Despite the prospect of a Fallout 5 seeming so far off as it stands, the confirmed project is still the focus of much debate and anticipation. After nearly a decade has passed since the IP's last main release, there's a clear desire for a fresh single-player experience set in the fascinating, irradiated, war-torn world of the franchise.
One of the most important aspects of any Fall out gameplay is its core setting, often instrumental in shaping a given title's narratives, themes, factions, and experiences. There is already a lot of pressure Fallout 5 to change the current trends of the wider franchise, with many recent releases for the IP choosing parts of the eastern United States as their primary locations. Given this model, plus the success of recent non-gaming Fall out projects established outside this region, everything seems to indicate Fallout 5 drawing inspiration from the franchise's early beginnings for its main setting.
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Fallout 5 can look to the past when choosing its major setting
The Fall out the franchise has remained fairly centralized in its choice of settings for quite some time with major gameplay changes since 2008. Fallout 3 also marking a departure from IP's early locational focus in the western United States. Fallout 3 famously took place in the Capital Wasteland, for example, which includes regions of Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Washington DC. This was followed, in terms of main games, by Fallout 4His Commonwealth, which extends through Boston and other areas of New England.
Even Fall outThe latest release followed this eastern trend, with Fallout 76Appalachia depicting large areas of West Virginia. All this adds up to a lot of Fall outfocuses more modernly on a fairly exclusive region of the United States and Fallout 5 seems to be in a great position to make a huge statement away from this trend. while Fallout 5 has been confirmed by Bethesda, the only real information fans have to go on is that the project will only gain traction after its post-launch content. Starfieldas well as its massively anticipated release The Elder Scrolls 6.
This distant release date makes it all the more important for Fallout 5 to stand out from its immediate predecessors, and a return to the franchise's Western origins could be a great way to achieve that. The trimetric gameplay of Fallout 1 and 2 both take place around the sun-baked nuclear deserts of California, with iconic factions such as the Brotherhood of Steel and the NCR being established in this region.
Fallout 5's modern gameplay would be a perfect way to re-explore the West Coast
Of course, the only modern major Fall out the title to re-explore this type of setting was Fallout: New Vegaswhich earned fan favorite status for the types of themes, locations, and factions that the Mojave setting was able to promote. More recently Fall out the media has also cleverly adopted this fiery and nostalgic frame with success Fall out TV show focused on Los Angeles and surrounding areas.
If Fallout 5 also choose to adopt this setting, it would be a perfect way to give the project a truly distinct identity against the backdrop of more recent releases, while massively appealing to fans of the original games as well as New Vegas. With the probability that the main line Fall out games will never leave the US setting, a long-awaited return to the West Coast seems like a fantastic way to Fallout 5 to break a fairly entrenched recent pattern for IP.
