History of Fallout (1997 - 2018)

Video Statistics and Information

Video

Captions Word Cloud

Captions

welcome back everybody my name is Nick 930 and to celebrate the upcoming release of fall at 76 I want to share with you the complete history of fallout [Music] [Music] fallout is a post-apocalyptic role-playing series where players explore massive open world environments complete quests and engaging combat encounters with often mutated and irradiated enemies the world of thought is modeled after a sort of strange hybrid of old 1950s American culture and futuristic nuclear powered science fiction in an alternate timeline where America was destroyed by a nuclear war in 2077 the series is filled with nods to various other post apocalyptic literature and media while also retaining its own signature style with reoccurring enemy types various fictional products and unique concepts but despite these constants the series has diverted substantially since its initial outing in 1997 and has gone from being a top-down turn based RPG adventure to a fully immersive open-world shooter game with many fans feeling greatly divided over the change but regardless of how you feel about the direction the series has taken font has still managed to reach the upper echelon of the gaming industry and new titles have become somewhat of an event among the gaming community so how did the series reach this level of pop culture fantasies itself and now well to answer that we're gonna start by taking a look at the original game from 1997 called fallout around the mid-90s interplay entertainment contracted the small studio black Isle to begin work on a spiritual successor to the 1988 post-apocalyptic classic wasteland the game was eventually renamed into fallout after some copyright concerns but would share a lot of the same basic concepts including the setting and basic premise something that surprised me when researching the origins of the Fallout franchise was how fundamental the game's role-playing progression system was to its identity and how its development has greatly influenced its current design the original Fallout game was initially pitched as a role-playing adventure that made use of the tabletop role-playing system called gurps which allowed players to manually assign ability points to their various attributes rather than being completely random like a traditional dungeon and Dragons character creation these old-school role-playing designs are key to the creation of the Fallout universe and still make up the foundation of the series to this day however because of all its mature content interplay was forced to abandon the girp system and instead created the iconic special system instead development on Fallout took several years with the producer Tim Cain building most of the game engine alone after hiring roughly 30 more workers to work on advanced animations and texture designs the project was finally completed three years later and released for various computer platforms in fall 1997 the original fall takes place in Southern California 84 years after the great nuclear war results in entire major cities reduced to rubble players take control of the vault dweller a member of one of many underground vaults that were seemingly created prior to the war to provide shelter from a potential nuclear apocalypse in truth these vaults were never designed to withstand a true nuclear apocalypse and were often intended for unethical experimentations on unsuspecting residents thankfully for a protagonist vault 13 was one of the control variables and therefore operated exactly as advertised only at the start of this game a computer chip designed to maintain the health of the vaults water supply fails and the overseer of vault 13 tasks the player was setting out from the vault to find a replacement this is where the game truly begins and players are given free rein of a relatively massive open world environment filled with dangerous mutated creatures survivor settlements and interesting militaristic factions the original Fallout was a very different game than the more recent entries with an isometric camera and a heavy emphasis on turn-based gameplay boys would need to click on the screen to tell the characters where to go and getting noticed by an enemy resulted in a combat encounter combat encounters were heavily turn-based and revolt heavily around the action points counter and the players heads-up display each action required a different amount of action points to initiate before the player's turn was completed giving the experience a very tabletop feel purse could also recruit allies throughout the world to assist them in combat encounters and could be partially controlled by speaking with them directly the game's communication system functions simulates a more modern Fallout games with players capable of talking to most NPCs and choosing between various dialogue choices but unlike newer games the dialogue choices were much lengthier and in depth and often were critical in progressing through the game combat was not an easy task and with limited ammunition and often large numbers of enemies the best option was almost always a silver tongue vomits visual design obviously hasn't held up very well today though it's interesting to learn how they manage to pull off the animations of some of the game's characters during dialogue segments according to an article in next-generation magazine the art signers behind fallout created clay molds of Berry's character heads and then used various programs like Verna sketch to render the models the main game world was created on a hexagonal grid with various false 3d