Why is Fallout depressing?

[Tiny Trees]

Almost everything about it is dreary. Yet people would not be like that, they would look for reasons to be happy.

I have played F:NV, and I just started F3. I watched the trailer for F4, and it had exacty the same feel to it as NV.

What I mean is the war was in 2077, but you'd think happened yesterday 1965.

All the music in it is almost pre-WW2, and the most miserable tunes. There is nothing lighthearted about any of it.

Many areas look monochromatic but don't actually look right because of it.

Wrecked vehicles look like they were all from, I don't know, maybe the year 2000 at best.

All surviving computers look like they were from 1990.


I just don't get the incredibly poor production, or I have missunderstood the back story. I know the games are OK. I mostly liked Fallout NV, and I was addicted to it, until all the 'who runs the strip' rubbish. However all the way through I felt different levels of miserable with it. Yet here with the new release, they are making it with exactly the same non-sensical approach.

[ers101284]

It's a post apocolyptic futuristic 1950's nuclear wasteland. What did you expect?

[Tiny Trees]

What? When I google, "when was the war in fallout 3", I get the following.

The Great War started and ended on Saturday, October 23, 2077 when nuclear weapons were launched by all the nuclear-capable nations of the Fallout world (mainly from the United States, China and the USSR).

Therefor I expect it to reflect that.

[Morgan]

The game is based on a 1950s style futuristic world that has undergone a nuclear apocalypse hence the anachronisms. As for people being happy. There’s bene a nuclear apocalypse.

[Damned Unicorns]

I was trying to decide if that was a joke post.
Because it's a post apocalyptic setting, contrasting the optimistic fifties with the reality of a barren wasteland.
That's pretty much it. It's an alternate reality, where the feel and style of 50's futurism just continued along with a booming US industry until everything just reached the breaking point.

But yeah, post apocalyptic settings are, as a rule, not cheerful.

[Morgan]

Originally posted by Tiny Trees:

What? When I google, "when was the war in fallout 3", I get the following.

The Great War started and ended on Saturday, October 23, 2077 when nuclear weapons were launched by all the nuclear-capable nations of the Fallout world (mainly from the United States, China and the USSR).

Therefor I expect it to reflect that.

This might help.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkBNKa2KXZE

[FEZ. TF7]

Originally posted by Tiny Trees:

What? When I google, "when was the war in fallout 3", I get the following.

The Great War started and ended on Saturday, October 23, 2077 when nuclear weapons were launched by all the nuclear-capable nations of the Fallout world (mainly from the United States, China and the USSR).

Therefor I expect it to reflect that.

It's mainly based on what people in the 50's thought the future would be like

[Tiny Trees]

I don't understand what you saying? Do you mean there was no development between 1950 through to 2077.

In F:NV the apocolypes was 200 years previous. There's no way everyone would still be monotonic and monochromatic.


EDIT: Hang on new posts arrived while I was typing. Let me check that vid.

[ers101284]

Originally posted by Tiny Trees:

What? When I google, "when was the war in fallout 3", I get the following.

The Great War started and ended on Saturday, October 23, 2077 when nuclear weapons were launched by all the nuclear-capable nations of the Fallout world (mainly from the United States, China and the USSR).

Therefor I expect it to reflect that.

The war in Fallout was in 2077 yes but thats not exactly the setting. Read the Description of Fallout. Basically think if the 1950's had all the sci fi stuff they had written and dreamed about. Space and fantasy sci fi being a big thing back then. So that was the culture. Computers weren't sleek and styish at the time, clothing would have been bright but if your living in a world covered in dirt with no clean water you are not gonna have bright colored clothes, The music is going to be whatever survived which isn't going to be much. It's a dark and depressing world to live in and the games reflect that.

[War Crime Enjoyer]

...Urr, that's because that is the theme of Fallout?

The Fallout universe is heavily centered around 50's/60's culture - a time when the Cold War (where the fear of a nuclear war was rampant). Essentially, the culture stagnated but technology and global politics sort of progressed. The computers... eh, I guess its artistic design.

[Morgan]

Originally posted by Tiny Trees:

I don't understand what you saying? Do you mean there was no development between 1950 through to 2077.

In F:NV the apocolypes was 200 years previous. There's no way everyone would still be monotoni and monochromatic.

It’s not really meant to reflect reality. It’s a style that has been used for its artistic merit. Have you ever seen the film Brazil?

[Ladez]

In Fallout lore the world was culturally stagnant and stuck in the mindset of the 50s when the war happened. That is why much of the technology, art and culture is inspired by that era.

It is (meant to be) a story about civilization making a return in the post-post-apocalypse. This is one of things Bethesda got wrong in FO3. It does have lighthearted elements to it, but much of the humor is of a dark nature.

[bylandt11]

It does not really matter how the universe in a book, movie or game is set up. But it matters that it stays consistent and true to itself troughout for the "suspension of disbelief" to work. Steam punk worlds are a good example.

[Tiny Trees]

Originally posted by Morgan:

It’s not really meant to reflect reality. It’s a style that has been used for its artistic merit. Have you ever seen the film Brazil?

I don't know that movie.

It seems people are suggesting that they used a 1950's representation in a year 2077+ setting. (Yet there were no computers in 1950, and the cars are much later.)

I accept what people are saying, though I don't really 'get it'.

I mean when I played F:NV I had no pre-conceptions about it. I notices all the old style stuff, and it made me google for when the war was. I could never work it out.

[Morgan]

Originally posted by Tiny Trees:

Originally posted by Morgan:

It’s not really meant to reflect reality. It’s a style that has been used for its artistic merit. Have you ever seen the film Brazil?

I don't know that movie.

It seems people are suggesting that they used a 1950's representation in a year 2077+ setting. (Yet there were no computers in 1950, and the cars are much later.)

I accept what people are saying, though I don't really 'get it'.

I mean when I played F:NV I had no pre-conceptions about it. I notices all the old style stuff, and it made me google for when the war was. I could never work it out.

It’s really just the artistic style they went for. Ladex makes a good point about the whole cold war thing. I think sort of a deliberate perversion of American 1950s idealism.

[Morrandir]

this could answer the why (it was mainly about IP rights and EA not givining the IP rights of Wasteland to Interplay)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeZz0GqC8X0