In Your Opinion, what is the theme of the Fallout series? From Fallout 1 to Fallout 4. I'm honestly a little bit curious since I've seen people saying a lot of different things about Bethesda's Fallouts not staying true to the original but in reality, staying true to a series is done via the theme, not how the actual games play. (This is why I generally dislike Tomb Raider 2013. It changed the theme of the Tomb Raider series).

I've never really gotten into the original Fallouts myself though, I want to try them sometime and hopefully will get to eventually. So I can't say too much about the originals, but I've read about them and know the ordeal that happens with them. (Or at least a bit. I've mostly read up on Fallout 1, than Fallout 2).

BUT... I feel that there's a similar pattern in the series as a whole. A theme, so to say. From the first one to the 4th one. It isn't necessary about war itself though but about the complexity of war and how easily things can change just by attempting to do a small quest, so to say. In each game, the main character journeys out into the wasteland on a rather simple quest. First one was about finding a water chip for their Vault so that their water supply may continue, which sounds reasonable. With 3 and 4, it's about just finding your father/son and trying to figure out the why. Again, a small quest idea and pretty reasonable. In New Vegas, the journey was about tracking down the guy who basically took your job and tried to kill you. Again, small idea and pretty reasonable. Who wouldn't want to have at least justice, if not revenge, on the person who took their job and shot them twice?

Here's the thing though, what happens when you finish this journey at the end of the road? What do you meet and what are you pull into? War. In the first Fallout, you ended up getting yourself pulled into a war between the Brotherhood of Steel and Super Mutants (AKA: The Master). I believe the second was similar but Enclave instead. Third one again, was similar (BoS and Enclave over the water purifier). New Vegas and Fallout 4 though, it was a war between four factions for who should control and protect the Mojave/Commonwealth.

In each game, it seems like the MQ is about the big picture of war and how it can easily effect us all, even if we weren't aiming for it original. We can do something simple like finding a missing family member or that guy who tried to kill you but you can easily get pull into the bigger picture of what's really going on. The current war going on between these large groups of people, and learning about the after effects of what you've done within the bigger picture. Which is probably why the games' quote is "War. War Never Changes."...

Anyways, that's just my 2-cents on what I feel is the Fallout theme. I've noticed some people have different opinions and thoughts, so am curious to hear what you say.

Obviously about Teddy Bear six and Mannequins!!!

War....War Never Changes

I would say you are right in that all of the Fallout games have a similar structure in how their stories unfold. What starts out as a personal quest turns into one that later includes the bigger picture of ongoing conflict in the waste.

Although I would say it was less so the case for Fallout 2's plot. The conflict with the Enclave never felt like an actual war between opposing forces, as it still remained a rather personal quest for the Chosen One when the plot was then about the Enclave having taken the tribe of Arroyo. The only time other factions got involved was during the aftermath when both the Brotherhood and NCR took out what was left of the Enclave after the Chosen One wiped them out. Besides that, the Brotherhood played little to no role at all in Fallout 2.

However, I'd say this theme of being introduced to a greater conflict still existed in Fallout 2, only it was with the sort of sub-plot involving New Reno, Vault City, and the NCR. As they all fought for power in the wasteland, primarily in who controlled Redding. With that, that is where I see the most similarity between Fallout 2 and New Vegas over any other Fallout game. Reason why I think of them highly among any of the other game in the series.

Besides that though, I think you're on point. Even after 200 years war hasn't changed despite it having ended the world. And those who have tried to escape it find themselves dragged back in no matter how personal the matter may be. Because the effects of war are that drastic for everyone.

There are several themes but I've noticed what I think are some constants:

1) Authority is not to be trusted. They will lie to you and use you for their own selfish ends.

2) Science is not to be trusted. They will endlessly tinker with nature, seemingly for their own amusemant, unconstrained by ethics.

3) Nature is not to be trusted. It's one dose of radiation away from spawning a horrible monstrosity that wants to kill you.

4) People are not to be trusted. They are usually scheming to murder their neighbors for cluttering up the landscape.

5) Dogs... dogs you can trust.

