Fallout 4: Difference between revisions

 

 

Sanctuary Hills, Massachusetts, circa 2077 [[Running Gag|is a pleasant place to live in]]. You've done your service to your country and are just happy to settle down with your spouse and newborn son. And despite the worries of the age, it seems at long last that peace has finally come. That is, until the Great War finally arrives, forcing you and your family to flee to nearby Vault 111, making it just in time...only to be frozen as part of the Vault's experiment. By the time you wake up, your family's gone, centuries have passed, and you're desperate for answers in what's left of the old Commonwealth.

 

On February 16, 2016, Bethesda revealed details on the planned [[Downloadable Content|DLC]] for ''Fallout 4''. The first of these, ''Automatron'', was released on March 2016. This was followed by ''Wasteland Workshop'' in April, ''Far Harbor'' in May, ''Contraptions Workshop'' in June, ''Vault-Tec Workshop'' in July, and the final DLC, ''Nuka-World'', in August.

{{tropelist}}

* [[Alternate History]]: Further expounded upon, in addition to the existing lore. Scollay Square, where Goodneighbor is located, was a major Boston attraction before it was demolished and remodeled in real life. Likewise, in the ''Fallout'' continuity, the Boston Red Sox ''still'' hadn't won a World Series since 1918 by 2077, when in reality, the team finally broke the "Curse of the Bambino" in 2004.

* [[Ambiguous Situation]]: The ultimate fate of the [[The Alliance|Commonwealth Provisional Government]].

** Additionally, how sapient [[Artificial Human|Synths]] ''really'' are.

* [[Apocalypse Not]]: Despite Dr. Zimmer having implied otherwise in ''[[Fallout 3]]'', the Commonwealth is arguably the nicest section of the Wasteland since visited in the entire ''Fallout'' series. Hell, it's (environmentally, at least) even better off than the [[Fallout: New Vegas|Mojave]]!

*** Second, it's established that the [[Humiliation Conga|collapses]] of the [[The Alliance|Commonwealth Provisional Government]] and [[Doomed Moral Victor|Commonwealth Minutemen]] caused the beginnings of an organized regional society to fall apart. Thusly, instead of forming new city-states or something like the NCR, many parts of the Commonwealth were effectively knocked right back to the levels of lawless anarchy created just after the Great War.

** To a much lesser extent, there's also "Welcome home."

** From solely the ''Nuka-World'' DLC, there's the phrase "The real deal."

* [[Artistic License Nuclear Physics]]: As in every other game in the series, the laws of physics have more in common with 1950s pulp ''Science!'' than reality.

* [[Best Served Cold]]:

** The Sole Survivor could opt to do this to Captain Zao, the Ghoulified Chinese naval officer onboard the ''Yangtze'' {{spoiler|due to his part in the Great War, whether or not he was only following orders}}.

* [[Big Good]]:

** [[The Heart|Desdemona]], leader of [[Underground Railroad|the Railroad]], is rendered this by default since she's in charge of the only faction opposing the Institute at the game's beginning.

** The Sole Survivor's family ''also'' counts as this, considering how {{spoiler|the Sole Survivor is a [[Fish Out of Temporal Water]] suffering from PTSD, their beloved husband/wife is [[The Lost Lenore|long dead]], their son Shaun is now the main leader of the Institute ([[Big Bad|and potential main antagonist]]), and their "replacement" child is a Synth copy of the original Shaun at 10 years old}}.

* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: Much like ''New Vegas'', all of the endings to the main storyline have their positives and negatives.

** ''Nuka-World'' brings back both Nuka Cola Quartz and Nuka Cola Victory, both of which last appeared in ''New Vegas''.

** Like the Glow from way back in ''Fallout 1'', the Glowing Sea is a highly-irradiated impact site left by a nuclear blast.

*** The ''Prydwen'', the Brotherhood's [[Cool Airship]] and HQ in the Commonwealth, is mentioned as being built using parts from Rivet City and assembled in the former Enclave stronghold at Adams Air Force Base. Their airship is also mentioned as being based on the designs of airships used by [[Fallout Tactics Brotherhood of Steel|the Midwestern Brotherhood]].

