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[[File:355388 popular fallout 4 fan poster.jpg|thumb|'''''Welcome Home''''' (Fan Poster Property of Lazare Gvimradze)]]
{{quote|''"[[Spanner in the Works|Everything can change in an instant]], and the future you plan for yourself shifts - whether or not you're ready. At some point... it happens to all of us."''|'''[[Player Character|The Sole Survivor]]''', [[Suddenly Voiced|reflecting back]] over their adventures in the Commonwealth}}
''[[Fallout 4]]'' is an open world action role-playing video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by [[Bethesda Softworks]]. The fifth major installment in the [[Fallout|''Fallout'' series]], the game was released worldwide on November 10, 2015 for [[PC]], [[PlayStation 4]] and [[Xbox One]].
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.
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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}}
* [[Adorkable]]: Travis, the owner and DJ of Diamond City Radio, is very shy and constantly bumbles his delivery yet still tries to do his job. {{spoiler|His questline eventually leads him to become much more confident and having a matching smooth radio voice to boot
* [[Adult Fear]]: Having your son kidnapped while you are helpless to stop it.
* [[Alas, Poor Villain]]: If the Sole Survivor hasn't killed him before the final quest, then this happens with {{spoiler|Father/Shaun in any ending where the player doesn't side with the Institute. Father dies knowing that his own mother/father is about to destroy his life's work, still convinced that the Institute was the only hope left in the world. His last interaction with the Sole Survivor isn't to scream in rage or pointlessly shoot at them: it's to just let out a bitter, weary sigh and quietly tell them to leave so he can die in peace}}. Even if you strongly disagree with his mindset and {{spoiler|the Institute in general}}, it's ''really'' hard not to feel sorry for him.
* [[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.
* [[Aluminum Christmas Trees]]: The titular town in the ''Far Harbor'' DLC exists in real life Maine as Bar Harbor.
** The law school Nora got her JD from does exist, albeit under a slightly different name.
* [[Ambiguous Situation]]: The ultimate fate of the [[The Alliance|Commonwealth Provisional Government]].
** Additionally, how sapient [[Artificial Human|Synths]] ''really'' are.
* [[And I Must Scream]]: John-Caleb Bradberton‘s head was kept in the basement level of his former office in Nuka-World, ''still alive but unable to talk to anyone or move'' for ''over 200 years''. The player has the option of cutting off the power to end his suffering or to let him live.
* [[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]]!
** To further elaborate, unlike the nuclear carpet-bombing Washington D.C. was subjected to or the 11 nukes that hit the Mojave Desert, Boston was only hit by ''one'' nuclear missile
** Despite these advantages, however, the Commonwealth is still largely feral wilderness and a hodgepodge of scattered communities without any form of united regional government. While part of this is due to [[The Conspiracy|the Institute]] [[Manipulative Bastard|deliberately sabotaging the formation/progress of any surface society that it disagrees with]], there's also some other reasons given over the game's course
*** First, the nearby presence of the [[Mordor|Glowing Sea]]. Because Boston's nuclear missile [[From Bad to Worse|hit an advanced nuclear reactor]], the surrounding region is still dangerously irradiated in the game's present. Not only does this mean that anyone in the Glowing Sea ''not'' in Power Armor/a Hazmat Suit or have sufficient amounts of Rad-X
*** 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.
* [[Arc Words]]: Continuing on from the rest of the ''Fallout'' series, "War... war never changes."
** To a much lesser extent, there's also "Welcome home."
** From solely the ''Nuka-World'' DLC, there's the phrase "The real deal."
* [[Art Evolution]]:
** The art design of the game got completely overhauled from the previous games where now environments are vibrant and have more color, almost every monsters, mechanical designs, and weapons, even staples of the series like what Vault doors look like got revamped (they are now somehow even ''bigger'' and the one you starts in has an entrance elevator).
** Character creation is much more in-depth this time. In addition to preset shapes for features such as your eyes and nose, you can now fine tune the size, position, and shape of your facial features much better than in ''Fallout 3'' and ''Fallout: New Vegas''. You can even morph their body within a "Thin-Muscular-Large" parameter, meaning that every human, Synth and Ghoul NPC no longer share the same physical build.
** The Ghouls are slightly different than in previous games. A fair number of them are able to keep their head of hair and many now have completely black eyes. They also have varying levels of decomposition and don't all speak in raspy voices. Feral Ghouls also look more like lumpy, hunchbacked mutants rather than straight zombies, with bulging heads and twisted limbs. Overall, Feral Ghouls in ''Fallout 4'' look more like actual real-life burn victims or patients suffering from severe degenerative disease, rather than the high-fantasy undead zombies they looked like in ''Fallout 3''.
