The so-called “sad dad” genre exploded in popularity after The last of uswhich achieved great success through its story of parental love. Games like 2018 God of war followed, further proving that exploring parent-child relationships in a fantastical setting can be uniquely compelling. That said, sad dad games are often guilty of retreading old narrative ground, recycling tired concepts like a gruff older man softened by the influence of an exuberant youngster.
You can't say this about Fall-out games, which, for all their flaws, have done a consistently good job of presenting and analyzing bizarre or unusual situations in their depiction of the post-apocalypse. Even in a game like Fallout 4that many fans (myself included) found disappointing, there are interesting ideas to interrogate, whether it's the tragic fate of a child ghoul or the inexplicable moxie of a budding journalist at the end of the world. Of course, Fallout 4 also famously revolves around the situation of a parent, either a father or mother depending on the player's preferences, and it's not the only Fall-out games to explore the topic.
Spoilers ahead for everyone Fall-out game except Fallout: New Vegas.
Fallout, Tides of Tomorrow are two sides of the same post-apocalyptic coin
Fallout and Tides of Tomorrow both bring unique post-apocalyptic visions to life, but they do so in completely opposite ways.
How the Fallout games use parenting to underscore the reality of nuclear war
Fallout 3 was the series' first swing at 3D, but it was also the first to be developed by Bethesda Game Studios, which took over from Black Isle Studios. Opinions on this changing of the guard differ, but for better or worse, it's clear that Bethesda wanted to make a more cinematic, linear, detailed and predetermined main campaign, one that revolves almost entirely around the relationship between a father and his child, with the player filling the role of the latter.
Who is that character?
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After a rather beefy prologue depicting the protagonist's childhood in Vault 101, Fallout 3s plot starts. The heroes' father, who is their only parent after their mother died in childbirth, leaves the vault without explanation. The protagonist spends most of the campaign searching for his father in the wasteland, only to discover that he escaped to work on a project to restore clean drinking water to the region, effectively saving its inhabitants. To do this he had to choose between being there for his child and doing right for humanity.
Through this story, Fallout 3 highlights a series' thematic overview: children are the future, but a future for humanity is far from guaranteed. With civilization on such a strong and definitive decline, getting a child to accept a whole new sense of responsibility, because a child cannot choose to enter such an uncertain and harsh world. Not only is the child himself necessarily subject to an unforgiving, inhumane environment, but everyone else in that environment must now struggle harder; Competition for scarce resources increases when a new person is born, but the resources themselves do not.
Fallout 4 inverts the dynamic of its predecessor, putting the player in the role of a parent searching for their child. But instead of exploring the burden that reproduction places on all parties involved, Fallout 4 illuminates something that terrifies many real-life parents: the thought of their child leaving them and going their own way, potentially one that's unpleasant or difficult to understand. This is what happens to the main character in Fallout 4who eventually discover that their son has become the leader of the ethically dubious institute, which kidnaps people and replaces them with lifelike androids. Morality is radically recontextualized in this post-apocalyptic world, and it's much harder to look the other way or sit back when your own child is primarily involved.
Being a parent isn't all doom and gloom in the world of Fallout
Becoming a parent is one of the most difficult, life-changing choices a person can make, and it's infinitely more difficult in a broken world that Fall-outpp. How can you raise a child under such bleak conditions?
This is a more extreme version of an issue that many parents face in real life. It is difficult to justify having children if, for example, you are afraid of the devastation that climate change is expected to bring in the coming years. I would argue that such things are actually smart to consider, but that doesn't mean antinatalism is necessarily the solution. By having children, our species has a better chance of actually having a future. Things may be difficult for future generations Fall-out universe, as in our own, but there is no telling what these future generations may do to improve life or elevate humanity in the coming decades.
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The first one Fall-out is a good example of this idea. The player-character has no meaningful family relationships, but they end up acting as a kind of parental figure to their society: they have the choice of either facilitating a supermutant eugenics program or destroying a supermutant base, ultimately starting their own little society in the Wasteland. This settlement is the protagonist's metaphorical child – a parallel only strengthened in Fallout 2where the player character is their great-grandchild.
By having children, our species has a better chance of actually having a future.
IN Fallout 2initially it looks like the choice to keep humanity alive in the Wasteland has led to a predictably unfortunate outcome. The community started by the hero of the first game begins to die out due to a devastating drought, its only hope is their great-grandson, who is sent to retrieve a GECK kit to make the community fertile and prosperous again. Reproduction and dispersal exacerbated the strain on society's resources, but because of the bravery and vision of the younger generation, society can enjoy a new era of prosperity and hope.
The same can be said about the end of various others Fall-out game. The player's father dies Fallout 3and left them to complete their water purification mission. Had the father not had a child, his life's dream of bringing fresh water to the capital's wasteland might have died with him. The generally accepted canon ending of Fallout 4 actually sees Shaun killed by his parent, but since the parent-son relationship is inverted in this game, this can still be seen as a younger generation making a sacrifice for the future. In these cases, having children can mean heartache and hardship, but it can also pave the way for a brighter tomorrow.
- Released
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November 10, 2015
- ESRB
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M FOR MATURE: BLOOD AND GORE, INTENSE VIOLENCE, STRONG LANGUAGE, DRUG USE
