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The Fallout series has been around since 1997 starting with the eponymous Fallout. Since then, there have been a total of four main installments, a variety of spin-off games, and even a pinball machine. As a fan since first playing Fallout 3 on the Xbox 360 in 2008, I’ve gone on to play every single installment thanks to their availability on Xbox Game Pass. Let’s get into my ranking for the best Fallout games ever released.
10. Brotherhood of Steel
While Brotherhood of Steel isn’t a terrible game, it’s the worst one in comparison to all the others in the Fallout franchise. Players play as new Initiates to the Brotherhood of Steel in a linear storyline that removes itself from what players are used to from the first two games. The gameplay is repetitive and simple, and one of the major faults of the game is that you cannot progress until every enemy in each area is defeated. Why is this so bad? Some areas are so large that searching for the enemies you need to kill to move forward is more annoying than fun.
9. Fallout Shelter
Fallout Shelter was released just before Fallout 4 to help build hype for the latter. It gave players control over a vault and how it is operated. Players could welcome NPCs from the Wasteland and assign them jobs in different areas of the vault to keep everyone safe and defend themselves from Raiders. Shortly after its release, it felt all but abandoned in favor of everything else going on within the Fallout universe including the release of Fallout 76 and all of its DLC. Although it’s meant to have a high replay value due to its simulation-style gameplay, you meet a point where there’s not much else to do.
8. Fallout Pinball
I love pinball. The Fallout pinball table is very similar to the games in that you create a character and the stats you give yourself help you attain points in-game. While it’s technically not a game because it’s part of the Bethesda Pinball app, it still allows you to take on missions in exchange for points to beat the score of other online players. It lacks the visuals I would like to see from a Fallout pinball machine, but there is a moving Vault door that activates when you drop the ball into the holes in a particular order. It’s pinball, so there’s not much else beyond that. However, it still has a better replay value than either of the games above.
7. Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel
Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel is the Fallout game that established a lot of the lore as we know it today. In fact, everything we know about the Brotherhood of Steel stems from this game. The gameplay mimics that of Fallout and Fallout 2, though the mechanics themselves are much more user-friendly. It’s also the first game to include different races including Deathclaws, Ghouls, Super Mutants, and even Dogs as part of who can join the Brotherhood. Although it comes after the previously mentioned games and takes place in the same universe, Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel does not follow nor continue the main story.
6. Fallout 2
The second Fallout game takes everything that was already great about Fallout and makes it even better. Fallout 2 takes place 80 years after the first game, with the protagonist being a descendant of the Vault Dweller, simply named the Chosen One. The Chosen One is tasked with finding the GECK, the Garden of Eden Creation Kit. If that sounds familiar, it’s because the device played a major role in both Fallout 3 and Fallout 76. This is also the first game where we encounter The Enclave, the biggest antagonist in both this game and Fallout 3.
5. Fallout 4
Fallout 4 is the latest main installment in the Fallout franchise. It follows a Vault Dweller from Vault 111 shortly after the bombs first dropped in 2077. While cryogenically frozen in the Vault, you become the Sole Survivor since everyone else has died in their chambers and your son was kidnapped and taken away. The rest of the game follows your quest to find your son within the New England Commonwealth and fight against a new enemy: The Insitute. The game follows similar gameplay to Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, the two games in the series with the best gameplay experience, personally. Alongside this, there are several companions you can recruit as well as romance options you can dive into.
4. Fallout 76
Fallout 76 is the first MMO within the Fallout series and in my opinion, the most expansive of them all. Players come from Vault 76 where they can play with other players and engage in missions using similar gameplay from Fallout 4. It suffered from many issues upon release, including not having many NPCs in favor of the overworld being filled with other players. Fortunately, the game fixed most if not all of the issues and now Fallout 76 relies on things like environmental storytelling and holotape recordings to help carve out the story taking place in Appalachia. Although it was released in 2018, the game still has faithful players with content being continuously added by the developers.
3. Fallout
The very first Fallout game established what the series could be capable of in the future. Its inclusion on Game Pass allowed me to try it out, marking it as one of my top Fallout games of all time. It begins the Fallout story in the year 2161 with Vault 13 needing to replace their water chip in order for the Vault to continue having clean water. The game introduces every major Fallout asset including Raiders, the town of Shady Sands, the concept of the PIPBoy, and so much more. Of all of the games in the franchise, I felt that this one had the best replay value.
2. Fallout 3
Fallout 3 was the very first Fallout game that I had ever played. It takes place in the Capital Wasteland, which is really the remains of Washington D.C. As the first game in the series to have 3D graphics and take everything from the previous games and enhance them to perfection. The player is a Vault Dweller from Vault 101 where their father has left for some unknown reason. Washington D.C. was well recreated and most of the buildings that you see have hidden loot and NPCs inside, giving you and endless amount of content. The game also has a DLC titled Mothership Zeta that takes you to outer space to fight aliens. It is hands-down my favorite DLC for a video game ever.
1. Fallout New Vegas
Fallout: New Vegas is regarded by many, including myself, to be the best Fallout game in the series despite it not being related to the other games. Instead of playing as a Vault Dweller, you play as a Courier who is delivering a package across the Mojave Desert. The Courier is ambushed and left for dead, which starts their journey of revenge in a conflict bigger than themselves. This game came out about two years after Fallout 3 and somehow manages to take all the gameplay elements from the former and enhance them. It only takes place ten years after the events of Fallout 3, which means that a lot of the same elements are present including added weapons and kill animations. This game is my personal favorite because it feels more like a game that takes place in the Fallout universe as a revenge story rather than being tied to the grand scheme of things within the Wasteland and whatever Commonwealth the game takes place in.
