History VideoGame / Fallout1

The year is 2161, 84 years after [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt all human society was destroyed in nuclear war]]. The world is a largely inhospitable wasteland populated by lethal mutants and tiny communities of survivors who live a hardscrabble existence trying to grow crops out of terrible soil and toxic rain. Lawless [[DesertBandits raider tribes]] make their lives even harder by stealing what little they have at every opportunity. Luckily for you, though, your ancestors had managed to secure their place in Vault 13 -- [[UndergroundCity a gigantic underground city]] built specifically to survive the apocalypse. You've been there all your life, and it's an okay place to live. There's plenty of food, clean water, and friends, and the Overseer keeps everything nice and orderly. But life in the Vault is about to change.

* ImpossibleMission: Ask to join the Brotherhood of Steel, and the guards at the door will send your request to Elder Maxon, who gives you a task to go digging around in a place called The Ancient Order. The soldiers actually warn you ahead of time that it's a lethally radioactive hole, and you aren't expected to come back from there alive. This is demonstrated by the corpses of Brotherhood paladins you find there.

** The [[ImportedAlienPhlebotinum Alien Blaster]] is [[PurposefullyOverpowered the most powerful energy sidearm]] in the game: it can kill practically anything in one shot or two. Its only drawback is its [[NecessaryDrawback limited range]].

* SyntheticPlague: China was using a lot of engineered viruses during the latter stages of the war. The American's ''Pan-Immunity Virion Project'' was made to counter them by genetically altering immune response. [[spoiler:Then it was re-branded as ''Forced Evolutionary Virus'' and used to create [[SuperSoldier enhanced warriors]]...]]

** The [[DownerEnding FEV ending]] (i.e. the bad one) ends with the shot of the [[Film/Batman1989 hand stretched from the vat of sickly green goo]].

* SchmuchBait: All over the place at the beginning of the game.

* SequenceBreaking: Since the player can go pretty much everywhere from the very start of the game (although they only have the coordinates of one of them) it's entirely possible, with high enough skill, luck or repeated SaveScumming, to complete the second mission's objectives way before having finished the first one.

** If you go to rescue Tandi from the Khans, you might think, given the significant number disadvantage the Raiders have over you (there's about 10 of them), that challenged Garl to a one-on-one fight is the best way to win. The problem is that Garl has 80 hit points, good Unarmed skill, and is wearing Metal Armor. At this point, if you've been taking advantage of various experience boosts, you might be level 4. You'll likely have a Leather Jacket for armor, and you ''cannot'' heal during the battle as your inventory is removed. Garl is ''very'' likely to kill you for taking what seems to be the sensible action. And if you ''are'' wearing that Leather Jacket, and you're male, there's a good chance that Garl will think you're his dead father and immediately attack, though at least you'll be able to use your guns and healing then.

* QuarantineWithExtremePrejudice: The soldiers stationed in the underground the Mariposa Military Base were forced into this trope in order to contain the FEV Mutants being made by the [[MorallyAmbiguousDoctorate government scientists]] they were assigned to guard. They eventually got sick of it, declared their separation from the U.S. government,[[note]]The U.S. government didn't bother responding since [[ConvenientlyTimedDistraction China had just launched its nukes]].[[/note]] and [[PayEvilUntoEvil summarily killed most of the doctors]]: the ones that [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone saw the horror of their experiments for what it really was]] decided to [[HeelFaceTurn side with the soldiers]] and were allowed to live. That group went on to become the [[TheOrder Brotherhood of Steel]].

* NecessarilyEvil: [[spoiler: This is how The Master view his actions: he knows they're horrifying, but genuinely believes they're for the greater good and are essential to avoid a repeat of the errors of the past and create permanent stable peace. The worst part is that he was almost ''right'' and the only flaw in his plan is that his mutants can't reproduce]].

* NecessarilyEvil: [[spoiler: This is how The Master view his actions, he knows they're horrifying, but genuinely believe it's for the greater good and is essential to avoid a repeat of the errors of the past and create permanent stable peace. The worst part is that he was almost ''right'', the only flaw in his plan is that his mutants can't reproduce]].

** [[TheDragon The Lieutenant]] is completely loyal to his boss, but is a {{Sadist}} who delights in torturing his victims. He knows that most humans do not survive the process of becoming super mutants, and not only does he not care, and he relishes in their suffering. [[spoiler: Unlike The Master, he is fully aware that super mutants are sterile and assumes it will be fixed. If The Master is presented with this proof, he suffers a DespairEventHorizon.]]