOMA, you should play it if you haven’t already. However, in the first section of the game, you must turn on the power to find your way to Catherine. Exploring, you find lots of doodles and drawings and a sketchbook belonging to Amy Azarro. When you reach the shuttle train, you find Amy, kept alive by a strange machine.
She says, “It won’t let me die. Nothing is allowed to die.” You need to disconnect her to power up the shuttle so you can leave. Depending on your choice here, Amy either ends up in a coma, or dead. So, you’ve killed a human for your own benefit. You care a lot more about this, if you’ve seen all of Amy’s drawings. Or if you listened to the recording, where she destroys one of the robots after it kills her colleague, Carl. You even find a video message from her husband on the surface, who is long dead at this point.
Why Would You Care?
Because you’ve got to know her. Without speaking to her, you’ve learned about her last few days and her previous life. You know she has a husband. Her friendship with Carl, and her fascination with the ocean life. She is a good artist and clearly enjoyed drawing in her free time. Yet you must end her existence in order to progress.
Simon has his own emotional response to the situation, and a player who is rushing through probably won’t. SOMA isn’t about the ending, it’s about the journey. It wants you to slow down, explore and absorb the atmosphere. It gives you time to think about the issues it presents. The story is more complete when you take the time to listen and observe.
What do you think about this kind of storytelling? Do you have a favourite example? Let me know in the comments.
Some narrative games have one single storyline for you to follow. Sometimes, these games are referred to as ‘walking simulators’, where you wander the game world and experience the story. Maybe there are some light puzzles to solve to find your way through. These types of game are good for experiencing a narrative, and can be very effective like SOMA. Other games are like the old ‘choose your own adventure’ books, allowing you options.
RPGs however often have stories with branching paths, where the player makes decisions that send them down one of these paths and block off the other. This is what makes a game a roleplaying game, because you take the role of a character and make decisions based on what they would do. So you can choose to be a nice and kind person, or an evil person, or something in between. It means you can tell the story the way you want to. Many RPGs have multiple endings depending on the choices the player makes.
Options Galore
Having branching paths like this is good for games. The player can replay the game and make different choices, to experience all of the story points. For example, Fallout New Vegas has four endings, and each one has different consequences for the wasteland.
Dragon Age Origins has essentially one ending with two possible outcomes for the player character. But it has six different origin stories, with one having two different perspectives dependent on gender. The prologue you play at the beginning depends on the choice of race and class. Each one is different narratively, as well as having unique events during the game related to the chosen origin.
Many games with main and side quests have different options for resolving the quests. Usually a peaceful option, a violent option or a choice between who to save and who to let die. Some of them have unique options for certain skills or character aspects. This gives the player more agency and allows them to experience the story the way they want to. This is the unique thing video games bring to story telling, they don’t have to be told one way. I do like to reread my favourite books and rewatch movies and TV shows. But the story is the same every single time. It doesn’t change, unless you write fanfiction. With games, that’s not the case, I can play an RPG and have a different experience every time. That’s what I love about these types of games.
Fallout has been out for a while now, therefore it’s long past time for me to share my thoughts. Did Bethesda retcon Fallout New Vegas? I’ll be answering this question with my thoughts. This is a general review of the series and a discussion of the “retcon” of Fallout New Vegas and controversy among certain groups of Fallout fans. It does include some discussions of lore from the games and my opinions on the supposed retcon of Fallout. I will follow it up with an in-depth review of each episode.
The Official Poster for Fallout on Amazon Prime
This is a new medium for the Fallout series, and the latest in a long line of adaptations of video games. Video game adaptations have varying levels of success, from the questionable Street Fighter movie (a guilty pleasure of mine even if it is terrible) to The Last of Us. Fallout has been around for a long time and has millions of fans across the world. Be warned, there will be heavy spoilers ahead in this detailed review. If you’ve not watched yet, firstly, why? Secondly, go do that then come back to me.
Finished Watching? Great!
We all know adaptations can be very hit and miss, especially for established fans. Look at the MCU, the Deadpool movies, DC Universe and the X-Men movies. I’ll never forgive the hours spent in the cinema watching Batman V Superman. Lots of people are called Martha, it’s not that deep. I really wish for a specific amnesia that would just remove that experience from my brain.
Anyway, the point is, when the show was first announced, I was cautiously optimistic about it. I love the Fallout series, if you haven’t already guessed by now. I was excited for this new kind of Fallout story, but there was a risk of it being a disaster.