** The Pip-Boy interface and icons now looks more high res, having a more solid font than in ''Fallout 3'' and ''Fallout: New Vegas''. The Pip-Boy icons are now even animated humorously. It was also redesigned to have the switches and dials on the right side, where someone could actually use it when wearing it on their left hand.
** Mirelurks are no longer bipedal crustaceans, instead looking more like oversized mutated crabs or lobsters depending on the species.
* [[Artificial Brilliance]]: Everyone is a whole lot smarter now.
** Humanoid enemies are much more competent, and hostile NPCs won't just stand in place shooting at you. Enemies will move around to avoid your fire, will duck behind cover to heal and reload, peaking their heads out to look for you and fire back, and will fire around corners without stepping out to expose themselves. When facing multiple enemies they'll fan out to attack from multiple directions, particularly melee enemies who ''will'' sneak around and rush you from behind if they can. Enemies will use suppression fire to pin you down, and anyone who has grenades will use them to flush you out of cover and prevent you from camping. When attacking a group of enemies from range, even if you're in sneak and have a suppressor on your rifle, they'll start firing at your location and come to look for you random because even though they can't actually see you they can tell which direction the gunfire is coming from.
** Enemies are also much smarter. Mutated animals such as Wild Mongrels will attempt to circle the player while in combat. Deathclaws are now intelligent enough to weave to the sides to dodge gunfire. Feral Ghouls, instead of serving as shambling bullet catchers, are now flailing, erratic, and extremely aggressive adversaries. Mirelurks now cover their faces with their pincers when they are charging at you. In cases where the enemy is incapable of finding its way to you (such as Deathclaws being unable to climb a truck), they will retreat to cover and stay there until you either manage to shoot them from another angle (which makes them retreat even further) or come down to ground level, which renders you vulnerable to attack once more.
* [[Artificial Human]]: One of the main plot points of the game is that of synthetic humanoids - or, as everyone properly calls them, "Synths". Gen 3 Synths are [[They Walk Among Us|virtually identical to that of ordinary humans]], but have the following differences: they're [[Made of Iron]] in comparison to ordinary Wastelanders, [[The Needless|require no food or water to survive]] (and, by consequence, can neither gain nor loose weight), are either [[The Ageless]] or [[Immortality Begins At Twenty|just age incredibly slowly]] in comparison to ordinary humans, cannot interbreed with each other or have children with humanity, [[The Immune|are immune]] to radiation poisoning, [[Healing Factor|heal from injuries at a slightly accelerated rate]] than ordinary humanity does (along with generally having enhanced senses and strength), and can have their minds completely overwritten/reprogrammed. The division between how organic and mechanical they are is pretty blurry.
* [[Artificial Stupidity]]: Unfortunately, there's still quite a few examples of this.
** Generally speaking, NPCs don't handle the verticality of the world very well. Settlers will often determine that the only way to get down from a roof isn't to take the stairs carefully placed to let them up there, but to just walk off a nearby ledge. Raiders, and especially Gunners due to their raised highway forts, will sometimes [[Too Dumb to Live|just walk right off the edge of their vantage points]] and die instantly on contact with the ground.
* [[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.
* [[Awesome but Impractical]]: Many of the Institute's standard weaponry ''look'' sleek and advanced, but pack less of a punch than the Brotherhood's laser-heavy arsenal.
* [[Awesome Yet Practical]]
* [[Best Served Cold]]:
** Nick Valentine's questline eventually leads to a confrontation with a ghoulified gangster boss named Eddie Winter {{spoiler|who was responsible for killing the fiancee of the original Valentine. By then, however, he's largely forgotten about it, having taken place over 200 years earlier}}.
** 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}}.
** The confrontation against {{spoiler|Conrad Kellogg}} is ultimately revealed to be this. {{spoiler|While the Sole Survivor's grudge is still fresh by the time he catches up to Kellogg, for the latter it's been ''decades'' since the dirty deed was done
* [[Big Bad]]: Downplayed, as the game's new [[Grey and Gray Morality]] makes it so the game's main antagonist is solely based on the different factions. However, depending on the faction the Sole Survivor chooses to side with, you'll have to go to war with one {{spoiler|(or more)}} of the most powerful factions in the game - These include Elder Arthur Maxson, the Synth-discriminating leader of the Brotherhood of Steel, or "Father", the leader of the mysterious Institute.
* [[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.
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** 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.
* [[Black Comedy]]/[[Denser and Wackier]]: While not '''quite''' at the level of ''New Vegas'', ''Fallout 4'' has a much sillier and darker sense of humor than ''3'' ever did.
