When Fallout 4 was teased just before E3 this year, I was beside myself. It was the worst kept secret in the industry (and I was holding out hope that they would announce it before PAX East, but I am also hopeful it’ll have a large presence in 2016) but that didn’t change the excitement in my life that this game would bring.
I’ve been waiting since I finished Fallout 3 for this game. You might be saying “But Fallout: New Vegas came out in between them.” You are correct. But, while a good game that had good moments, I didn’t have the same emotional connection that I had with Fallout 3.
I discovered the game in 2010 while working my first job out of college that paid barely above minimum wage and was only part-time. This means that right after the holiday season, not only was it cold and snowing more than a sane person should tolerate (I was in Western New York, after all), but I found myself with a bunch of extra time on my hands because retail jobs have zero hours available.
Up to that point I’d been playing an irresponsible amount of The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion on my PS3 and my coworker recommended that I check out Fallout 3. And so began my love affair with the Capital Wasteland.
It is also important to mention that I was seriously homesick around this time, having just moved 540 miles from where I grew up to be with my new husband. While I’m not from Northern Virginia, I was very familiar with the area from school trips and family vacations. Exploring the ruins of those landmarks, even virtually, was oddly comforting.
And violently separating the limbs of Super Mutants and Talon Company mercs from their bodies was extremely cathartic.
And I identified with The Lone Wanderer. I’d left my home, was embarking on a new and sometimes really frustrating adventure in a new place. It gave me something to do besides tear my hair out.
I continued to play for a good long while after that (even after I discovered my new love, Mass Effect). I even had a playlist on my computer that, even now, when “Soul Meets Body” from Death Cab for Cutie comes on, I think about playing Fallout 3.
Fallout: New Vegas came out, which I also played. While I liked it and felt there were some great moments in it, it didn’t do it for me. I couldn’t easily identify with the anonymous messenger who had a bad run-in with some gangsters.
When I saw the first play through of Fallout 4 during the E3 event, I developed very high hopes that this was the new game I needed.
The protagonist is at a decidedly different place in their lives, and while I don’t have a baby, I have lost a few family members recently. And the world for me now is a lot different than it was back when I was a young newlywed.
I have pre-ordered and will be waiting like everyone else for November 10th to arrive. I can’t wait to explore The Commonwealth (as Boston is referred to in the Fallout Universe) and see what this new phase of my life will bring.