** The Institute can be described as what [[Fallout New Vegas|the Think Tank and Big MT]] would be like if fully sober and sane.

** Dunwich Borers, the same company that owned the infamous Dunwich Building in DC (as seen in ''Fallout 3''), had operations around Boston that are just as Lovecraftian.

** Quite a few characters from ''Fallout 3'' make a return.

*** Dr. Madison Li, who's now the chief scientist at the Institute for the Advanced Systems division.

*** Robert Joseph MacCready, last seen as the annoying, bratty mayor of Little Lamplight, has grown up to be a [[Ironic Echo|mungo]]. [[She's All Grown Up|And a rather handsome, pleasant, and skilled one, at that]].

** The ''Far Harbor'' DLC reveals that there's at least someone among the Children of Atom {{spoiler|who's a defector from the Enclave}}.

* [[Central Theme]]: A few different ones are offered over the course of the game.

** [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|Who deserves to be a part of society?]] While this is most obvious with the questions surrounding the Synths on how sapient they are, this really applies to all of the Wasteland's different "races". The very few "pure" humans left, irradiated humanity, Super Mutants, Ghouls, Synths, all variants of mutated folk - it ultimately doesn't matter, as they ''all'' have to live together. Unfortunately, [[Fantastic Racism|some think they're better than others]].

** What do you [[Sadistic Choice|have to give up/are ''willing'' to give up]] [[He Who Fights Monsters|in order to make the world a better place?]]

* [[The Conspiracy]]: Because of their [[Weak but Skilled|relative lack of resources]], the Institute controls the entire Commonwealth through a complex network of Synth spies and hired informants.

* [[Crapsack World]]: Zig-Zagged/Downplayed with the Commonwealth.

* [[Crystal Spires and Togas]]: The Institute fancies itself as this by 2287, with even its scientists' attire looking more like futuristic togas. Its shadier actions, however, suggest otherwise.

* [[Death World]]: The Glowing Sea, ground zero for the nuke that was intended for Boston during the Great War.

** Mount Desert Island has also become this as consequence of the Great War.

* [[Defector From Decadence]]: Of sorts. Grand Zealot Brian Richter {{spoiler|was the sole survivor of his Enclave squad before joining}} the Children of the Atom.

** The excuses used by some of the Institute's members on why they shouldn't help Wastelanders are reminiscent of how residents of Western countries waive off supplying foreign aid to developing nations, right down to a few Institute scientists outright stating [[Somebody Else's Problem|"We shouldn't try to think about it, as it's much too depressing to discuss right now."]]

* [[Driven to Suicide]]: The dark secret of the once-exclusive Boylston Club. Where it's revealed that just after the Great War ended, the Club's patrons (made up of some of the most distinguished figures in the Pre-War Commonwealth) committed suicide rather than face the post-apocalyptic world.

* [[Elaborate Underground Base]]: The Institute is so well hidden {{spoiler|that the only ways to access it are either through special teleportation technology, finding a '''very''' obscure and well-hidden abandoned maintenance tunnel, or sending in Liberty Prime to the C.I.T. Ruins to simply blow a big hole in it}}.

* [[Empire with a Dark Secret]]: It's a relatively open secret among the Commonwealth's denizens that there are some shady goings-on within the Institute, enough to prompt the East Coast Brotherhood of Steel to intervene. But the full extent of its plans are so insidious that even those within the Institute either try to downplay it or may not even be aware of it themselves, instead focusing more on their pretensions of progressing humanity.

* [[Every Car Is a Pinto]]: Similar to ''[[Fallout 3]]'', cars will still explode if shot more than a few times. Also counts as an example of [[Artistic License Nuclear Physics]], as said cars are fusion powered, and produce a miniature mushroom cloud.

* [[Fictional Counterpart]]:

** The Parsons State Insane Asylum is this to the real-world [[Abandoned Hospital|Danvers State Hospital]].

** Boston Airport is also this to Logan International Airport, and is even partially modelled after it.

* [[Film Noir]]: Nick Valentine's whole persona and questline are a ''Fallout'' rendition of this, which goes beyond having his own office in Diamond City or being a Synth with a Pre-War police officer's memories. Though unlike most Noir protagonists, he's rather friendly and kind-hearted for a gumshoe detective, especially compared to most everyone else in the Commonwealth. Goodneighbor also has this to a degree as part of its atmosphere.

