Gameplay And Story Segregation / Fallout

Multiple Games

• In the lore it's mentioned that even the earliest, Awesome, but Impractical models of Power Armor allowed a US soldier to wipe out entire platoons of Chinese soldiers equipped with small arms without receiving a scratch, and carry a small arsenal of heavy weapons around. The only games where this could apply are the first two Fallout games, where Scratch Damage was not a thing, so weaker enemies would basically be unable to hurt you outside of a lucky Critical Hit, while from Fallout 3 onwards the major reworks of the armor systems means that all but the most pathetic enemies can actually kill you. The carry weight bonuses were similarly significant in the first Fallout games, but in 3 and New Vegas they will at most give you +2 Strength, equating to +20 pounds of equipment, barely enough to account for a missile launcher.
  • It's been stated a few times in-universe that Power Armor recycles the wearer's urine into drinkable water, but despite purified water being a precious commodity both in-lore and in-game (especially in later games' Survival Difficulty) this isn't represented in gameplay in any way.
• Averted in one sense. Most games from the third game onwards takes place centuries after the great war. And while various official and non-official sources have attempted to justify why civilisation hasn't been totally rebuilt by that point, all cities should be overgrown and large buildings collapsed due to lack of maintenance. Word of God, however, is that they were aware of this but kept the setting and aesthetic mostly the same to fit the genre, and it's been established that science and physics work very differently in the Fallout-verse.
• Most of the shelters used by characters (and later players, after the fourth game introduced settlement building) match the post-apocalyptic aesthetic, but would actually be insufficient to survive the climates of the real-life areas the games take place in, let alone in worlds where radioactive rain is a regular phenomenon. Shelters with actual insulation, and few to no holes in the walls and ceilings are either exclusive to enemy or wealthy factions, or require high-level perks and abundances of material to construct, restricting them to late-game players. This means that many people survive or even thrive in conditions where freezing to death or having everything they own ruined by bad weather would be a common occurence. Without this aesthetic, though, much of the franchise's world-building would be undermined.

Fallout 1

• Radiation is made out to be a big threat to life in the wasteland, and the widespread exposure and subsequent genetic damage throws a wrench into The Master's plan, as even tiny amounts of radiation causes wastelanders to turn into stupid mutants when exposed to FEV. The only real source of radiation you can encounter is the semi-optional Glow (formerly West-Tek Research Facility) in southern California, which suffered a direct hit from a nuclear weapon, and even then taking 2 doses of Rad-X gives you 100% radiation resistance as long as they're active.

