Fallout 4: Difference between revisions
Added some more details to various sections I thought were of note.
(Added more tropes and some descriptions & polishing.) |
(Added some more details to various sections I thought were of note.) |
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* [[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 bad for him.
* [[Aluminum Christmas Trees]]: The titular town in the ''Far Harbor'' DLC exists in real life Maine as Bar Harbor.
* [[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 "
* [[Ambiguous Situation]]: The ultimate fate of the [[The Alliance|Commonwealth Provisional Government]].
** Additionally, how sapient [[Artificial Human|Synths]] ''really'' are.
* [[Apocalypse Not]]: Despite Dr. Zimmer having implied otherwise in ''[[Fallout 3]]'', the Commonwealth is arguably the nicest section of the Wasteland since visited in the entire ''Fallout'' series. Hell, it's (environmentally, at least) even better off than the [[Fallout: New Vegas|Mojave]]!
** 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 - and it ''missed'', landing to the far southwest of the city. Like Zion Canyon, the Commonwealth enjoys regular rainfall, and plant life has rebounded surprisingly well since the Black Rain (trees are
** 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 & Rad-Away will die in '''minutes''', but the Glowing Sea provides a "safe place" for [[Demonic Spiders]] like [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent|Deathclaws]], [[Elite Mooks|Charred]] [[Technically Living Zombie|Feral Ghouls]], and [[Big Creepy-Crawlies|Bloodbugs]] to flee back to and "breed" so that they can keep menacing the Commonwealth. Additionally, the [[Hostile Weather|radiation storms]] can also sterilize farmland in some areas and make it easier for crops to fail, further impairing societal progress.
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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.
* [[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.
** 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.
* [[Central Theme]]: A few different ones are offered over the course of the game.▼
** [[Continuity Nod|Continuing on]] from ''New Vegas'', the game has a central theme of letting go of the past and beginning again.▼
** [[What You Are in the Dark|Who/what do you define yourself as when you can't define yourself as that anymore?]] This is mostly related to the Sole Survivor themselves and their companions. All of these characters are in some way traumatized by their past, struggling to reinvent themselves, working through some serious baggage from the past, or combination of the above.▼
** [[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?]]▼
* [[Cool Airship]]: The ''Prydwen''. Also, potentially, {{spoiler|the ''USS Constitution''}}.▼
* [[Cool Boat]]: The ''USS Constitution''. {{spoiler|Can also count as a [[Cool Airship]]}}.▼
* [[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. ▼
** 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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** The Mechanist from the ''Automatron'' DLC is implied to be from the Capital Wasteland and 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.
▲** [[Continuity Nod|Continuing on]] from ''New Vegas'', the game has a central theme of letting go of the past and beginning again.
▲** [[What You Are in the Dark|Who/what do you define yourself as when you can't define yourself as that anymore?]] This is mostly related to the Sole Survivor themselves and their companions. All of these characters are in some way traumatized by their past, struggling to reinvent themselves, working through some serious baggage from the past, or combination of the above.
▲** [[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?]]
▲* [[Cool Airship]]: The ''Prydwen''. Also, potentially, {{spoiler|the ''USS Constitution''}}.
▲* [[Cool Boat]]: The ''USS Constitution''. {{spoiler|Can also count as a [[Cool Airship]]}}.
▲* [[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.
* [[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.
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** 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.
** 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 & 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. }}
** 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
* [[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.
* [[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]]:
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** 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 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]]''.
*** Speaking of ''Nuka-World'', the [[Happy Ending|positive ending]] to the story is the quest [[Good
* [[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.
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** 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's'' sister series, ''[[
** 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''.
* [[My God, What Have I Done?]]: Captain Zao's long since regretted his part in the Great War. It's also implied that his submarine, the ''Yangtze'', may have been responsible for launching the warhead that wound up landing in what became the Glowing Sea.
** You can 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.}}
* [[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
** 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. All the while treating Synths as slaves and maintaining a rather effective network of infiltrators, much like the Legion.
** 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 like to 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 BoS), both believe they're the best hope for the Commonwealth (and, by extension, the rest of the post-apocalyptic world), use that aforementioned belief as a justification to lord over weaker factions, and [[Fantastic Racism|both see Synths as less than human]] - though in the Brotherhood's case they see them as abominations to be exterminated, while the Institute sees them as mere tools with no actual free will.
* [[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.
* [[Patriotic Fervor]]:
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*** The special arm-light that checks the individual bodies is 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]''.
* [[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.
* [[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}}.
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* [[Weak but Skilled|Weak But Skilled]]: The Institute makes up for their lack of resources with a massive spy network and being excellent at espionage warfare.
* [[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, and tissue in the Institute's Robotics Division. However, when killed, Synths will have an inorganic "Synth Component" on their corpses, and they differ enough from humanity (such as [[The Needless|not needing food or water to survive]]) that they're clearly not perfectly organic creations. Nick Valentine also references that they have mechanical components to them when referring to the Broken Mask Incident.
* [[Whole-Plot Reference|Whole Plot Reference]]: The entire set-up of ''Fallout 4's'' story is virtually lifted wholesale from ''[[Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?]]''[[Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?|.]] It's a future where humanity has been devastated by a nuclear apocalypse, a group of people simply decided to leave the resultant wasteland (though these guys live underground) and make android slaves that are almost perfect "
* [[World Half Full]]: Compared to the [[Crapsack World]] that's the
** 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]."
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