Fallout has been known for its bleak humor and downbeat tone going all the way back to the original 1997 RPG - a game whose "happy" ending is still a pretty major bummer. Original lead Tim Cain says he wanted the game to end much differently with a full-on party sequence.
I don't know if I need to drop a spoiler warning for a three-decade-old game, but just in case, well... there you go. Fallout has a dark ending where you can choose to join the main villain, but even if you beat the bad guys and complete your objectives, your character returns to Vault 13 and is swiftly exiled by the Overseer, who fears that their stories of adventure out in the wasteland might inspire others to abandon the Vault.
That wasn't how Cain wanted the game to end, as he explains in a new YouTube vlog. "I had pushed for Fallout ending with a party," Cain says. "You come back to Vault 13, you've gotten them a water chip, you've taken care of the mutant army and the Master, and everybody has a big party for you and there's cake and balloons. That got rejected in favor of Leonard Boyarsky's idea that the Overseer kicks you out. In hindsight, better idea. But at the time I was like 'I don't know if people are going to buy this.'"
- Disco Elysium lead says original Fallout is an RPG "that's almost Biblical in its annihilation," making "other post-apocalyptic worldbuilding seem like an amusement park"
- Fallout creator Tim Cain reveals two playthroughs key to the RPG's history: his low-Int hero named Potato, and a mass-murderer who made them check "the entire game" again
It's easy to see why a developer might be skittish about an ending that downplays everything the player's accomplished over the course of a game, but given how established Fallout's tone is these days, it's equally tough to imagine the original game ending with, as Cain puts it, "cake and balloons." This is one of those instances where it certainly feels like history played out the correct way.
Dig into some games like Fallout to ease the long, long wait we'll have to endure for Fallout 5.
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