Fallout 3

• Many sequences in the game assume that the player is the low-level, relatively-inexperienced teenager with some combat skill that the game's story says they are, rather than the high-level murder machine with a kill count approaching the Doom Marine's, as they probably would be in actual gameplay by the time you get to those sequences.
  • A notable example from the main plot is the first mission at Project Purity: the game assumes, via your father's dialogue, that a dozen-odd scattered basic Super Mutants with hunting rifles, sledgehammers, and the occasional assault rifle are a huge challenge and apologizes profusely for the necessity of sending you to fight them. He also assumes that you'd be helpless against three Enclave Elite Mooks. This is why he sacrifices himself to take out Colonel Autumn and his two bodyguards, and why the end of the mission is framed as a chase sequence with you desperately avoiding Enclave soldiers and never having to fight them back at any point. The problem is, unless you're deliberately rushing through the game, your character could almost certainly take out at least a squad of Enclave soldiers at this point, and an arbitrary number of basic Super Mutants (Masters and Overlords are another matter).
  • The Pitt DLC has you knocked out by four raiders in an ambush at the very beginning, and having to side with one of the factions in the Pitt to gain control and break out. The stronger of the two factions consists of a few dozen unarmored barely-trained raiders armed with low-level weapons like 10mm pistols, double-barrel shotguns, .32 snubnose revolvers, hunting rifles, and the occasional mid-level weapon like assault rifles. That your character could be wearing Powered Armor and toting a Gauss Rifle, giving them the ability to easily wipe out either army alone even if they weren't an absurdly skilled ace with a 100% rating in every combat stat, is never accounted for.
  • Speaking of which, at the end of the main story, Owen Lyons gives you a suit of T-45d power armor and the opportunity to become a Brotherhood Knight, which is treated as an enormous reward. The squad you're assigned to even says not to be too nervous about the post, sure that you'll do well, but also say that they won't immediately throw you into tasks that only veterans like them could reasonably handle. This is utterly nonsensical for most players who are probably carrying top-level Enclave gear superior to anything the Brotherhood could give them and could butcher the whole squad in moments without breaking a sweat. The ending slideshow depicts your character in light armor and wielding a hunting rifle at an ambiguous period of the game implying that's how you were meant to be going for most of the story. Even though the player likely would have found combat armor and a light machine gun a few hours in.
• In the ending Project Purity must be activated but the person who does so will receive a lethal dose of radiation. This completely ignores the fact that players, at this point in the game, have enough items/perks to render themselves nearly completely resistant to radiation. Oh and your super mutant and robotic party members (who are completely immune to radiation) and your ghoul party member (who is healed by radiation) won't step in to save the day either. To accommodate the Broken Steel DLC's extended main quest, this was changed such that the radiation only puts you in a coma from which you wake up two weeks later. You can also ask your radiation-immune followers to step in for you, though for whatever reason this still gives you the "cowardly" ending cutscene.
• The main path to Vault 87 is impassible due to incredibly high levels of radiation and a jammed door beyond that. However, the Enclave is able to enter when they capture you after you retrieve the GECK.
• The Brotherhood often note that Enclave power armor is super-advanced and better than even their T-45 armor. It really isn't; it's at most a tradeoff and it's no better as protective gear except for a slight boost to rad resistance. And the T-51b, which should be far outdated in comparison, makes the Enclave armor look like a joke. This is because, due to Villain Decay, you fight Enclave soldiers all the dang time and therefore you have tons of corpses to loot Enclave armor off of, while the T-51b armor is unique and only found in one spot (two with DLC). In Fallout 2 and New Vegas, where a different suit of Enclave armor is present, it is indeed a step up from even the best Brotherhood armors (balanced out by being rather uncommon) - even funnier because the Enclave armor in those games also happens to be the Mark 1, while the weaker one's described as the Mark 2. In fact, the comparatively crappy T-45d in New Vegas is the same suit as the generic Brotherhood Power Armor from Fallout 3 (the one that has nigh-identical stats to the Mark 2 Enclave armor in 3). It's possible the Mark 2 was designed for ease of mass-production, given that the Enclave in 3 clearly have more soldiers to equip than the Enclave in 2, but that's a post-hoc rationalization at best.
• Although the player must receive special training to wear power armor, all human and ghoul companions can wear it, even though only Star Paladin Cross has any experience with power armor. The same applies to New Vegas.
• In Point Lookout, the most common enemies are "Swampfolk"; psychotic cannibal hillbillies deformed by generations of incest and genetic pollution from the radioactive fallout carried into their swampy home by the Potomac River, armed with fairly low-tech weapons and wearing nothing but filthy rags and tatters. They should be easy prey for a more heavily armed and armored Vault Dweller, right? Wrong. They have defenses and health on par with some of the game's most elite enemies, and they get an unshakeable +35 damage boost against the player character. There is no explanation for them being this strong and tough in-universe, because its "justifications" are purely meta: they were artificially bumped up because the developers figured that by the time the DLC dropped, most players would have late-game or post-game characters ready to take the trip. It's literally Fake Difficulty at its finest.

