It’s obvious to say that the Fallout series has come a long way since it first hit PCs back in 1997. The series’ appeal has grown considerably since that time, as has the RPG genre itself. Still, even with the modern entries and their appeal, there will always be something special about the original Fallout games by Interplay and their internal development division, Black Isle Studios. While not outright horror, there was enough grittiness in the original Fallout, not to mention the over-the-top violence, dark humour and horror elements, that appealed to those looking for something bleaker with their roleplaying games. It’s that bleakness that still keeps players coming back all these years later.
The events preceding Fallout had a global nuclear war devastating the world and destroying modern civilization in October 2077. Those who survived the war took shelter in underground Vaults. Nearly a century later, you are the Vault Dweller, a human born and raised in Vault 13, which is located in Southern California. Vault 13 has a crisis on its hands, as the controller chip for their water purification system has malfunctioned, resulting in the vault no longer being able to recycle its water. You have been elected by the Vault Overseer to travel to one of the other vaults to find a replacement. You only have 150 days in order to do so, before Vault 13’s water reserves run dry. Along the way, you’ll encounter other vaults and settlements, including the various factions found in Southern California such as the Brotherhood of Steel, the Children of the Cathedral, and the Super Mutants, led by The Master.
Even before getting into the gameplay, the thing that immediately hits many players upon loading Fallout is its presentation and atmosphere. It’d be a crime if you didn’t mention Ron Perlman’s narration during the opening cinematic with his iconic line about war never changing. The delivery of his exposition is enough to paint a harsh and unforgiving world before even starting the game. Delving into the game’s environments, the retro-futuristic art style of the 1950s merged with the grimy, broken feel of a world devastated by nuclear war to create a world that is fascinating as it is hostile. The game also drew upon films such as Mad Max 2 to add to its post-nuclear look and feel with the burned-out cars, leather jackets with and spiked shoulder pad, corrugated metal shacks for dwellings and so on.
Accentuating that hostile feeling is the brutal over-the-top violence in Fallout, which definitely fit the horror quotient for many. If juxtaposing The Ink Spots’ rendition of “Maybe” with the violent news footage of US forces executing a Canadian citizen during the opening cinematic wasn’t jarring enough, it was the violence in the gameplay. During the game itself, you had characters having their upper torso blown to shreds by a well-place shot from an SMG or minigun, exploding like a “blood sausage” (a phrase from the game’s advertisement, and a reference to Wasteland), having their flesh burnt off before their skeleton crumbles into a pile of dust, or being reduced to a pile of goo. Then you had the incredibly gory unique death animations for certain characters. If that wasn’t enough, Fallout allowed players the one taboo in many media, which was the ability to kill children. Of course, if you did it, you were given the Childkiller reputation, which resulted in huge penalties for your character.
Complementing all of this was Fallout‘s equally desolate-sounding score by Mark Morgan. Once again, here’s a soundtrack that perfectly enhances the atmosphere and visuals, creating a great sense of foreboding, while also upping the tension whenever you had a tough task ahead of you. It certainly wouldn’t feel out of place if it were used in a film like The Hills Have Eyes that emphasized the remoteness of its setting, while also hinting at the unknown danger that lay ahead.
Of course, none of this mattered if the story and gameplay weren’t up to snuff. And yes, it’s as potentially unforgiving and tense as the world of Fallout itself, with those horror overtones coming out on more than a few occasions. The obvious one starts with the Ghouls, the humans mutated by radiation who reside in Necropolis, also known as the City of the Dead. Given the viewpoint from which the game is played, you don’t actually get to see a Ghoul “up close” until you converse with Set, the leader of Necropolis. With the loss of skin, exposed muscle, heavy scar tissue and raspy voice, it’s pretty easy to see why they’re referred to as zombies by non-Ghouls (though they aren’t actually dead). The area’s set of related quests take you through Necropolis and into its sewer systems, which thanks again to the foreboding atmosphere and hostility of the locals (and their factions), makes it one of the more horror-filled places in all of Fallout.
And then there’s the Mariposa Military Base, home of the Super Mutants and their leader, The Master. Again, you don’t get an up close look at the Super Mutants until you meet the Lieutenant of the Master’s Army. While not as grotesque as a Ghoul, the appearance of the Lieutenant certainly fits the idea of a monster. None of that comes close to The Master, however. The amalgamation of flesh and technology, The Master’s appearance is appropriately over-the-top, but is still horrific. Matching The Master’s appearance is the way he speaks, with one robotic voice, two male and one female, teetering on the edge of ridiculousness while also being frightening. Equally frightening is the The Master’s ability to penetrate the mental defenses of others, preying on their fears. As a result, players would need to seek out a psychic nullifier if they chose to fight The Master. And should players fight The Master, they’re rewarded with another disturbingly violent and over-the-top death animation should they succeed.
The original Fallout didn’t rely solely on horror to appeal to gamers, but it was a vital component that made its way into several aspects of the game that helped turn it into the success that it still enjoys 25 years later. The later Fallout games, regardless of whether it was the original Interplay games or Bethesda’s current offerings, continued the same idea of courting aspects of horror without fully committing to them. Would a full-on embrace of horror make for a good Fallout game? That’s debatable, but the horror aspects would certainly be missed if they were dropped entirely, as it’s clear how much repeated trips to the wasteland benefit from slipping on occasion into the genre.
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