I’m a huge fan of Cats the Musical, I have been for 20 years. Yet, I still have not been able to bring myself to watch the 2019 CGI movie. I mean, if Andrew Lloyd Webber hated it, what chance did I have? So, I was worried about the same thing happening to Fallout.
Luckily, it didn’t happen. I loved every minute of it, and I firmly believe it fits in nicely to this universe. Now, I am aware of the supposed “retcons” and I don’t agree that they even exist. It’s certainly possible some people are unable to understand the difference between implications and stated facts. I’ll get into this, as it comes up.
The Chalkboard: A Retcon Or Not?
Chalkboard in the Classroom of Vault 4
I think some people who are criticising the show don’t seem to have watched it and are simply parroting the same statements they’ve heard elsewhere on the internet. You know, the “Bethesda hates New Vegas and they have completely ruined the story of New Vegas because it says 2277 on the chalkboard.” Apparently, they missed the arrow leading from 2277 to the mushroom cloud, meaning the explosion took place sometime after 2277.
Todd Howard has confirmed that the nuking of Shady Sands took place after the events of New Vegas. Remember that the show takes place in 2296, which is 15 years after New Vegas and 9 years after Fallout 4. A lot can change in such a time frame. A lot can change in a month. Literally every Fallout protagonist drastically changes part of the Wasteland in the space of a few months.
Obviously some of this is open to interpretation by viewers and fans. Guess what? That’s on purpose. Any good storyteller knows to omit certain details and let the audience reach their own conclusions. The NCR were not in great shape after the events of New Vegas, even if they got to keep the Dam. We don’t know exactly when the bombing happened, nor do we know how old our two non-ghoul protagonists are.
Characters and Karma
Fallout 3’s Karma Icons
On to my overall thoughts. As I said, I loved it and have watched it several times since April. The story is interesting, and the three main characters are brilliantly written. I saw someone mention how each of them represents different Karma archetypes from the games, and I wholeheartedly agree with this interpretation.
Lucy being the good karma, Maximus the neutral karma and The Ghoul the evil karma. They each have their own motivations and intentions, and their interactions over the course of the series really work. I love how Lucy is naïve about how the wasteland works and she struggles with how selfish people are. I love how naïve Maximus is about things like sex, clearly the Brotherhood don’t bother teaching their aspirants sex-ed.
The Ghoul is obviously not naïve about anything, but he’s got a couple of centuries of experience on the other two. He’s been through the wringer and around the block a few hundred times. He’s clearly fighting off the feralization process, more successfully than many other ghouls. Sure, he seems to keep a good supply of these ‘vials’ to stave off the process but I think there’s more to it than that. We’ll get into the details later.
NCR and The “Fall Of Shady Sands”
NCR Sign From Ranger Station Charlie, Near Novac
We can see that things haven’t gone well for the NCR, especially once we learn of the fate of Shady Sands. Again, this isn’t a retcon, because NCR was doomed to fail. Caesar thought so, Mr House thought so, Chief Hanlon thought so and Ulysses thought so too. NCR wasn’t this perfect utopia of democracy where everyone was happy and there were no issues. We know this, you can’t avoid hearing how exhausted and war-weary the NCR army is.
“Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter,” is Fallout’s “I used to be an adventurer like you, then I took an arrow in the knee” meme. Get too close to a large group of troupers and you’ll hear an entire chorus of the line. These soldiers are tired. The NCR bases across the Mojave are not doing well. It’s obvious in New Vegas to almost everyone but the NCR brass, that they have bitten off more than they can chew.
There are issues back home, corruption and bribery from the brahmin barons. Unrest and dissent, because citizens are beginning to chafe under the investments made in the name of holding the Dam. Mr House is so determined to make sure President Kimball survives his visit to the Dam because if he is assassinated, then House will take the blame for NCR losing the territory and NCR citizens will not come and spend their caps.
The Fall of Shady Sands
That means, to my mind, that the “fall” of Shady Sands is pinpointed as the point where political and social issues reached the point where the nation state of NCR began to fail. It really doesn’t matter what happened at the second Battle of Hoover Dam, even if the NCR won that fight, it’s entirely feasible that something happens afterwards that cements the downfall of Shady Sands and the NCR.
