Bethesda Softworks is currently working on developing The Elder Scrolls 6, but many fans of their work are wondering about Fallout 5. If it's even a thought, Fallout 5 is still many years away and hasn't been announced yet, but it is possible that it is in the very earliest stages of planning. If so, Bethesda has a lot of work to do on settling the direction it want to takes the franchise in.
Many gamers are still reeling from the release of Fallout 76 and recall that Fallout 4 had removed many of the beloved features that the franchise was known for. Fans of Fallout games are painfully aware that their next installment may make or break the series forever. If Fallout 5 takes 8 years to be released and turns out as Fallout 76 did, there is a good chance that Bethesda may never invest its time and money into making another Fallout game.
What Fallout New Vegas Got Right
Critics of modern Fallout games, while the IP has been owned by Bethesda, have lauded Fallout: New Vegas as the worthy successor to the original franchise under Interplay Productions back in the late 90s. Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 were both RPGs whose claim to fame came from the freedom given to the player and the treasure trove of choices they were able to make while playing. All this backed by a simple yet compelling story and an unforgettable theme of nuclear post-apocalypse following the Great War. Critics of Fallout also feel that the secret to making Fallout 5 a revival of the series is to look back and see what Fallout: New Vegas did right.
Fallout: New Vegas manages to start strong with its first impression to the player. The intro scene shows a well-dressed man and his gang of lackeys shootthe player in the head to acquire a mysterious poker chip being delivered by the main character. Right away Fallout: New Vegas accomplishes the task of beginning with a simple goal with a strong motivation: find whoever tried to kill the player. This concept of beginning the game with a clear and strongly defined goal is something all but Fallout 76 managed to achieve, and it is something Fallout 5 will also have to do to carry on the tradition. It is an important detail for every Fallout game to get right and must be stressed considering its absence in the most recent Fallout game.
What about the aesthetic of the Fallout franchise? The setting for Fallout: New Vegas brings the player back to the original setting of Fallout 1 and Fallout 2, the Mojave Wasteland. It takes the player back to the nostalgic aesthetic found in the original games. Fallout 3 and Fallout 4. on the other hand, shifted locations to the eastern seaboard and had to reinvent the aesthetic as a consequence. Instead of long sprawling deserts, there were dead forests and stinking marshes. It seemed that the very hue of the game changed from a dull yellow to a slightly more vibrant blue and green. The very nature of the dreariness of the wasteland had been altered in a way with this change. If Fallout 5 is to find its aesthetic, it should look to a more dull and diminished color palette that Fallout: New Vegas was able to derive from its original predecessors.
Another thing Fallout: New Vegas got right was dialogue. As a narrative driven game, it is only fair for the player to be able to have the widest options available to them when confronted with dialogue. Fallout 4 took this concept and simplified it to such a degree that it may as well have thrown it out. All dialogue in Fallout 4 became narrowed down to 3 options and an option to exit dialogue for every situation. It did not take into account other options that may promote peaceable results and it didn't ever change the direction a quest could head. With the absence of a speech skill or any other skill, all dialogue that required a skill check was determined by the charisma level alone.
Fallout 5 Should Take a Page
The comparison between Fallout 4 and Fallout: New Vegas and their dialogue options shows how far back Bethesda stepped from Obsidian Entertainment's entry in the franchise. Quests could be resolved in different fashions based on dialogue choice. New Vegas even went so far as to program dialogue that could only be seen by the player if they had a certain intelligence score. Low intelligence characters said dumb things and high intelligence characters could interact better with the NPCs, a feature well known to players of Fallout 1 and Fallout 2.
Skill checks were also a common sight in dialogue options. Based on what their current skill levels are, the player could choose special dialogue options based on knowledge of skills that the character is proficient in. Fallout 5 desperately needs these options in order to be on par with its predecessors.
Skills were briefly mentioned, but they are the key to unlocking the potential in Fallout 5. Skills were something that Fallout New Vegas had, but more recent iterations of Fallout did not include this content. Fallout 4 did not have skills and instead opted for a perk system completely derived from the SPECIAL stats seen in every Fallout game. The absence of skills made the gameplay more streamlined for the average video game player, but took away the nuance of character creation.
Skill scores were important because they allowed for the developer to add extra options for the player to explore when completing quests and it gave the player a better idea of the effectiveness of what they could do. If Fallout 5 wants to win back the hardcore RPG crowd, it is imperative that Bethesda reinstate some form of skill point system and not further simplify the SPECIAL system.
The last page that Fallout 5 should take from the book of Fallout: New Vegas is to bring back the Enclave. The Enclave have been the Fallout world's ever present boogieman until their absence in Fallout 4. Fallout: New Vegas was the last game to feature this reclusive faction and it was done in a way that made sense. The Enclave had been defeated in the Capital Wasteland in Fallout 3 and were routed in the Mojave after the destruction of the Poseidon Oil Rig in Fallout 2. It made sense that their presence was lessened by Fallout: New Vegas, but quests revolving around ED-E would suggest that they still maintain a presence around the country.
The Institute in Fallout 4 was an attempt to create a similar enemy, but the Enclave could have just as easily made their way into the game like the Brotherhood of Steel. Fallout 5 should make use of the nostalgic enemy of the franchise to renew interest in the old guard of Fallout players looking for a classic Fallout experience.
Despite Fallout 5 having many years to go before being announced, Bethesda should already be thinking about what Fallout 5 should be about. Many critics and fans of the series agree that the experience should liken to the one created in Fallout: New Vegas.
Fallout 5 is not known to be in development.