Taking Fallout 4’s Storyline to the Next Level

*Beware there will be a few Spoilers for Fallout 4 ahead*

I gotta say Bethesda have definitely made a comeback with the creation of Fallout 4, and while it has been rocky and long road for them, Bethesda have finally done it. They have brought back Fallout 3 and made it even better. It seems the creators finally got the hint and have restored most of the gritty elements we loved to see in Fallout 3. And while I enjoyed playing the main storyline, there was too much about it that is familiar.

The main storyline for example is far too similar to that of Fallout 3. Son/daughter searching for a father, father/mother searching for a son. Both vault dwellers. When you find the person, they both died tragically, one to radiation, the other to cancer. And while I enjoyed playing both story lines, it would have been nice to have seen an entirely new and fresh plot line be developed instead.

Just imagine for a second the game started off with a lone survivor trapped in a Vault trying to find his way out, because he hasn’t conveniently found a pip boy. He spends months inside the vault searching for a way out to the surface and finally he emerges out into the wasteland. Having spent so much time underground, without much food. He begins his search for water and food, when he comes across a stash of supplies hidden in a tree. Taking the bag with him he continues on, when he is hunted down by a group of raiders furious over the supplies stolen. He is chased into town, where he is rescued by the Minutemen. Who ask him to join their ranks for his own protection against ‘Big Red’ the leader of a powerful raider faction that operates in the region. You then do missions to help weaken his grip on power.

Another idea for the main plot line would be to start off with a group settlers in the wasteland farming the land, when one day the brotherhood of steel shows up to take all their able bodied fighters. And you are chosen as one of them. Taken against your will from your home, you are brainwashed and taught how to fight, before being sent back to wasteland to clear out a nest of ghouls. There you save a friend from your past, who tells you who you are. Thus birthing your need for vengeance!

One last variation to the storyline could be to begin the story as a member of the Minutemen, but because of a foolish decision you have made while drunk and on duty. You abandon your post to visit a lady friend, and inadvertently cause the destruction of this charter of the Minutemen by allowing the Super Mutants to invade and wipe out your fellow soldiers. Thereby making you the sole survivor of the Washington Minutemen. You travel to the Commonwealth to find the rest of the minutemen in order to seek atonement and punishment for your failure.

These would have made Fallout 4 more fresh and exciting, because it gives you a whole new side to the story, and shows the character as having human flaws and that they weren’t instantly a hero. Plus I think It would be pretty sweet, if you could actually join the bad guys. Be a raider, be a Gunner, be a hired Merc. There aren’t any real badass factions out there to join to give that different side of the story.