* [[Foil]]:

** The Sole Survivor is this to the Lone Wanderer. The Lone Wanderer was a young lad/lass who left their safe, secure life in comfy Vault 101 to venture out into the Wasteland to find their missing father. The Sole Survivor is a family man/woman who leaves their decaying, frozen tomb of a Vault (as well as the Pre-War world that they survived) and ventures out into the Wasteland to find their missing son. [[Dramatic Irony|It does make you wonder what kind of conversation they'd have if they ever met.]]

** The Minutemen are this, after a fashion, to the Enclave. While both evoke patriotic memories of Pre-War America and were thought to be dead, the Minutemen legitimately seek to help the Commonwealth and make a difference, all the while hearkening back to what America ''wished'' it was. They also serve as this to the East Coast Brotherhood of Steel by being everything Lyons wished he could turn the Brotherhood into but ultimately failed in achieving, and with far less technology, resources, and influence.

** Vault 81 is this to Vault 101. Whereas the latter was slowly dwindling into oblivion with each generation while following its stated purpose, Vault 81 remains a thriving and sane, if secluded community despite ''not'' following its intended directive.

*** There's also one to Vault 21. Both were experimental Vaults that were fully expected to result in the demise of their inhabitants (one way or another). However, while Vault 81 {{spoiler|[[Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right|decided to abandon its experiments for the sake of its inhabitants]]}}, Vault 21's experiment proved to be perfectly compatible with its inhabitants' comfortable survival until Mr. House came along.

* [[From Nobody to Nightmare]]:

** Hancock remarks how the Raider boss known as Sinjin, given enough time, could become as big a threat to the wasteland as [[Fallout: New Vegas|''Caesar'']] was if he's not stopped.

** Part of the Brotherhood's rationale behind stopping the Institute, according to Elder Maxson, is to make sure that it doesn't become ''even more'' of a threat.

** The Minutemen are a benevolent example, as they can go from being almost wiped out to the last man at the start of the game's plot to becoming ''the'' dominant force in the Commonwealth.

** Even [[Always Chaotic Evil|''Raiders'']] are significantly humanized via conversations the player can overhear between them when they haven't been detected, and terminals in various Raider-controlled setting show countless shades of villainy among them.

** The ''Far Harbor'' DLC has the conflict between the Church of the Children of Atom, the inhabitants of the titular Far Harbor, and even {{spoiler|[[Town with a Dark Secret|DiMA's Acadia]]}}. Far Harbor's inhabitants are distrustful of outsiders (particularly the Children of Atom), but the main reason for their hatred and ignorance is that they've lost numerous loved ones as the radioactive Fog drove them to the docks. The Children of Atom, despite their [[Church Militant]] nature and wish to blanket the entire Island with the Fog at the expense of Far Harbor, are {{spoiler|'''not''' [[Not Me This Time|responsible for the Fog]]}} and only became more hostile due to being led by an extremist leader like Tektus. While DiMA and the Synths of Acadia live in peace and even provided Fog Condensers to Far Harbor to help them hold back the Fog, {{spoiler|DiMA himself killed Captain Avery and replaced her with a mind-wiped Synth in the manner of the very Institute he had fled from. Despite his reason for that being peace between Acadia and Far Harbor, he can get called out on being [[Not So Different|Not So Different]] from the Institute}}. The story ''does'' have a [[Golden Ending]], but it involves {{spoiler|either killing Tektus or [[Talking the Monster to Death|convincing him to leave]] so he can be replaced with a Synth to prevent a war between Far Harbor and the Children of Atom}}.

* [[Ham-to-Ham Combat]]: It's possible for the Sole Survivor to do this against the Mechanist in the ''Automatron'' DLC while dressed as the Silver Shroud. The ensuing dialogue is practically a contest on who can overact who.

