War… war never changes. The weapons evolve, but there are always victims left behind from their use. The people involved change, but their goals always include wealth and power. And the destruction varies, but there are always consequences for everyone. Now, what happens if war went too far and took away everything? That is the main idea behind the popular PC series known as “Fallout” by Bethesda Games and Interplay Entertainment.

The setting is the Wasteland. The USA’s current state after nuclear missiles were fired in a war over dwindling resources. The small bits of humanity that survived were in Vaults, underground bunkers to protect them from the fallout. Although towns had since been established, civilization struggled with surviving scarce resources and fighting against the mutated creatures along with the people who have gone insane. There are also several factions that formed, from the heroic Brotherhood of Steel to the ruthless Enclave. Players find themselves as a survivor in the middle of the barren place, with two things in mind: finish their goal in mind, and survive.

The player character of each of the main games has a different purpose and part of the region to explore. In the original, the Vault Dweller has to find a new purifier control chip for their water supply in the ruins of Southern California. In the second entry, the tribal village of Arkyyo is struck with sickness and only the Chosen One, the grandchild of the Vault Dweller, can find their salvation in Vault 13, in the middle of Northern California. In “Fallout 3”, after spending their whole life in Vault 101, the Lone Wanderer is forced to explore the ruins of the D.C. area in search of their missing father. In New Vegas, a Courier in the Mojave Desert nearly gets killed and has to receive the package that was stolen from them in the progress, with no idea where the package goes to. And in “Fallout 4”, the Sole Survivor of Vault 111 wakes up in the ruins of Massachusetts after 210 years of slumber, searching for answers to just what happened after the bombs dropped and their kidnapped son Shaun.  

The world of Fallout is massive and amazingly thought out thanks to the staff of Bethesda and Interplay. Todd Howard, Game Director and Executive Producer of Bethesda Games, said in an interview just moments after Fallout 4 was revealed to the public that “There are little details that we want you to have no matter what. That you feel like you can touch everything, and we have debates about what should be the gameplay, but we believe that the more we suspend players’ disbelief, the more we make them feel immerse in the gaming world.” You really feel like you’ve dropped into the aftermath of a war zone. The water is murky, creatures you’ve never seen before are everywhere, and you can see ruins of some of the most famous monuments of cities. And as you keep going into the world, you find yourself with decisions that make you question who you are. Do you think that humanity, with all its mistakes, deserve a chance to live? And is a government needed for a city to survive when there is no stable system?
The gameplay of Fallout keeps evolving into something more amazing each time. The original two were a turn-based RPG. Once Interplay went bankrupt and were bought out by Bethesda, they decided to give the games a makeover by changing the RPG type to a First-Person/Third-Person Shooter kind of game, similar to their famous “Elder Scrolls” series. Despite the massive turn in gameplay, “Fallout 3”, the first game under their name was critically acclaimed by reviewers everywhere and went on to receive awards from gaming journalists and websites everywhere, including the highest one of all: “Game of the Year.” With companions, monsters, character customization, locations, gameplay, and more in each package, the “Fallout” series is just an RPG for fans everywhere.