Nuclear Bomb: The Fallout Effect
Article
Abstract: Fallout 4 was one of the year’s most anticipated games before it
was even officially announced. The game profoundly commanded the narrative of
the industry: fans and critics alike. Fallout
is part of a small, elite group of IPs that are able to elicit a reaction
so strong it defines the present and future of gaming. But why Fallout? What made these IPs so
impactful? I argue it comes down to four things: peerlessness, developer trust,
chronology, and nostalgia.
Not many
games are the biggest release of the year before they’re even officially
announced. In fact, the number of titles could probably be counted on one hand.
The thought of one of these games gets critics giddy, YouTubers shouting from
the mountaintops, and fans foaming at the mouth. It’s a strange and fascinating
phenomenon of the video game industry. A select few titles hit like a nuclear
bomb. Only a few IPs can elicit such an effect. 2015 saw the release of one of
these infamous titles: Fallout 4.
Fallout 4 is a game everyone saw coming.
Bethesda Softworks had been quiet for quite some time following the release of
their previous title, Skyrim.
Speculation, and excitement, had been running rampant in the months (even
years) leading up to the game’s official teaser. You had forums claiming they
found websites about the game, alleged former Bethesda employees ‘leaking’
information, and fake screenshot after fake screenshot. So it should come as no
surprise that Fallout 4 was a hit
before anything was even shown. The moment that the “Please Stand By” site was
posted, everyone already knew what
his or her most anticipated game of the year was. No contest.
 |
'Please Stand By': Fallout is going to be foremost in your mind
from June through the end of the year. |
This
excitement dominated the narrative of the industry’s biggest event: the
Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). It was no small feat. In my several years
of follow E3 coverage, the ‘biggest’ game is almost always some surprise
announcement. Like Watch Dogs or The Division from E3’s past. Or if we
took at look at this year’s E3, a game like the Final Fantasy 7 Remake or Horizon
Zero Dawn. But that was not the case this year. Fallout 4 dominated. Fallout
4 released their first trailer two weeks before the show. It showed fans
exactly what they wanted to see: the game was more of the Fallout they know and love. By the time E3 2015 got rolling, Fallout 4 was (mostly) a known entity. The
game was shown off in a substantial way at Bethesda’s Sunday night press conference.
The on-stage demo showcased improvements to the base game systems, new gameplay
modes, improved graphical fidelity, and the semi-unexpected confirmation that Fallout 4 would release this fall. When
it came time to give conference awards, Fallout
4 cleaned up shop. In spite of not announcing the game at the event, and
showing what everyone pretty much expected, Fallout
4 ignited an excitement that only a precious few IPs can muster.
 |
E3's game of the show could have easily been Horizon or The Last Guardian or
FF7 Remake. But for most, it was Fallout 4. |
The Fallout effect continued well into the
Fall as we neared the game’s November 10th release. New releases
were big, but none of them were Fallout. You found this everywhere.
Critics would say how much they loved playing Metal Gear Solid V or Until
Dawn, but in the very next breath mention how they’re still eagerly
awaiting Fallout. Some of the fall’s
biggest releases have been swallowed whole by the excitement surrounding Fallout. Despite great review scores for
several of this year’s marquee titles, all had remarkably short news cycles
following (and even leading up to) their release. Halo 5, despite being the first new Halo game in 3 years, had excitement that lasted about a week or
two. Treyarch’s sequel to one of the most beloved Call of Duty games, Black Ops
3, had little to no time in the spotlight. Rise of the Tomb Raider struggled to get even let fans know the
game had shipped. And that’s all because of Fallout
4. 2015 has been one of the best
years in gaming in recent memory, and even still, many of the great games that
came out can’t escape the power of Fallout.
The power of a game that shipped 12 million units in one day. A game that sold nearly
2
million digital copies in three
days.
 |
It's competition may be as strong as a Deathclaw, but Fallout 4 has power armor
and a mini gun. It's opponents didn't stand a chance. |
No matter
how I think about it, the hype for games like Fallout 4 is a strange phenomenon. As I alluded to in the opening
of the article, only a few handful of IPs are able to command this kind of all
encompassing attention. Some would argue the franchises that have this impact
are subjective. I can agree to a certain extent. I’d argue, however, that there
are a precious few IPs that are objectively ‘nuclear bombs.’ Namely: Fallout, Grand Theft Auto, and The
Legend of Zelda. Small spin-offs aside, each new entry into these three
franchises drums up a fervor that’s unmatched in the industry. The create a
kind of excitement that fuels massive surges to console purchases, break sales
records, or are the largest entertainment release of the year. But why these
three? It’s a question that I couldn’t get out of my head in the weeks leading
up to Fallout 4’s release. Why does a
new GTA or Zelda or Fallout dominate
so much of the games conversation? Why are the fans of these franchises so
passionate, so vocal, and so large in number? Why couldn’t I stop myself from
feeding into this hype cycle?
 |
| Mini nuke? Nah. Just Fallout 4 hitting stores. |
After much
reflection, I came up with four reasons why I think Fallout, and it’s group of elite peers, are ‘nuclear bombs.’ I’ll
touch on each briefly.
Peerlessness
Want to
know the number one reason why I was (and am) so excited for Fallout 4? Because no other game I’ve played
can provide me with the same kind of experience. Many other games have tried,
but none have been able to create as compelling a setting, as content dense a
map, and as rich an open world as Bethesda RPG’s. Fallout has no competition for the type of experience it provides
to you. The skill with which the team at Bethesda puts their games together is
incredible. They are able to create worlds that you want to get lost in. Every
piece of content in their immense games feels meaningful. The world is filled
with secrets both obvious and obscure, both exciting and tragic. Fallout allows you to role-play to the
fullest extent. You have full control of all character customization, skills,
stats, morality, weapon preferences, armor, and many more.
