Fallout 4: Difference between revisions
Added new example I found worthy of mention.
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** 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 East Coast Brotherhood of Steel incorporate elements of the Midwestern chapter in addition to some of the reforms Owyn Lyons implemented in ''Fallout 3.'' They're also mentioned as being in contact with (and ultimately answering to) the original Lost Hills Elders in the West Coast, who haven't been seen since ''Fallout 2''.
*** 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]].
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** 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 & fanatical demagogue]]. {{spoiler|And he's brought an almost refurbished Liberty Prime with him, which can actually be brought back into action.}}
*** Dr. Madison Li, who's now
*** 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]].
*** Sierra Petrovita from Girdershade reappears in ''Nuka-World'', ''[[Achievements in Ignorance|somehow]]'' having safely traveled from the Capital Wasteland to the Commonwealth all on her own.
** It's implied that Travis Miles of Diamond City Radio is friends with Three Dog from the Capital Wasteland, given how he's taken "fighting the good fight" to heart.
** The family TV in the Pre-War sequence will occasionally play some of the [[Retraux]] viral commercials for ''[[Fallout 3]]'' before returning to the news broadcast.
** Combined with [[Brick Joke]]. But [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7GH8fBXIw4 long after being teased at in one of the viral promotional videos] for ''[[Fallout 3]]'', you ''finally'' get to see Jangles
** The Mechanist from the ''Automatron'' DLC is implied to be from the Capital Wasteland, and is shown to have taken inspiration from the same comics that caused the mess in Canterbury Commons.
** 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.
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* [[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.
* [[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.}}
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* [[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]]'s'' Operation Anchorage or the Ghoulified Chinese soldiers and agents still holding out in the Capital Wasteland long after the Great War ended.</ref> Although he's far more concerned with getting back to his homeland than continuing a conflict that ended centuries earlier, he still refers to the Sole Survivor as "capitalist" and an "American."
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* [[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, aka MIT. {{spoiler|It's no coincidence that the Institute
** 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.
* [[Fish Out of Temporal Water]]:
** The Sole Survivor himself/herself, being an American citizen from before the Great War.
** Nick Valentine, a [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|Synth gumshoe detective]] who, despite his appearance, acts like he's straight out an old [[Film Noir]] piece ala [[Humphrey Bogart]]. It's Justified however in that his personality is that of a Pre-War police officer, whose memories and final case form part of his personal quest.
** Vault 81, one of the handful of (if not the ''only'') functional Vaults left, is a living microcosm of Pre-War America frozen in time. Of course, there's ''much'' more beneath the surface than meets the eye...
** Averted with Shaun, the Sole Survivor's son. {{spoiler|Not only was he too young to really remember what Pre-War life was like, but he was thawed out decades earlier by Kellogg and the Institute before his last living parent comes to. And by the time the Sole Survivor meets him, he's long since become known as Father, Director of the Institute}}.
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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.
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* [[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'' - the same age that the Vault Dweller of ''[[Fallout 1|Fallout 1]]'' could be.
**
** 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 Children of Atom's more villainous characteristics now paint them as an analogue to the Children of the Cathedral from ''Fallout 1''.
** The possible fate of ''Nuka-World's'' [[Church of Happyology|Hubologists]] is almost identical to their fate in ''[[Fallout 2]]''.
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* [[Large Ham]]: The Sole Survivor can be this, whether it's impersonating the Silver Shroud or taking too many chems. {{spoiler|Not to mention the rebuilt Liberty Prime, [[No Kill Like Overkill|who '''will''' guarantee]] that democracy is non-negotiable!}}
** The Mechanist in the ''Automatron'' DLC is this to a tee. {{spoiler|It's also revealed to be a way for the woman behind the mask to cope with her social phobias, which becomes evident once she drops the act.}}
* [[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.
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** The Joke Ending: If the Sole Survivor [[The Dev Team Thinks Of Everything|fails to leave Sanctuary Hills quickly enough]] in the Pre-War sequence, the nuke drops immediately and [[Kill'Em All|kills everyone]].
** The {{spoiler|[[Offing the Offspring|Fillicide]]}} Ending: Quite possibly the '''darkest''' ending possible ([[Video Game Cruelty Punishment|and one of the most difficult to accomplish]]). {{spoiler|The Sole Survivor [[Go Mad From the Revelation|Goes Mad From The Revelation]] upon first meeting Father/Shaun in the Institute and kills him. This renders the Institute ''permanently'' hostile, meaning the Sole Survivor must also [[Kill Em All]] before they can leave, and the surface Commonwealth collapses into violent infighting and war between the Institute's remains, the Railroad, and the East Coast Brotherhood.}}
** 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, and Brotherhood.</ref> The Sole Survivor can, of course,
* [[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.
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** 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 & appearances makes it harder for the Institute to track them down while taking away their traumatic memories.
** 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
* [[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 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 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]]:
** Downplayed somewhat, but both the Minutemen and Railroad evoke rousing shades of America at its best. Also portrayed much more positively than both the hyperjingoistic, fascist Enclave of ''Fallout 3'' and even the mostly positive and yet still checkered variety portrayed by the NCR of ''New Vegas''.
** 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. Seems like the company didn't put much thought on employee benefits, especially with those out-of-the-loop regarding its true nature.
** 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
* [[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," even when compared to other American cities.
** A number of places in the Commonwealth are also shown to have survived by design. Whether it's the time capsule in Jamaica Plain or the pyramid-shaped, radiation hardened Sentinel Site in the Glowing Sea.
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* [[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 & Railroad ''also'' fall in the above categories.
* [[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]].'' His more violent attitude, however, is closer to [[The Punisher]].
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** 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]''.
* [[Shown Their Work]]:
* [[Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism]]:
* [[Story Breadcrumbs]]:
* [[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 & Knights ''also'' 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.
* [[Tech Demo Game]]: Has become one for Bethseda, 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 Bethseda's approval as a platform to show off their graphical capabilities with the ''Vault 1080'' mod.
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