projections to give the illusion of depth but outside of that most of the effort was focused on the game's complex branching story pathing and dialogue it was an ambitious concept and very few developers had managed to successfully pull off this level of role-playing adventure in a video game but as the industry grew these basic principles would become increasingly more mainstream based on the aggregated score from Metacritic fallout was met with mostly positive reviews with many critics applauding the creative style and approach and many outlets declaring at the best RPG video game in years thanks to the success of fallout a sequel would release only a year later fallout 2 in many ways was much like the first game with an isometric turn-based gameplay style and the same basic premise but the world of Fallout 2 was denser and featured more character behind its locations with things like billboards funny dialogue and plenty of pop-culture references bringing it more in line with what fans would expect for more recent titles according to an article by Ed Smith a PC games network worked for fought two had begun before the original game had even released and with these somewhat less than stellar sales of the original game when compared to Baldur's Gate black Isles was under significant pressure with fallout 2 requiring long hours and expedited work effort a lot of the silly Easter eggs and pop-culture references thrown into fallout 2 were done because of the severe lack of time major portions of the game world were thrown together without any content and designers had to go back and fill in the blanks with anything they could think of on the fly resulting in some incredibly bizarre easter eggs this aesthetic ended up becoming a reoccurring theme associated with fallout that would go on to define the series with its mature content being occasionally undermined by silly prop placement follow two story takes place 80 years after the events of the first game with players taking control of the original vault dwellers descendant called the chosen one after a massive drought the players tasked with venturing out into the wasteland to locate a device called the GAC a device that could create a thriving community out of nothing and much like the original game the story becomes more complex as the player explores more of the world and various interweaving characters story arcs can greatly affect the overall story outcome based on the players choices the main antagonists of this game are the enclave which are a group of descendants from the original United States government that aim to take control of the region by force in hopes that they'll be able to restore order to the country it's an interesting plotline much like the first game and many of the new creatures factions and the absurd narrative would inspire future Fallout titles the gameplay and visuals only received minor changes with the developers saying that they wanted to focus on the game's narrative more than anything else there were some nice changes to help round out the experience more fair companions for example would now level up alongside you with their own evolving storyline and combat capabilities the game's antagonists were no longer hidden behind a curtain much like the master was in the original game and this gave players a better understanding of who they were up against other changes included minor improvements - collision and of course a more lighthearted artistic direction with designers cramming in tons of fun Easter eggs around every corner this resulted in one of the most popular classic followed experiences with critics once again praising the game's focus on narrative role-playing action though a few journalists took note of some common bugs and technical problems likely caused by the rushed development schedule either way fallout 2 was another instant hit and the franchise would begin to change drastically as the series entered the new millennium in the year 2000 interplays 14° East Division had begun work on a tactical shooter game that can be played in either first or third person perspectives within the fall universe the game was called fallout extreme and was set to release on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox consoles unfortunately the game never left the planning stages and was ultimately cancelled partway through the year in fall at extreme players would control a squad of soldiers called revolutionaries and would engage in combat with an aggressive Brotherhood of Steel in northwestern America the game was likely going to be a series of linear missions with a very Ghost Recon s style to it that would have players fighting across Oregon Seattle and even crossing the Bering Strait into China to fall plot that would destroy the remains of America despite the games cancellation a lot of the basic concepts introduced an extreme like the heavier emphasis on combat but find their ways into future interplay Fallout titles and the series would continue in what many believe was the wrong direction in 2001 an australian development company called micro forte introduced a game demo to interplay using their phoenix game engine interplay wasn't necessarily interested in the pitched game but did see potential in the engine it was built on and assigned their fourteen degree east division to work on a unique spin-off title for the fog franchise called fallout tactics brotherhood of steel thought tactics is often not considered to be part of the main fault cannon as it often contradicts things introduced in the main series storyline in follow tactics players start as an initiate in the Brotherhood of