Fallout Games in Order: An Adventure Through Time

Since Fallout video games have been around for so long, they have undergone a substantial transformation. Even in its early years, the series had a reputation for exploring different genres, and Bethesda encouraged this trend to continue.

Every game in the series is set either decades or centuries after a nuclear disaster doomed a futuristic America that never outgrew the recurring motifs of the 1950s. Huge mutants, horrifying radiation-altered humans, scorpions, rabid canines, and giant mole rats roam the wastelands of the United States. 

However, the focus of every game is that distinct, peculiar world that was initially imagined back in 1997. Additionally, every game has its fair amount of outrageous dialogue, noteworthy role-playing chances, and complex missions. Players have been drawn in for many years by the hardships of navigating life in the Wasteland. The series of Fallout games will go down in history.

‍

All Fallout Games in Order

Continue reading to explore the amazing Fallout games in the right order. 

‍

Fallout 

‍

• Published by Interplay Productions

• Release Date- October 10, 1997

‍

The first video game of the Fallout series was "Fallout," a role-playing game where the player starts by choosing one of the three characters or one of the player-customizable attributes. Skills and traits are other statistics when creating the character in the game; you should be familiar with this if you've been playing this series.

All 18 skills are learned abilities with a percentage value determining their effectiveness and influencing the character's performance in the gameplay. The primary statistics determine their initial significance, but three primary skills can give three a 20% boost.

Our protagonist for the game, Vault Dweller, has seven preliminary statistics that the player can customize: strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, and luck. Where each statistic can range from one to ten as long as the total is at most 40. 

Traits are positive and negative character traits that the users can choose from the list of sixteen. Various actions during gameplay allow the player to gain experience points. The experience points will help the player level up and earn a certain number of skill points as they collect experience points. 

Players can bestow a unique ability or perk on them every three levels. There are 50 perks, each with its own set of requirements. The player in Fallout explores the game world from an isometric viewpoint and can interact with non-player characters.

The amount of dialogue between characters varies as some say short messages and other prominent ones at length. Talking heads are 3D models used to represent notable characters in conversations. The player can use bottle caps as currency to barter with other characters or to purchase goods at times types of equipment.

The player can recruit companions for exploration and combat, but companions cannot directly control them. What the main gameplay has for the players is that they are faced with three main quests in the game, while the other two are only available after the completion of the first quest.

The game will end if the player doesn't finish the first main quest within 150 in-game days. While there are multiple other ways, players can complete quests through diplomacy, combat, or stealth. Some allow unconventional or counter-intuitive solutions to the original task. 

You can lose or earn karma points based on how you complete each quest, which determines how others treat your character. The player's actions determine the future story or gameplay options and the ending, giving all the players worldwide a unique plot.

You can perform many acts with each turn until their action points are finally exhausted. You use an action-point system in turn-based combat. The player has access to many firearms, which can target certain parts of rivals and swiftly switch between two equipped weapons. Despite being released almost two decades ago, Fallout is the game that paved the way for the games that follow this game.

‍

Fallout 2

‍

• Published by Interplay Productions

• Release Date- October 29, 1998

‍

The sequel to the first game- Fallout, is Fallout 2, which was released the following year and possesses similar features, graphics, and gameplay mechanics. Fallout 2 had a much larger game world and a much more extensive storyline than Fallout.

This game's plot takes place in 2241, 164 years after the nuclear war that left most of the planet in a nuclear wasteland and 80 years after the Fallout events. The story revolves around The Chosen One, a Vault Dweller's grandchild, and their mission to save their savage, peaceful tribe from the remote community of Arroyo, which was established by a vile gang of former Vault 13 inmates and is situated on the West Coast of the United States.

As Fallout 2 is an open-world role-playing video game, players can move at their leisure until they enter combat. Combat provides them with various action points to move, fire, check their equipment, reload, and so on. When players expel all their action points, their turn ends, and the enemies begin theirs.

Players can restore the action points if the character survives unharmed. Until combat is over and the player is treated, wounds and poisons might temporarily lower the number of action points that are accessible.