Fallout: New Vegas

• One example is acknowledged directly in dialogue at the start of the game: Doc Mitchell will remark if your Endurance or Luck stat is very low, pointing out that it's plainly at odds with being sturdy/lucky enough to survive a Double Tap to the head and recover to full capacity (not even mild to major amensia, Word of God itself confirmed) in just a few days.
• A common issue pointed out by fans both during and after the release of several DLCs was that completing them out of the order they were originally released in (Dead Money, Old World Blues and Lonesome Road, in particular) caused huge issues with the plot, with the Courier out of nowhere struck dumb, unable to ask DLC characters about their actions in other locales. Per Word of God as Josh Sawyer, DLC production was prohibitive regarding the high salaries of voice actors and not wanting to bring them back just to record a few lines of special dialogue for an unrelated DLC, not to mention it would have been virtually impossible due to the nature of the game's engine, especially with the infamous rushed production of New Vegas, to code every DLC to account for other DLCs). As such, the Myth Arc goes completely out of whack if you complete, say, Old World Blues before Dead Money, with the player character having significant knowledge of what Christine, Ulysses, and Elijah were doing (over a period of several weeks/months no less) in Big MT, but has no option to bring it up in dialogue with these characters. Worse of all, both the characters and the Courier treat the many hints about "another courier" and the "battle at the Divide" as some big revelation to the player, even if they'd already completed Lonesome Road and met/killed Ulysses.
• Energy Weapons are discussed as if they were fantastically rare, cutting-edge things few Wastelanders have ever seen... but common, two-bit raiders, particularly the Fiends (to say nothing of the Van Graffs) throw them around like party favors. At one point, Veronica wonders how the Fiends manage to cause more trouble than the Brotherhood despite their lack of energy weapons, in the middle of a Vault full of Fiends armed to the teeth with energy weapons. Granted, it oddly is explained where the Fiends got them from.
• Despite the comments from both Caesar's Legion and NCR members that every Legionnaire is trained to fight to the death with no regard for their own safety, members including centurions are still likely to run and hide when reduced to low HP.
• Despite being one of the most intelligent and charismatic characters in the game, Caesar's in-game stats give him an Intelligence and Charisma of 4 and a Perception of 5. However, this is potentially justified by his brain tumor.
• You can only use Empty soda bottles to make cactus water; you can't fill them with water from a tap to make a bottle of plain water, and you can't make it from an empty bottle of any other drink (including soda bottles of specific brands). Even in Old World Blues, the Sink appliance located in the Sink homebase needs to be upgraded to fill up bottles. Honest Hearts adds the ability to make homebrewed Nuka-Cola, which requires an empty soda bottle, but not the visually-identical empty Nuka-Cola bottle.
• A wrench, which is used to craft a weapon repair kit, mysteriously disappears when the repair kit is used. Not even hand-waving it as being so old as to be brittle works because if so, how could it be used to make adequate repairs in the first place?
• Bedrolls are found all throughout the Mojave, but the player can't actually pick them up and use them as portable bedding. Portable bedroll kits would be introduced in the Lonesome Road DLC... of which there are only three, and the player is likely to miss at least one of them by accident if they're not thorough checking every location. Notably, there is a mod (included in New Vegas Enhanced Content) that turns all bedrolls into Roughin' It bedroll kits, along with lowering their ridiculous value (a bedroll kit is worth nearly 6,000 caps in the base game) to a much more realistic 20 caps.
• Several instances of this occur with regards to pieces of clothing/armor and their stated function and reputation versus what actually happens in gameplay:
  • The NCR Ranger Combat Armor worn by Veteran Rangers (the one on the cover and all the trailers) itself. Everyone says that the special thing about them is their low-light optics... which the player cannot use until Lonesome Road with the Riot Gear and its Advanced and Elite variants with Sneak Sight (nevermind the fact that it's stated in-game that it was the Desert Rangers' combat armor (a model that does not possess the feature) that inspired the creation of the Combat Armor). Even more galling is the fact that in the opening movie, you see a Veteran Ranger turning on his low-light optics before performing a headshot on a poor Fiend at night.
  • Conversely, the Desert Ranger Combat Armor (a set of NCR armor used by a former soldier in multiple historical in-universe battles, and later worn by Randall Clark prior to the events of the Honest Hearts DLC) is not considered to be faction armor, despite being functionally-identical in shape and major design features to all other NCR Ranger gear (due to being the inspiration for its design). This means you can parade it around Caesar's camp without anyone looking twice. More notably, NCR Rangers will even comment on it at some locations in the Mojave, suggesting the faction ties were cut late in the armor's development.
  • The Remnants Power Armor is a fantastically rare set that is only worn by a select few individuals within the Mojave (including the Enclave Remnants, and an explorer/prospector whose suit you can nab from the high-level Deathclaw Promontory near the southeastern corner of the map). In-universe, the NCR hates the Enclave and has a shoot-on-sight order (and in two of Arcade Gannon's endings, the character is forced to go on the run when NCR rangers recognize his Enclave armor). However, you or your companions can freely wear Enclave armor around the Mojave without anyone saying a word, even around veteran NCR rangers like Chief Hanlon. Word of God from designer J.E. Sawyer is that he had intended to give the Enclave armor an effect similar to Ezio Auditore's family cape (a Bragging Rights Reward) from Assassin's Creed II, where all factions would attack the player while wearing it, but couldn't figure out a way to balance it in gameplay.
  • Like the Remnants Armor, the Armor of the 87th Tribe is a Bragging Rights Reward offered for completing Lonesome Road and letting the nuke destroy a Legion settlement (in Dry Wells), then defeating Gaius Magnus and pilfering the armor off him. Despite carrying similar colors to Legion armaments, being functionally identical to Legate Lanius' armor and sporting a massive Legion symbol on the back (that of the Bull), the armor is not considered to be tied to a faction. Thus, the player can parade it around in places like Camp McCarran, Camp Golf, or Camp Forlorn Hope without any NCR soldier batting an eye, even while the latter is under constant threat of Legion attacks.
  • The player cannot wear Brotherhood T-51 power armor around any NCR personnel until the endgame quest "For the Republic, Part II," and only if the Courier managed to negotiate a truce between the Brotherhood and the NCR. The player can wear T-51 power armor (which has some parts colored off-green instead of gray, despite having the exact same design) around NCR personnel through the entirety of the game, with no one commenting or reacting to it.
  • There is also the fact that wearing an enemy faction's armor will make the units hostile, it only applies to the player character, you can dress Veronica in the same Paladin armor and nobody will even bat en eye.