Steel the Brotherhood of Steel had a falling-out between members with some wanting to focus on bolstering their strengths and recruiting survivors while others wanted to remain isolationist and focus on reclaiming pre-war technology this resulted in a large schism between the group with the progressive members of the Brotherhood heading east to hunt down the remaining superman's and build a stronger community unlike past fallout games tactics isn't an open-world adventure game but more a squad based realtime strategy with players need to move individual members of their squad around an isometric linear level and defeat enemies player choice wasn't nearly as important as a typical Fallout game and the overall vibe of the game felt completely displaced from what audiences expected from the franchise visually the game looked better than ever thanks to the new Phoenix engine which allowed for sharper textures and cleaner character animations but the game was still grounded in the same hexagonal isometric artistic style that the series had begun with surprisingly Fallout Tactics performed well according to critics the game received scores in the mid 80% range with most applauding the improved combat mechanics but many were disappointed to see the open world aspect of fallout removed from this entry and overall tactics did not sell as well as interplay had hoped soon after tactics had released interplay had micro Forte begin work on a Fallout Tactics sequel that was planned to release a year later but because of the first tactics game selling so poorly the project was soon scrapped completely in 2001 and it's a shame because the setting for tactics too would have been a unique one tactics too was going to take place in the southeastern part of the United States mainly the marshlands of Florida ad would feature an entirely different biome that still hasn't really been properly explored in the Fallout franchise outside of a few later expansions tactics too would test the player but trying to shut down a malfunctioning gag device that was continuously generating mutated plants and creatures pairs would fight off mutated Gators in the swamps of Florida while also contending with an even more aggressive Brotherhood of Steel the game would have released on PC and would utilize the Phoenix game engine again just like the first tactics it was an interesting experiment but it was clear from the poor sales that the Fallout Tactics spin-off was a dead end and interplay struggled to identify what to do next with the fallout intellectual property the VanBuren project is where interplay and Black Isle Studios really started to run into some serious problems interplay one and more games to be produced on consoles and many of the core gameplay mechanics and the older Fallout games didn't sit right with them either after the cancellation of baldur's gate 3 Black Isle Studios was transitioned over to the ongoing fallout 3 project nicknamed van Buuren many of the developers started to drop out of Black Isle Studios due to funding concerns and the project was eventually scrapped despite being near completion Ben barons story would have taken place in the southwestern United States around the Hoover Dam area and begun with the player having just escaped prison whether or not they escaped prison for false imprisonment or burn legitimately criminals would be up to the player and this choice would also affect the players starting stats the player would then explore a southwestern countryside avoiding capture from prison guard robots while also interacting with the NCR and brotherhood of steel who were in a massive conflict with each other van Barons gameplay would have heavily emphasized the classic turn-based control scheme of the original two games making it a proper fallout 3 but because of outside pressure from interplay black isle was forced to include a real-time gameplay option interplay also requested that the game feature full cooperative gameplay as well only further hurting development time the game was originally going to be made with a fully 3d engine called nd L 3d the precursors to the gamebryo engine which would be used for future fallout titles but because of the financial difficulties the team decided to switch over to the Jefferson engine instead the Jefferson engine was the same engine that had been used to create baldur's gate 3 and unlike past titles would feature a legitimate three-dimensional game world despite the locked isometric cam design Van Buren is often referred to as the lost followed game mainly because it would have been the closest thing to a true sequel to fallout 2 but because of interplays focus on the console division the van Buren project would need to be shut down and followed three would take on an entirely different form years later while Black Isle Studios was working on the doomed van Buuren project the core interplay team worked on the first official console debut for the Fallout series called fallout Brotherhood of Steel this would be the final title in the franchise released by interplay entertainment in brotherhood of steel players control a squad of brotherhood initiates as they search for a group of missing paladins and have run-ins with various classic fought factions acquitting Raiders ghouls and super mutants the story also had a bit of a throwback to the original game with the player meeting up with the original vault dweller much like Fallout Tactics this console exclusive Fallout title would not feature an open-world environment but instead would offer multiple missions at various locations with a linear structure wares could not customize their stats