Atlas
Wasteland Wanderer
Ever since Fallout 3 was released, the fans of Black Isle's Fallout have been in arms; the game rehashed the original plot of the first two, removed the Isometric gameplay--for better or worse--and wrote a story that did little than leave a bad taste in our mouth. In fact, I'm of the opinion the only good things about the game was that Liam Neeson was your Dad, and that it paved the way for New Vegas.
But while thinking about it, there are several ideas used in Fallout 3 that, if altered, could have made into a game that was worthy of the Fallout title. This is all just my own head cannon, so feel free to disregard the entire thing if you want.
The game starts off with your character being born in Vault 101, a vault set in Illinois with the idea to leave it sealed indefinitely. Your character live out their life here, and is led to believe they would die here as well. On your eighteenth birthday, however, the Overseer orders the vault door be opened for the first time since the war to let a single woman enter its halls.
He knows that they can't live in there forever, and sees the woman as a means of testing the waters, as it were. She tells them of an army above that have committed atrocity after atrocity, and asks that she be given shelter from their rule.
Days turn into weeks, and weeks turn into months. She begins teaching the Vault Dwellers military tactics in the event the Vault be discovered by the threat outside its walls, an act that proves necessary as the doors to the outside open without the Overseers consent.
It is here that the woman tells the Vault Dwellers that she was a member of a group that called themselves the Enclave; a surviving branch of the pre-war government that sought to restore the American Wasteland to its former glory, and that the enemies were the Brotherhood of Steel--a brutal, tyrannical group that forced those on the surface to either join their ranks or die.
That's how the prologue to my version would go .The Lone Wanderer would escape as the Brotherhood--which were actually Enclave soldiers wearing the Midwest Power Armor--attacked and were somehow beaten back by the inhabitants of Vault 101. The entire scheme would be a ploy to brainwash and conscript the Pure humans of the vault into the now vastly weakened Enclave after losing much of its personnel and resources after the loss of Navarro and the Oil Rig.
You'd be given instructions to one of the outposts the Enclave was using as their base of operations--as of that moment, they've kept their existence secret from the much more powerful BoS and have been resorting to infiltration tactics as opposed to a direct assault; entering and brainwashing vaults, sending spies to join the ranks of the Brotherhood and the communities, basically building up their forces while waiting for an opening.
You'd meet President Eden--formerly a Colonel before Richardson was killed--and be sent out to Infiltrate and sabotage the Brotherhood of Steel for the coming battle.
This story would play off the "Destroy the Calculator" ending of Tactics, and would take place at least a decade before Fallout 3 did. From that point you'll be able to see the Brotherhood wasn't the monsters you were lead to believe and betray the Enclave, or choose to ignore this fact and continue serving the former Antagonists of the series.
The entire point of this game wouldn't be to purify water, but to take or keep Chicago for your faction of choice. Help the Brotherhood, and you and a squad of Paladins would attack the outpost--no devoid of the President--and secure whatever technology you could before returning to Vault 0., as well as be sent to various parts of the wasteland to ensure the locals would remain loyal while simultaneously locating and dismantling Enclave outposts throughout the region.
Side with the Enclave, and you'd be sowing discontent within the conscripted ranks and communities while keeping in touch with Command through the various Eyebots they had sent across the wastes.
Regardless of who you side with, eventually Enclave Radio would go live, soldiers would begin appearing, and the battle for Chicago would officially begin. To make up for the crappy MKII Power Armor of 3, the new model would instead be repurposed Midwestern Armor with an Enclave aesthetic--along with the familiar MKI--and the Mutants that roamed DC will be replaced with those of the Brotherhood. And the Enclave would still be using Deathclaws equipped to even the odds a bit.
Still, no matter who you side with at this point the Brotherhood would still have the upper hand; they have the numbers, and no matter how you slice it most of the Enclave's soldiers would be made up of Vault Dwellers who lacked the experience of the battle-hardened BoS.
But where the Enclave lack forces, they had firepower. Orbital Strikes would begin raining down on the Brotherhood in battle, decimating their number while the Enclave continue to push them further and further back; if you sided with the Brotherhood, then the communities you visited will help out in this battle and try to hold the invading army at bay. If not, many of them will be swayed by Eden's message and either turn their back on the Brotherhood, or straight up attack them.
The game ends either two ways; the Brotherhood is forced back into their Vault, where the Enclave would release a Modified FEV virus into the ventilation system to kill the rest and take their seat as the new dominate power in Chicago, or you;'d join a Brotherhood strike-team and infiltrate the Enclave's main bunker, kill the President, and set the Enclave's Bunker as the next and final target for the Orbital Missiles, reducing it to a molten crater.
The idea has its issues, and it would definitely need to be fleshed out, but in my opinion I believe that would have much a far superior game than what Bethesda had come up with, while also keeping a lot of its original vision intact.
