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I have heard the Fallout 3 is awesome. I want to play it, but I am wondering how much background I will need?

I played Daggerfall, Morrowind and Oblivion (also by Bethesda) and I think I could have played Oblivion without having played the other two, but I don't know if they did the same with the fall out series.

Invader Skoodge
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Vaccano
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  • See also: http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/798/are-the-expansions-on-fallout-3-necessary-for-a-full-grasp-on-the-story – David Sep 14 '10 at 06:05
  • -1 incredibly subjective. – Pops Sep 22 '10 at 02:09
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    Just a note, Fallout 1 and 2 were NOT developed by Bethesda. I consider myself a hardcore fan of Fallout series, but for me F2 was the last true Fallout game. IMO the latest additions to the series are good, BUT lost a lot (in terms of atmoshpere and replayability) due to modern technologies/trends in gaming industry. – PeterK Nov 08 '10 at 19:24
  • As I pointed out here game developers can't assume that everybody has played the previous games, so apart from superficial things and perhaps a few bonuses, sequels are usually pretty much stand-alone. There will be exceptions. – ChrisF Nov 08 '10 at 22:30

3 Answers3

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As far as i know the stories don't intertwine too much, just that it has the same setting: a post apocalyptic environment with a touch of 50s. You will encounter some items that are well known for the series e.g the bobble head, but all in all you don't have much to worry about.

Personally I've played Fallout 3 without playing the other 3 games and didn't feel the least out of the loop.

Cristina
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    +1 I played Fallout 3 without playing any others. I loved it and there was nothing I felt I was missing out on. – David Sep 13 '10 at 21:26
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    Officially, it has a touch of the 50s, not the 60s. –  Nov 08 '10 at 16:45
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Fallout 3 is set about a century after Fallout 2, and about 2500 miles away, in the Washington DC region, whereas the original two Fallouts were set on the west coast. While there are a few callbacks and references, you need not have any experience with them to enjoy the game - in fact, your character by definition, is incapable of having any knowledge of the various factions and characters being referred to, having grown up in an ostensibly sealed environment with no contact with the outside world.

LessPop_MoreFizz
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  • What about "New Vegas"? – Zommuter Sep 14 '10 at 07:12
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    New Vegas is unconnected to the events of Fallout 3, being set back out west, and another decade later. Because it is being developed by the team from FO 1 + 2, and set nearby to those games, I would expect substantially more callouts to the previous content, but the large time gap ensures that it should still remain accessible to a newcomer, in spite of the fairly large number of returning classic Fallout characters and factions. – LessPop_MoreFizz Sep 14 '10 at 15:10
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I've been paying fallout since the first one got out. Now I have all of the games. As said previously, it's the same setting, but a whole new story in all the Fallout games. For example, in Fallout 3 you starts as a new human in a "vault". You grow up there, and then the main story begins. In New Vegas, you starts in the role of a middle-aged man, a whole new man than before. Then a new story begins. The beginning of New Vegas's story, is in the clip at the start of the game. ;)

MariusRawR
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