Then of course, Hank MacLean comes along and wipes the city from the face of the earth and really cements the end of Shady Sands and NCR. This isn’t a new concept either, and all it takes is a visit to Camp Searchlight in the Mojave. Or Megaton after an evil Lone Wanderer is done with it. Or the Institute once the Sole Survivor is done destroying it. The Courier can literally nuke both NCR and Legion at the end of Lonesome Road.
Vault-Tec – Did They Drop The Bombs?
Vault-Tec Bilboard as seen in Fallout 4
With that in mind, it’s not outside the realm of possibility that a Vault-Tec junior executive knows how to get his hands on some nuclear weapons. Barb Howard clearly states that Vault-Tec is prepared to drop the bombs themselves. It isn’t enough to confirm that Vault-Tec started the war, but I interpret it as her stating that the company is willing and able to do it.
This means that Vault-Tec must have access to the means to start a nuclear war, so they must have stockpiles somewhere that their higher-ups know how to access and use. It’s clear that Vault-Tec have their own agenda and everything we learn proves that Vault-Tec see themselves as the only suitable leadership for humanity post-War. They want to be in control of everything and anyone who will not fall in line will be removed.
The Big Meeting With Investors
Robert Edwin House – CEO of RobCo
Some people are up in arms about the people present at the big meeting with Barb and Bud. I disagree, we know most of these companies have already got business relationships with Vault-Tec and government and military contracts. Rob-Co tech is used in all the Vaults. Vault-Tec has connections to Big MT, so Frederick Sinclair being present makes sense.
Vault-Tec is using their vaults to test out technology for space travel and colonisation of other planets, so working with REPCONN makes sense too. West-Tek are a big contributor to wartime tech, including the Power Armor and FEV.
Additionally, we know that every experiment they mention took place in one of the Vaults. We know that Mr House has lofty goals in mind, using New Vegas to raise funds and start R&D with a view to launching colony ships into space. Cut and unused content from the cancelled ‘Van Buren’ project suggests the US Government and subsequently the Enclave had the same idea and the real purpose of the Vaults was to test different things to inform this plan.
It’s entirely possible that Vault-Tec took on Project Safehouse in order to secure government funding and support. They have their own agenda entirely which they did not share with the government. We see official instructions from Vault-Tec informing Overseers to only take orders from Vault-Tec and not US military or government personnel.
Vault-Tec absolutely could have been lying to the government and would have control over what systems the Enclave could have access to. They could easily have their own stuff hidden away and kept secret from everyone but the top level executives. That’s part of the interest, some stuff isn’t explicitly told so we have to figure it out ourselves.
Anti-Feral Serum Vials
The Ghoul – played by Walton Goggins
The other “retcon” I’ve seen is the anti-feral vials that The Ghoul uses and trades Lucy for. When we first see his grave, there are IV bags hanging above it. It’s not clear to me if they are supposed to be this substance, or if it’s just Rad-Away. Rad-Away is labelled clearly in Fallout 4.
There’s no cure or way to prevent ghouls turning feral in the games, so this is the ‘retcon’. It’s similar to the whole issue with Jet, invented post-War by Myron, according to Fallout 2. Fallout 4 mentions Jet existing pre-war. It’s possible that Myron rediscovered how to make it, or improved it. The anti-feral serum, only referred to as ‘vials’ in the show, does prevent the feralization process.
I don’t believe this is a true retcon, because we don’t know how long this substance has existed. The most recent installment of the game, Nuka World, features a story about park workers who became ghouls and eventually turning feral, one by one. Rachel leaves to find a cure, but fails, and kills herself before she becomes feral.
That doesn’t mean that nobody has discovered something that helps since then. Nine years is plenty of time for someone to discover it, especially a ghoul who has had a couple of hundred years to study organic chemistry and ghoul physiology. Maybe it’s been around a little while and hasn’t reached the east coast yet.
What Are Your Thoughts?
That’s my view on the supposed “retcons” that some people are complaining about. Based on what we know from the games, the TV show fits in nicely to my mind and is absolutely compatible with the lore of Fallout New Vegas. They haven’t even indicated which of the four endings is ‘canon’ and they probably won’t. It just bothers me when people keep repeating the same things without really looking at the facts that we can verify from the show, the games and other official sources.
What do you think? Did you enjoy the TV show? Do you think I’m wrong about the ‘retcon’ of Fallout New Vegas? As always, I encourage respectful discussion in the comments. To read more about Fallout New Vegas, I’ve got some articles discussing the story, starting here. To see where I’m getting my information from, I have a series covering the main story on YouTube, here.