I have
mixed feelings about open world games, generally. So many open worlds are
bland, lifeless. Exploring and playing them often feels like an excise in
tedium. One of my chief complaints about ‘bad’ open world games is locomotion:
how fun it is to get from point A to B is paramount. That’s because the space
between A and B is usually devoid of interest. Fallout 4, and Bethesda RPG’s generally, make every single square
inch of their world worth spending time in. You’ll find hidden stories, great
loot, new allies, and more. No other open world game, even some of the best (The Witcher 3 or Infamous) can replicate this feeling. Every aspect of Fallout synergizes to create an
unmatched experience.
 |
| Many have tried, but there's nothing quite like Fallout. |
Developer Trust
The fervor
for Fallout 4 began as early as it
did because the game’s developer, Bethesda Softworks, has a long and (mostly)
spotless history of great games. Developer trust is a significant part of why Fallout is part of such an elite group
of franchises in the gaming industry. To put it simply: you know exactly what
to expect when you boot up your copy of Fallout
4. You can trust the game will be massive, content rich, gripping. Most
importantly, you know that it will match or exceed the quality of previous
entries. Bethesda hasn’t released a bad Fallout.
Bethesda hasn’t pulled the wool over fan’s eyes with a suboptimal game. Every
Bethesda RPG, every modern Fallout game,
has that same stamp of quality. This is where so many other IPs are unable to
achieve the notoriety that Fallout or
GTA or Zelda have been able to achieve. One bad game release, or even one
particularly egregious element in an otherwise great game, can sink the
franchise. As a quick example: Mass
Effect. Despite BioWare creating an extraordinary new series, missteps with
the third game’s ending and issues plaguing some of the studio’s other releases
resulted in the erosion of trust. Though excitement is still high for Mass Effect Andromeda, it hasn’t and
won’t reach the same levels as Fallout 4.
The developer trust isn’t there. I felt justified in my excitement for Fallout 4 because I had confidence it
would achieve the same level of excellence as Fallout 3 or Skyrim. And,
in my 15 or so hours that I’ve been able to play so far, I can confidently say
that my assumption was right. Bethesda doesn’t release bad games.
 |
| You see this logo? You can be confident in knowing that the experience will meet expectations. |
Chronology
Want to
play a new Fallout game? A new GTA or Zelda? You’re going to have to wait. But in the case of these IPs,
that’s a very good thing. There are many games that, in my opinion, are as good
or better than Fallout games. There
isn’t a Fallout title in my top ten
games of all time. I can say without exaggeration, however, that Fallout 4 was my most anticipated game
of the year ever since it was announced. It had been so long since I’ve played Fallout. It’s been seven years since the last game in the series. Fallout 3 released when I was a freshman in college; Fallout 4 released during my fourth year
in graduate school. That’s a long time. A lot has happened. It’s given me (and
others) the time and space needed to gain perspective, distance myself from my
time with the previous game, and fuel my hunger for more of the same. Just like
developer trust, an ideal chronology is another element that many other IPs
fail at achieving. Despite the wide-spread critical acclaim and fan excitement
for Assassin’s Creed 2, the yearly
releases of sequels has driven excitement into the dirt. People still play and
enjoy Assassin’s Creed, sure, but
it’s hard to argue that people are that excited
to get their hands on the latest version. Bethesda, Rockstar and Nintendo all
take their time with new mainline entries to Fallout, GTA and Zelda respectively. Distance makes the
heart grow fonder. And in games, time is distance.
 |
New Fallout games are few and far between. Perhaps the rest are still locked
up in the Vault. |
Nostalgia
Nostalgia’s
role in building these megaliths of the gaming industry is a complicated one.
Certainly a much larger subject than can be covered in one short paragraph
here. Though, it matters, and I wanted to mention it briefly. Nostalgia acts as
a combination of peerlessness, developer trust and chronology. The
groundbreaking GTA3, A Link to the Past and / or Ocarina of Time were formative
experiences for so many gamers. Playing a new entry in these franchises calls
back to the time you spent with previous entries—a time that, for so many,
defined who you were or how you thought as a gamer. Fallout is interesting when considering nostalgia. Fallout and Fallout 2 were huge, certainly, but don’t command the same sort of
import as early GTA or Zelda titles. But Fallout 3 was so profoundly impactful it’s created its own type of
nostalgia. Fallout 3 created a new
era of fans talking about how fantastic the game was, how much it did well and
how it was an experience unlike any other. That’s created a ravenous, nostalgic
void for Fallout 4’s release. People
are excited either because they played Fallout
3 and thought it was great or, for many others, because they heard how great Fallout 3 was and want to finally enjoy the franchise for
themselves. Fallout 3 was that
flashpoint—the game itself didn’t sell well at launch, but gained momentum over
time. Regardless, a culture of longing for previous entries is essential in
forming the kind of craze I’m writing about it. Nostalgia is a powerful
motivator.
 |
I feel a twinge of 'nostalgia' for Diamond City already. Fallout makes a deep connection
with the player almost immediately. |
_____________________________
What do you
think? What are the reasons you think franchises like Fallout and Grand Theft Auto and
The Legend of Zelda make such an
enormous impact on the industry? What other IPs do you think are peerless, are
emblematic of developer trust, have a compelling release chronology and make
you nostalgic? I’d love to know. In the meantime, I think it’s time to get back
to playing Fallout 4.