Similar to the first game of the Fallout series, players earn experience points by engaging in combat and finishing tasks or missions. Players can level up their characters with newly acquired points and equip valuable bonuses to help them survive in the dangerous post-apocalyptic environment.

The gameplay involves traveling and interacting with residents and organizations to complete objectives and aid or hinder NPCs. The player's choice may present potential plot twists or gameplay opportunities in the future, providing various scenarios that would influence the ending.

Organized crime, illegal activities, and slavery heavily influence the setting. The SPECIAL role-playing system is used to create characters. Fallout 2 has an improved engine from its predecessor, more pop culture jokes and parodies, and the ability to change the attitude of non-player characters, unlike the previous game.

The player has 18 skills in this role-playing open world, with each skill ranked from 0% to 300%; starting skill levels typically range from 0% to 50%, depending on the character's primary attributes. With each group gained, your character receives skill points, which can be used to improve their consistency.

‍

Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel 

‍

• Published by 14 Degrees East, Bethesda Softworks 

• Release Date - March 15, 2001 

‍

Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, third on the list, is a tactical real-time turn-based role-playing game set in the Fallout universe, similar to the previously released games. The game follows a Brotherhood of Steel squad mired in a tragic war. Despite taking place in the Fallout universe, the game does not track or continue the story of Fallout or Fallout 2. 

So playing Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel might feel different after experiencing the other two because it is not a continuation but a side series. Unlike the previous two Fallout games, Fallout Tactics focuses on tactical combat and approach.

Players' interactions with non-player characters are much more limited compared to the previous game, Fallout 2. However, they can still trade with them, and some missions include dialogue. Fallout Tactics, rather than towns, focuses on Brotherhood bunkers and missions.

The bunkers serve as a hub for the Brotherhood, where you can hire quartermasters, mechanics, personnel yeomen, and medics. The characters who complete missions can occasionally visit the bunkers. After receiving a mission briefing from the general in charge of the bunker, the player's squad can proceed to the mission location.

Although this is typically a town, it can also be seen as a factory, military camp, or vault. You will be given a map of the area with objectives and notes. Fallout Tactics' combat is more complex than in the previous two Fallout games. Unlike the last games, which used an individual turn-based system, Fallout Tactics has three combat modes: Continuous Turn-Based, Individual Turn-Based, and STB.

Everyone can act simultaneously in CTB, and action points are regenerated at a rate demarcated by agility. Previously, the other games in the series followed the ITB system in the original games. STB is a variant in which each turn is assigned to a squad.

Other changes from the original games include the ability to change stance, height modifiers, and set sentry modes, allowing characters to shoot automatically in CTB when encountering an enemy. The first Fallout game to include a multiplayer mode is Fallout Tactics.

Each player commands a squad of characters and battles against other players in this mode. During game setup, players are given several points to spend on squad members and gear. However, unlike the previous two games, this one is set in the Midwestern United States of America.

As the new initiate, you are tasked with completing various missions to protect a spawning civilization from different mutated species. Another difference between the other two games is that Brotherhood of Steel focuses on strategy and tactical combat rather than role-playing.

This game's character system has been designed to enhance players' ability to customize their perks and skills. The game was also the first not to require players to fight in turn-based modes. The combat system included various stances, modifiers, and methods. It's also worth noting that players don't have any dialog options.

‍

Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel 

‍

• Published by Interplay Productions

• Release Date - January 14, 2004

‍

The gameplay of Brotherhood of Steel, as a spinoff, differs significantly from that of other Fallout games. The gameplay is not open-world but relatively linear. As in previous Fallout games, the player can only be in one spot at a time rather than freely moving throughout a large globe filled with locations and activities.

Players cannot revisit previous sites and only discover new areas by progressing through the story. In Brotherhood of Steel, there are 50 distinct zones of varying sizes. Many Fallout series mechanics are used in Brotherhood of Steel, including the SPECIAL attribute assignment system.

These seven attributes are assigned numerical values and govern most game interactions. In contrast to other Fallout games, the values for each character are fixed rather than customizable. Skills exist in this game, but they behave differently than skills in other Fallout games.

They are more akin to benefits. When players level up, they gain "skill points," which they can use to boost the power of their skills. Some skills have level restrictions as well. As the PC, the player selects one of up to six playable characters. There are no party members, but there is a co-op mode.