Again, this is all just my own silly fanficion of what should have been for Bethesda's Fallout 3, and I know it would never be made a reality, but its fun to make up your own stories from time to time. How about you? Do you think this would have been a good story? What would you have done to make Fallout 3 better, besides make Van Buren a thing?
But while thinking about it, there are several ideas used in Fallout 3 that, if altered, could have made into a game that was worthy of the Fallout title. This is all just my own head cannon, so feel free to disregard the entire thing if you want.
The game starts off with your character being born in Vault 101, a vault set in Illinois with the idea to leave it sealed indefinitely. Your character live out their life here, and is led to believe they would die here as well. On your eighteenth birthday, however, the Overseer orders the vault door be opened for the first time since the war to let a single woman enter its halls.
He knows that they can't live in there forever, and sees the woman as a means of testing the waters, as it were. She tells them of an army above that have committed atrocity after atrocity, and asks that she be given shelter from their rule.
Days turn into weeks, and weeks turn into months. She begins teaching the Vault Dwellers military tactics in the event the Vault be discovered by the threat outside its walls, an act that proves necessary as the doors to the outside open without the Overseers consent.
It is here that the woman tells the Vault Dwellers that she was a member of a group that called themselves the Enclave; a surviving branch of the pre-war government that sought to restore the American Wasteland to its former glory, and that the enemies were the Brotherhood of Steel--a brutal, tyrannical group that forced those on the surface to either join their ranks or die.
That's how the prologue to my version would go .The Lone Wanderer would escape as the Brotherhood--which were actually Enclave soldiers wearing the Midwest Power Armor--attacked and were somehow beaten back by the inhabitants of Vault 101. The entire scheme would be a ploy to brainwash and conscript the Pure humans of the vault into the now vastly weakened Enclave after losing much of its personnel and resources after the loss of Navarro and the Oil Rig.
You'd be given instructions to one of the outposts the Enclave was using as their base of operations--as of that moment, they've kept their existence secret from the much more powerful BoS and have been resorting to infiltration tactics as opposed to a direct assault; entering and brainwashing vaults, sending spies to join the ranks of the Brotherhood and the communities, basically building up their forces while waiting for an opening.
You'd meet President Eden--formerly a Colonel before Richardson was killed--and be sent out to Infiltrate and sabotage the Brotherhood of Steel for the coming battle.
This story would play off the "Destroy the Calculator" ending of Tactics, and would take place at least a decade before Fallout 3 did. From that point you'll be able to see the Brotherhood wasn't the monsters you were lead to believe and betray the Enclave, or choose to ignore this fact and continue serving the former Antagonists of the series.
The entire point of this game wouldn't be to purify water, but to take or keep Chicago for your faction of choice. Help the Brotherhood, and you and a squad of Paladins would attack the outpost--no devoid of the President--and secure whatever technology you could before returning to Vault 0., as well as be sent to various parts of the wasteland to ensure the locals would remain loyal while simultaneously locating and dismantling Enclave outposts throughout the region.
Side with the Enclave, and you'd be sowing discontent within the conscripted ranks and communities while keeping in touch with Command through the various Eyebots they had sent across the wastes.
Regardless of who you side with, eventually Enclave Radio would go live, soldiers would begin appearing, and the battle for Chicago would officially begin. To make up for the crappy MKII Power Armor of 3, the new model would instead be repurposed Midwestern Armor with an Enclave aesthetic--along with the familiar MKI--and the Mutants that roamed DC will be replaced with those of the Brotherhood. And the Enclave would still be using Deathclaws equipped to even the odds a bit.
Still, no matter who you side with at this point the Brotherhood would still have the upper hand; they have the numbers, and no matter how you slice it most of the Enclave's soldiers would be made up of Vault Dwellers who lacked the experience of the battle-hardened BoS.
But where the Enclave lack forces, they had firepower. Orbital Strikes would begin raining down on the Brotherhood in battle, decimating their number while the Enclave continue to push them further and further back; if you sided with the Brotherhood, then the communities you visited will help out in this battle and try to hold the invading army at bay. If not, many of them will be swayed by Eden's message and either turn their back on the Brotherhood, or straight up attack them.
The game ends either two ways; the Brotherhood is forced back into their Vault, where the Enclave would release a Modified FEV virus into the ventilation system to kill the rest and take their seat as the new dominate power in Chicago, or you;'d join a Brotherhood strike-team and infiltrate the Enclave's main bunker, kill the President, and set the Enclave's Bunker as the next and final target for the Orbital Missiles, reducing it to a molten crater.
The idea has its issues, and it would definitely need to be fleshed out, but in my opinion I believe that would have much a far superior game than what Bethesda had come up with, while also keeping a lot of its original vision intact.
Again, this is all just my own silly fanficion of what should have been for Bethesda's Fallout 3, and I know it would never be made a reality, but its fun to make up your own stories from time to time. How about you? Do you think this would have been a good story? What would you have done to make Fallout 3 better, besides make Van Buren a thing?
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