* [[Happy Ending Override]]:

** Played with for ''[[Fallout 3]]''. The East Coast Brotherhood of Steel seized the day in the Capital Wasteland, with no small thanks to the Lone Wanderer. On the other hand, both Owyn and Sarah Lyons died not long after, many (but not ''all'') of their reforms undone as the current Elder, Arthur Maxson once more reunited with the Outcasts and the previously estranged West Coast Brotherhood in the Lost Hills. It's also implied that the Brotherhood rules over DC like feudal overlords.

* [[Heroic BSOD]]: The Sole Survivor is strongly hinted at undergoing this through a good deal of the game, being that they're suffering from PTSD by consequence of [[Trauma Conga Line|the game's prologue]]. [[Fridge Brilliance|Which can]] [[Alternate Character Interpretation|plausibly explain]] his/her at-times muted emotional reactions.

* [[Husky Russkie]]: Vadim and Yefim Bobrov in Diamond City are this, giving the impression of being a post-apocalyptic version of [[The Mafiya]] despite actually being rather amiable and friendly. They're likely descended from Soviet immigrants or delegates around Boston when the Great War happened.

* [[Iconic Item|Iconic Outfit]]: Two, actually - the [[Super Prototype|T-60]] [[Powered Armor|Power Armor]] and the [[Badass Longcoat|Silver Shroud costume]].

* [[Internal Homage]]: The Minutemen's resurgence under the Sole Survivor's leadership, in conjunction to them all but uniting the Commonwealth under one flag, bears more than a passing semblance to how the New California Republic ultimately came to be, paralleling how the Vault Dweller and Shady Sands under Aradesh helped lay down the foundations for a stable regional identity to arise.

** The default appearance of the Male Sole Survivor (Nate) looks more than a little like Albert Cole, one of the pre-made player characters for ''Fallout 1''.

* [[Jerkass Victim]]: The Mayor of Boston is revealed to have commissioned an underground shelter for himself, his family and a handful of guards using taxpayers' money. When the Great War finally happened, the survivors topside weren't too happy knowing about that, resulting in said Mayor, family and supporters dying a brutal death. Which would be tragic, if they weren't so sleazy.

* [[Just Before the End]]: The prologue sequence is set in 2077, on the very day of the Great War.

* [[Leaning on the Fourth Wall]]: Downplayed, but Father's constant statements about how the Synths only ''resemble'' human sapience can be seen as a commentary on programming video game NPCs and making them resemble actual characters in a story people should invest in.

* [[Lighter and Softer]]: Than both ''Fallout 3'' and ''New Vegas''.

* [[Lovecraft Country]]: This vibe is given off more and more the farther north you go. The ''Far Harbor'' DLC takes this even further, being set in post-apocalyptic Maine.

* [[Medium Blending]]: The game's intro is done in live-action. While gameplay-wise, it not only builds on the RPG/FPS fusion introduced in previous entries, but also incorporates certain elements like settlement construction.

** The ''Automatron'' DLC meanwhile adds robot construction and customization into the mix. While the ''Vault-Tec Workshop'' DLC allows the Sole Survivor to become the ''de facto'' Overseer of his/her own Vault.

** The Institute doesn't particularly care how many Synths are destroyed so long as they get the job done, given how any losses incurred could be replaced. The Institute also doesn't seem to care about how many people they abduct and replace with Synths, either.

** Fenway Park has seen better days, though has long since found new life as the site of Diamond City.

* [[Mythology Gag]]: Quite a few appear.

** The first trailer begins in a manner similar to the intro of [[Fallout 1|the first game]], by slowly panning out from a TV set to show the ruins of the Wasteland around it.

** In the ''Vault-Tec Workshop'' DLC, you can make your own Vault Gear-doors. However, they look like the smaller doors with the side-arm pulling them away, as they were in the art style for the original two ''Fallout'' games.

** The relationship between the Commonwealth Minutemen and the Settlers they protect is heavily based after that of the Desert Rangers from the original ''[[Wasteland (video game)|Wasteland]]''. The ''Fallout'' series is generally seen as the [[Spiritual Successor]] to ''Wasteland''.