* [[Boring but Practical]]
* [[Call Back]]/[[Continuity Nod]]:
** In ''Far Harbor'', [[Arc Villain|High Confessor Tektus]] claims that "the great prophet" [[Fallout 3|Confessor Cromwell]] told his chapter of the Children of Atom to go north and "spread Atom's word", which is how they eventually got to the Island.
** Possibly unintentional, but most of the songs playing on Radio Freedom and the Settlement Recruitment Beacons (the Minutemen's two radio stations) were also played on Enclave Radio in ''Fallout 3''.
** ''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 East Coast Brotherhood of Steel incorporate elements of the Midwestern chapter in addition to some of the reforms Owyn Lyons implemented in ''Fallout 3
*** 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.
** The Minutemen are akin to a prototypical NCR crossed with the Desert Rangers seen in the first ''Fallout'' games. The formal founding of the NCR itself is captured in a flashback sequence via someone else's memories
** The Railroad were previously introduced in ''Fallout 3'', but play a much larger role here in opposing the Institute and its
** 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.
*** Arthur Maxson, who was just a young boy and ''very'' minor character in ''3'', is now Elder of the East Coast Brotherhood as well as leading the fight against the Institute. Unfortunately, since then [[Used to Be a Sweet Kid|he's lost all of his younger idealism]] and [[From Nobody to Nightmare|has become a charismatic
*** 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]].
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** 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.
* [[Controllable Helplessness]]: The prologue is ultimately this, after a fashion. With practically little more than the clothes on your back, you frantically get yourself and your family to Vault 111 as the Great War reaches Boston... and there's ''nothing'' you can do to stop the end of the world.
* [[Cool Airship]]: The ''Prydwen''. Also, potentially, {{spoiler|''USS Constitution''}}.
* [[Cool Boat]]: ''USS Constitution''. {{spoiler|Can also count as a [[Cool Airship]]}}.
* [[Crap Saccharine World]]: The Pre-War world is this, in keeping with classic ''Fallout'' tradition. But this time though, it's deconstructed, as you get to glimpse for yourself how life in Pre-War America was like. On the one hand, America is shown as rife with near-constant shortages and economic turmoil even as the stand-off with China intensifies, with civilization elsewhere on the verge of collapse; and that's not getting to the Enclave's original plans of leaving Earth altogether. At the same time, however, society has noticeably changed since [[The Fifties]], with the American Dream being pursued by anyone regardless of gender, race or even sexual inclination [[Deliberate Values Dissonance|so long as they're not Communist]]. For all its flaws, people still managed to live good lives before the world as they knew it ended.
* [[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.
* [[Dead Man Writing]]: Not only {{spoiler|Kellogg's}} memories. {{spoiler|But also Kellogg's last, unspoken thoughts to the Sole Survivor before he's killed
** Averted in the case of Arlen Glass, however. As while his logs can be found across the Commonwealth and give the impression of yet another [[Apocalyptic Log]], it's eventually revealed that he's still very much alive as a Ghoul.
* [[Death From Above]]: Getting in the Brotherhood's good graces can allow the Sole Survivor to not only call in a Vertibird, but also use it as transport. {{spoiler|Defeating the Brotherhood with the Minutemen meanwhile also involves this, albeit by calling in a massive artillery strike
* [[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.
* [[Dirty Communists]]: Downplayed with Captain Zao, a ghoulified Chinese naval officer who's been stranded with his ''Yangtze'' submarine off Boston since the Great War.<ref>Zao is arguably the first conversed character in the ''Fallout'' series to actually be from China, in contrast to the simulated Chinese soldiers in ''[[Fallout 3]]'
* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: A [[Downplayed Trope]]: during your physical from the Brotherhood of Steel, you're asked about your physical health, psychological stability and morals. They ask if you've been exposed to large amounts of radiation, have ever had sex with anything nonhuman (inferring carnal contact with animals), have ever been seriously sick, or would hesitate to kill any enemy of the Brotherhood.
** This trope becomes downplayed due to the medical examiner stating that only killing the Brotherhood's enemies if it was in self defense is an acceptable and most frequently stated answer.
** In a more subtle example, the game takes place in Massachusetts, where most people are simple farmers and settlers constantly struggling against nature to survive in a brutal [[Death World]], and organized society is recently starting to form. Everyone is terrified about their loved ones being replaced with evil copies, even turning on their family and friends, with many innocent people getting killed in the crossfire. Taking out the surprising ''lack'' of religious symbolism (relatively speaking), and the Commonwealth's struggle over the identities of Institute Synths can be seen as an analogue to the Salem Witch Trials.
** 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.
* [[Fantastic Slurs]]:
** The official term for the Institute's [[Artificial Human|Artificial Humans]] are "synthetic humanoids". Most people (both in the Institute and in the Commonwealth) call them "Synths" as an insult: an insult of which the Synths [[Appropriated Appellation|have reclaimed as the name of their species]].