The original Fallout protagonist is the Vault Dweller, who appeared in this game too. He is a powerful player character. Vault Dweller can only be selected by commencing a new game after the player has completed the chapter in which he appears and can use any weapon type, unlike the other characters.

Cyrus grew up in a tribal farmer community fighting off raiders. Cain was born a human but turned into a ghoul after exposure to apocalyptic radiation poisoning. Nadia grew up as an orphan in a devastated urban area, stealing to feed and clothe herself. She embodies the stereotypical rogue. Patty was the leader of those who made it out of the Garden area alive. Rhombus was a Paladin who led a Brotherhood of Steel separatist faction. 

‍

Fallout 3

‍

• Published by Bethesda Softworks

• Release Date - October 28, 2008

‍

The game's post-apocalyptic, open-world setting includes a large area known as the Capital Wasteland, which consists of the ruins of Washington, DC, and most of the surrounding farmland. Fallout 3 takes place in the standard Fallout setting of a world where atomic technology drove it to diverge into an alternate timeline.

Eventually, it was destroyed in 2077 by a nuclear war caused by a huge global dispute between the United States and China. It is not a direct successor to Fallout 2. However, the primary plot takes place in 2277, roughly 36 years after the events of that game. Players take control of a resident of Vault 101.

Vault 101 is one of several underground shelters built before the Great War to protect around 1,000 people from nuclear Fallout. After their father inexplicably vanishes from the vault, the family is compelled to search the Capital Wasteland.

While battling the corrupt remnants of the former US Government known as the Enclave, who want to utilize it for their purposes, they struggle to complete their father's job. Playing Fallout 3 involves a first-person view, which is different from previous games in the franchise.

After the game's beginning, players can choose between this and a third-person view that is "over the shoulder." While many elements from previous games of the series, which include the "SPECIAL system" and enemy types encountered, are reused, significant features in the combat system are added, changed, or removed.

A character's health is divided into HP (health points) and Limbs. While health points are the overall health that a character and other non-player characters have, friendly, neutral, or hostile, they are depleted when damage is sustained, whether from physical harm, trap activation, height fall, or self-inflicted harm.

Each body part has unique limb health requirements, including the legs, arms, head, and chest. However, non-human enemies have additional appendages, and robotic enemies have different appendages.

All weapons and clothing discovered, whether they are makeshift weapons like lead pipes or a gun, degrade over time and thus become less effective. Guns that have been damaged do less damage and may jam upon reloading. On the other hand, damage-reducing clothing eventually loses its protective qualities as it takes damage from strikes.

There are three copies of each weapon's schematic, and having more copies enhances the quality or quantity of the objects created at the workbench; a higher repair skill yields a better initial state for the associated weapon. Players can acquire weapon schematics through quest rewards, purchases from vendors, or discovery in specific locations.

‍

Fallout: New Vegas

‍

• Published by Bethesda Softworks

• Release Date- October 19, 2010

‍

Fallout: New Vegas was well-received around the world, as you are in control of everything right from the start. The game is a spinoff of the main Fallout series, taking place in a post-apocalyptic open-world setting that confines Arizona, California, and Nevada sections.

It takes place in a world where technology from the Atomic Age generated an alternate chronology that culminated in "The Great War," a nuclear holocaust that erupted in the year 2077 due to a major battle between the United States and China over natural resources.

The main action of New Vegas occurs in 2281, 204 years after the dropping of the bombs and four years after Fallout 3's events. It is not a direct sequel, but it does include several elements from Fallout 2. The Courier is a character in which that player takes control, the protagonist.

The gameplay is as follows; the Courier delivers a container across the Mojave Desert to New Vegas, formerly Las Vegas, when he is ambushed, robbed of the shipment, shot, and buried in a cemetery. The Courier is eventually dug out and recovers from their wound.

The Courier then begins a quest to track down their assassin and get the package. Along the way, he makes allies and enemies with various warring factions. He eventually struggles to decide who will rule the Mojave Wasteland and New Vegas.

Fallout: New Vegas' gameplay was mostly carried over from Fallout 3, but developers tried to improve it and add a fresh and recurring theme to the series. There are some enhancements and new features.

