For a long time I wondered what made the universe created by Leonard Boyarsky And Tim Cain so unique: the retrofuturistic atom-punk aesthetic has certainly helped to stick in the public mind that imagery made of Vaults, power armor and deformed creatures, yet I continue to believe there is more. Why do we love post-apocalyptic imagery? Do they give us the opportunity to think of something new? Or “it is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism” – phrase attributed to Fredric Jameson, and by others to Slavoj Zizek.
Since the launch of Fallout 4 (here the review of Fallout 4), a lot has happened: the release of Fallout 76, the acquisition by Microsoft, the publication of Starfield (here the review of Starfield) and the arrival of the Amazon TV series. Despite the ups and downs, the IP to the Bethesda atomic disaster remains one of the most popular ever in the world of video games, and the number of active users following the release of the show with peaks of 164,000 players on Fallout 4, proves it. While the US company is working on the new chapter of the Elder Scrolls series, let’s try to fantasize about what Fallout 5 could be.
The Contaminated Zone
The Fallout series has always managed to propose settings with great charm: the ruins of Washington DC, the Mojave Desert, the green Appalachia, a Boston reduced to rubble. These are locations with a strong visual impact, thanks to an artistic direction that has become one of the IP’s trademarks.
Where could a hypothetical Fallout 5 be set? What are the potentially interesting areas? Excluding a priori cities like New York – which we remember it being one of the cities most affected during the Great War – it would be interesting to return to the west coast, perhaps to Arizona where there is a strong presence of Caesar’s Legionwhile on the border with Mexico we find bases belonging to the Republic of New California.
This could be it the opportunity to retrace the steps of New Vegaswhich sees the two factions involved in a life-or-death struggle for control of resources, but not only that: it would give the series the opportunity to “get out” of the US borders, giving us the chance to explore a country so far only mentioned in the various Fallouts.
Alternatively, a return to the east coast it could take us to the ruins of Charlotteabout which we know little or nothing.
The only information we have comes from a Fallout 76 terminal: Penelope Hornwright, a scientist turned ghoul, was forced to wear a balaclava to hide her face, until she was discovered and eventually expelled from the city. Another potentially explorable scenario is that of nuclear winter: it is hypothesized that the use of thermonuclear devices could lead to an exponential drop in temperatureswhich as described in a news published on our portal would lead to a “a drop of about 9 degrees Celsius in the first 12 months after the use of atomic weapons, but this inexorable decline in temperatures could lead to the “loss” of another 1.5 degrees Celsius. […] the drop in temperatures would lead to other catastrophic events, from limitations in plant growth to a reduction of around 30% in precipitation within the first few months“.
As lethal as it may seem, this is a scenario that is already a reality in the Fallout universe, but that hasn’t stopped the few survivors from starting over again, in the hope of rebuilding what was lost. A winter formula already tested in the Nuclear Winter online mode of Fallout 76, but which we hope can become the basis for a real chapter.
Role-playing component
In Fallout 4 the reduction of selectable responses during dialogues he has somewhat impoverished his ability to role play.
Instead, in Fallout New Vegas – considered by many to be one of, if not the best of the series – the structure of the conversations and the dialogue options were strictly connected to the character’s statistics, a feature that offered him the possibility of being able to actually “play” a role: an illiterate warrior, a computer-savvy thief, a charismatic doctor or a bomb disposal specialist. In short, it would be excellent if the fifth chapter was numbered tended to the heights set by the Obsidian title on this front.
A new story
According to the official timeline, the events of the Fallout world take place between 2077 and 2296. While the video game series focused almost exclusively on the centuries following the outbreak of the Great War, the TV show gave us the opportunity to observe life before the nuclear holocaustplacing some emphasis on Vault-Tec and the reasons that led the world to ruin.
Returning to games, we want to take the example of Fallout 3: Operation Anchorage. In this expansion it is possible to relive a virtual simulation of the Battle of Anchorage, fought between 2076 and the beginning of the following year between China and the United States. This is an event that Cooper Howard himself – the Ghoul of the TV series – mentions on at least a couple of occasions, having himself fought against the Chinese Red Army in Alaska.
In other words, it is not difficult to imagine a chapter of the saga set partially in the past, however risky it may be: this would allow the player to experience firsthand the events that preceded the main games, also giving him the possibility of closely observing the American society and the energy crisis that has hit the world. The possibilities are many and the Fallout bible written by Chris Avellone it helps us imagine scenarios never explored before.
An engine that keeps up with the times
After using Gamebryo for the development of Fallout 3, Bethesda saw fit to move to the Creation Engine, on which Fallout 4, Fallout 76 and Starfield are based. Even though it is not a cutting-edge technological solution, the qualitative leap compared to the previous engine was significant, and already with Starfield we were able to test the potential of an engine that has become one of the distinctive features of the software house.
In addition to clearly a step forward in terms of graphic rendering, our hope is that in the future of Fallout there may be a clear improvement in the management, for example, of facial animations, so as to make the new adventure even more credible on crucial aspects of the role-playing recipe. Already The Elder Scrolls VI could provide us with some reassurance in this senseand that’s just another reason we’re waiting to see it in action.
Fallout 5… or New Vegas 2?
Fallout 5 is undoubtedly among Bethesda’s plans, but what to say about a hypothetical New Vegas 2? On the other hand, at the current state of things, both Obsidian and the home of Fallout have become part of the Microsoft family, so our dream of returning to the Mojave Wasteland could, one day, materialize.
Could the team currently working on Avowed and The Outer Worlds 2 get to work on it? Venture Beat reporter Jeff Grubb reported on this possibility a couple of years ago, and recently the Fallout 4 code files on Steam were updated with a mysterious directory called “newvegas2”, which was later removed. In short, we cannot say anything certain on this front, but the possibility that New Vegas 2 could arrive in earnest cannot be ruled out.
