The more I have time to think about it, the more problems I have with the supposed beginning to Fallout 4. Now, I will be forthright and say I know next to nothing about the lore of Fallout, so if I say something or assume something incorrectly, feel free to let me know.

Basically, I do not like the idea of having 200 unaccounted years in between going to sleep and waking up in the Wasteland. The most basic reason being that there are only so many ways to account for such a time lapse. I think at this point, anyone familiar with information Bethesda has presented is assuming cryogenic sleep, and to me, that would be absolutely fine. But, Fallout is a universe that has a lot of strange stuff in it (if Fallout 3 is anything to go by). Being frozen to awake later doesn't bother me. Secretly being an android does. Or being a part of some dream experiment or possibly something even stranger, maybe Matrix-like. I know we don't really know much about how the game kicks off and in that regard, it is hard to say what may or may not happen. However, the fact that they seem so concrete with the 200 years we know will pass between the games introductory sequence and the earnest beginning of the gameplay, makes me think that there is something obviously critical to the beginning of the main story.

A lot has been made about customizing your wife/husband and how it will affect your child's looks. The general consensus is that your son at the very least will play some important part in the game, but some (myself included) believe or want to believe that your wife will survive as well. However, as you are labeled the Sole Survivor of your vault, that means that a. they died prior to getting into the vault, b. they died in the vault, or c. they are MIA upon... however you survive the 200 years, and are presumed dead. Now, I respect the developers and am excited to be able to experience the story they have created, however, the move they are making with this 200 year time lapse reminds me a bit of ME2.

-ME2 spoiler alert-

I have the same fear that this is what is going to happen in Fallout 4. I just want to be a human guy, without any weird circumstances surrounding my existence. I would like to be able to continue with the family unit you start the game with, but I understand if the story structure prevents that. I just hope that this was a natural development of making the game and that it isn't forced in their just to accomodate being able to see the pre-war era and then live in the post-war fallout era. I don't want it to come off as a Mass Effect 2 beginning, if you know what I'm trying to get at.

Personally, I think the existence of Codsworth as a companion - especially given his Post-War dialogue - throws a monkey wrench in the android theory. Occam's razor suggests that what we've seen is what is real: you play a family man/woman who went into Vault 111 with your loved ones, you were all preserved there somehow, and you walked out alone.

Also bear in mind that "Sole Survivor" could be a bait-and-switch. Your family could be alive, and the brief "Other people could be alive too" dialogue seems to suggest the MC is hoping his family made it out of the vault at some point. What's more, in the past two games, the character's descriptive name ("Lone Wanderer" and "Courier") weren't entirely accurate, either. The Lone Wanderer didn't necessarily wander alone, and the Courier didn't exactly courier things much once the game started.

Honestly, though, I do think that they're doing the Pre-War/Post-War thing because it just hasn't been done before in the series. We've had vault dwellers, a tribal, and a wasteland citizen. We've never played a Great War survivor. I mean, aside from ghouls, there really aren't any. Like in FO3, I do believe Bethesda is setting up the foundation of your character and then, once you make it out into the world, it's up to you who that character is. No plot twist, no "weird circumstances." Just you being whoever you want to be with the basic story of what they've given you, just like in Fallout 3 (though admittedly a bit more laid-out).

My dislike over the pre-war opening is that it removes the veil from over the mystified golden past that is now in ruins. What is presented in the opening chapter in Fallout 4 looks only unimpressive (against the myth that it was before), and if I ever play the game I'll be very surprised if it actually evokes the "sense of loss" that Todd advertised it with. The game shoud've probably started right off from the bomb blast where you only get a few second glimpse of the immediate surroundings and probably a silhouette in the distance.

Some of us like the Pre-war aspect.

200 years how? I'm pretty sue it's been confirmed the character is put in Cryo-stasis.

What happens to the spouse and child? We don't know yet. We can only assume right now that they went into Cryo-stasis too, but, when your character wakes up, they're nowhere to be found, and part of the story is in finding what happened.

A really good point I read was in another thread, and the user attributed the sole survivor of vault 111 to a train crash survivor.

1) Sole survivor boards a train with his family

2) Spouse and child exit train at the first stop. The SS stays on the train.

3) The train crashes on the way to the second stop. Everyone on the train dies but the SS lives.

4) Sole survivor emerges as the sole survivor of the train crash.

I find it odd no one has made the connection between our character and Buck Rogers yet.

I am pretty sure that that is the theme they were going with. You know what the old world was like so you have a somewhat unique perspective on things.

Sure there are ghouls that were alive back then but you were there YESTERDAY. It is still fresh in your mind and you know what it was like.

I am pretty sure that is the feeling Todd was talking about. Your character was in the normal world a day ago and now it is in ruins.

The soundtrack needs to have Bruce Springsteens - "MY city in ruins" on it.

Your character is a fish out of water of sorts... A man or woman with no country, no home, and seemingly no family. Everyone you've ever known has been dead for centuries, and you are left in the blasted remains of what once was your city. Ghouls have decades to acclimate to this, you.... you are going to live through this stage of your characters life, if you choose to do so. I like the prewar to post war transition....

I need some sleep...I swear the title of the thread was: Not a fan of pre-war toasters.

This had never occurred to me... I really like this idea the more I think about it. I think some of the stuff I've read made me assume that your family died or you lost track of them prior to ever going to sleep, or that you woke up with absolutely no idea about what happened. Considering those two scenarios, the latter strikes me as being acceptable, but if what you mentioned was true, then maybe we KNOW our family is alive upon waking, but get separated due to whatever circumstances and then it becomes a desperate search.