Combat has been improved, with the VATS system receiving several further V.A.T.S.-specific attacks and several kill animations being created for several of the game's melee weapons. Weapon retort and precision have also been enhanced. Besides larger guns and some energy weapons, players can use the iron sights on firearms.

To prevent players from getting overpowered too early in the game, the player can only select one Perk every two levels, as opposed to every level as in Fallout 3, which can be seen as a perk. More weapons were added to the game, such as the 9mm Pistol, Single Shotgun, Powder Charges, Dynamite, Trail Carbine, and Grenade Launcher, with each weapon serving a specific and tactical role within the game.

The "Big Guns" and "Small Guns" skills have been combined into one skill, "Guns," and the Survival skill, adapted from the first and second games' Outdoorsman skill, has been added.

‍

Fallout 4

‍

• Published by Bethesda Softworks

• Release Date- November 10, 2015

‍

Following the release of Fallout: New Vegas came Fallout 4, which is a role-playing action game with an open-world setting. The gameplay is reminiscent of Fallout: New Vegas and the Fallout 3 game, the last two main games in the series. However, unlike the last two games, the gunplay was handled by id Software. One of the returning features is a camera that can switch between first-person and third-person perspectives. Fallout 4 includes:

‍

• Layered armor.

• Base-building.

• A crafting method that enforces every lootable item in the game.

‍

Super Mutants, Mole Rats, Deathclaws, Raiders, and Feral Ghouls return, as does the companion Dogmeat. Your character can freely roam the game's world, being an open game, and leave a conversation anytime. A player can fast-travel to a specific place after they have found it.

You can also alter weapons, whereas weapons can make over 700 modifications to the game over 50 firearms, including barrel and laser focus changes. Instead of being an equitable suit of armor, Power Armor has been rebuilt to be more akin to a vehicle that requires fusion cores and is practically worthless without them.

It can be altered, allowing your character to add accessories like a jetpack or select several forms of armor for each suit component. At the beginning of the game, you are given points to spend on the "SPECIAL character" advancement system.

The system represents seven statistics perception, intelligence, strength, stamina, charisma, luck, and agility just like any other previous games of the series. Players unlock an ability when they earn enough experience points to go to the next level. The players can open more capabilities as we allocate more points to a statistic.

The benefits obtained can be enhanced to boost the protagonist's effectiveness and open up new skills. The player has access to approximately 275 perks. What's new is that the game does not end after the primary narrative is resolved, and there is no level cap.

Even though other characters might accompany them on some objectives, the player can only travel with one partner at a time. These people can interact with the outside world on the player character's behalf for the first time in the series.

For instance, the player character can teach their companion how to hack a system or pick a lock if they cannot do so themselves. Aside from Dogmeat, any companion present will react to specific player actions in four ways, increasing or decreasing their affinity. Raising a companion's affinity to 1,000 points causes them to idolize the player and grant a specific perk.

‍

Fallout Shelter

‍

• Published by Bethesda Softworks

• Release Date- June 14, 2015

‍

In Fallout Shelter, players construct and oversee their vault as an Overseer the manager and administrator of their Vault. Players must provide them with food, drink, and power to keep the dwellers the vault's inhabitants happy.

They use the "SPECIAL" statistics feature from previous Fallout games to rescue citizens of the Wasteland and reassign them to different resource structures in the vault. Their SPECIAL profile influences the character's capacity to produce various resources.

Players can improve characters' statistics by training them in stat-specific chambers. Over time, the residents can level up, gaining health and new tools and weapons to help them with various jobs.

It is possible to grow the population of dwellers by either waiting for new arrivals from the Wasteland or partnering with male and female dwellers in a dwelling space to have offspring. You must balance the game's water, food, and power resources.

You can build various rooms in the vault, each with its unique set of items or stat benefits. You can hurry the room at the chance of setting off an occurrence, such as burns or "rad bug" infestations, rather than paying money to speed up lengthy times or processes.

You are occasionally rewarded with lunch boxes containing cards containing items, resources, or dwellers that can be purchased separately via microtransactions. When the Mysterious Stranger appears someplace in the vault, the Fallout Shelter variation of the jingle will often play to let you know.

