Fallout 4: Difference between revisions
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* [[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 in the autumnal stage with dead leaves on the ground since the game begins in fall, and numerous grasses and farming crops are encountered throughout the region). Additionally, most of Boston's skyscrapers are [[Ragnarok Proofing|still (largely) intact despite the intervening 210 years]], and most settlements in the Commonwealth have both working electricity and running water. In general, the Commonwealth rivals the NCR on the West Coast in being a bastion of civilization within the Wasteland.
** 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]]: Due to the loss of Adam Adamowicz and Istvan Pely becoming the new lead artist at Bethesda, the series' art design was completely overhauled from ''Fallout 3''
** For example, there's the new version of Deathclaws. They're much bulkier than they were before, and have more heavily muscled limbs and torsos. Their horns are also thicker and blunter than they were before, and have a more hunched-over posture. They will also occasionally taste the air with their tongues ([[Shown Their Work|just like real-world reptiles]]), and are even stronger than they were before - with some even being able to ''throw '''cars''' at you!''
** Super Mutants have also been redesigned since ''Fallout 3'' (with an In-Universe justification being that the Commonwealth and Capital Wasteland breeds of Super Mutants are supposedly unrelated). They are significantly less muscular than their Capital Wasteland counterparts, have green skin (like the Mariposa Super Mutants on the West Coast), are no longer constantly sneering at people, and have generally more humanoid facial features. They were also originally designed to have a softer and more approachable face to emphasize the human nature of a Super Mutant, but had the more "thuggish" face chosen instead due to budget/time constraints.
* [[Artificial Brilliance]]: One of the most impressive improvements made in comparison to ''Fallout 3''
** Mutated pack animals - such as Wild Mongrels - will attempt to circle the player while in combat, and Deathclaws will weave to the sides to dodge gunfire. Feral Ghouls, instead of serving as shambling bullet catchers, are now flailing, erratic, and ''extremely'' aggressive adversaries. Furthermore, Mirelurks now cover their faces with their pincers when they are charging at you, while Mirelurk Hunters stay behind and spit acid at you while quickly moving back and forth. 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
* [[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.
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* [[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
* [[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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** ''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 - {{spoiler|Conrad Kellogg's
** The Railroad were previously introduced in ''Fallout 3'', but play a much larger role here in opposing the Institute and its enslavement of Synths.
** 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.
** From the rest of the ''Fallout'' series, the game has a central focus on both the [[War Is Hell|inevitability of conflict]] and [[A World Half Full|rebuilding of society]].
** Loss, identity
** [[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, it's 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 rather ''subtle'' example; The game takes place in Massachusetts, where most people are just ordinary settlers and farmers trying to scrape by while struggling against nature in a hellish [[Death World]]. Organized society is only recently starting to form, and everyone is terrified of their loved ones being replaced with "evil" copies/infiltrators - to the point where people are turning on their families and friends, getting countless innocent people killed in the crossfire. Taking out the surprising ''lack'' of religious symbolism (relatively speaking), and the Commonwealth's clear struggles over the identities of Institute Synths can be seen as an analogue to the Salem Witch Trials.
** The peculiar obsession of the Cabots with a "Mysterious Serum" {{spoiler|that's allowed them to live for centuries}} bears more than passing semblance to drug addiction.
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*** The Brotherhood of Steel represents the United States, being more conservative and racist (which comes across as largely institutionalized) yet open to reform. They also have the most powerful military in the region, {{spoiler|utilize nuclear weapons in combat under the excuse that they will cause less lives to be lost in the grand scheme of things}}, and have command over the air, who also all genuinely believe that interfering in other countries/regions’ matters is for the good of the world and their own nation's progress. It's further driven home by how the Brotherhood still honors its origins in the US military as well as how, [[Absolute Xenophobe]] tendencies notwithstanding, they're remarkably egalitarian.
*** The Institute represent the Soviet Union, with a massive yet untrained military force that they ultimately see as expendable, impressive advances in transportation technology (the Institute became only the ''second'' organization on the entire planet {{spoiler|to have developed teleportation technology}}, while the Soviets got the first man into space), are both relatively resource-poor, have a government that constantly monitors its own citizens and subjects to punish disloyalty (and can only be dragged kicking and screaming into becoming more open with the outside world by especially skilled leaders, like Gorbachev or {{spoiler|the Sole Survivor}}), and are corrupted by a confused oligarchy currently in charge (the Institute’s Board of Directors and the Soviets' Communist Party). Their efforts to be "unbound" to the past also harkens back to Soviet attempts at social engineering and historical revisionism, with a dash of China's Cultural Revolution.
*** The various Commonwealth subcultures and settlements (like Goodneighbor, Diamond City
*** Finally, both of the two largest and most powerful nations are perfectly fine with infiltrating and interfering in the matters of other, weaker nations to make sure they follow their guidelines.
** The arguments and political rivalry between Piper Wright and Mayor McDonough is a deliberate parallel to Carl Bernstein
** The Brotherhood's escalating efforts to take on the Institute, even as the former finds itself nigh-hopelessly bogged down and surrounded by faceless enemies that use brutal guerrilla tactics against them, has echoes of the Vietnam War. Of course, the main difference here is that just about ''everyone'' in the Brotherhood is very much committed to the fight.
* [[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.
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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
** 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
* [[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.
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** 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
* [[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.
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