* [[Not So Different]]:

** Captain Zao is this to a Minutemen-aligned Male Sole Survivor. Both are the last living residents of the Pre-War militaries that nearly caused the extinction of all life, and simply want to rebuild their long-since dead nations into what they ''should'' have been. And his friendly demeanor to the Sole Survivor can help show that China wasn't that different from the United States before the Resource Wars and resultant Great War.

** Both the Minutemen and Railroad are rather similar in their outlooks, to the point that it's possible for the two factions to join forces.

* [[One Nation Under Copyright]]: It's implied that corporations under the Enclave's influence like Vault-Tec behaved like this in Pre-War America, to the point of feigning authority over the actual government in the event of nuclear war.

* [[Our Ghouls Are Creepier]]: Ghouls also appear in the Commonwealth.

* [[Our Zombies Are Different]]: [[Technically Living Zombie|Feral Ghouls]] return yet again in this installment.

* [[Patriotic Fervor]]:

** The East Coast Brotherhood of Steel is a peculiar case. Its members by and large are fervently loyal and see themselves as the vanguard of a sovereign country, further highlighted by how (unlike their West Coast counterparts) their actions have evolved into nation-building.

** Similarly, most of the Institute's countless scientists are quite friendly and pleasant to the Sole Survivor, despite the horrific actions that their experiments have accomplished on the surface. This is partly due to both [[Believing Their Own Lies|cultural indoctrination]] [[Bigger Bad|started by the Institute's founders]], and that most of the Institute's residents [[Locked Out of the Loop|genuinely haven't the faintest idea about ''any'' of their atrocities.]]

* [[Really 700 Years Old]]:

** Several Ghouls are around who were alive when the Great War happened. Examples include Arlen Glass (a renowned toymaker responsible for Giddyup Buttercup), Kent Connolly (a diehard fan of the Silver Shroud living in Goodneighbor), Eddie Winter (an intentionally ghoulified mob boss {{spoiler|who was responsible for killing the original Nick Valentine's fiancee}}) and even the Vault-Tec Sales Representative seen in the intro, who's more than shocked to see you.

** Thanks to implants and enhancements courtesy of the Institute, {{spoiler|Conrad Kellogg}} is considerably older than he appears - old enough to remember the day the [[Fallout 2|New California]] [[Fallout New Vegas|Republic]] was formally established.

* [[Right-Handed Left-Handed Guns]]: Some of the guns are modeled this way, notably the Thompson and, particularly glaringly, the bolt-action hunting rifle. Possibly [[Justified Trope|Justified]], as [[Truth in Television|current militaries often ''do'' supply bolt action rifles with opposite to normal actions,]] with the intent of the wielder using their left hand to cycle the weapon & their right to operate the trigger, allowing for faster shooting. [[Rule of Cool|Or it might have been done to just give the reload animations a more unique look]].

* [[Romanticism Versus Enlightenment]]: The East Coast Brotherhood of Steel and Institute fall along these lines, respectively.

* [[Scenery Gorn]]: In addition to the blasted ruins left behind by the War, there's the Glowing Sea, an irradiated hellscape where the nuclear bomb meant for Boston actually landed.

* [[Scenery Porn]]: Both the Pre-War and 2287-era Commonwealth are quite a sight to behold, to say the least.

* [[Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right]]: The biggest reason why Vault 81 continues to thrive is thanks to the first Overseer {{spoiler|refusing to pull through with the Vault's true purpose, instead sealing off the few scientists who managed to make it in when the bombs fell with their lethal cargo. It helped as well that said scientists soon developed a conscience and accepted their fate}}.

* [[Shout Out]]: As with any good ''Fallout'' game, it's pretty [[Reference Overdosed]].

*** The Silver Shroud's storyline is also heavily based after ''[[The Boondock Saints]]'', a film about twin brothers who become vigilantes and kill prominent members of Boston’s criminal underworld

** The [[Wolverine|Adamantium Skeleton]] perk returns once again.

** Exploring the Wasteland, you'll frequently come across bundles of sticks and twigs up in the trees, which look [[The Blair Witch Project|disturbingly familiar]].