** Like in previous ''Fallout'' games, Ghouls are often derogatorily referred to as "zombies" by racist humans. Ghouls in turn will call humans "smoothskins" when sufficiently pissed off. Also, [[The Order|BoS]] members will also call Super Mutants "Frankensteins", and the residents of the Commonwealth will also derisively refer to the Super Mutants as "greenskins".
* [[Fictional Counterpart]]:
** The Parsons State Insane Asylum is this to the real-world [[Abandoned Hospital|Danvers State Hospital]].
** CIT, the Commonwealth Institute of Technology, is an alternate version of the real Massachusetts Institute of Technology
** 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.
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* [[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 Commonwealth itself is the [[Foil]] of the Mojave Wasteland. Both are places that're comparatively untouched by the Great War and are practical crucibles of new civilizations within the Wasteland. However, due to roughly a century's worth of manipulation (courtesy of the Institute), the nearby presence of the Glowing Sea, and the Commonwealth Minutemen's fall from grace, the region has failed to organize and remains largely a feral wasteland (occasionally blasted by rad-storms) around a ruined city with only a few bastions of safety and even fewer attempts at logistics. Due to the unifying influence of Mr. House's New Vegas - along with the recent arrival of the NCR and Caesar's Legion - the Mojave has a lot more societal advantages and even has highways and major cities being built as of 2281. Also, the Mojave is a landlocked desert while the Commonwealth both enjoys regular rainfall and is on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.
** 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.
** The Brotherhood are this to ''themselves'', or rather their incarnation in ''[[Fallout 3]].'' Although concern for the people and their well-being remain part of the East Coast Brotherhood's creed, the main priority is once more the acquisition and preservation of advanced technology, much like the Midwest and West Coast. And as pointed out on the Faction page, they're even one towards Caesar's Legion.
** 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.
** The ''Far Harbor'' DLC reveals DiMA to be this {{spoiler|to the "current" Nick Valentine. Being an intelligent, old-generation synth forsaken by the Institute, albeit much more cold and robotic than Nick could ever be
* [[Fridge Logic]]: One In-Universe example occurs in the Vault the Triggermen hide out in during "Unlikely Valentine". One of them alludes to this trope when mentioning it makes no sense to build a Vault in a subway station, and a Ghoul gangster who was alive since before the War points out this was invoked as a means of grifting money for a construction project doomed to fail.
* [[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.
* [[Great Offscreen War]]: Averted, as for the first time, you get to witness the Great War ''as it happened''.
** Played straight with the espionage war waged between the Institute and Railroad over the freedom of Synths, as the Sole Survivor's intervention will '''permanently''' decide the conflict's result - one way or another.
* [[Grey and Gray Morality]]: The fact that the player can choose ''any'' of the game's main factions - [[Absolute Xenophobe|the East Coast Brotherhood of Steel]], [[The Conspiracy|the Institute]], [[Underground Railroad|the Railroad]] and [[We Help the Helpless|the Commonwealth Minutemen]] - without feeling like they're picking "the evil choice" highlights that ''everyone'' is pretty flawed (even more so than ''New Vegas'', which primarily relied on [[Black and Grey Morality]]), and it's up to you as the Sole Survivor to decide which faction is, in your eyes, [[A Lighter Shade of Gray|the lightest shade of grey]]. Instead, the conflict between the Brotherhood and Institute falls more along the lines of [[Romanticism Versus Enlightenment]], with the Brotherhood as Romantics and the Institute as Enlightened. The Minutemen and Railroad, while not actively fighting each other, also fall along the above lines.
** There's also the conflict between Honest Dan and the [[Town with a Dark Secret|town of Covenant]]. {{spoiler|Dan is just trying to rescue Amelia Stockton as per his contract with Bunker Hill. However, the citizens of Covenant are made up of the survivors of Synth assassins, who infiltrated their families and friends before brutally killing them. As a result, they're trying to develop a psychological test to root out Synths. However, not only are they torturing dozens of innocent people in the process, but their test doesn't discriminate between the innocents rescued by the Railroad and Institute infiltrators}}.
** 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.
** Averted for ''[[Fallout New Vegas]]'':
* [[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.
* [[I Call Her "Vera"]]: A character named Barney Rook calls his gun "Reba".
* [[Iconic Item|Iconic Outfit]]: Two, actually - the [[Super Prototype|T-60]] [[Powered Armor|Power Armor]] and the [[Badass Longcoat|Silver Shroud costume]].
* [[Insistent Terminology]]: Due to a case of [[Future Imperfect]], the residents of Mount Desert Island in Maine (the setting of the ''Far Harbor'' DLC) only refer to it as "the Island
* [[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.