like other Fallout games but could choose from one of six playable characters and could even play cooperatively with a friend the game had a broked hateable camera and some awkward top-down controls that hurt its audiences appeal greatly and it feels far removed from other fallout titles in the franchise with a significantly heavier emphasis on action rather than on role-playing fallout Brotherhood of Steel failed to meet expectations and was critically panned for its repetitive mission structure and massive displacement from the franchise's core aesthetics before Brotherhood of Steel released interplay already had begun work on a sequel Brotherhood of Steel 2 would feature pretty much the exact same gameplay mechanics but with a few new features like a few new enemies weapons and playable characters there were also plans to implement a stealth element to the gameplay which would add a little bit more variety to the experience however Brotherhood of Steel 2 would never see the light of day due to poor reception for the original game and the project was can despite being close to completion throughout the mid-2000s interplay and masthead Studios had begun working on an ambitious online font experience simply called fog online in 2007 Bethesda Softworks purchased the Fallout intellectual property and gave interplay entertainment a strict require regarding the development of followed online interplay failed to meet these requirements by the deadline and a massive legal dispute erupted with Bethesda and interplay going back-and-forth fighting for control of the Fallout franchise the result of this illegal dispute was the cancellation of fallen online and interplay losing the rights to the Fallout MMO property and her bike could still earn revenue from the original three fallout PC titles but the franchise would finally come under full control of Bethesda Softworks a move that would change the franchise forever in 2004 Bethesda Softworks creators of the popular Elder Scrolls videogames licensed the rights from interplay entertainment to work on the Fallout franchise using the gamebryo engine the same engine used for the award-winning Elder Scrolls oblivion game Bethesda software's created a massive 3d environment beyond the scope of anything seen any fought game prior while also respectfully maintaining the core aesthetic of the original titles the result was fallout 3 a game that churned the Fallout franchise into a mainstream phenomenon fallout 3 story takes place in the capital wasteland the post about 2d Grumman's of the Washington DC area players take control of The Wanderer starting literally with the character's birth after a lengthy introduction that explains what life inside a vault would be like the player is forced to escape out into the nuclear fallout of the wasteland to search for their father it's at this point that the game really begins with players given free rein of the world and being able to explore their own discretion players eventually would find survivor communities like Megaton or rivet city and complete various quests while also looking for clues to look at their father popular fallout factions like The Enclave and Brotherhood can be found in the world with the enclave being the main antagonists and the Brotherhood focusing more on being the saviors of the people rather than their original focus of securing high-end technology fault 3 was a genuine followed experience with a heavy emphasis on exploration and player choices but the gameplay is where it deviates heavily from the older titles taking full advantage of the more advanced game mentioned fallout 3 was a full 3d world that could be explored in either 3rd or 1st person a major departure from the original games isometric approach the Minden design was also changed substantially bought 3 featured a much more conventional control scheme with players able to walk jump and fire weapons freely combat would no longer be modeled after the classic turn-based design but what instead happened in real time with players need to rely on accuracy and cover however realizing how fundamental the classic turn-based design was to be fallout aesthetic Bethesda incorporated a unique mechanic called vas which allowed players to stop time and target specific enemies and limbs the accuracy would be adjusted based on the weapon stats and distance with each shot consuming a certain amount of action points just like the old games pod 3 also saw the return of a pip-boy the device that previously served simply as the name for the game's user interface only now it's become a more functional and immersive tool first could bring up the pip-boy to look at the game world map browser inventory check on their health status and view quest information but now it could also be used to tune into radio stations and featured a bright flashlight to explore dark locations like the DC metro fallout 3 was incredibly ambitious any massive experience that redefined the Fallout franchise while also retaining the fundamental components that made the series special to begin with its combination of role-playing elements with a more action-oriented approach was well received by audiences and introduced a new generation of gamers to the followed universe the mature brutal character of Fallout swirled remained mostly intact while also retaining the fun charm and personality of fall - to some degree fallout 3 was met with exceptionally high review scores with many praising the game's huge expansive world though a few did find fault in the game's awkward real-time combat controls which admittedly haven't aged very well regardless fallout 3 was a huge