New to Fallout series. Where to start?

[GutGouger]

I just built my first gaming PC almost a year ago after being a Playstaion guy forever. Anyway, for whatever reason, Fallout is just one of those series I never played, it wasn't a conscious decision. What game from the series would ya'll recommend to play as my intro to the series? I've heard great things for years, I've been looking into it and it seems amazing. I don't know how I never played it. I'm not as concerned about where to start as far as the story goes. Developers are usually pretty good about making the story in each game from a series pretty easy to pick up on. I'm more concerned about the mechanics, gameplay and such. Perhaps in that regard it really doesn't matter which one I play first. Any recommendations?

[Зиновьев]

Just start with Fallout 4.

Play vanilla first and then get into modding.It's the best thing about being on PC and you can really unlock it's potential.

[Shadowrun]

well they tried to make them so you can start in anywhere, you get a backstory and a place to start from in basically the same environment.

fallout 1 and 2 are very old 2-D style turn-based games and therefore very boring in comparison to an active 1st-person shooter. so by now i think you could skip 1 and 2 and start with 3, but fallout 3 has a hard time running on modern systems so you might have come to the right place with 4. although New Vegas still runs on these PCs and would be a fabulous introduction to the series as well.

+ i'd say try fallout 3. it's the first 1st-person shooter version that you might still be able to get run with the help of the F3 community. it's a nice, basic introduction to the series.

- in fallout 1 you played the role of a vault-dweller. the water chip broke in your vault's water purification system and you were running out of water. the overseer sends you out to find a new water chip and save the vault. the wasteland is unforgiving

- in fallout 2 you are a descendant of that vault dweller but you live in a tribal community. i think you had a similar main quest, the settlement you are from needs something or it perishes so you go out in search of it. a G.E.C.K. i believe. the wasteland is still unforgiving

+ in fallout 3 you are a young lad / lass vault dweller. i forget what they send you out for i think there's some corruption in the leadership and your father gets killed so you have to escape the vault or they might kill you too. so you escape out into a barren wasteland and have to survive out there. items around the game don't respawn so once you found something and picked it up it won't reappear on the map.

+ in fallout new vegas you're going to enjoy a more western style take on fallout. mostly linear quest line again but they introduce crafting into the game-play which kind of changes things a little. i forget where you come from, i think someone tried to kill you right away in the beginning of the game but you lived. i don't remember but i don't think you're a vault dweller this time around. i think you were born, raised and produced in the wasteland.

+ in fallout 4 you are a regular citizen (with military background) who gets frozen in a vault when the bombs are dropped, and released from cryo-stasis later on, into the wasteland. the main quest lines are more open, there are factions you can choose to support or fight and they really open you up to rebuilding settlements in the wasteland. there are also lots of side-quests and the areas of the game will re-spawn with items and enemies after awhile. so that adds to the replayability.

- fallout shelter is a fun little app you can get on your phone to play with but it's got micro transactions to fuel it. you have been warned lol.

- fallout 76: i have not played yet and can not comment about. same with the one i missed, fallout tactics or something like that. never touched it. :(

[Sabaithal]

The games are for all intents and purposes, disconnected from one another. There might be a few 'wink wink, nudge nudge' sort of references, but that's it.

Fallout 4 is as good a place to start as any. Yes, stuff did happen in the previous games, but I rarely see it ever mentioned, and when it is, its secondary at best.

[Kuriousjorj]

People making it so complicated...

Fallout 3 GOTY

Fallout NV, all DLC

Fallout 4 w/ DLC

Yup. Just do it in the order they were released. Do each w/o mods at least at first.

[Synavix]

I'd start with either FO3 or FO4.

4 is obviously the best place to start if you want something a bit more stable and modern, and probably the best if you only care about game mechanics, too. But I think it has the weakest dialogue system, and because of that it's worse for learning the lore of the Fallout universe.

If you're even slightly interested in getting a feel for the lore and the worldbuilding I'd just start with 3. It's still my favorite in terms of theme and tone, and it's not terribly large or long in comparison to the others. Especially since most of the DLC is pretty skippable if you're eager to move past that.

[GutGouger]

Thanks for the recommendations. I purchased 4 w/ all the DLC and NV. I narrowed it down to one of those two, but they're so inexpensive at this point, I just got both. I'll jump into one tomorrow and have time to play quite a bit here during the holidays. Someone recommended just playing "vanilla" at first, then get into mods. Modding is a whole different conversation. All those years I played Playstation, to me, modding always seemed like one of the coolest advantages of PC gaming. I haven't even begun to dip my toe into that. It seems a little daunting, but there's YouTube videos to explain anything. 😂 Thanks again.

[Sabaithal]

Fallout 3 and NV use the exact same method of gameplay btw, the latter just has a bit more updated graphics. NV is essentially a large mod of 3.

[Raptrd]

Fallout 3 is a decent start, but if you really want to get into the lore you should play from the first Fallout, because there will be a lot of references from the previous games such as the G.E.C.K, and also there will be a lot of returning characters.

[GutGouger]

I didn't really want to start that far back. I'm more interested in mechanics, game play and such than getting deep into the lore. So I wanted to start with a newer one that has the most advanced versions of those things. That isn't to say I don't care about the story though. Over time, I've heard good things about both the story and game play. The way I figure, for the series to have gotten so popular, the game play has to be pretty awesome. Most of the time, a game series that becomes hugely popular will have outstanding game play, even if the story is less than perfection. Few games I can think of have gotten really big on a great story and weak game play. There could be some obvious examples I'm missing though. It's just a theory my dumb brain spit out. lol I purchased 4 and NV, so it's between those two. I have 4 days of downtime to explore the world of Fallout. :D

[Zes]

I suggest you to start wirh fo4, try prequels if you like the type. Starting from an old tech one would make a bad impression for a new generation gamer, you might dislike the game altogether.

But i'm sure you will wanna play previous ones once you liked the fallout system.

[mousetrapreplica[TSC]]

play fallout 1, 2, 3, then new vegas. skip 4 its garbage