I know discussing the surrounding history of Fallout 3 sounds strange, but hear me out. This game came out 10 years after Fallout 2, so why did Bethesda feel a need to release Fallout 3? Of course, I can only speculate, but here's a guess. There are two main reasons and they have to do with the messages of the game.
First message: War Never Changes. These are the first words spoken directly to you when you start up Fallout 3, after a nice rendition of "World on Fire."The monologue focuses on how violent man is before setting up the world with Vaults and the wasteland. But what does this mean in the context of the release. The game was released in October 2008. Bethesda, located in the Maryland city of the same name, would be well aware the war in Iraq and the nuclear controversy around that. Some would consider this a pointless war, a quagmire, and comparisons to the Vietnam War were rampant. So here we have a war similar to another war. War didn't change. Also, around this time were problems in India concerning the U.S-India Civil Nuclear Cooperation Initiative, so nuclear issues everywhere. This game could be taken as a warning about war in general and specifically the devastation of nuclear war. War's been fought for the same thing and now we have the Capital Wasteland.
Second message: Revelation 21:6. For those unfamiliar with the game, I'm not getting preachy, these are the other arc words in the game. In a twist, the game doesn't focus on the Alpha and Omega bit, but instead the part about water. That's right, this game is environmental. In lots and lots of ways. Not only is your potential (there's a morality system) main goal <potential spoiler> to clean the water supply in the DC area, making it free from radiation </potential spoiler> but there are plenty others. Fallout 2 had <more spoilers> the Garden of Eden Creation Kit (G.E.C.K) and this game follows in its footsteps.</more spoilers> Fallout 3 took it one step beyond. Since you're in a wasteland, seeing anything green that doesn't glow is amazing and there's a whole spot called Oasis that's full of trees. And you want it to live as it stands about from the brown, dull, dangerous wasteland. So why is this historically relevant? Remember 2008: there was Katrina, Inconvenient Truth, proof of global warming everywhere. So being green and environmentally aware was and is the right thing to do. Or maybe they were Pink Floyd fans. Probably the former though.
So now we know the history surrounding Fallout 3, lets take a quick look at the history inside Fallout 3 because that's fun! Fallout 3 definitely looks to previous 1950s apocaplyse works such as Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank. But there's a twist: DC survived, instead of being target #1. Oh, it got hit, but consider that the whole Midwest in uninhabitable in the Fallout-verse. Fallout 3 wants us to remember the past, hence the nostalgia. It wants us to learn from the past. So who better to meet than Declaration of Independence signer Button Gwinnett! OK, it's a robot who thinks he's Button Gwinnett, but this isn't the future with heads in jars so this is close enough. Button thinks the Revolutionary War is still going on thus has his robot army defending the Declaration (back to War Never Changing). And you can get that Declaration as you need it for a quest. A quest for historical preservation given to you by a man named Abraham Washington. Abraham Washington wants to preserve history and use it for good, in contrast to the slaver who wants to destroy Lincoln's legacy. So do you support the 13th, 14th, and 15th ammendment or do you want a slave? The game lets you decide but as a constant reminder you can carry a gun based off one Lincoln owned. And as an added bonus, you can carry around reminders of what started this crazy mess. So look to the past to save the present and future. Because I don't want to live in Vault-tec vaults, I'm sure they aren't exactly fresh as a daisy.
Second message: Revelation 21:6. For those unfamiliar with the game, I'm not getting preachy, these are the other arc words in the game. In a twist, the game doesn't focus on the Alpha and Omega bit, but instead the part about water. That's right, this game is environmental. In lots and lots of ways. Not only is your potential (there's a morality system) main goal <potential spoiler> to clean the water supply in the DC area, making it free from radiation </potential spoiler> but there are plenty others. Fallout 2 had <more spoilers> the Garden of Eden Creation Kit (G.E.C.K) and this game follows in its footsteps.</more spoilers> Fallout 3 took it one step beyond. Since you're in a wasteland, seeing anything green that doesn't glow is amazing and there's a whole spot called Oasis that's full of trees. And you want it to live as it stands about from the brown, dull, dangerous wasteland. So why is this historically relevant? Remember 2008: there was Katrina, Inconvenient Truth, proof of global warming everywhere. So being green and environmentally aware was and is the right thing to do. Or maybe they were Pink Floyd fans. Probably the former though.
So now we know the history surrounding Fallout 3, lets take a quick look at the history inside Fallout 3 because that's fun! Fallout 3 definitely looks to previous 1950s apocaplyse works such as Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank. But there's a twist: DC survived, instead of being target #1. Oh, it got hit, but consider that the whole Midwest in uninhabitable in the Fallout-verse. Fallout 3 wants us to remember the past, hence the nostalgia. It wants us to learn from the past. So who better to meet than Declaration of Independence signer Button Gwinnett! OK, it's a robot who thinks he's Button Gwinnett, but this isn't the future with heads in jars so this is close enough. Button thinks the Revolutionary War is still going on thus has his robot army defending the Declaration (back to War Never Changing). And you can get that Declaration as you need it for a quest. A quest for historical preservation given to you by a man named Abraham Washington. Abraham Washington wants to preserve history and use it for good, in contrast to the slaver who wants to destroy Lincoln's legacy. So do you support the 13th, 14th, and 15th ammendment or do you want a slave? The game lets you decide but as a constant reminder you can carry a gun based off one Lincoln owned. And as an added bonus, you can carry around reminders of what started this crazy mess. So look to the past to save the present and future. Because I don't want to live in Vault-tec vaults, I'm sure they aren't exactly fresh as a daisy.
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