Revisit the Fallout series and grasp the value of life in a virtual wasteland
Text/Yangcheng Evening News all-media reporter Liu Kehong
The "Fallout" series is a classic RPG work that has continued since the 20th century, developed by Kuroshima Studios and taken over by B from "Fallout 3", from "Fallout 1" released in 1997, to "Fallout 4" in 2015, and then to the first multiplayer online game in the series "Fallout 76" in 2018, the "Fallout" series has spent 21 years depicting a devastated world after nuclear war, leaving a strong mark in the history of games. The game has the color of vacuum tube punk, which takes the Gregorian calendar from 1950 to 1960 as a starting point, imagining the most advanced technology at that time: nuclear technology, electronic technology on the future development of science and technology. At this moment, revisiting the Fallout series of games may have a different feeling.
Struggling to survive in the wasteland world after nuclear war
"War, war has never changed" is a classic quote of the "Fallout" series, and it is a well-known quote for players. It appears in basically every work, as a theme sentence throughout the series, when we struggle alone for our survival in the wasteland, this sentence can have two meanings: first, even in the ruins after the war, in order to survive the dangers left by the war, people still have to endure endless survival wars; Second, the nature of war and the techniques used have never changed, no matter how big or small, from the world to the individual. Either way of understanding it is cruel, and one wonders when peace will come. When will you get real rest?
Wanton radiation beasts, encamped mutants, radiant soda selling in the wasteland, isolated fake utopias... Here, cola bottle caps become equivalent exchangers, anti-radiant and anti-radiant become addictive, hallucinogenic but essential drugs, lakes and puddles are dangerous places that cannot be left for long, and before wading across the river, it is necessary to check upstream for bright yellow tin barrels filled with nuclear waste. And we, the protagonists of the game, are a pathetic "blue coat" (the uniform of the "Vault"), an "old popsicle" who has been mothballed in the "Vault" for many years and has been revived, and has never been able to return to the peaceful world of the past.
The protagonist came from the prosperous era before the war, enjoyed the benefits of the explosion of technology, grew up in a world where nuclear fusion reactors could be miniaturized and artificial intelligence popularized, but finally had to experience the experience of "starting a dog, equipment all rely on picking up" in the ruins - yes, this advertising slogan that was popular in major page games is also from the "Fallout" series. When we enter the perspective of the protagonist, everyone thinks: "Where do I go from here?" "And the "Fallout" series provides a real to cruel game experience, fighting and surviving in a wasteland full of nuclear radiation, we will find that any bite of food we eat and any sip of water we drink will reduce our life limit while restoring our health points, drinking pure water that will not reduce the life limit is extremely scarce, if the blood limit is too low, taking Radiant Ning unfortunately triggers adverse drug reactions, and will usher in death."
Food, technology, ideals, family affection, how will you choose?
After walking alone for too long, we finally meet a living person, and before we can be surprised, we will find ourselves being pointed at the head by them with a firearm to ask about the intention, which makes people nervous, and when you look up the strategy and slowly think about replying, the wasteland guest who has not received a response for several seconds has already shot us, and there is no room for mediation between the two sides. At this time, we suddenly realize that this is a wasteland with extreme shortage of resources, extremely dangerous human hearts, and advocating the laws of the dark forest, not a refuge for the preservation of pre-war civilization, nor the prosperous era you recall in countless dreams, and your "blue coat" is just another name for "fat sheep".
Seeking relatives, revenge, repairing water purifiers, we all step out of the shelter for different purposes, but we will all come into contact with people of different faiths in this bizarre world, including the Brotherhood of Steel, which pursues the seizure and preservation of pre-war science and technology by force, the Enclave, the NCR who observes pre-war federal democracy, the academy that advocates elitism, the railway organization that protects the human rights of "synthetic people", the volunteer army that takes root in the people, and of course, the villages that struggle to survive in the wasteland. Some villages even worship nuclear bombs as gods and offer sacrifices to them...
In our engagement with major organizations, we find that no organization is perfect. The Brotherhood of Steel blames technology for the end times and refuses to let more civilians know; The Enclave is of pure blood, but it is also heavily racist; The NCR has three powers and internal chaos; The college has advanced science and technology, firmly believes that it can single-handedly correct chaos, but regards the world as its own testing ground; The volunteer army has a good reputation, but it is a ranger scattered bravery, and even the protagonists who pass by and do a few good deeds can be regarded as leaders.
Under such a huge world view, the game plot of the "Fallout" series still provides players with a high degree of freedom of choice. Players can choose any faction to join and advance the development of the wasteland world, and the future of several major organizations is in the hands of players. Even in the much-criticized "Fallout 4", we can still finally find our own son, the academy leader who was dragged out of the frozen warehouse and is now older than us, and chose to resolutely carry out the mission of the Brotherhood of Steel and shot him; He can also succeed as the new leader of the Academy after his death, turning around and fighting the Brotherhood of Steel. In the online strategy, there are many endings including but not limited to any "two-party coexistence", "three-way coexistence" and "four-party coexistence", although they are actually not perfect, but it shows that the game is tolerant of players' choices. No matter what the outcome, war and death are an indispensable part of it. This is also the third meaning of "war, war never changes" - in such post-war ruins, in the process of most necessary cooperation to restore order, as long as there are multiple conflicts of ideas and interests, the war will be started again.
Is it just a nuclear bomb that is scary for the world?
Don't let the dictates of desire drive technology
In the process of the game, it is not difficult for players to see that the prosperity before the war relied on the development of nuclear technology, and the degree of civilization progress was unattainable in today's society: small nuclear reactors entered thousands of households, and productivity was extremely developed; Artificial intelligence is highly developed, and residents' lives are extremely convenient - even the protagonist of "Fallout 4" can still see the former butler robot waiting for the return of its owner in the ruins after being frozen in a dormant warehouse for 200 years. In the ending of "Fallout 76", in the face of the radiation beast that humans cannot match, players still have to rely on nuclear bombs to solve the problem.
And correspondingly, how did the end times come about, and the chaos remains? is a nuclear war triggered by the uneven distribution of resources; It was originally intended as a refuge for human reopening, but part of it was reduced to a testing ground in various disciplines; It was an open and honest cooperation meeting of various forces in the original wasteland period, which turned into a massacre due to the infighting of the academy, so that any future cooperation had no basis for trust...
This is what the "Fallout" series has always wanted to convey to us: technology itself is not worth our fear, but at the same time of scientific and technological development, human beings' awe for science and technology itself and the consciousness of responsibility for scientific and technological achievements must go hand in hand, otherwise our innate desire to compete will always drag us into one vortex after another.
Source | Yangcheng Evening News Yangcheng Pie
Responsible Editor | Liu Yuanyuan
Proofreading | Liu Boyu