Welcome to my in-depth review of Episode One of Fallout. The first episode of Fallout on Prime has a lot of heavy lifting to do. Obviously a lot of the audience will be fans of the game, that’s a given. However, there’s going to be a lot of viewers who don’t play games and are unfamiliar with the universe of Fallout. This means that the first episode has to introduce the world, its history and the setting. As well as that, it must introduce our main characters, tell us a bit about them. It must set up the inciting incident of the new story it’s going to tell.
Fallout has a divergent timeline to ours, from the 1950s, where technology moved in a different direction. It focused on harnessing atomic energy. Resource wars came to a head in 2067 and the US spent a decade fighting against China, before the bombs fell on the morning of the 23rd of October, 2077. The TV show takes place in 2296, almost 220 years after the bombs fell. That’s a lot of history to cover.
Of course it would be easy to fall into the info-dump trap and spend an hour explaining everything that happened. Get Ron Perlman to read a summary of the history of Fallout. His voice is great, but this would probably turn off viewers, especially those who know the lore well and those who are just watching to see what it’s about. Instead, the show does a great job of introducing this world and gives us enough to start reaching some conclusions about what is going on. It does not overload us with information.
The Prologue: The End
We begin with “The End”. An odd place to start, perhaps, but the Fallout universe is post-apocalyptic science fiction so of course it begins with the end of the world. We open on a kids birthday party, with a man dressed as a cowboy showing off some rope skills and posing with a horse. Immediately it’s clear that this isn’t our modern world, the TV is not in colour and looks old. The fashion looks dated as well, very much 1950s style. Yet we see a domestic robot ready to serve.
War and Nuclear Attack Fears
Fallout has a very 50s “World of Tomorrow” vibe with clothing and music, which I love. We can see that the technology is more advanced than what we have in some ways, but it is also behind in other ways. We also get little hints about the war and fear of nuclear attack. Which the mother quickly hides by turning off the radio and changing the TV channel.
“…negotiations were scheduled to continue today as the White house had no comments about the President’s whereabouts.”
Radio announcement heard in the opening of Fallout on Prime
We hear this just before the radio is turned off. It’s clear that people are asking where the President is, and are not reassured by the lack of any comments from the White House.
“… between America and her adversaries crumbled this morning in Anchorage, Alaska. The spectre of nuclear war facing this nation for ten long years is finally…”
News on tv in opening of Fallout on Prime
One would assume the above quote ends in ‘over’ but the TV is turned off by the mother before we can hear the rest of it. Later, the weather anchor on TV stops his report, saying “I can’t do the weather when I don’t even know if there’s going to be a next week.” The mother mentions only thinking happy thoughts today and changes the channel for the kids to watch “Grognak the Barbarian”. Yes, that’s a Conan reference, Fallout is full of references and easter eggs to other media.
There is forced cheerfulness but there’s clearly concern about the future and the outcome of the long war with China. Everyone’s drinking and celebrating, socialising happily. Watch how quickly it changes when the first shockwave hits and the host refuses to let anyone other his own family into the fallout shelter under the house. He punches the other man, their friendship dissolving suddenly in the face of nuclear devastation.
Cooper Howard
We also learn a bit about the cowboy entertainer, Cooper Howard. His daughter Janey is helping him at the party. The dads mutter about him working birthday parties because he has alimony to pay. This indicates he is separated from his wife or going through divorce. He refuses to do the ‘thumbs up’ gesture he’s apparently famous for.
One of the men calls Cooper a ‘Pinko’, a term I had never heard of. It was used a lot during the Cold War in the 60s. It’s a derogatory term for someone that is left-leaning, socialist or light communist. Red is the colour we all know is associated with communism. We can deduce that there’s a lot of anti-communist feelings, due to the war against China, a communist country. So, a ‘Pinko’ would be like diet communist, or commie-lite.
Thumbs Up: Why Didn’t You Do It?
Janey asks her dad about the thumbs up gesture, and he reluctantly explains. The idea is, if you see a mushroom cloud from a nuclear bomb, you hold up your thumb. If the cloud is smaller than your thumb you are safe and should run in the opposite direction. If the cloud is bigger than your thumb, don’t waste your energy running. This isn’t accurate, but the advice gets around. Cooper mentions being told this in the Marines, so we also know he’s a veteran.