success and Bethesda proved capable enough to take on default intellectual property Fallout New Vegas is essentially the swan song of interplay entertainment ft colossal financial failures of Black Isle studios in the early 2000s some of the original designers left the studio and created their own independent studio called obsidian entertainment after the success of fallout 3 Bethesda Softworks contracted obsidian to create a new Fallout game while the core Bethesda team focused their efforts on development for a new Elder Scrolls experience this provided the perfect opportunity for the ex fallout creators to finally utilize old ideas from past cancelled fallen titles like Van Buren while also taking advantage of the gamebryo engine and previously existing game assets to their dream pilot experience New Vegas has one of the more unique stories in the franchise with the player taking control of the courier after recovering from a critical bullet wound to the head and needing to hunt down the man responsible new Vegas takes place in the Mojave Desert and features many classic factions from older fallout games including the NCR Brotherhood of Steel Caesar's Legion and even the cons unlike fallout 3 New Vegas has a much more open and a narrative with no truly good ending the games critical narrative choices weren't as black and white and the interconnected story paths made the game significantly more playable new Vegas gameplay is mostly the same as Fallout 3 with identical controls and movement New Vegas did feature a few new things like the ability to aim down the sights of a firearm and ability to craft ammunition New Vegas built on what Bethesda managed to establish with fallout 3 and delivered a more classic Fallout style unfortunately new Vegas is also infamous for its unstable build quality with countless glitches game crashes and save corruptions ruining the experience in its early days the game is now NE far more playable state and loyal community members have created workarounds to the more common problems New Vegas was received very well but not as well as fallout three bears it has since inherited a loyal fan following with many claiming that New Vegas was the last great fought game and it's understandable why people think this way New Vegas not only featured the same great open-ended gameplay of Fallout 3 but also reintroduce the light-hearted and significantly more interesting aesthetics from the classic games even the game's expansion packs were well crafted and remain a benchmark for high quality video game downloadable content despite both fallout 3 and new Vegas collectively receiving high critical acclaim this series went silent and wooden tree emerge until the next console generation after years of silence and heavy fan speculation at the slightest mention of any fallout related hints on the Internet Bethesda finally took to the ìiî stage to announce the latest major installment to the Fallout franchise however before we talk about that I wanted to briefly mention fallout shelter a mobile spin-off title at the head players controlling an underground vault and maintaining a community of survivors it was later re-released for PC and console platforms and was received well and would ultimately serve as it came to hold fans over until the release of Fallout 4 soon after development for fought through wrapped up the Bethesda team began work on a new in-house game engine called the creation engine this engine would not only be used to build the massively popular Skyrim in 2011 but would also be used to build 2015's fallout 4 fallout 4 was beyond ambitious with revamp visuals a denser open world to explore and a ton of new gameplay features to fully immerse the player in the world of fallout however this focus on improving the gameplay inadvertently lowered the quality of the game's narrative in fallout 4 players would assume the role of the lone wanderer who managed to survive the great war by being cryogenically frozen inside vault 111 after witnessing the kidnapping of his or her son the lone wanderer wakes up and sets out on a mission to track the kidnappers down but as always with fallout the main storyline takes a backseat as the player freely explores the open-world and complete quests while also adorning their pet dog with teddy bears many fans did note that thought 4 story didn't match the level of complexity of past fallout games this was mainly due to Bethesda's decision to fully voice cast the players character aka the lone wanderer to realistically record all the different lines of dialogue convincingly Bethesda narrowed the scope of the games role-playing significantly and limited dialogue to four simple choices often being either guest knowmaybe or something silly and regardless of your dialogue choice the story seemed to almost always play out the same way previous titles allowed you to build a truly evil character if you wanted and the story seemed to organically allow you to do that but fought for often pointed players towards the good guy storyline there's still a fair bit of role-playing to be had and plenty of branching paths and story arcs but it didn't reach the level of storytelling on offer in games like new vegas fallout 4 did receive some excellent quality of life improvements too gameplay firstly the shooting mechanics were made to feel much more fluid and consistent weapon firing animations had more impact to them and sound effects were bumped up a notch there was a massive arsenal of unique weapons to choose from all which could be fully customized and weapon benches this level of customization extended to creating food medicine armor and