In the loosest terms the overarching theme is hope and rebuilding.

there's probably several aspects to it; but i'd say the base is a satire on the 50s nuclear threat era (duck&cover days)

obviously they take influence from a lot of areas like mad max when it comes to the feel of the wasteland and visuals

but i think the basis of all the humor like the G.O.A.T. and Vault Boy and all the videos, architectural designs, Vault-Tec and their vaults and experiments, come from a satirical recreation of the 50s and what the future would have been if we stayed that way xD

I think the theme, for me at least, is that of humanities strive to survive and rebuild. Fallout 1 and 2 had already established a good basis, to show how humanity had progressed after the bombs fell. Fallout 1 took place only 84 years after the war and several factions had already begun to carve out a place in the wasteland for themselves. Fallout 3 took a step back in that regard, since DC looked like the war had just happened. There was way too much destruction still present and everything was rather bleak and hopeless.

New Vegas picked back up on the survival and re-building efforts. And I think that Fallout 4 is actually doing a great job in that aspect as well. I love to see how far humanity has come in 200 years.

I also think that the major players/factions also have a hand in shaping the world/areas. BoS and NCR have been around since the early days, same as Enclave. I like to see where they are going, where they have been.

But the overall theme for me is hope and re-building efforts... oh yea, and Dogmeat!! <3

Get out of my head!!!

From what I see in FO4, seems to me that it is all about ME! Not about the different factions or finding my son, or about war and it's aftermath. It is all about what I want as an actor in this shell. Because of the nature of the different story lines being paused as long as I see fit, then it really is just all about my whims. I can wander alone, create magnificent settlements, help or hurt anyone I want, etc..

Seems the story lines are just another distraction to what I want to do

The conflict between scientific advancement and human happiness. This whole mess started because we advanced to a point where we could destroy the earth and that's exactly what we did. Now more scientists are trying to destroy things again. Of course there are other bad guys and evil factions and all sorts of grey area but no one is consistently as destructive and evil and the scientists in the Fallout universe.

Yessss.... My brainwave helmet....IS WORKING!!!!!!!

It's about the "benefits" of nuclear power taken to the extreme and the continuation of 1950's pop culture with a dark wicked sense of humor established by Fallout 1 and 2. The dialog in the original games developed by Interplay is, in my opinion, much more in depth, wittier and comical compared to Fallout 3 and 4 and New Vegas.

In addition to the old "War, war never changes" there's also the question of ethical treatment of artificial intelligences, and the fact that humans can adapt to pretty much anything, as demonstrated by the Sole Survivor.

For me it's adaptation.

Adapt, improvise, survive.

It's Bethesda's game to make and theme.

The level to which it evolves is also their choice, so comments about later instalments 'not being true' are kind of silly as it's their franchise.

Games are not static, they must develop or become stale.

(And the last two Tomb Raider games were much better than the older games in my opinion, though your mileage may vary )

Theme of the Fallout series, or just life truths? I think both.

THE FUTURE... as it was envisioned in the 1950s. Decades or a couple centuries after it devastated itself in a nuclear war.

I just want to say this. The last two TR games are good games in their own right. I just have a dislike that they don't follow the theme that made me love the originals so much.

The idea of a empire is something that permeates a lot of Fallout, old and new. As the people of the world slowly rebuild we see the things that caused the war in the first place to rear their head again. Creating a empire based on supremacy is something that is very common, especially in Fallout 1 and 2. The Master's goal of creating a new race that he views as perfect to aid in his goal of creating a dominion across the known world to mold the entire wasteland in his image. The Enclave has a similar idea, placing supremacy in unmutated humans, but just like the Super Mutants being sterile and thus deeply flawed and not being perfect at all the Enclaves goal of outright genocide would leave them a severely underdeveloped nation compared to other rebuilt powers. The villains of the Fallout series always have something to them that marks them as someone we are not supposed to root for, and this is always a critical flaw in the long-term success of their plan. They always want to build a empire ontop of a shaky foundation, and that shaky foundation hastens the ruin of their empire far faster than others.