We see Cooper on his horse, with his daughter heading for the hills while the other guests panic and flee. It’s a great opening, in my opinion. It tells enough about the state of America at this point in time and shows the end of the world. It doesn’t get bogged down in all the details or dump a megaton of exposition.
There’s a lot of fun little easter eggs for game fans though. Such as Nuka Cola and Sunset Sarsaparilla bottles on a table. We see Grognak the Barbarian and the Ruby Ruins on TV. Of course, it’s also easy to assume that this was just an introduction to the universe. Of course all the people in the opening will be long dead when we’ve moved ahead 219 years. Keep that in mind.
Lucy: Vault 33
Lucy spends a bit of time introducing herself, essentially reading out her resume over the top of scenes of her life within the Vault. We can see everyone wearing the same blue and gold jumpsuits. There’s no long explanation of what the Vaults are, but we find Lucy is looking for a husband, but cannot marry anyone in 33 as she’s related to all eligible bachelors. There’s a Triennial trade with Vault 32 which is not really explained either.
“My reproductive organs are intact, my hygiene well maintained and yet I have been unable to find a suitable marriage partner. At least one I’m not related to. And we have rules about that for a reason.”
Lucy MacLean, Vault 33 Dweller
This highlights an issue with all of the closed off Vaults and any isolated community of people. Eventually without new blood coming in, the group will either need to engage in incest or die out. The Vaults are supposed to keep humanity alive to recolonise the surface when they deem it safe to do so, after all. They want heterosexual marriages to ensure ongoing population management, but obviously do not want to risk inbreeding. So they have this trade program where a ‘breeder’ can be traded to another vault in exchange for resources such as seeds and machine parts. Like a dowry, I suppose.
There is obviously some incestuous relationships going on, as we see from a few comments Lucy makes and a conversation with Chet, the gate manager. Chet is Lucy’s cousin, so they can’t marry, although he confesses he loves her and it seems everyone knows this. Lucy responds in an interesting way:
“Messing around with your cousin, it’s all well and good for kids, but it’s not a sustainable long-term sexual practice, you know?”
Vault 32 Meeting
They meet with the dwellers from Vault 32, which is connected to 33 by a tunnel leading from the farm area. They look a little different, if you look closely at them. A bit less clean-cut than the Vault 33 folks, and more scarred. It’s unclear if anyone notices this, but the eagle-eyed viewer might get the hint something’s amiss. Especially when they’re seated at the wedding reception and intermingled.
Lucy’s brother, Norm, has definitely got a high Intelligence stat. He says nothing, but it looks like he suspects something is up. Even as Hank talks about what might be on the surface, as he explains that Lucy’s kids will be able to recolonise the surface. This is what the dwellers know, that they keep a population going through the generations for Reclamation Day, when they will go up to the surface and recolonise it.
This is reflected in Lucy’s first conversation with her new husband. Again, it’s quite an odd one for a blind-date arranged marriage. She opens with “What’s your sperm count?” before going on to point out that “sperm is pretty important in perpetuating America.” It’s kind of laughed off and brushed aside.
Wedding Gifts and Hand-Me-Downs
Indeed when she shows Monty to their new living quarters, she talks about the hand-me-down items they’ve been gifted, such as a blender. You will also notice that she writes her name and the date on the inside of the wedding dress. The Vaults have limited space so there’s no room for large scale fabric manufacturing or fashion boutiques.
A lot of things are hand-me-downs in the Vaults. We see this in Fallout 3’s opening too, when you attend your 10th birthday party and receive a Grognak the Barbarian comic book from Amata. She proudly states it has no missing pages and that she got it from her father’s old things. Nobody in Vault 101 is writing and printing new comics, so most non-food gifts must be like this. The same would go for things like wedding dresses.
Back to Lucy, she is clearly not shy when it comes to sex and seems quite content. It’s only afterwards that she begins to suspect all is not as it seems. When Monty acts a bit odd, like wiping himself on the curtain (which is gross and weird). When he uses the blender as a glass for water, she gets up and grabs her Pip-Boy. This is a wrist mounted computer that has many functions, one of which is a Geiger counter.
Lucy Is A True Fallout Protagonist
The thing I like about Lucy is that she isn’t a damsel in distress. She’s a positive and kind person, for sure, but when Monty attacks, she doesn’t hesitate and is quite capable of fighting back. She’s smart and resourceful, making good use of the aforementioned blender to fend him off. She will kill and injure if she needs to, and that qualifies her to be a Fallout protagonist.