** One of the random encounters involves finding a dead [[The Postman (film)|postman]] surrounded by mongrels.

** In the C.I.T. Ruins, you can find an old mop and bucket along with the clothes of a janitor [[Good Will Hunting|next to a chalkboard with a complicated math equation]].

** One of Hancock's random conversations with unnamed Goodneighbor residents involves [[The Simpsons (animation)|a traveler attempting to sell the town a monorail]].

** Captain Ironsides' vendetta against the Boston-based Weatherby accounting firms that [[Makes Just as Much Sense in Context|the ''U.S.S. Constitution'' repeatedly crashes into]] is a reference to the [[Monty Python]] short film ''[[Monty Python's The Meaning of Life|The Crimson Permanent Assurance]]'', which also features a gang of unlikely pirates (elderly accountants in the film rather than robots) in a flying ship who attack American accounting firms.

*** In another example from ''Automatron'', the sequence of doors at the entrance to the Mechanist's stronghold is straight out of the opening sequence of ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]''.

** The Deliverer, a unique silenced pistol given to the Sole Survivor by the Railroad (the faction of the Commonwealth most heavily based on espionage agencies) is heavily based on the Walther PPK, the iconic pistol used by [[James Bond (film)|James Bond]].

*** [[Author Appeal|And it wouldn't be a Bethesda game without a ''ton'' of Lovecraft references!]] Let's go into some of them!

**** One side mission has you looking for a [[Mad Artist]] [[Serial Killer]] named Pickman, who makes macabre and disturbing paintings and has creepy tunnels under his studio.

**** In the [[The Dunwich Horror|Dunwich Borers Quarry]] (itself already a [[Shout-Out]] to H.P. Lovecraft), there's for some reason four Feral Ghouls all named after famous rock musicians.

**** A ''third'' reference to Lovecraft is the Kingsport Lighthouse. Kingsport was the earliest fictional town in what became known as [[Lovecraft Country]], and in ''The Festival'', a group of cloaked cultists perform pre-human rites there.

** The caricature of Father that appears in the quest pictures looks exactly like [[Mega Man|Dr. Light]].

*** The special arm-light that checks the individual bodies is also reminiscent of ''[[Flight of the Navigator]]''.

** A corpse can be found beside a tractor, a broken fence and two Feral Ghouls, referencing a scene from Episode 1 of Telltale Games' ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Walking_Dead_%28video_game%29 The Walking Dead]''.

* [[Super Soldier]]: The Institute's [[The Dreaded|rightfully feared]] Coursers '''definitely''' count as this.

* [[Take That]]: One can sometimes find tiny hairbrushes on dead Deathclaws, which might be a jab at [[Fallout Tactics Brotherhood of Steel|Fallout Tactics']] infamous "hairy Deathclaws" redesign.

* [[Town with a Dark Secret]]: Vault 81 is a rather benevolent example. On the one hand, it's a rather upbeat time capsule of Pre-War America that's a control vault in all but name, though it's (rationally) wary of outsiders. {{spoiler|But its original purpose, as a testing ground for diseases and bioweapons, was never implemented in the first place. The first Overseer sealing away the few scientists meant to conduct the experiments, while said scientists developed a conscience and willingly accepted their fate}}.

** [[Stepford Smiler|Covenant]], however, plays this straight.

* [[Wacky Wayside Tribe]]:

** The Children of the Atom in ''Far Harbor'', a formerly bizarre yet harmless [[Cult]] version of this, have become much more deadly and dangerous than they started as. {{spoiler|Especially since they began as pacifists in ''[[Fallout 3]]'', albeit with an obsession for worshiping nuclear weaponry like bombs}}.

** The Hubologists, [[The Bus Came Back|previously seen]] in ''[[Fallout 2]]'' make a return in the ''Nuka-World'' DLC, only this time even more deluded. Somehow.

** Applies in a meta sense to what the player can do to change things, since they were unable to have a direct hand in actually rebuilding civilization, with they can now do, with the effects immediate and apparent due to the settlement mechanic.

* [[Yellow Peril]]: Averted with Captain Zao. As while he hails from Pre-War China, he's an otherwise honorable if ghoulified officer who sincerely regrets his role in the Great War and just wants to return home.

 

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