Clicking on him for the brief time he is visible will yield a random number of caps, sometimes a significant number. The departing jingle starts to play as soon as he leaves. Imagine that you disable the sound while leaving the vibrations on. A double vibration in that scenario denotes his presence, while a single beat denotes his departure. If the sound is enabled, the tone will become louder as the screen focuses on the Mysterious Stranger.

‍

Fallout Pinball

‍

• Published by Zen Studios

• Release Date- December 6, 2016

‍

Although Fallout 4 is the main inspiration for the Fallout pinball table, it also features gameplay from earlier Fallout games. The objective of the Fallout pinball table is to explore and survive the Wasteland, going on numerous tasks to obtain Vault-Tec bobbleheads and choosing one of four factions: the Commonwealth Minutemen, the Brotherhood of Steel, The Institute, or the standard supply of three balls.

Bethesda Pinball was created by Zen Studios and released as a stand-alone mobile game as an add-on pack for Zen Pinball 2, Pinball FX 2, and Pinball FX 3. It features three pinball tables themed on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Fallout 4 as Fallout, and the 2016 version of Doom, three well-known Bethesda titles from the decade.

At the start of each session, the player character must choose the gender, SPECIAL stats, and companion for the Sole Survivor. While players can choose all three at random, the player character can also select the Sole Survivor's gender and statistics independently.

Codsworth, Dogmeat, Strong, Nick Valentine, and John Hancock are the five possible companions for the player character. Each companion provides a distinct advantage. Hancock can be romanced in the game but not in the pinball adaptation.

‍

Fallout 76

‍

• Published by Bethesda Softworks

• Release Date- November 14, 2018

‍

Bethesda Game Studios' first online multiplayer game would be Fallout 76. In this game, you can play individually or in groups of up to three. The game's servers are dedicated public servers, and the player is automatically assigned to one of them.

Executive producer Todd Howard announced plans to introduce private servers later, even though the game was anticipated that the game would debut with solely public servers. These private servers enable players to invite friends while also preventing undesirable aspects of player-versus-player gameplay, such as griefing, from negatively impacting an individual player's game experience.

Howard explained that the delay was necessary to give Bethesda time to ensure the stability of public servers. Elements from previous Fallout games are present and have been modified to work with the real-time game. Fallout 76 employs the VATS system as a real-time system, allowing players to target particular areas of an enemy's body for the attack while momentarily pausing the game.

Fallout 76 has a four-times more extensive open world than Fallout 4, and its game world is called "Appalachia." It is an illustration of West Virginia. It includes recreations of real-life locations in the region, such as the West Virginia Capitol, Woodburn Circle, The Greenbrier, the New River Gorge Bridge, and Camden Park.

The game includes a slew of new mutant monsters, many of which are based on West Virginia folklore. The SPECIAL progression system has been revised in the game. Perks or passive abilities that provide gameplay bonuses are available to players.

Instead, Fallout 76 uses a variety of Non-Playable Characters, including robots, recordings like collectible holotypes, terminals dotted across the game area, and contextual storytelling, where the player learns bits of a tale by visiting different places and putting them together on their own. 

While other players can attack player settlements while online, the game saves player creations using "blueprints" to avoid players having to restart if their products and progress are destroyed. Players can use nuclear weapons to alter the game world temporarily.

One game mode was offered when Fallout 76 was first released: the "Adventure Mode" version of the base game mentioned above. Players had access to a second mode, called Survival Mode, from March 2019 until October 2019, which duplicated the map and gameplay of the base game but included always-on player-versus-player functionality and player-kill leaderboards.

Nuclear Winter, a battle royale game mode, was added in June 2019. The players in Nuclear Winter were placed in Vault 51, a fallout shelter whose inhabitants are forced to fight to the death by an artificially intelligent overlord. Matches in Vault 51 began with players alone or in groups of up to four. They were timed or continued until the group achieved the maximum number of players.

‍

Conclusion

Ever since the release of the Fallout games, they have undergone a significant number of changes that the developers were open to. Even in its earlier years, the series had a reputation for exploring different genres. This series had a fair share of unforgettable games and some worst records.