Fallout
PLOT
Fallout is set several decades after a worldwide conflict brought on by global petroleum shortage. Several nations begin warring with one another for the last stores of nonrenewable resources, namely oil and uranium. Known as the Resource Wars, fighting begins in April of 2052 and continues until October 23, 2077. China invades Alaska in the winter of 2066, causing the United States to go to war with China and using Canadian resources to supply their war efforts, despite Canadian complaints. Eventually the US annexes Canada in February of 2076 and reclaims Alaska eleven months later. After years of conflict, on October 23, 2077, a global nuclear attack occurs. Nobody knows who strikes first, but in less than two hours most major cities are destroyed. The effects of the attack will not fade for the next 100 years. As a consequence, humanity lives in underground Vaults though some people affected by the radiation live topside.
The game takes place in 2161 in Southern California and begins in Vault 13, the protagonist's home. Vault 13's Water Chip, a computer chip responsible for the water recycling and pumping machinery, breaks. The Vault Overseer tasks the protagonist with finding a replacement. He is given a portable device called the "PIPBoy 2000" that keeps track of mapmaking, quest objectives, and bookkeeping. Armed with the PIPBoy 2000 and meager equipment, including a small sum of bottle caps which are used as currency in the post-apocalyptic world, the main character is sent off on his quest.
The player initially has 150 game days before the Vault's water supply runs out. This time limit can be extended by 100 game days if he commissions merchants in the Hub to send water caravans to Vault 13. Upon returning the chip, the Vault Dweller is then tasked with destroying a mutant army that threatens humanity. A mutant known as "The Master" (previously known as Richard Grey) spreads a pre-war, genetically engineered virus called the "Forced Evolutionary Virus" to convert humanity into a race of "Super Mutants" and bring them together in the "Unity" — his plan for a perfect world. The player must kill him and destroy the military base housing the supply of FEV, thus halting the invasion before it can start.
If the player does not complete both objectives within 500 game days, the mutant army will discover Vault 13 and invade it, bringing an end to the game. This time limit is shortened to 400 days if the player divulged Vault 13's location to the water merchants. A cinematic cut-scene of mutants overrunning the vault is shown if the player fails to stop the mutant army within this time frame, indicating the player has lost the game. If the player agrees to join the mutant army, the same cinematic is shown
The player can defeat the Master and destroy the Super Mutants' Military Base in either order. When both threats are eliminated, a cut-scene ensues in which the player automatically returns to Vault 13. There he is told that he has changed too much and his return would negatively influence the citizens of the Vault. Thus he is rewarded with exile into the desert, for, in the Overseer's eyes, the good of the vault. There is an alternate ending in which the Vault Dweller draws a handgun and shoots the Overseer after he is told to go into exile. This ending is inevitable if the player has the "Bloody Mess" trait or has accrued significant negative karma throughout the game. It can be triggered if the player initiates combat in the brief time after the Overseer finishes his conversation but before the ending cut-scene.
OVERVIEW
The best game of the last century.... period.
