Fallout (video Game) - Plot

Plot

The protagonist of Fallout is an inhabitant of one of the government-contracted fallout shelters known as Vaults. In subsequent Fallout games, he or she is referred to as the Vault Dweller.

Fallout is set several decades after a worldwide conflict brought on by global petroleum shortage. Several nations begin warring with one another for the last stores of non-renewable resources, namely oil and uranium. Known as the Resource Wars, fighting begins in April 2052 and continues until October 23, 2077. China invades Alaska in the winter of 2066, causing the United States to go to war with China and using Canadian resources to supply their war efforts, despite Canadian complaints. Eventually the US annexes Canada in February 2076 and reclaims Alaska 11 months later. After years of conflict, on October 23, 2077, a global nuclear war occurs. Nobody knows who strikes first, but in less than two hours most major cities are destroyed. The effects of the war will not fade for the next 100 years. As a consequence, human society has collapsed, and survivor settlements barely eke out a living in the now-barren wasteland, while a lucky few lived through the occurrence in underground fallout shelters known as Vaults.

The game starts in 2161 in Southern California and begins in Vault 13, the protagonist's home. Vault 13's Water Chip, a computer chip responsible for the water recycling and pumping machinery, breaks. The Vault Overseer tasks the protagonist with finding a replacement. He or she is given a portable device called the "Pip-Boy 2000" that keeps track of map-making, quest objectives, and bookkeeping. Armed with the PIPBoy 2000 and meager equipment, including a small sum of bottle caps which are used as currency in the post-apocalyptic world, the main character is sent off on his or her quest.

The player initially has 150 game days before the Vault's water supply runs out. This time limit can be extended by 100 game days if the player commissions merchants in the Hub to send water caravans to Vault 13. Upon returning the chip, the Vault Dweller is then tasked with destroying a mutant army that threatens humanity. A mutant known as "The Master" (previously known as Richard Grey) spreads a pre-war, genetically engineered virus called the "Forced Evolutionary Virus" to convert humanity into a race of "Super Mutants" and bring them together in the "Unity" — his plan for a perfect world. The player must kill him and destroy the military base housing the supply of FEV, thus halting the invasion before it can start.

If the player does not complete both objectives within 500 game days, the mutant army will discover Vault 13 and invade it, bringing an end to the game. This time limit is shortened to 400 days if the player divulged Vault 13's location to the water merchants. A cinematic cut-scene of mutants overrunning the vault is shown if the player fails to stop the mutant army within this time frame, indicating the player has lost the game. If the player agrees to join the mutant army, the same cinematic is shown. In version 1.1 of the game, the time limit for the mutant attack on Vault 13 is delayed from 500 days (or 400 depending) to 13 years of in-game time, effectively giving the player enough time to do as he or she wishes.

The player can defeat the Master and destroy the Super Mutants' Military Base in either order. When both threats are eliminated, a cut-scene ensues in which the player automatically returns to Vault 13. There the player is told that he or she has changed too much, that children would want to leave the vault to emulate his or her actions, and therefore the player's return would negatively influence the citizens of the Vault. Thus the reward is exile into the desert, for, in the Overseer's eyes, the good of the vault. There is an alternate ending in which the Vault Dweller draws a handgun and shoots the Overseer after he or she is told to go into exile. This ending is inevitable if the player has the "Bloody Mess" trait or has acquired significant negative karma throughout the game. It can be triggered if the player initiates combat in the brief time after the Overseer finishes his conversation but before the ending cutscene.