Wounded, she grabs a stimpak before going to help the others against the raiders. She goes straight to the armory, but she grabs the syringer and gets to work, knocking out a handful of raiders. She’s willing to fight for her family and her vault.
Gratuitous Violence Is Essential In Fallout
Viewers might find the violence graphic and over the top, if they haven’t played the games. It is. Absolutely. Which is how it should be in Fallout. The classic games had some comical death animations and a dark sense of humour with the descriptions of combat outcomes. In the modern games, you have the hilarious death cameras and the Bloody Mess perk.
I especially enjoyed the scene with Chet and the raider, who charges at him. Chet lets the door close on said raider, which obliterates him in spectacular fashion. It’s brilliant and very Fallout. This gratuitous violence juxtaposed with “Some Enchanted Evening” by the Castells.
That’s the essence of playing Fallout, over the top violence with some classic 50s music in the background! Then we get to our inciting incident for Lucy’s story. Lee Moldaver, who led the raiders into Vault 33, takes Hank MacLean with her by force. This is a typical Fallout plotline. You lose something important, a dad, a child or a platinum chip.
Maximus: The Brotherhood of Steel
We go to meet our next main character, Maximus. It’s obvious that this group are military of some kind from the uniforms and dogtags. There’s clearly some bullying going on as well. Immediately there’s some hints of indoctrination when Dane says “Flesh is weak but steel endures.” This is a phrase they clearly hear and say often.
Game fans will know quickly that this is the Brotherhood of Steel we’re dealing with, and clearly some kind of training facility. It’s unclear where this is but they’ve obviously either built or taken over a military base. The aspirants are sitting in a lecture, where the Scribe spells out what the Brotherhood are without excessive exposition. They collect, study and protect technology.
Once the Prydwen arrives and we see the Knights in their Power Armor, the usual flashy show of force the Brotherhood are so fond of, we know something’s going on. Aspirant Dane is summoned and chosen to be a squire to Knight Titus. They seem excited to be going on this mission, and we see that Maximus is angry and jealous of them. (The character is non-binary and they/them pronouns are used in the show, even the Brotherhood can respect pronouns without drama. So you can do it too.)
The next morning, Dane has been injured by razorblades stuck inside their boots. This is a real thing used as a bullying/hazing tactic. Maximus is dragged off and blamed for this. We cut away before it’s clear what is going to happen to him.
Back to Vault 33
Vault 33 efficiently clean up the mess of bodies, blood and damage from the raider attack. Lucy is treating her stab wound with a skin stapler, which is odd as the Vault should have a doctor but it does show she’s tougher than she might appear.
The surviving vault dwellers hold a meeting, but nobody wants to hear about going to the surface to look for Hank. Norm tells Lucy that the council don’t want to find him, because they like being in charge. Lucy resolves to go out and find her father, getting Norm and Chet to help her get to the Vault’s external door. Again, this is a defining moment from the games, when you leave the starting area.
It’s also a defining moment for Lucy’s character arc. She’s never been outside Vault 33 before, so she has no idea what to expect. It takes guts to venture out into an unknown world like this. As part of the heroes journey in any story, a key point is when the protagonist makes the choice to follow the thread of the story. A decision to pursue their goal. This is that moment for Lucy, and she is off to explore the wasteland. We see in the distance a Ferris wheel on a pier and can deduce that Vault 33 is located in Santa Monica.
There’s a sweet little moment when Lucy and Norm hug before she leaves the Vault. It’s clear that family matters to her. Even though Norm seems uninterested in most things, he obviously loves his sister. It’s lovely to see, because the rest of this segment shows a very clinical approach to the aftermath of such a violent incident.
Outside the Vault
Lucy steps outside, blinded by the strong sunlight. This is again a callback to the games, as a similar thing happens at the beginning of Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas and Fallout 4. It’s almost a cliché now. The first thing she sees on the ground is bones and skeletons. Human bones. Plenty of other debris and stuff as well, but it again serves to highlight that millions of people died in the Great War.
The Vaults were only able to save about 0.1% of the population of America. Millions died on the surface. There are many fun and comical moments in the games and in the show, but there’s a lot of darkness too. A large number of skeletons are outside the Vault door at 33. You see the same in Fallout 3, outside Vault 101. Skeletons, with picket signs saying “Let us in, assholes,” and “We’re dying.”
