Well if you think of Fallout as mostly factions that were formed in the post nuclear wastes, and vaults/vault tech…I suspect none.
There shouldn’t be super mutants which originally were localized to the west coast until Bethesda was like…“We can’t have Fallout without super mutants.” The Enclave is the US Government so they’re out too. Vaults are gone too because that was a US corporation/government project. That means Vault boy is bye bye. Brotherhood of Steel also gone. (obviously)
I guess have some ghouls and British-up the game and make new stuff happen, which does make it feel like a different setting. (because it is!)
Oh, no argument, it’s very different, and in terms of the core idea (not gameplay), Fallout is intrinsically American. Given that the first-person Fallout games pretty much have used the lore as a trove of stuff to pull from to flesh out a template open world game system/engine, without a lot of attention to consistency or continuity, you can certainly have a game based on the same fundamental gameplay as F3 or F4 set, well, anywhere.
I think Fallout aesthetically and thematically has certainly been centered around a futurized version of 1950s Americana, but it still takes place in a setting that is on Earth, and other parts of our Earth would still exist in that setting, so I think it’s silly to say that exploring what those other parts of the world look like in the Fallout universe wouldn’t be Fallout. It would undoubtedly be significantly different than what we’re used to playing…as other countries are from the United States in real life. But we share the world nonetheless.
Why would you strip all of that stuff out when you’re making a game in the Fallout universe, just because it’s set elsewhere in that same setting? Some of it is very geographically specific in the lore, sure (but Bethesda ignored a bunch of that so it’s not like you couldn’t), but it’s still a world those things exist in and would be impacted by them, especially when America has been a worldwide force in culture and capitalism since before the era Fallout’s aesthetics are rooted in and they posit another 100+ years of history for their version of America to operate in. Again, it’s like saying, e. g., you can’t do Lovecraft mythos stories elsewhere in the world because most of his are rooted in New England. That’s where he lived and what informed the stories he told, but the world he presents remains global and many of the relevant forces and themes apply globally, just adjust for local culture.
Now, now, don’t fallout over, erm, Fallout! Pedantry aside (and I am a professional pedant!) this mod looks great and I still love playing these goofy games.
The 3D Fallout games always have the big “emerged from the vault to see a beautiful vista” moment, so I love that this mod teases that when you go all the way up the elevator, only to not get much of a Vista. But then gives you that exact moment organically when you get in the subway car and the elevated train lets you see the vistas of London.
I remember visiting Tegucigalpa after some flooding back in the late 1980s, and they were 2/3 of the way to post-apocalypse at that point. Hopefully things are better there today.
Because those things are specific to an American setting and moving to another country changes everything? We got a Russian Fallout and well, it does it’s own thing. With a few tweaks it could have been set in the same universe. It isn’t obviously because the backstory is different. Likewise instead of vaults there are just soviet military bunkers.
The Fallout games we’ve gotten are set in America. But all the other continents still exist, and were at one time populated, and pre-war America interacted with them. And fought wars and nuked some of them, ultimately. And stories and games could be set there. Of course they wouldn’t be exactly the same…but neither was the west coast exactly the same as the east coast. That is much more “Fallout” than whether you’re doing the same gameplay tropes or using a different nuclear apocalypse setting. Yes, it’s an American outlook and heavily grounded in a 50s Americana aesthetic…but that is a foundation that could be applied in another country and come out as recognizably the same universe and recognizably that other country.
Metro 2033 (which I assume is what you’re talking about when you say “Russian Fallout”) is not something you could do elsewhere, because the Moscow Metro is literally unique in the world in its design and scope. Stalker isn’t (in its fiction) really something you could do elsewhere, because the Zone is similarly specifically in one very contained geographic spot (although, in fairness, I think you could say "whatever happened to cause the Zone around Chernobyl has happened again in (wherever) and make a creditable stab at continuing the Stalker feel combined with a different context. We’ll never get that again though because that team is scattered to the five winds.) Fallout is projecting 100 years of 50s sensibilities into the future, and then a global nuclear apocalypse. That is a much broader scope for play than you are crediting.
Maybe I’m way off base but didn’t 50s/60s inspired retro futurism atomic age stuff exist in England? Not exactly the same of course but I thought they had their own similar aesthetic. The Enclave wouldn’t exist but a similar group could. Same with the Brotherhood of Steel. The only thing that I think would be a stretch would be supermutants and it is easy enough to replace them with a different monstrous enemy.
I suspect it might feel a little off to people from the area but from a rather parochial US viewpoint it might work. And it feels very Fallout like to embrace a parochial US viewpoint!
ATOM RPG is Russian “Fallout” as it’s a similar setting (post nuclear apocalypse) taking place in a fictional Russia. Even with some minor tweaks it could exist in the same universe. Mostly by just adding ghouls. But all those other things I mentioned would be absent / changed. I mentioned the Soviet military bunkers replacing the vaults.
I’ve already described how that sensibility could be the foundation of exploring other regions of that very same setting, and less than half of the things you’ve mentioned would have to be removed or even much changed even if we entirely removed the possibility of retcon or handwaving changes to the previous canon, which are in fact tools in the prospective creator’s arsenal. You’re free to have your weird rigid No True Scotsman vision of Fallout, of course, but it’s already proven more flexible than that simply going from Black Isle and 2d isometric RPGs on the west coast to Bethesda and 3D open world shooting RPGs on the east coast, and I for one would be really interested to see what other parts of the world look like in that universe.
Since we are changing / replacing so many things…why even bother having it be Fallout? The bottom line is the American setting is essential to what Fallout is, like how Chernobyl is for STALKER.
Seriously, I’ve just spent like five posts laying out exactly why I disagree with your assertion and your response is to reiterate said assertion for a fifth time. Whatever, dude.
Nah, you know what a Russian post-apocalypse looks like. I think pretty clearly developers influenced by Fallout, but like, Fallout was influenced by Wasteland and they’re still two very different versions of the post-apocalypse.
Obviously I agree that many of the things you’ve identified in terms of aesthetics and themes are fundamental to the identity of Fallout. Where you have entirely failed to convince me - or indeed even present an argument that I can tell - is the way you feel those aesthetics and themes are inextricably tied to a specific geographical region in the setting. Like I say, American culture and brands were going worldwide even back in the 50s, let alone a hundred years past that. I see no reason you’d have to ditch most of the signature elements of the setting to move to a different country or even continent. It’d be a bigger change than Vegas vs Boston but it doesn’t have to be enough to be a different series. The local cultural stuff and new regional mutated critters will mesh just fine with a bunch of familiar brands, some familiar monsters and critters, the general post apocalypse. If you don’t want to have Vault-Tec outside the US, maybe they had a rival in the new area. Someone had to set up the bunkers, certainly. Or maybe the local government poached one of their brighter minds and set up their own secret vault program. I don’t think the Brotherhood really should have been as ubiquitous as they have been, but if you want them, they had an outreach organization or they’ve gotten established enough to send out scouting parties into the wider world or…