I hope I don't come off as weird for caring so much about this, but I really get into the story when I play Bethesda games. I am one that likes to create "myself" in the game and then make decisions based off what I would do at any given moment. In Fallout 3, finding "my dad" was always a major driving force for what I was doing moment to moment and I feel like if I have to deal with losing "my family" right off the bat, it would just cast a whole cloud over my character's motivations. I think Bethesda is probably aware of this too, even if Fallout has a reputation for being gloomy and gritty, it seems a bit much to violently rip away a character's family before throwing them into this open world that invites them to do whatever they want. I feel like if that is the reality of the game's opening moments, then my character is going to get addicted to Psycho or something out of the gate ha ha.

Lol

The transition itself isn't what bothers me. I probably could have chosen a different title. What bothers me is HOW that transition is going to occur and all the things that can happen in the time you are asleep. I think there is an aspect of loss of control that bothers me as well. I feel like when we take control of our character, I want the reigns at all times. Being put out of commission for so long just unsettles me. It is hard to convey why that is, but I feel like I tried to list all the things that bother me most about what could happen. We won't know for sure until we get our hands on the game, but I think it won't be as bad as I'm making it out to be.

That's the [should have been] obvious problem with it. The prewar days should have never been brought out on parade; it ruins it just the same as any magician explaining a trick in truthful detail. As a forgotten age, hinted at by the wreckage, it was far more fantastic than they could hope to 'show and not tell'.

Just seeing it at all, kind of makes it stale; and defines it, where before it was nebulous, and only a concept... A bit of a crazy concept too.

Have you ever noticed that comic book superhero costumes look great in the comics, but look ridiculous on a live actor? (It's kind of related.)

Notice how the movie versions of Batman, and Spiderman, and Captain America, all have desperately altered "Help me make this thing look cool somehow" costumes. It's the same even for the FO4 vault suit.

The mystique of the pre-war era was never something I was concerned about. Honestly, I feel like you can pretty well piece it together from in-game documents and the after math. I saw a pretty accurate critique of all the true inaccuracies that exist within the game world itself (wooden buildings still standing after 200 years in the elements, post nuclear holocaust and stuff like that) so I feel as though we had (in FO3 at least) a pretty lenient game world upon which to base our understanding of pre-war society. Lenient probably isn't the right word, I'm so tired I'm reaching for them now, but hopefully my intent is clear.

Again, my topic title is a bit misleading, but at least as far as I'm concerned, my qualms with getting to see the pre-war world are non-existent. I only have problems with what is going to take us from that pre-war world to the post-war world, and to what extent it will affect the gameplay down the line.

I like finding out how the trick works. I remember years ago watching a tv show called The Masked Magician, where he demonstrated a trick and then explained how it worked. I found it fascinating. But then I always did want to know how the tricks worked. I wasn't satisfied with just the spectacle, I wanted to know how it worked. I didn't want to just go ooh and ahh, I wanted to know the secret.

I feel the same about the pre-war world. I want to find out the details, I want to know, I want to see it. My only disappointment is that it probably won't give me as much of the pre-war world as I want. I want to see all of it, from the highest level to the common man. Even if it isn't supposed to be important to what Fallout was supposed to be about, I don't care. I want to see behind the curtain.

I remember that show. Mentioning the magician as similar, was merely that ~similar, in the sense that by learning the details, you lose the ability to speculate on them. That's the heart of the problem. It cannot live up to the expectation of it, and even if it did ~or came close, the setting has lost its mystique by becoming defined and later mundane.... Just like the magic tricks.

Won't it just be like the extended version of Tranquility Lane, just in amazing technicolour?

if it's a deal breaker issue, don't buy the game. It's not like they are gonna change the start of the game because some fans might not like the idea. That being said, I'm sure some Modders can eliminate the pre-war start.

I expect a great game. The premise story is a good one and my character will flesh it out in the way I want...or not. I do know that the game is building upon the previous successes of the prior installments. I doubt that I will be disappointment.

I have no real problem with them showing the pre-war world, and the fact that it "demystifies" it really isn't a problem for me.

The pre-war Fallout world isn't like the Dwemer or Akavir from TES, it isn't a literal alien civilization or landscape that is supposed to be beyond human comprehension. Its just the same world the game's take place in, except less broken.

So long as they don't try to shove like 3-4 hours of it down our throat, which would get old fast, I really see no reason to dislike it.

To be fair I really would like to see Akavir.

I just have to wonder if we will get the proper "Holy Freaking CRAP!" response when the SS sees his/her first ghoul, or mutated animal. If they just run in shooting like it's nothing when a giant fly attacks them I'll be sorely disappointed. If the SS is really viewing the FO4 world through the eyes of someone from pre-war, they would be in for a hell of a shock.

I wouldn't mind either TBH, even if it is basically just Fantasy Land-Japan.

I was speaking more in the lore of the universe, where Akavir is always "the other" the place were no elves have ever lived, where the mean were eaten by snake people, and the continent is ruled by beast races and demons, who make up the minority on Tamriel. akavir has always been portrayed as "the other", the unknowable anti-Tamriel that no on in Tamriel would ever REALLY get.

Just picking this out for elaboration.

I don't believe there are any official statement naming the PC as Sole Survivor (like the Lone Wanderer or The Courier). All I've seen is Todd saying that we emerge as the sole survivor of the vault and suddenly everyone on this board starting calling the PC for Sole Survivor as if it was canon.