• Collecting any of the snowglobes found in the DLCs before you've even been to New Vegas will display a pop-up revealing that they've "been added to your snowglobe collection at the Lucky 38," in addition to handing the players 2,000 caps^note In Dead Money, this awards 2,000 Sierra Madre Chips, which (if traded in at max Barter value at the Sierra Madre Casino) result in 2,000 stacks of Pre-War Money — approx. 20,000 caps at 100 Barter.. This is before you find out that the snowglobes you've been collecting are (a) apparently your property, not those of Mr. House's, and (b) they are located in a special area within the Lucky 38, spoiling greater prominence than the player might have originally believed. Notably, there are several mods that disable monetary rewards from the snowglobes entirely until you reach Jane at the Lucky 38 and speak to her for the first time.
• A downplayed example — if you take the time to investigate Gibson's Shack (an abandoned house located near Old Lady Gibson's Scrap Yard), trying to hack the sole usable terminal in the shack informs you that only "someone like Veronica" would be able to crack it. The spoils the existence of a named character who has the ability to crack high-level encryption. While Veronica is found up the road on the map (at the 188 Trading Post), this computer won't even trigger unless the player has progressed far enough into her companion quest.
• The Dead Money DLC:
  • Dean Domino describes himself as the third wheel of the group, noting that while Dog/God has brawn and Christine has brains, he doesn't have much of either. In actual gameplay, though, Dean is easily the best of the trio, as he's the only one who has a gun by default, and being a companion, it has infinite ammo. Dean is also the only inhabitant of the villa who had the foresight to stash 15 suitcases full of valuable supplies in and around the villa in case he (or, eventually, the player) needed them.
    • Though this is downplayed since he's only the third wheel in terms of Elijah's plan. For Elijah Dog/God and Christine have specific skills for their roles which he has planned out while Dean is just another body. In terms of the wider story Dean has the most experience and history with the villa and could probably be the Big Bad of the DLC if it weren't for his bomb collar.
  • Both Dean and Dog/God both stress that the Ghost Seekers and associated variants are too tough to handle on their own, and both suggest sneaking past them. Of course, due to companions independently attacking enemies as soon as they see them, both of these characters will ignore their own advice and rush the Seekers when they make eye contact. Particularly noticeable in the case of God, who finishes telling you about how he doesn't want a direct confrontation if he can help it... right before he bullrushes a Seeker while exiting from the front door of the Villa police station.
  • The message of the DLC is to "let go", and the plot bears this out proper when you reach the vault underneath the Sierra Madre, which has dozens of gold bars with a marginal value of several hundred thousand bottle caps. The gold bars weigh 35 pounds each, despite having a visible "20 oz." symbol on each bar. Putting aside the Good Bad Bugs that allow you to exploit your way out of the vault with every single gold bar, the player is only encouraged to take a handful of bars at max, as the resulting weight will slow them down and make them unable to outrun the final countdown before the collar explodes. To note, the extravagant weight was expressly put in by the devs to stop players from absconding with the entire stash of bars, to the extent that they put in special animations and stopgaps to prevent exploits (which didn't work). Come the following game, gold bars weighed much less and had a much-lower marginal value.
  • Father Elijah, who despite being an Omnicidal Maniac and perhaps one of the most callous characters in the entire series, has neutral karma. Same goes for Dean Domino, who's The Sociopath. This is most likely because the former has to be taken out one way or another to complete the DLC, so it wouldn't make sense for the player to gain karma from killing him.
• In the Old World Blues DLC, the Courier has his/her brain removed and replaced by a Tesla coil by the Think Tank, which they have also done to several other people you can find around the research center. However, should any of these get their heads blown apart, you'll see just plain old brains in the resulting mess. Also, the goal of the DLC is to get your brain back so you can get past the pylons surrounding Big MT. However, going outside the perimeter after getting your brain back will still result in passing out and waking up on the Sink's balcony, since the developers could only create so much geometry outside the borders.
• The Lonesome Road DLC:
  • Having the DLC installed displays a message the moment the player leaves Doc Mitchell's house at the beginning of the game that a "second Courier" wants you to go to a place called The Divide to "put an ending to things". This occurs long before you get to Primm, where you find out proper that there was a Courier before you that was given the job to deliver the Platinum Chip (and refused), and long before you meet the Beef Gate requirements to get far in the DLC proper. Notably, there are mods that disable this gameplay message (and the start of the DLC) completely.
  • Ulysses claims that the Tunnelers are fearsome, dangerous creatures who would overrun the Mojave if left unchecked. This is borne out by the player's first (scripted) encounter with them, when a Tunneler effortlessly rips apart a Deathclaw (who, depending on the player's level, may be able to kill them in one-to-two hits). In gameplay proper, though, they're fairly easy to take down, only requiring one or two headshots each, and the player will end up killing the Tunneler Queen late in the story anyway. Fighting a surprise invasion of them wouldn't be fun, but with sufficient warning and prep time, House's Securitrons or the NCR could make short work of them. Heck, Boone in a suitable vantage point (say, the top of the Lucky 38) with an Anti-Materiel Rifle and enough ammo could probably protect the entire Strip by himself. It's implied Ulysses was exaggerating their threat somewhat, since Ulysses essentially states that he can hold off the Tunnelers and Marked Men alone with his anti-materiel rifle and vantage point if you talk him down at the end of the DLC.
  • At the end of the DLC, you have the option to nuke one or both of the NCR's and/or Legion's home territories. Narratively, this is a huge moment that should cause massive repercussions for the long-term survival of both factions (especially when in the NCR's case, it cuts off their main route into the region). In gameplay terms, while it will anger one or both factions (potentially to the point of sending hit squads after you), having max reputation with either side causes an otherwise-indifferent response, and completing the DLC early enough in the storyline results in both parties handing you a "Get Out of Jail Free" Card that pardons all of your past sins once you reach New Vegas.
• The NCR canonically has working trains, railways and trucks (not seen moving due to game engine limitations), yet the game narrative showcases their logistical situation as abysmal ^note In real life, the use of trains was one of the main reasons why the Prussian army utterly crushed the French army during the Franco-Prussian War Of 1871 as it eased their logistics and allowed them to quickly move fresh reserve units to the frontlines.. Meanwhile the Legion's sole known crossing on the Colorado river is a single raft landing at Cottonwood Cove, which the Courier can irradiate as area denial, and NCR snipers at Ranger Station Echo mention taking potshots at them. In spite of this, Caesar's Legion essentially has no obvious logistical issues and is even able to somehow launch an attack on Camp Golf.