** Arthur Maxson was selected to be his chapter's Elder at the age of ''16''
** While [[Player Character|the Sole Survivor]] is called such in all of the game's promotional and meta material, they're actually described as "the Vault Dweller" by Diamond City Radio's Travis Miles in yet '''another''' reference to ''Fallout 1''.
** 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''.
** One of the possible fates of ''Nuka-World'''s [[Church of Happyology|Hubologists]] is almost identical to their fate in ''[[Fallout 2]]''.
** Speaking of ''Nuka-World'', the [[Happy Ending|positive ending]] to the story is the quest [[Good Is Not Soft|"Open]] [[Earn Your Happy Ending|Season"]]. This quest has the Sole Survivor metaphorically [[Storming the Castle]] and [[One-Man Army|massacring]] the '''entire''' [[Badass Army|Nuka-World Raider army]]. Considering how both Nuka-World and Paradise Falls are both utter [[Wretched Hive|Wretched Hives]] (even by the standards of the Wasteland) ruled over by enslaving scumbags who're actively spreading their power and influence throughout the region, "Open Season" is pretty much [[Fallout 3|"Rescue From Paradise"]] turned [[Up to Eleven]].
* [[It Will Never Catch On]]: {{spoiler|Conrad Kellogg's memories}} revealed that his parents didn't really believe that the then-newly founded NCR would really amount to anything, especially given how it progressively becomes more powerful and stable by ''Fallout 2'' and ''New Vegas''. The Institute, however, averts this, doing whatever it can to keep a NCR-like Commonwealth from becoming a reality {{spoiler|in part due to the failure surrounding their "Commonwealth Provisional Government" plan decades earlier}}.
* [[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.
* [[Large Ham]]:
* [[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''.
** Albeit zigzagged with the ''Nuka-World'' DLC, which allows the player to make the Commonwealth about as miserable as the worst aspects of the Capital Wasteland should they choose.
* [[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.
* [[Melee a Trois]]: There are four major factions in the game, three of which are in opposition to each other: the Institute, the Railroad, the East Coast Brotherhood of Steel, and the Commonwealth Minutemen.
** The Institute is a cabal of scientists living in secret within the Commonwealth. The goal of the Institute is their own continued existence and to protect themselves from the outside world, which they view as a dangerous hellhole. They also want to advance their technology for the betterment of humanity (or so they state). To further their goals, they create Synths, artificial humans that they implant in Commonwealth society for reasons known only to them (it's implied, but never directly stated, that the Institute wants to culturally alter the Commonwealth into forming a society they can share their tech with). They seek to destroy the Railroad, who work to subvert them and steal away their slave labor; and the Brotherhood of Steel, who seek the utter destruction of them and their Synths.
** The Railroad is an underground espionage-based resistance movement dedicated to the liberation of Synths and the eventual downfall of the Institute. They rescue Synths that seek asylum and help them assimilate into Commonwealth society, giving them reconstructive surgery and rewriting their memories to prevent them from being singled out, either by the Institute or the paranoid people of the Commonwealth.
** The East Coast Brotherhood of Steel is a feudalistic military organization that rules the Washington D.C. area with an iron fist and seek to expand into the Commonwealth. They view the Institute as the greatest threat to mankind since the creation of the atomic bomb, and the Synths as mechanical abominations that would be deserving of genocide ''if'' they could be considered a race at all (their opinions of Ghouls and Super Mutants are not very positive, either). This also puts them in opposition with the Railroad, since they harbor Synths.
** The Commonwealth Minutemen is an armed citizen's militia with a single goal: protecting the people of the Commonwealth. Since they lack manpower and resources, they stay out of the conflict between the Institute, Railroad, and BoS and focus on protecting the citizenry. Under the Sole Survivor's guidance, however, they can grow large enough to take on both the Institute and Brotherhood.
** The Brotherhood, Institute and Railroad all battle against each other if you do the "Battle of Bunker Hill" quest, with the Institute trying to capture escaped synths, there. You can optionally warn the Railroad and/or the Brotherhood about it and more Brotherhood and Railroad soldiers appear.
* [[A Million Is a Statistic]]: It's revealed in the Vault 111 logs that it was never meant to sustain the staff, guards and scientists overseeing the experiment for more than six months. {{spoiler|As the Enclave intended to remotely observe the Vault, all the while lying to said personnel about an "All-Clear signal" coming from Vault-Tec. They were all expendable}}.
