It finally happened. Fallout 4 has been announced. We can stop worrying about damaging rumours and start looking forward to the future, safe in the knowledge we will soon be back in our favourite post-apocalyptic paradise. But while the trailer gave us a lot of answers, there are still a lot of questions yet to be answered. I’m going to go over a few of these today. Obviously I won’t be able to cover everything, so make sure you guys leave your ideas in the comments below.
The first, and most striking thing that we see in the trailer is the family living room, and some of the rare pre-war footage we occasionally see in the Fallout series. A lot of people are speculating about the family dog, immediately trying to connect the dots. Although this dog looks like our old friend Dogmeat, it is in fact a brownish coloured German Shepherd whereas Dogmeat is a black and grey Australian Cattle Dog (resembling the dog from the Mad Max movies).
We follow this dog for a while, until we meet what many expect to be the protagonist of the game. I believe that one of these people will be the character that we explore the wastelands of Boston as. Allow me to speculate for a little bit. I think that as we choose whether we want to be male or female, we will be choosing to play either the mother or the father, in search of the child from this scene. It’s pure speculation, but would be in line with what we would expect from Fallout, in that this would give you two different start points and options for dialogue and really add to re playability. It is also entirely possible that you either play as the child from this scene, or that this is supposed to be just a typical pre-war American family. I wouldn’t completely rule that last option out as we see later on in the trailer this family are still outside the vault when the nuclear detonation occurs.
And then the infamous quote of “War… war never changes.”, accompanied by more pre-war footage of what appears to be people scrambling to get to their designated vault. Here we see two soldiers in advanced power armour, which looks quite a lot bulkier than any armour we’ve seen previously in the Fallout games. Now obviously this is the US army, as the Brotherhood of Steel will not yet have formed. An interesting thing to note is that the voice of the news anchor is none other than Ron Perlman, known for his narration of the Fallout series. The fact that Bethesda brought him back into the series was a secret that he says “was one of the tougher secrets he ever had to keep”.
The most revealing thing about this trailer by far, however, was an image of the Paul Revere monument. This confirms what fans had believed all along, the game will in fact, be based in Boston. This opens up a chapter of the Fallout universe that has been somewhat unexplored, with most of the games so far taking place in the far west, only hinting of Boston and the institute.
We also see things from the trailer like power armour, seemingly under repair, as well as weapons with different attachments and barrels hanging up in a hideout. This points to a strong possibility that we are going to see a more in depth repairing and crafting system with Fallout 4, adding on to what Obsidian started in their instalment of the series, Fallout: New Vegas.
The ending of this trailer reveal is one of the most interesting things to me personally though. It is something that I’m undecided on whether I like or not. When, what we can only assume is the protagonist, sees his canine companion, he pets him… and speaks to him. “Let’s go, pal.” This is something completely unheard of in the Fallout series, and something that could either have a lot of backlash or will add to the series greatly. You see, having a voice limits the potential in how you create your character significantly. It means there needs to be at least two voice actors for the main role, one male and the other female, but more than that if you want to be politically correct and not make it look like a decision taken lightly. There would need to be voices for different races and parts of the world too. It’s a stretch, but if they went for it, I’m sure Bethesda’s got it covered.
There it is ladies and gentleman, make of it what you will, but I would love to hear your fan theories down below in the comments. Climb on board the hype train, and here’s looking forward to E3!
