This weapon represents what all post apocalyptic games should be about, decay. The survivalist rifle isn’t a bad weapon, it isn’t a unique weapon either. Rather, the rifle is a useful tool that’s been battered by the degradation of the society that made it. This idea of decay should have been present everywhere in fallout. Fallout feels too ‘clean.’ Even in the originals, there was a pervasive feeling that the world was comically ruined while all the technology that was left behind is in a comically useful state. The inverse should be true.
Yes the world of fallout (especially 4) is broken down, but the games really don’t capture what being broken down looks like. The ruins of settlements and logistics infrastructure should litter every meter of ground. Weapons should be advanced but always in a near broken state. Makeshift weapons and equipment should be rare given how much wealth was left behind by the humans of the old world.
I think the capital in fallout 3 got this feeling right the most. The city creates the same feeling as walking through post war Aleppo. The capital gets all these ideas right. It’s urban, but ruins, trash, and corpses litter everything in your sight; weapons are advanced but most of them are breaking down; and there’s always a pervasive feeling that you’re exploring a once great civilization no matter what part of the capital you’re in. You never get that feeling of stagnation and despair when exploring through the slums of the stadium, the villages of the first two games, or even in any of the clips of the Fallout TV show. I don’t think any other post apocalyptic game got that feeling right…
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