** 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.
* [[Monumental Damage]]: Several historical landmarks in and around Boston are still standing more or less intact, and in the case of
** Fenway Park has seen better days, though has long since found new life as the site of Diamond City.
** While having sustained some damage and decay over the centuries, the Bunker Hill Memorial still stands tall. {{spoiler|Even Liberty Prime is able to recognize it
* [[Multiple Endings]]: Similar to ''Fallout: New Vegas'', the ending of the game is determined by which faction you side with at the end of the game, leading to a final mission in which you act to assure your faction's dominance over the Commonwealth. Regardless of which faction you choose, the game's ending cinematic and narration is the same (as it is simply the main character reminiscing about how far they've come), but the consequences for the in-game world vary quite a bit.
**
** The East Coast Brotherhood of Steel: {{spoiler|
** The Institute: {{spoiler|
** The Railroad: {{spoiler|
** The Commonwealth Minutemen: {{spoiler|Essentially the game's
*** [[Golden Ending|Minutemen-Railroad-Brotherhood]]:
*** Minutemen-Brotherhood: {{spoiler|
*** Minutemen-Railroad: {{spoiler|
** The Joke Ending:
** The {{spoiler|[[Offing the Offspring|Fillicide]]}} Ending:
** For the ''Nuka-World'' DLC, the Sole Survivor could opt to side with any of the dominant Raider gangs to wipe their rivals out and ultimately plunge the Commonwealth into darkness.<ref>However, you should try and wait to do this until ''after'' accomplishing the main storyline for the base game. This is one of the only ways to make the Minutemen hostile to the Sole Survivor, and will render you S.O.L. if you've already suitably antagonized the Railroad, Institute
* [[My God, What Have I Done?]]: You get this reaction from the {{spoiler|Mechanist, but only if you convince them to accept the truth that their Robobrains are directing their bots to kill innocents}}.
* [[Myth Arc]]: The majority of side quests, dungeons and other locations throughout the Commonwealth are (in some way) tied into the Institute and their Synths, even if some cases are more distanced than others to the central focus of Synths.
* [[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.
** Porter Gage calls Mirelurks "Mudcrabs" in a reference to ''Fallout'
** 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''.
** Looking at ''The Art of Fallout 4'' will show that the design of the [[Demonic Spiders|Fog Crawler]] in ''Far Harbor'' is based on a [[Dummied Out]] design for the [[Giant Mook|Mirelurk Queen]].
* [[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.
** The Institute have some surprising similarities with [[Fallout: New Vegas|Caesar's Legion]]. For all its scientific, enlightened and technocratic pretensions, it also seeks to purge what remains of the "corrupted" Pre-War world and create a new order.
** 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.
** To a degree, the Railroad and the Institute. As both, due to lacking resources in one way or another, have to resort to subterfuge, covert operations and generally keeping a low profile. Also, the fate of Synths under their "protection" is largely the same - having their personalities destroyed through memory wipes, but they happen for different reasons - the Institute do so because they view the Synths' self-awareness as software bugs, and the Railroad do so because giving Synths new personalities
** Despite the fact that both factions despise each other, both the East Coast Brotherhood of Steel and Institute are a ''lot'' more alike than either would ever admit. Both factions rely on superior technology and limiting interaction with the locals (the Institute is the Commonwealth's boogeymen, and it's mentioned that unauthorized fraternizing with Wastelanders is a ''punishable offense'' within the Brotherhood), both are descended from highly advanced Pre-War societies (C.I.T. for the Institute and the Pre-War U.S. military for the
* [[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.
** This trope does zig-zag somewhat, depending on whether one is referring to sentient ghouls and ferals. Sentient ghouls look much more human than they did in ''Fallout 3'' and ''New Vegas'', the point of having decent hair and much more normal sounding voices, albeit ones still tinged with a slight rasp. Ferals, on the other hand, only got creepier, as they are now faster and much more agile, and coupled with a higher level of details due to the game engine, look horrifying close up. Especially the severely mutated tougher versions that are bloated up and have charred flesh.
* [[Our Orcs Are Different]]: Super Mutants, the ''Fallout'' verse's analogue to Orcs, appear in ''Fallout 4''. Here, they seem to [[Homage|generally draw more inspiration from]] the Orks of [[Warhammer 40,000|Warhammer 40K]] (tying in with how the Brotherhood of Steel are now based after the Space Marines of the Imperium of Man, to a certain extent).
* [[Our Zombies Are Different]]: [[Technically Living Zombie|Feral Ghouls]] return yet again in this installment.