The opening of Fallout 4 is similar. We start in the Pre-War and run to the Vault. We pass a group of people, your neighbours, who don’t get in. Not even the sales rep gets in. You get in and your spouse asks what’s going to happen to those people outside the gate. The answer? They’re going to die. Brutal, but that’s the truth. Sure enough, when you leave Vault 111 again, there’s a bunch of human skeletons lying around near the gate.
Lucy looks around, and steels herself for the journey ahead. She has no idea where to go, but her optimism is enough for now. She’s determined to find her father. She chooses to keep going.
Maximus, Again
We then cut back to Maximus, who is being interrogated and threatened with execution. We get a bit more of an idea about what the Brotherhood are like. Maximus ends up being given Dane’s position as Squire to Knight Titus. Which he’s quite happy about. An interesting quote from the Scribe (I’m assuming Head Scribe but we don’t really know who he is).
“Violence is merely a tool. We use it to bring order to the wasteland. But violence against a Brother of Steel is a sign of weakness.”
This tells us plenty about what the Brotherhood believe and how they view violence. They seem to have become even more cult-like since we last saw them. The branding ceremony and everything seems to be new. There’s incense and ceremony, which really feels like zealotry or religious fanaticism.
They are taking orders from the Commonwealth, which is the area around Boston in Massachusetts. So quite far away, and it does suggest that the East Coast chapter are now working with the West Coast chapters of the Brotherhood. They had separated in 2277 in Fallout 3, but when Arthur Maxson took over and brought the Brotherhood to the Commonwealth, things had changed. It’s interesting and I’ll talk more about this later.
The mention of the Enclave prompts one of the aspirants to ask if the Enclave is real. The Enclave came from remnants of the US Government, and have been defeated a couple of times in the games. The Oil Rig was destroyed during Fallout 2, with only a handful of the remnants living in the Mojave area by 2281. Raven Rock and Adams Air Force Base would have been destroyed by the events of Fallout 3 and Broken Steel. We’ll see a bit more of them in the next episode.
The Ghoul
A new location. It’s unclear exactly where this is, but Honcho mentions California, suggesting they are not in California. Even so, he knows of Lee Moldaver, she did say that everyone knows who she is. Except us, but we’ll learn more about her later. These three men dig up The Ghoul, and this might be a new viewers first time seeing one.
Ghouls are irradiated humans, instead of dying of radiation sickness, they have mutated. This causes some physical deformities, loss of skin, noses and hair, but they are healed by radiation and live extended lifetimes. Some ghouls end up with too much damage to their brains and become ‘feral’, mindless and aggressive to anything non-ghoul around them. It also seems that eventually all ghouls will become feral as time goes on. I’ll get into the ghoul ecology eventually in detail.
The Junk Jet – A Classic Fallout Weapon
It’s funny to see the Junk Jet being used with doll parts as ammo. This is a game reference, unsurprisingly. In Fallout 3 you could get schematics to make a weapon called the Rock-It Launcher, which used miscellaneous items like books, pre-war money and garden gnomes as ammunition. You could even fire cutlery and dishes from it. In Fallout 4 there’s a similar weapon known as the Junk Jet which let you fire junk items. Not the best weapon, but certainly highly entertaining to use garden gnomes to kill people.
I was also amused at the bit about how feral ghouls can’t abide chickens. I have no idea where this comes from. There’s not a lot of instances of chickens in the games and when there is, any feral ghouls seem to attack most things equally. I guess it’s just a funny bit, especially when The Ghoul picks up the chicken and the guys panic. I assume he just overheard their conversation before they dug him up.
We get some more gratuitious and over the top violence, which shows us that The Ghoul is really quite skilled in combat. He doesn’t give much away but seems angry that Honcho knows where he’s from, ‘originally’. This is alluding to who The Ghoul was before he became a ghoul, i.e. before the war. Most of the ghouls you meet in Fallout were alive before the war.
Who Is The Ghoul?
We still don’t quite know who The Ghoul is, unless you are astute and recognise Walton Goggins eyes and voice! Sure enough, he says a line that is a callback to the very opening of the episode.
“Us cowpokes, we take it as it comes.”
