All games in the Fallout series: from best to worst

Who would have thought the post-apocalypse could be such a fun time? The Fallout franchise took the idea of a Mad Max-like future and turned it into not only a wildly popular gaming franchise, but also a hit TV series. The main part of the franchise has been around since the late 90s, but since Bethesda revived it in Fallout 3, only a few major installments have come down to us. With Starfield already gone and partially forgotten (eh, and there was such potential…), and the next Elder Scrolls game being the focus of developers, it could be many, many more years before we can set foot in the wasteland again. What better way to do that than to look back and rank all the games in the franchise from best to worst?”

What better way to look back and rank all the games in the franchise from best to worst?

Fallout: New Vegas

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There was a lot going against New Vegas becoming great. Obsidian only had 18 months to create the entire game, and while that time constraint affected bugs and stability, it did nothing to affect the quality of the script or the depth of the RPG. This makes sense when you consider that many of Fallout’s creators left to join Obsidian. Years later, a combination of patches and fan mods finally showed how impressive and dynamic the game was. To this day, few games can boast the same open-minded approach to completing (and failing) quests.

Fallout’s gameplay is a game that’s as open-ended as it is.

Fallout and Fallout 2

The second and third choices could swap places depending on who you ask, because they’re so different in design, but we’re favoring the original installment. In addition to introducing the entire world and history of the universe, it also set a tone of dark humor that has persisted throughout the series ever since. In terms of gameplay, the series started out as an isometric turn-based RPG rather than the open-world RPG it has evolved into. It’s a bit more hardcore in terms of difficulty and item and character management, but very rewarding in terms of the level of depth and variety of builds you can afford.

And it’s a bit more hardcore in terms of difficulty and item and character management.

What about the sequel, yes, it’s better and more popular than the first installment, but with a couple «but». Regardless of whether you like the changes made in Fallout 4, it at least tried something new. Fallout 2 is almost identical to the first installment, but with a new story. The sequel came out just a year after the first installment, and it’s noticeable.

There are a few changes to the systems here, but the one thing that makes this game more newbie friendly — is that your main quest is not time limited, so you don’t feel the pressure to rush through the main quest and skip everything else. Plot is subjective, of course, but some people prefer the story, setting and characters of the first installment to the sequel, while others prefer it the other way around. That’s why the two games occupy the same place — they’re too similar in gameplay to separate them.

And that’s why the two games are the same — they’re too similar in gameplay to be separated.

Fallout 3

The first game to capture the attention of the general public and bring the series into the modern era was Bethesda’s Fallout 3. It reimagined classic isometric games into an Elder Scrolls-style open-world RPG, and the result was a fantastic mix. It made the somewhat intimidating look and feel of the original games more accessible by making the game first or third person and simplifying the role-playing systems, but still giving the player choices and different quest outcomes depending on your actions. The inclusion of the VATS system also helped smooth out the game’s flawed shooting mechanics, and the satisfying slowdown reminded us of the turn-based systems of the original.

The game’s turn-based systems are a nice touch.

Fallout 4

The biggest rebuke to Fallout 4 is that it’s just Fallout 3, only bigger. If you enjoyed the third installment, this may be all you need, but after eight years between games, many people felt the sequel didn’t live up to the legacy that was built into it.

Unfortunately, it also took a step backwards in many aspects, such as the dialog system, which limited you to a maximum of four answer choices that were too vague to properly determine what your character would say in any given situation. This was due to the character’s voice acting choices, which meant that the options had to be limited to account for each one. The settlement system also became a sort of love-it-or-hate-it addition. Fallout 4 —s a controversial game, but it has more good than bad.

Fallout 4 —s a controversial game, but it has more good than bad.

Fallout Shelter

Luckily, Fallout Shelter — is a completely passable and much more compact mobile game. It was originally intended for mobile devices but has since been released on consoles as well, but we don’t recommend playing it if you’re expecting something similar to a traditional installment in the franchise. You play as a vault caretaker in a management simulation style game where you take care of all the vault’s inhabitants, build new rooms and try to make them happy and productive.

The game uses the admittedly appealing cartoonish art style from the fictional Vault Tec commercials, but there’s very little substance to it. It’s great fun if you just want something with a post-apocalypse bunker survival theme, but it has virtually nothing in common with what people love the main parts of the series for.

Fallout 76

As Fallout 76 showed, changing too much — isn’t the best thing to do either. On paper, Fallout 76 seemed like every fan’s dream game. It was supposed to be a full-blown Fallout, but with multiplayer. What could go wrong? At the time of Fallout 76’s launch, it would have been easier to list what didn’t go wrong. The game was ugly, poorly run, rife with bugs, no NPCs, boring and repetitive quests, and so on. Sure, the game has been greatly improved over the years with numerous patches and expansions, but the core idea never really took shape into a good game. Something of that magic was lost in the transition to multiplayer.

Something of the magic was lost in the transition to multiplayer.