Fallout 4

• When talking to Codsworth, the protagonist is surprised that two centuries have passed, although the player is able to look at the date and time at the moment they activate the Pip-Boy. This is a Downplayed Trope example, since the situation is disorienting and nightmarish from the perspective of the player character.
• The Brotherhood of Steel has a shoot-on-sight policy regarding ghouls, synths, and super mutants, but have no issues with you bringing Hancock, Nick, or Strong to the Prydwen or any of their bases. This is especially odd because they will shoot Danse on sight if you do the same, after discovering that he's a synth.
• Diamond City is also incredibly anti-ghoul, but Hancock has no issues getting in. This is a far cry from Fallout 2, where you couldn't enter Vault City at all if Lenny, your ghoul companion, is in your party. You have to leave him at the gate.
• Like in most games in the series, you get a bottlecap from drinking (using) a Nuka Cola or beer. You don't get an empty bottle though, even though empty bottles are a common item and can be used to make dirty or purified water in survival mode. Also, filling a bottle turns the bottle into a dirty water (which is stored in a carton) or purified water (stored in what appears to be a tin can). It makes sense then that you can't reuse the containers in normal difficulties, but in survival mode, why is the sole survivor throwing away beer bottles that he uses to store water just because they're empty when he found them empty in the first place?
• The laser musket is crank powered in-universe. The reload animation follows this by simply cranking the handle for each charge added to the shot. However, each crank uses a fusion cell even though they aren't used in the animation or even a place on the model for them to be used. This is mostly for balancing issues as a weapon with Bottomless Magazines tends to end up broken.
• If Danse is your companion, you can bring him right into Railroad headquarters and nobody would raise an eyebrow about the hulking Brotherhood Paladin lumbering around. He won't even react when Desdemona tells the crew about her plans to destroy the Brotherhood.
  • This is especially egregious, given that doing the same thing with Institute companion X6-88 flags the Railroad as hostile as soon as you walk in the door.

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