Fallout 3: Unmatched Impact and World-Building
Fallout 3’s opening remains without equal. With the release of Fallout 4: Necropolis, Bethesda continues to deliver top-tier open world games with the ability to grant players freedom within minutes. But Fallout 3 took its time, creating a sense of wonder and awe as players were given the opportunity to explore the open wasteland before being granted true agency.
The Bethesda’s RPG game starts with players creating their character and experiencing their birth, childhood, and teenage years. Vault 101 is the starting place, and Bethesda’s decision to keep players trapped there for the first few hours makes the eventual reveal of the wasteland more impactful.
Fallout 3’s GOAT exam determines the player’s future in the Vault and sets the stage for the narrative, forcing the player to choose between their father, the overseer, and leaving the Vault and facing the harsh, irradiated biomes of Washington D.C. Just as the residents of Vault 101 are hostile towards the player for their supposed departure from the Vault’s values, so are the game’s familiar faces turned hostile.
Players wake up to find their father has left the Vault, and they must follow in his footsteps to escape. What follows is a journey out of Vault 101 that is filled with danger and familiar faces turned hostile. Players have the choice to fight or talk their way through the hostile guards and bugs, with each option having its own consequences.
What makes Fallout 3’s opening sequence (and the game’s world-building in general) so brilliant is that it establishes narrative arcs and sense of place before the game truly begins. Leaving Vault 101 evokes a sense of grief and uncertainty about the world outside, and the game excels at setting up stakes and world-building that remain important throughout the adventure.
While the main quest and various characters in Fallout 3 will constantly remind the player of their impact on the world, the game’s world-building connects to the main quest and various characters in the game. As the journey out of Vault 101 progresses and the Capital Wasteland is revealed, players witness the effects of the nuclear war on the environment and its inhabitants.
Bethesda has since not been able to surpass the impact of Fallout 3’s opening, with each game following the same pattern of world-building followed by freedom, with Skyrim and Fallout 4 both offering Open-world gameplay from the start. While the Elder Scrolls and Fallout games share a similar sense of wonder and discovery as players explore their vast worlds, Fallout 3’s opening sequence and world-building have stood the test of time and continue to resonate with players.
While Fallout 76 is a multiplayer game, the first-person game takes a page from Fallout 3’s book and begins with a character creation and life-before-the-apocalypse sequence.