Indeed, this is Cooper Howard. Missing his hair and nose, his voice a bit more rough perhaps as well. Now we know, the opening wasn’t just a show of what happened when the bombs fell. It is important to one of our main characters. Cooper is still around, as a ghoul. We know he had a daughter, and a wife at one point. We know he was famous pre-War, and a veteran.
My Overall Review of Fallout Episode One
Overall, I love this episode. I think it really gives just enough information for newcomers to the series to grasp what’s going on, while still giving a compelling start to the new story. We get some background details and some good foreshadowing. There’s no huge exposition dump, which would run the risk of being boring and putting viewers off. But there’s also lots of little hints and references for fans of the games to notice.
I love the three main characters. They are definitely fitting into the good, neutral and evil karma archetypes, which echoes the karma system from the games. In Fallout 3 and New Vegas, you have a karma level which changes based on your actions. You lose karma for stealing and murder, and you gain karma by helping people or giving to charity. The classic games had a reputation system too so people would know if you did something horrible and wouldn’t trust you.
The Three Karma Archetypes
Lucy is optimistic and clever, but she’s not completely incapable of fighting or killing if she has to. After all, every single mainline Fallout game lets you play as a male or female character, even the first game from 1997. We’re not going to lean into the sexist ‘damsel in distress’ who is too dainty to get blood on her hands or afraid to defend herself. The wasteland is an unforgiving place, full of dangerous creatures, dangerous people and dangerous environments. Lucy may be naïve about the surface, but she’s not incapable.
Maximus is the neutral karma character, he’s clearly having a tough time with the bullying and whatnot but there’s definitely some selfishness there too. He says he did not cause Dane’s injury but asks if he was wrong for wanting it to happen to them. Considering they are the only person who acts friendly towards Maximus, it’s quite horrible to wish them ill, you know? Yet, Maximus gets what he wanted in the end. That’s the definition of the neutral karma, a very mercenary approach where you do what benefits your own goals first before thinking about others.
The Ghoul is the evil karma character. Does that mean he’s a bad guy? Kind of. He’s clearly got his reasons and his motivations, which we will learn about through the series. He has no issues with killing or injuring people to get what he wants. He’s savvy and skilled, and he’s opportunistic. Is he the kind of guy that would detonate the bomb in Megaton? Yeah, I think he is, if it would get him closer to his goals or benefit him in some way to do so.
Thank You For Reading My Review of Episode One
If you want more information on the Fallout universe, subscribe below. You can also find videos on my YouTube channel covering a lot of the worldbuilding and storylines from Fallout. You can see my playlist on the Vaults here. For more articles on writing and on Fallout, check out my latest posts here.
One method of indirect storytelling in games involves finding bits of lore in the world. Examples include notes or voice recordings. Books, journals and emails on computers as well. This lore is not essential to the story, only giving background and additional details. This makes the world seem more real and adds interest to the game.
It can be handled in different ways. For example, Dragon Age Origins has a codex where notes and books are recorded in your codex. You can read it at any time. This lore can lead you to secrets and side quests.
In Fallout, you store notes in your Pip-Boy on paper or holotape. They point to unmarked side quests. In the Elder Scrolls games there are books you can find and read, and store in your player home.
All of this expands on the history and details of the game world. It’s usually optional but for players like me who love exploring and learning everything about the lore, it’s a huge part of the appeal of these games.
Side Quests
I’ve mentioned side quests a few times. So, what are they? Side quests are extra quests that are not essential to progress the main story. They result in extra small stories, and reward the player with experience points, money or items. They can also improve your reputation in games that have some kind of reputation system, which can affect other parts of the story.
For example, in Old World Blues in Fallout New Vegas, you can do a handful of simple side quests with the brains of the Think Tank. You can use your stats and skills to befriend all of the brains other than Dr Klein. You don’t have to, but if you do, it opens up the option of a peaceful resolution at the end of the main story. If the four of them are on side, you can talk Dr Klein down and avoid fighting them.
There’s a common meta joke about video game protagonists being overly helpful. That every time you visit a new town, you go around and fix all the problems of the people in that town. A lot of RPG gamers are completionists who want to get everything that the game has to offer and will spend hours avoiding the main plot. Side quests and side stories improve immersion too, as the player is spending more time engaging with and learning about the game world.
Thanks for reading. Next time we’re going to explore environmental storytelling and other ways games use indirect storytelling methods. Don’t forget to subscribe to get an update every time a post goes live!