* [[Patriotic Fervor]]:
** Downplayed somewhat, but both the Minutemen and Railroad evoke rousing shades of America at its
** 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.
* [[Punch Clock Villain]]: The Vault-Tec Sales Representative in the intro, the same one the Sole Survivor stumbles upon in Goodneighbor centuries later, had nothing to do with Vault-Tec's shady activities, which suggests that many of those who worked for the company never knew its true nature. Seems like the company didn't put much thought on employee benefits, especially
** 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.]]
* [[Ragnarok Proofing]]: Utilities seem to have held up remarkably well, given a nuclear war and over 200 years of neglect. Some buildings still have working water fountains, and working lights, computer terminals, and recorded announcements are ridiculously common. Implicitly [[Justified Trope|Justified]], with it being implied that Boston was ''especially'' "prepared for the future
** A number of places in the Commonwealth are also shown to have survived by design. Whether it's the {{spoiler|time capsule}} in Jamaica Plain or the pyramid-shaped, radiation hardened Sentinel Site in the Glowing Sea.
* [[Really 700 Years Old]]:
** Technically, the Sole Survivor and Shaun {{spoiler|
** 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.
** The enigmatic, intellectually-minded and seemingly human Cabot family have managed to maintain a Pre-War lifestyle and have clear memories of how life was like generation before. {{spoiler|This is explained as due to an immortality serum that the family patriarch, Lorenzo Cabot, discovered in an alien wreck 400 years earlier, also giving him telepathic powers in the process. Said immortality however doesn't extend to bodily harm, meaning that they're just as prone to gunfire as most anyone else in the Wasteland
* [[The Remnant]]: Initially, all that's left of the Minutemen (at least who still openly identify as such) are Preston Garvey, a handful of volunteers and a small group of wasteland refugees. It's up to the Sole Survivor, however, whether the Minutemen can rise into new heights or disappear forever in blood.
* [[Retcon]]: Quite a few, as noted below:
** Vertibirds and [[Power Armor]] more advanced than the T-51 (the T-60, which is explained away as being a [[Super Prototype]] that was around before the Great War) appear, though only in limited quantities and present solely during the ''last'' years before the bombs fell post-Battle of Anchorage. The T-60 in particular is also described not as a wholly new model, instead as being a more refined upgrade on the T-45 as seen in ''Fallout 3''.
** Drugs like Jet, which were implied to have existed prior to their discovery in ''Fallout 2
* [[Revenge]]: Part of the main plotline involves finding the man who killed your spouse and stole Shaun. {{spoiler|And you get to confront that man, Conrad Kellogg, who even admits to expecting such a situation to be inevitable
* [[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.
** Relatedly, the Commonwealth Minutemen
* [[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}}.
* [[Self-Deprecation]]
* [[Shout Out]]: As with any good ''Fallout'' game, it's pretty [[Reference Overdosed]].
** The Silver Shroud is an [[Affectionate Parody]] of old-time radio serials and comics like ''[[The Shadow]]
*** 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.
** The Institute consists of [[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|a bunch of scientists living in an underground facility creating artificial humans led by a man named "Father
** 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.
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** 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]].
** The main Raider boss at Malden Center is named "[[The Beatles (band)|Helter Skelter]]
** 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.
*** Relatedly, one of Codsworth's combat lines is [[Monty Python and the Holy Grail|"'Tis but a scratch!"]]
** As pointed out on the "Factions" page, the Robobrains have been reworked into [[Expy|Expies]] of the [[Doctor Who|Daleks]], and the information given about the experimental subjects is inspired by ''[[RoboCop|RoboCop 2]]
*** 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]]''.
** At ''Nuka-World'', there is the
** 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]].
** [[Continuity Nod|Just like in]] ''Fallout 3'', the Church of The Children of Atom’s religion is based around nuclear technology in a similar way to the worship of unexploded nuclear bombs in ''[[Planet of the Apes|
*** [[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.
***** Pickman himself, being a [[Serial Killer Killer|Serial-Killer Killer]] and [[Soft-Spoken Sadist]], also seems to draw from ''[[Dexter
**** 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.
**** A ''very'' obscure one involving Cabot House. {{spoiler|The House may be named after the Cabot Museum from the H.P. Lovecraft and Hazel Heald story ''Out of the Aeons''. The museum is located in Beacon Hill and used to be a mansion before its conversion
**** The Mirelurk Kings seem to resemble the [[The Shadow Over Innsmouth|Deep Ones]], what with their human-fish-frog look. Another (lesser) example would be the Lurkers.
** The Bloodworms found around Nuka-World (especially at Dry Rock Gulch) are more or less the Graboids from the ''[[Tremors
** The caricature of Father that appears in the quest pictures looks exactly like [[Mega Man|Dr. Light]].
** The creation process of Gen 3 Synths seems to be partly based after both Leeloo's regeneration scene from ''[[The Fifth Element]]'' and the famous construction sequence from ''[[Ghost in the Shell (1995 film)|Ghost in the Shell]]
*** 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]''.
* [[
** Normally, submachineguns aren't that hot as weapons due to low damage and high ammo consumption. Spray n' Pray (a unique SMG sold by Cricket) turns this upside-down. Thanks to its "Explosive" legendary effect, each bullet does an extra fifteen points of AoE explosive damage. The Commando perk buffs its base damage while Demolition Expert buffs the explosive damage; investing in those perks turns Spray n' Pray into an engine of devastation. To top it all off, the explosions have a chance to stagger the target. Did I mention that Spray n' Pray is a full-auto weapon?
