The Fallout franchise is perhaps the most iconic and recognizable post-apocalypse franchise in gaming, and Fallout 5 is expected to continue this legacy. The fifth mainline entry in the series might have more eyes on it than ever before, considering the wild success of the Amazon TV show adaptation, and with developments in game-making technology in the wake of Fallout 4, there's plenty of reason to be excited about the future.
But despite these promising factors, Fallout 5 isn't exactly a guaranteed slam dunk. Bethesda's reputation isn't quite what it used to be, for one thing, and the famed developer has yet to recreate the ubiquitous popularity and commercial success of something like Skyrim. Looking at the Fallout franchise specifically, there isn't a whole lot of uncovered ground left to explore, as the cumulative contributions from Bethesda Games Studios, Black Isle Studios, and Obsidian Entertainment have nearly run the universe's well dry, at least in some respects. Certainly, there are still interesting stories to tell in the retro-future wasteland, but Bethesda could run into trouble when attempting to flesh out one of Fallout's most important narrative traditions.
Fallout Could Be Sitting on a Gold Mine of Lore Potential With its Wackiest Collectibles
Fallout has featured plenty of mysterious surprises, and one strange collectible should play a much bigger role in the future.
Fallout 5 May Have Trouble Presenting Unique Vault Types
The Fallout Franchise Has Thoroughly Explored Vault Life
Sold and marketed by Vault-Tec as a preventative measure for those concerned about nuclear warfare, the subterranean vaults that pepper Fallout's rendition of the United States are considerably less benevolent than they first appear. As it turns out, Vault-Tec's motivations for selling vault space were far from altruistic: the company intended to experiment on the vaults' residents in myriad ways, often leading to horrific or bizarre results. Some of the most memorable vaults in Fallout history include:
- Vault 95: a rehab center for drug addicts which unceremoniously opened access to a plethora of drugs five years after its residents detoxed
- Vault 75: a eugenics facility which killed the parents of children, who were then selectively bred with each other
- Vault 11: a vault whose inhabitants were convinced to sacrifice one of their own each year
- Vault 112: the vault that hosted the Tranquility Lane simulation
- Vault 108: a vault with a cloning chamber, leading to innumerable copies of a man called Gary
This abundance of strange vaults, each with their own mean-spirited experimental twist, is among the highlights of the Fallout franchise, and Fallout 5 will no doubt attempt to keep fleshing out this lore element. But with so many interesting, horrifying, and hilarious concepts already explored through Fallout's video game and television ventures, it's worth wondering whether the series' next chapter can live up to its predecessors' ingenuity.
It May Have To Dig Deep, but Fallout 5 Can Hopefully Still Provide Unique Vault Ideas
It seems highly unlikely that Fallout 5 will simply be devoid of new vaults for players to explore—whether they are actually interesting is another matter, though. Indeed, it might be something of an uphill battle, but Bethesda Game Studios should still strive to conjure new and exciting vault concepts, leaning into the unsettling, no-holds-barred world-building style of previous entries.
Fallout 5 isn't just coming up against a well-trodden and potentially exhausted series, trope—it's going to have to contend with audience expectations as well. For better or worse, Fallout fans anticipate an unexpected or thought-provoking twist when they enter a new in-game vault, so any and all vaults featured in Fallout 5 will be inevitably compared to those that came before them, which is some stiff competition, to be sure. There's also the potential for Bethesda to jump the shark, leveraging narrative ideas that are a bit too outlandish and nonsensical, even for the already-wacky sci-fi series. Here's hoping the studio can thread the needle come Fallout 5.
Fallout 76
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 54 /100 Critics Rec: 9%
WHERE TO PLAY
Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of Skyrim and Fallout 4, welcome you to Fallout 76. Twenty-five years after the bombs fell, you and your fellow Vault Dwellers—chosen from the nation’s best and brightest – emerge into post-nuclear America on Reclamation Day, 2102. Play solo or join together as you explore, quest, build, and triumph against the wasteland’s greatest threats. Explore a vast wasteland, devastated by nuclear war, in this open-world multiplayer addition to the Fallout story. Experience the largest, most dynamic world ever created in the legendary Fallout universe. Expand southward to Skyline Valley – a brand-new region of Appalachia. Investigate the cause of the electric storm circling overhead and unveil the mystery around Vault 63 and its dwellers, including a shocking new Ghoul type – The Lost.
