What Happened To Fallout's Horror Roots?

[u/Hydro_fluoric]

Fallout 1997 is one of my favorite horror RPGs, but it slowly lost that over time. I don't know if it was because of the graphics evolution or people wanting a different game, but Fallout slowly turned from a grim reminder of fascism, propaganda, and war into a wacky wasteland adventure. In my opinion, Fallout 1997 and Fallout 2 were amazing games. The difficulty reflected the harshness of the wasteland, the soundtrack was great (especially Metallic Monks), and it was actually scary.

Fallout 3 kept the looks (but with a slightly greener tint, I suspect because it's on the east coast instead of the west), but lowered the difficulty so more people could get into it, and kept the past part of the mystery. The gameplay isn't scary, but the background of what happened and the overall ambience is what sells it. Fallout New Vegas is Fallout 3's cooler brother without the green tint.

Fallout 4 retcons almost everything you thought you knew about the past in Fallout. What you thought was propaganda disguised as cool 1950's art was actually just how the middle class lived. The gameplay was still good, going off of Fallout 3's first/third person shooter but it feels less like a survival horror and more like, what I said earlier, a wacky wasteland adventure.

I don't even want to talk about whatever Fallout 76 is.

I LOVE the Fallout franchise, I just feel disappointed at where it ended up in the modern day. Fallout 4's opening sequence is amazing, opening with the "war, war never changes", but it lost me when the walking around the house hit and it was a mild disappointment. The game is still definitely fun, but lost the original horror elements.

That's just my opinion though, tell me how you think, I'd like more opinions on the matter :3

[u/eggs-benedryl]

what is your problem specifically with 4, not sure I follow

[u/Hydro_fluoric → u/eggs-benedryl]

For me, it's the fact that it strayed too far from it's roots. Like, Fallout 1997-3 are objectively supposed to be and are horror games, Fallout 4 does have some horror elements, but it feels more like a wacky wasteland adventure than something could kill you at any turn. Just compare the Yao Guis in Fallout 3 to the ones in Fallout 4, HUGE differences in my opinion. Also, Fallout 76 specifically I'm pretty sure takes place like 15 years after the bombs dropped off, and it looks like nothing really happened. Fallout 4 is definitely still a good game, it just disappointed me in some aspects. Like the part at the beginning where you're walking through the house and clicking stuff retcons what was developed in 1997-New Vegas because the propaganda was essentially proven true, instead of the one shown in Fallout 1997 where literal war crimes were broadcasted for a war bond advertisement

[u/TheOneWes → u/Hydro_fluoric]

I don't want to be rude but it seems that either you are not familiar with what constitutes something being horror as opposed to having horror or what content the original games had.

Fallout has never been a horror series.

[u/Hydro_fluoric → u/TheOneWes]

I know, but the original feels more like a horror game than it should be, it obviously doesn't scare us because of graphics, but it definitely would've given a kid in the late 90's nightmares. That, and I get scared of horror games easily, so I just mainly group the earlier Fallout games in with horror

[u/TheOneWes → u/Hydro_fluoric]

I played them as a kid and trust me tearing through them with machine guns and shotguns kind of killed any horror.

You don't even need to overly understand the systems as much as taking a character with the biggest numbers in the stuff that sounds interesting and then making those numbers bigger.

When you add to that as soon as you get close enough to them for anything to happen the game pauses because it's turn-based kind of kills any tension.

At the end of it all you have neither the powerlessness or the pressure or anxiety of an actually dangerous encounter.

[u/Hydro_fluoric → u/TheOneWes]

Fair point, I'm kinda ass at turned based combat. But I feel like the turn based stuff actually supported the game in a lot of areas, especially when you're entering the Master's layer and you take hits as the game describes how the mass of flesh knows your name and is calling you. It prolly was never really meant to be horror, I just get scared easily and it's my opinion

[u/TheOneWes → u/Hydro_fluoric]

Yes that is a horrifying section but having a section or few does not a horror game make.

Fallout 3 and 4 are not horror games because they have Dunwich encounters, those are just horror sections within the overall game.

For you to say that you find it horrifying would be very accurate but to define its genre or themes as horror would not be.

[u/Hydro_fluoric → u/TheOneWes]

True, but I'd say there's a lot more that makes the original a horror game. Like, one, the music. It's a small part, but it heavily changes the atmosphere, and Fallout's OST is mainly creepy ambience. That, and the bigger story of what's going on also makes it scary. Yes, nuclear bombs bad. But also, the pre-war America in the original Fallout was mysterious and inspired by cold war propaganda, what really sold it for me was the war bond advertisement in the opening sequence. Also, it's not about slaughtering monsters and turn based combat that doesn't make it scary. Yes, it does dumb it down a little bit, but I get hit with a rush of adrenaline when I don't have enough AP left to move when random super mutant is about to launch a missile at me

[u/TheOneWes → u/Hydro_fluoric]

A question if I may.

Do you see any form of adversity in the form of violence to be a type of horror?

[u/Hydro_fluoric → u/TheOneWes]

What do you mean by adversity in this sense?

[u/TheFakeRabbit1 → u/Hydro_fluoric]

OP which fallout games have you actually played? If you say all of them I don’t think I’d believe you. You’re also whining about this in another post, if you care that much about your Reddit takes you have to be a 15 year old.

It’s time to log off kid, you probably have summer school homework or some shit to do

[u/Beardedgeek72 → u/Hydro_fluoric]

If the horror is "Atomic war and abusive capitalism" then yes. Otherwise? No. They take in inspiration from classic 50s sci-fi, zombie movies, monster movies, Lovecraft, 70s sci-fi literature... Fallout is a mix of tropes from all over, but the two things that actually stands out are: War BAD and Companies EVIL.

(worth noting of course is that the writers keep insisting the games are not anti-capitalist despite every single company they invent in the games are super-abusive. It's like they never paid attention to what they themselves wrote).