** Ordinary projectile guns are just as effective as energy weapons if not moreso, due to the high availability of ammunition which is cheaper to buy and is far more common as scavenged loot. Even with all points in the Scavenger perk, the player will most often discover plain old bullets in crates, desks, lockers and such, rather than energy cells and plasma cartridges.
** The "Instigating" legendary effect doubles the damage the weapon does if the target is at full health. For most weapons, this is kind of pointless, as it just gives a little extra damage to the first shot and there are far more useful effects (such as "Explosive", mentioned above.) However, this is the Best effect for a sniper rifle. Fully upgraded with mods and in the hands of a character with the right perks, that one shot will be all you need to drop nearly anything in the wasteland. A character who maxes out the Rifleman perk and has an Instigating Gauss Rifle ''will'' kill anything but the absolute strongest enemies in the game with A shot. And they can be killed with A Sneak Attack.
* [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]]
* [[Story Breadcrumbs]]: There are a number of areas where you can only conclude what happened through environmental clues. A lot of that has to do with the Railroad and their symbols. A dead Protectron with a Railway Spike on its body near a Relay antenna is a clear sign someone from the Railroad killed it at that location. Several hidden pointers show the way an escaping Synth was guided through a feral-infested train yard. And the railsign for "Ally" is marked on a hidden observation post overlooking Vault 111 and Sanctuary Hills... someone's been watching you.
** In general, the game is really fond of this, intentionally leaving many details vague about the story, setting and characters so the player can fill it in with environmental details.
* [[Super Soldier]]: The Institute's [[The Dreaded|rightfully feared]] Coursers '''definitely''' count as this.
** Considering their [[The Spartan Way|impressive training]], superior armaments compared to most other factions, and usage of [[Powered Armor|Power Armor]], Brotherhood Paladins
* [[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.
* [[Take That, Audience!]]: [[Crystal Spires and Togas|The Institute]] can be seen as a subtle middle finger by Bethesda towards the residents of Western nations (who make up the majority of their audience), in how they implicitly accept the abuse of developing nations by their own countries in return for pampered lives and (relative) comfort.
* [[Tech Demo Game]]: Has become one for Bethesda, who have recursively used the improvements made in the engine for a backport to Skyrim, as well as serving as a test bed for their own built-in mod support and delivery platform. Nvidia even used the game with Bethesda's approval as a platform to show off their graphical capabilities with the ''Vault 1080'' mod.
* [[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.
* [[Troubled Production]]: An
* [[Wacky Wayside Tribe]]:
** The [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|Viking ghoul raiders]] around the ''FMS Northern Star'' wreck. They're much less wacky, however, in that they're strongly implied to be what's left of a Norwegian ship crew who've been stranded in the Commonwealth since the Great War. [[Bilingual Bonus|Their entirely Norwegian dialogue]] even highlights how they want to be left alone and just want to get home.
** 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.
* [[Weak but
* [[Wetware Body]]/[[Wetware CPU]]: The Generation 3 Synths are seem to be mostly, but not entirely, organic. {{spoiler|Paladin Danse}} is outed by DNA records, implying that they have actual flesh and blood; Father confirms this inside the Institute, stating that Gen 3s were based on {{spoiler|Shaun's Pre-War, and thus un-mutated, DNA}}. Those with the Cannibal perk can eat them just as they would normal humans, and they are shown to be constructed with cloned blood, muscle, bones
* [[Whole-
* [[World Half Full]]: Compared to the [[Crapsack World]] that's the Capital Wasteland and even the (relatively) thriving Mojave, the Commonwealth has quite a bit going for it. Only one nuclear warhead was ever launched at Boston... ''and missed it''. Despite the chaos and turmoil (as well as the deliberate machinations of the Institute), there is a stronger sense of continuity with the Pre-War world as well as a more stable semblance of civilization getting back on its feet. The people in the Commonwealth even come across as largely more idealistic and friendlier than the residents of the Mojave and especially those of the Capital Wasteland.
** 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.
* [[Wretched Hive]]: It's implied that at least some parts of America had become this by 2077, justifying the existence of pipe guns even in Pre-War times. With a gun magazine even featuring the "[http://i.imgur.com/Ttxhs7e.jpg Street Guns of Detroit]
* [[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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