The Great War was the catalyst that set the post-apocalypse of Fallout in motion. This nuclear war that lasted a grand total of two hours devastated the various nations and bathed the world in radiation and debris.
While many of the details of this apocalyptic event are unknown or have been contradicted over the course of the games, there are some known facts that are unusual. In fact, there are quite a few things about the Great War that do not make a lot of sense under close examination.
10 Other Nations Suffer Nuclear Strikes
The Great War was the result of a conflict largely between China and the US called the Sino-American War. Other nations were pulled into the conflict like the Philippines, Canada, and Russia to some degree, but there’s no mention of places like Europe or the nations of Africa being involved whatsoever.
Yet the lore clearly states that the majority of the planet was bombarded with nuclear-tipped missiles, causing every nation to collapse as a result of the assault. But why were these nations involved at all? Were they allies of the main nations and launched their own missiles at allies of the opposing side? Did they take advantage of the chaos to seize control and further their own influence? It’s never made clear.
9 No Technology To Stop Missiles
In a world on the brink of World War III and terrified of a nuclear holocaust, it seems strange that none of the governments involved thought to build anti-missile technology. In fact, only Robert House in Las Vegas had the technology and managed to stop most of the missiles inbound for his area.
It seems bizarre that neither the United States nor China developed similar capabilities. They went to the effort of building vaults and finding ways to evolve mankind in the event of an apocalypse, but no one thought to prevent it in the first place?
8 When The Bombs Fell
There are a lot of contradictions in the games as to exactly when it was that the bombs fell and the world ended. In Fallout New Vegas, all of the clocks on the west coast are frozen at 9:47 p.m. There are multiple characters that mention everything ending at night and many people were caught unaware as they were sleeping.
However, Fallout 4 shows the main character and his family fleeing to the Vault to escape the bombs at 9:47 a.m. on the east coast. This would mean the bombs landed on the west coast around 6:47 early in the morning.
7 There Was No Leadership
Months before the Great War took place, the President of the United States left the White House and hid with the Enclave on an oil rig. The leader of the country directing the war effort up and leaves and no one became suspicious?
Granted, the Vice President would have taken over, but having the President MIA for several months should have raised some red flags. At the very least, an effort should have been made to find the guy, pause the fighting, and reevaluate what exactly was going on.
6 The Chinese Subs Got Close
To carry out the nuclear Armageddon, the Chinese nudged their submarines into position around the United States coastline and launched many of the nukes from those vessels. It likely would have taken dozens of submarines to carpet the US and yet not one of them was detected in advance.
China is a master of stealth technology in these games, but one would think that at least one submarine would be detected before it got into position. The submarine that attacked the Commonwealth alone would have had to travel half the globe before getting into position.
5 People Had Time To Evacuate Sanctuary Hills
Considering the Yangtze-31 was docked outside of Boston, it’s incredible anyone survived the assault. Missiles launched from the harbor would have taken only a few minutes to hit their targets nearby.
Even if a missile detection system picked them up the second those missiles left the tubes it still would have taken a bit of time to verify what was happening, get the word out, and have everybody pack up and head for the vaults.
4 China Attacked Alaska To Get Oil
The world oil reserves are drying up around the world, signifying there is a finite amount and they’re nearly tapped out. China decides the solution to its problem is to expend an incredible amount of oil to seize control of Alaska to access its oil reserves.
Even if they had managed to succeed and hang onto those reserves, it wouldn’t have done them much good. China would still be sitting on a finite amount of oil and would need to expend a large amount in order to keep other nations from seizing it. It’s hard to imagine the gains of Alaskan oil reserves would have justified the costs to obtain and keep them.
3 Nuclear Energy Should Have Replaced Oil Already
Further compounding the bizarre actions taken by various nations at the height of the resource crisis was the fact that a crisis occurred at all. The world had already embraced nuclear technology by putting it in their cities, cars, Power Armor, robots, and other devices.
With all the Fusion Cores, Small Energy Cells, and nuclear power plants powering everything from houses to Mr. Handymen, it seems like the oil crisis would have already been resolved. Yet for whatever reason, the world’s leaders were at each other’s throats to avoid an energy crisis.
2 Oil Was Spent For 10 Years To Prevent The Loss Of Oil
The Sino-American war lasted for 10 years after the resource crisis began. This means for 10 years the US, China, and other nations involved were expending oil to power their machines of war to secure the last oil reserves that were already dwindling.
The fact that not a single nation thought through the cost requirements to obtain more oil in the first place is baffling. It becomes even more absurd when one considers that both nations developed alternative energy sources before and during this time that negated the need for oil in the first place. Seems like everyone would have benefited from the nations using their remaining reserves to expand nuclear energy instead.
1 US Backed China Into a Corner
The US was likely bitter about being invaded and the massive loss of life, but after routing China from Alaska, they continued pressing the attack into the mainland of China. This resulted in a country realizing it was on the brink of defeat, unable to stop the onslaught, and having no other options than using their nuclear weapons.
It seems like at least one military advisor or general would have recognized the danger of backing China into a corner and gamed out their likely response. While it’s understandable that the US retaliated under the circumstances, it’s unlikely they would have pressed as hard as they did while knowing China had nuclear weapons on hand.