even heavy power armor the power armor went from being just a simple clothing item to an essential tool that players could climb in and out of at will and customize with bolt resistant plating targeting sensors and jetpacks enemies were more varied than ever with a ton of different factions creatures and legendary enemies that were often more difficult to defeat and rewarded players with special legendary items friendly companions were made to be more practical with each companion offering different benefits to the player and they also could be directly controlled with basic commands if you didn't feel like completing quests you could spend hours creating custom friendly settlements complete with storefronts and defenses to hold off against constantly reoccurring enemy attacks visually fallout 4 was miles ahead of its predecessors with smoother animation work beautiful volumetric lighting effects and a level of environmental detail unmatched by other titles in the series the game had a few performance-based issues in addition to some reoccurring bugs regarding the settlement feature but it was still a surprisingly solid game despite Bethesda's reputation for releasing broken products platfor was an experience unlike any other follow game on the surface but after hours spent exploring it's hugely dense world where as were greeted to a ton of repetitive tasks like going to certain locations and killing a randomly generated group of enemies this on top of the reduced role-playing aspects and a controversy regarding possesses paid modification store fund scandal resulted in a lukewarm user reception but the game's critical score was still mostly positive in 2018 Bethesda once again took to the e3 show floor to provide details on their recently revealed new entry to the series fallout 76 fall at 76 would utilize the same creation engine used to build fallout 4 but instead of providing another heavily narrative-driven single-player experience would be a multiplayer focused open-world adventure according to Todd Howard fall at 76 will not feature any human NPCs to speak to but instead will offer players quest through other means like finding notes reading computer terminals are just encountering events the idea behind fall at 76 supposed to create a world where players would be able to take on the roles of human NPCs and could theoretically create storefronts on their own to barter with other players this has already worried some players unsurprisingly as one of Fallout strongest aspects has always been its engaging narrative experience but the prospect of being able to finally explore the waistline with friends is an interesting one and I'm curious how pathetic anti griefing design will play out especially on the PC platform from what's been shown so far fall at 76 will handle exactly like fallout 4 in terms of controls and combat mechanics only enemies will likely be scaled to be more difficult to account for the inclusion of multiplayer a lot of the focus of fall 76 seems to be on exploring the open world and defeating legendary enemies for valuable loot so if you were really into fallout 4s endgame content then fall at 76 should be a no-brainer you need to fall at 76 our nuclear launch codes which when combined can grant players access to a nuclear warhead which can then be fired anywhere around the West Virginia countryside doing so will not only destroy anything with a heartbeat in that area but also create a high-level zone with legendary enemy spawns being more frequent it's a clever idea that plays perfectly into the Fallout mythos and may be the most popular and game activity plan so far fallout 76 will be coming to the PlayStation 4 Xbox one and PC platforms November 14th and I'll be sure to cover that game when I get my hands on it including a full review and direct visual comparison to fallout 4 Paulette's legacy is one that's unmatched when it comes to the action role-playing genre the post-apocalyptic world of fallout is one that's dreary and depressing yet inviting at the same time often challenging players with the question how would you survive a nuclear Armageddon it's a fun look at an alternate science-fiction timeline that provides a deep and generally consistent lore while also enticing players with this addictive export of nature and the fact that its visuals are never really up to par with the competition is a testament to how much more important a solid story and fun gameplay experience are to creating a good game while the series has taken a few more steps in the direction of being an action-adventure game often abandoning its hardcore RPG roots the series is still more popular than ever it retains that charm that interplay and black I'll first brought to the table back in 1997 I hope you guys enjoyed this retrospective look at the Fallout franchise which games were your favorite let us know in the comments section and if you want to see more but respective pieces like this in the future please consider being a member of my patreon and don't forget to Like and subscribe for more videos posted every week [Music] [Music] you

Info

Channel: Nick930

Views: 134,368

Rating: 4.9014373 out of 5

Keywords: Fallout, Vault, Vaultboy, Brotherhood, History, Retrospective, Bethesda, Interplay, Development, Story, Gameplay, Features, Review, Impression, Summary, Full, Analysis, Fan, Favorite, Best, Professional, High Quality, Fallout 76, Multiplayer, Apocalypse, Fallout 4, Fallout 3, Fallout 2, New Vegas

Id: ZipwDY1yl_E

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 30min 0sec (1800 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 23 2018

Reddit Comments