In Fallout 3 we see the birth of the Brotherhood's new empire that came to fruition in Fallout 4. The Brotherhood of the 2270's is based on the idea of them being rightful rulers of the land because they are morally right in all things. They are not superior because of what they are, but because of what they do. But by the 2280's we see what happened in the old world creeping in again. A empire in the Falloutverse cannot exist as a long-term entity. With The Brotherhood we see them betraying their more noble goals as they expand ever outwards, and this will lead to their long-term rot, just like the empires of the west. The NCR also had that Good Karma alignment, for lack of a better term, but as the years go on they become less about taming the wasteland and more about conquering the wasteland. Just like Lyon's being a good man who wants whats best for the Wasteland, we also see Tandi in the same role. Both were replaced by Maxson and Kimball, who are exactly the type of people who are poised to bring the conditions that brought about the war. As the Brotherhood turns into a powerful nation state, its concern to conquer instead of tame becomes apparent. As the NCR marches east, it is set on annexation. Maxson would order a nuclear bombardment on a powerful enemy, and so would Kimball. And then it resets the clock once again.

We'll have to see how far the games actually go, but I think that the tagline of the series sums it up best. "War never changes". Even if you rebuild, there will always be people wishing to create more war to further their empire. In the early days it was built on supremacy, but as the years go over in the wastes it becomes new post-war nations filling the shoes of the old pre-war ones. I think that if the series continues far enough, we may just see another event like the Great War happen again. The Falloutverse is a universe that is continually doomed to repeat its mistakes.

@ Jaramr: Well said. I also found that the NCR had already lost their way, when they started to "occupy" the Mojave. The underlying notion of "we are trying to make the wasteland a better place and restore order", was totally overshadowed by greed, extortion, procedure, corruption and burying valiant efforts and troops under tons of unnecessary "paperwork/bureaucracy".

DANSE... this person has some advanced tech that we need to confiscate!!

To me its a sweet flavor of Leave it to beaver nifty 50's golden age of america and alien conspiracies and hoaxes mixed in with a salty after taste of post Apocalyptia...
ya the food ole days.

Which sums up why I didn't trust the NCR as a whole and why I flat-out don't like the Brotherhood of Steel. The difference between the two though is that a lot of NCR people wants to do good and NOT follow the beliefs of the leadership (they mostly only do so in respect or eventually leave the NCR). The Brotherhood of Steel though... Most of it's members are all for their beliefs which is probably why they are much stronger and more of a threat to the wasteland as a whole than even the Enclave (at least right now in Fallout 4's time).

I can see the Brotherhood of Steel going down the same route that the Steel Rangers (from Fallout: Equestria) went down. (The Steel Rangers are the FOE equivalent of the BoS). Basically, I can see the Brotherhood of Steel going down in flames due to a mass war between factions AND a civil war at the same, with the victor being a new Brotherhood, due to the nature of how the BoS operates.

That nature being they are very extreme with their beliefs and ideals. The BoS usually follow a trend of "If you're not with us, you're against us" type of thinking. Or at least, "If you don't listen to us or help us, you're against us"... Basically, if the residents of Vault 81 found some great and powerful technology in their Vault that can provide much help to them and the Brotherhood wants this technology... If Vault 81 refuses to give it up, I can literally see the BoS flat-out invade the place, killing anyone (and possibly everyone) just to secure technology that they think "wastelanders" shouldn't have. (And if they do something like that, even if it isn't Vault 81 but something else. I can that turning some heads within the Brotherhood and causing that civil war I mentioned earlier).

I think one of the big themes is right there in the title: Fallout, or the consequences of people's actions. The setting itself is one big consequence and the plot of most of the games features the effects, often negative ones, of the player's choices.

Theme of Fallout?

Humanity is aids.

America. The Fallout series is unquestionably, inescapably, American. Before the Great War, it was all of the worst parts of American culture taken to extremes: capitalism and consumerism run amok, excessive indulgence, fearmongering, xenophobia, and paranoia, propaganda and zealous American exceptionalism, and a massive military-industrial complex. But the games also explore a lot of concepts that the country formed from - especially since Bethesda decides to set their games in historic American cities and explore that history. Lots of symbolism. Even New Vegas explores American culture, with the Wild West spin.